It proved to be one of the last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire , although Germanic foederati composed the majority of the coalition army. The exact strategic significance is disputed. Historians generally agree that the siege of Aurelianum was the decisive moment in the campaign [ citation needed ] and stopped the Huns' attempt to advance any further into Roman territory or establish vassals in Roman Gaul.
However, the Huns looted and pillaged much of Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. Attila died only two years later, in After the Battle of Nedao in , the coalition of the Huns and the incorporated Germanic vassals gradually disintegrated. By AD, the Romans had restored their authority in much of the province of Gaul , although control over all of the provinces beyond Italy was continuing to diminish.
Armorica was only nominally part of the empire, and Germanic tribes occupying Roman territory had been forcibly settled and bound by treaty as Foederati under their own leaders. The Visigoths on the Garonne were growing restive, but still holding to their treaty. The Burgundians in Sapaudia were more submissive, but likewise awaiting an opening for revolt.
The historian Jordanes states that Attila was enticed by the Vandal king Genseric to wage war on the Visigoths. At the same time, Genseric would attempt to sow strife between the Visigoths and the Western Roman Empire. Christiensen points out that Amalafrida , wife of Thrasamund , was imprisoned and murdered by Hilderic after Thrasamund's death in , and that the tale of the blinding of Theodoric's daughter by Huneric was a fabrication.
Other contemporary writers offer different motivations: Justa Grata Honoria , the sister of the emperor Valentinian III , had been betrothed to the former consul Bassus Herculanus the year before. In , she sent the eunuch Hyacinthus to the Hunnic king asking for Attila's help in escaping her confinement, with her ring as proof of the letter's legitimacy. He demanded Honoria to be delivered along with the dowry. Valentinian rejected these demands, and Attila used it as an excuse to launch a destructive campaign through Gaul.
