Some manoeuvring appears to have occurred before the engagement, in
which Aetius had the advantage, inasmuch as he succeeded in occupying a
sloping hill which commanded the left flank of the Huns. Attila saw the
importance of the position taken by Aetius on the high ground, and
commenced the battle by a furious attack on this part of the Roman line,
in which he seems to have detached some of his best troops from his
centre to aid his left. The Romans, having the advantage of the ground,
repulsed the Huns, and while the allies gained this advantage on their
right, their left, under King Theodoric, assailed the Ostrogoths, who
formed the right of Attila's army. The gallant King was himself struck
down by a javelin as he rode onward at the head of his men; and his own
cavalry, charging over him, trampled him to death in the confusion. But
the Visigoths, infuriated, not dispirited, by their monarch's fall,
routed the enemies opposed to them, and then wheeled upon the flank of
the Hunnish centre, which had been engaged in a sanguinary and
indecisive contest with the Alans.
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