The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains

Germanic tribes fight Germanic tribes in the largest battle of the Migration Period

Triggered in part by the invasion of Central and Eastern Europe by the Huns in the fourth century, the “Great Migration” saw the Germanic peoples of this area leave their settlements and move westwards. After conquering new territories, especially areas of the weakened Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes began to form a number of new polities that split, collapsed and merged over the coming years. The Germanic peoples did not form a single cohesive unit, but fought against each other as much as they fought against anyone else.

This fluid situation is best illustrated by the nature of the alliances formed to fight the most famous clash of armies in late antiquity: the battle on the Catalaunian Fields east of Paris on 20 June 451 between the Western Roman Empire and Attila the Hun. Whilst the Roman General Flavius Aetius allied with the Visigoth King Theoderic, part of the Franks and the Burgundians, he was faced by a coalition of Germanic tribes, including the Ostrogoths, Gepids, Lombards and the rest of the Franks under the command of Attila the Hun. With both sides suffering high losses, Aetius carried the day after Attila decided to cut and run. Although the Hun Empire collapsed following Attila’s death two years later, this was not the last battle that the Germanic peoples would go on to fight.