The emperors' deaths led to more political instability at home; and the loss of the army allowed repeated barbarian incursions in the region for the next two decades.

[4] However recent work has shown it took place about 15 km (9.3 mi) northwest of Abritus, in the valley of the river Beli Lom, to the south of the village of Dryanovets near the site known locally as "Poleto" (the Field).

First, Decius' predecessor Philip the Arab had refused to continue payments, initiated by Emperor Maximinus Thrax in 238, of annual subsidies to the aggressive tribes of the region.

Cniva's main column of 70,000 under the King himself crossed the Danube at Oescus then headed eastwards to Novae, where he was repelled by the provincial governor (and future emperor) Trebonianus Gallus.

[17] After these initial setbacks, the barbarians moved southwards through Haemus mountain and Decius pursued them (likely through the Shipka Pass) to save Philippopolis.

Decius was forced to withdraw his army to the north at Oescus, leaving Cniva ample time to ravage Moesia and finally capture Philippopolis in the summer of 251, in part with the help of its commander, a certain Titus Julius Priscus who had proclaimed himself Emperor.

[18] In the meantime, Decius had returned with his re-organized army, consisting of 80,000 men according to Dexippus, accompanied by his son Herennius Etruscus and the general Trebonianus Gallus, intending to defeat the invaders and recover the booty.

[12] Jordanes and Aurelius Victor claim that[26] Herennius Etruscus was killed by an arrow during a skirmish before the battle but his father addressed his soldiers as if the loss of his son did not matter.

[27] Decius' forces initially defeated their opponents in the front line, but made the fatal mistake of pursuing their fleeing enemy into the swamp, where they were ambushed and completely routed under a barrage of Gothic missiles.

[28] Zonaras[29] vividly narrates how: He and his son and a large number of Romans fell into the marshland; all of them perished there, none of their bodies to be found, as they were covered by the mud.A 6th-century Byzantine scholar, Zosimus, also described the total massacre of Decius' troops and the fall of the pagan emperor: "Proceeding therefore incautiously in an unknown place, he and his army became entangled in the mire, and under that disadvantage were so assailed by the missiles of the Barbarians, that not one of them escaped with life.

[27][32] Gallus, who became emperor upon Decius' death, negotiated a treaty with the Goths under duress, which allowed them to keep their booty and return to their homes on the other side of the Danube.

[33] This humiliating treaty, the contemporary spread of the Plague of Cyprian with its devastating effects, and the chaotic situation in the East with the Sassanian invasions left Gallus with a very bad reputation amongst the later Roman historians.