o many races might not fall into
the hands of his foes.

[Sidenote: RESULTS OF THE BATTLE]

XLI Now during these delays in the siege, the Visigoths 214
sought their king and the king's sons their father,
wondering at his absence when success had been attained.
When, after a long search, they found him where the
dead lay thickest, as happens with brave men, they honored
him with songs and bore him away in the sight of
the enemy. You might have seen bands of Goths shouting
with dissonant cries and paying the honors of death
while the battle still raged. Tears were shed, but such
as they were accustomed to devote to brave men. It was
death indeed, but the Huns are witness that it was a
glorious one. It was a death whereby one might well
suppose the pride of the enemy would be lowered, when
they beheld the body of so great a king borne forth with
fitting honors. And so the Goths, still continuing the 215
rites due to Theodorid, bore forth the royal majesty with
sounding arms, and valiant Thorismud, as befitted a son,
honored the glorious spirit of his dear father by following
his remains.

When this was done, Thorismud was eager to take
vengeance for his father's death on the remaining Huns,
being moved to this both by the pain of bereavement and
the impulse of that valor for which he was noted. Yet
he consulted with the Patrician Aetius (for he was an
older man and of more mature wisdom) with regard to
what he ought to do next. But Aetius feared that if the 216
Huns were totally destroyed by the Goths, the Roman
Empire would be overwhelmed, and urgently advised him
to return to his own dominions to take up the rule which
his father had left. Otherwise his brothers might seize
their father's possessions and obtain the power over the
Visigoths. In this case Thorismud would have to fight
fiercely and, what is worse, disastrously with his own
countrymen. Thorismud accepted the advice without
perceiving its double meaning, but followed it with an
eye toward his own advantage. So he left the Huns and
returned to Gaul. Thus while human frailty rushes into 217
suspicion, it often loses an opportunity of doing great
things.

In this most famous war of the bravest tribes, one hundred
and sixty five thousand are said to have been slain on
both sides, leaving out of account fifteen thousand of the
Gepidae and Franks, who met each other the night before
the general engagement and fell by wounds mutually rec