Dictionary of Battles / From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

by Thomas Benfield Harbottle

Philippopolis (First Gothic Invasion of the Empire).

This city was besieged, 251, by the Goths, under Cniva, and after a gallant defence, and the defeat of an attempt by Decius to relieve it, was stormed and sacked. It is said that 100,000 of the garrison and inhabitants perished in the siege and subsequent massacre.