Decius takes the field against Cniva’s Goths.

The final engagement in this campaign takes place on swampy ground at Abritus in the Dobruja, in June 251, and ends in the defeat and death of Decius and his son, Herennius Etruscus, largely owing to the failure of the general Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus to attack aggressively.

Herennius had died in battle, struck by an enemy arrow.

Decius had survived the initial confrontation, only to be slain with the rest of the army before the end of the day.

Herennius and Decius are the first two emperors to be killed by a foreign army in battle.

With the news of the death of the emperors, the army proclaims as emperor Trebonianus Gallus, who, under duress, negotiates a treaty with the Goths that allows them to keep their booty and return to their homes on the other side of the Danube, while at the same time promising an annual tribute in return for the Goths' promise to respect Roman territory.

Ammianus Marcellinus (31.5.12-17) rates this reverse with the most serious military disasters of the Roman Empire to his time: Varus' defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the incursions of the Marcomanni during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and the Battle of Adrianople.

The Gothic army has taken a number of captives, predominantly female, many of which are Christian.

This is assumed to represent the first lasting contact of the Goths with Christianity.