A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

or TORISMOND, king of the Visigoths, A. D. 451-452. He succeeded his father Theodoric I., who fell at the battle of Châlons, in which Attila was defeated. Thorismond was also present at this battle, and distinguished himself greatly by his personal courage. Anxious to revenge the death of his father, and to follow up the advantages the Roman and Gothic army had already gained, Thorismond proposed an attack upon the king of the Huns in his camp; but Aetius. the Roman general, fearing that the extirpation of the Huns would make the Visigoths the masters of the Roman dominions, dissuaded Thorismond from his purpose, by representing to him the danger of absence from his capital at the commencement of his reign, zince he had ambitious brothers who might size both his treasures and his crown. These arguments easily persuaded the youthful monarch to return to Toulouse. In the following year (A. D. 452), if we may believe Jornandes, he defeated Attila, who had attacked the Alani after his return from Rome; but Gregory of Tours speaks simply of the conquest of the Alani by Thorismond, without making any mention of Attila. At the close of the same year Thorismond was murdered by his brothers Theodoric and Frederic, the former of whom succeeded him on the throne. (Jornandes, de Reb. Get. 41-43 ; Idautius, Chron. ; Greg. Tur. 2.7; Sidon. Apoll. Ep. 7.12; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. vi.)