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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 9, 31. How King Guntram Sent an Army to Septimania
King Guntram levied an army to invade Septimania. Duke Austrovald1 had already gone to Carcassonne and taken the oath of allegiance from the inhabitants, whom he subjected to the king’s authority. Guntram now dispatched Boso2 with Antestius3 to take the other cities. Boso at his coming behaved with arrogance, treating Duke Austrovald with contempt, condemning him for presuming to enter Carcassonne without him, and moving thither himself with a force composed of men from Périgueux, Bordeaux, Agen, and even Toulouse. While he was proceeding in this high-handed way, the Goths received information of his doings, and laid an ambush for him. He pitched his camp on the banks of a small river near the city4 and set himself down to feast, drinking his fill, and loading the Goths with taunts and abuse. But the enemy suddenly fell upon him and his companions, and took them unawares in the midst of their carouse. They raised shouts and sprang up to resist their assailants, who offered weak resistance and made as though they fled. The Franks pursued, when of a sudden the men in ambush leapt out upon them; they were taken between two forces and almost exterminated. Those able to make away mounted their horses and escaped with difficulty, leaving all their gear on the field; they took with them none of their private effects, deeming themselves lucky to get off with their bare lives. The pursuing Goths took possession of the whole camp, which they pillaged, making prisoners of all the unmounted men. There fell in this place about five thousand men, and more than two thousand were led into captivity. But of these last many were set free, and returned to their own country.
Notes
- Cf. VIII. 45; IX. 7.
- Cf. VII. 38.
- Cf. VIII. 27, 43.
- The Aude.