The Gothic historian
Jornandes says that he consulted his priests, who answered that the Huns
would be beaten, but that _the general of the enemy_ would fall in the
fight. In this prophecy Attila saw predicted the death of Aetius, his
most formidable enemy; and the struggle commenced. There is no precise
information about the date; but "it was," says Jornandes, "a battle
which for atrocity, multitude, horror, and stubbornness has not the like
in the records of antiquity."
Historians vary in their exaggerations of the numbers engaged and
killed: according to some, three hundred thousand, according to others
one hundred and sixty-two thousand, were left on the field of battle.
Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, was killed. Some chroniclers name
Meroveus as king of the Franks, settled in Belgica, near Tongres, who
formed part of the army of Aetius. They even attribute to him a
brilliant attack made on the eve of the battle upon the Gepidians,
allies of the Huns, when ninety thousand men fell according to some, and
only fifteen thousand according to others.
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