The Battle of Chalons

In the spring of the year 451 AD Attila led a barbarian horde composed of Huns, Ostrogoths and others across the Rhine River into Gaul. Estimates of the size of this force range between 300,000 and 700,000. Along the way, the barbarians sacked and pillaged the cities of Rheims, Mainz, Strasbourg, Cologne, Worms and Trier. Bypassing Paris, Attila headed south and besieged the city of Orleans. To counter this threat, a Roman army under the generalship of Aetius marched from the south, forcing Attila to abandon his siege of Orleans. On a spring day in 451 the two great armies squared off near Chalons in France's present-day Champagne District. The day-long combat was fierce, savage and bloody. Attila was beaten and forced to re-cross the Rhine River to his homeland. Imperial Rome was temporarily saved from the barbarian onslaught.