Most of the Roman losses, such as Cannae,
Arausio, Carrhae, and the Teutoburg Forest
were just irregular blips on an otherwise
golden record, which failed to cause any permanent
degradation of Roman power.
The Battle of Adrianople in 378 was a completely
different beast, and its disastrous consequences
are frequently cited as having directly led
to the final Fall of Western Rome.
Welcome to our video on the late Roman Empire,
its eastern emperor Valens, and the beginning
of nightmarish clashes with the Goths.
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On November 17th 375 at Brigetio, near the
Romans’ Danubian frontier, senior Augustus
Valentinian I was negotiating with emissaries
from the Germanic Quadi tribe, whom the empire
had been at war with ever since the barbarians
raided Pannonia the year before.
During the talks, the envoys brazenly declared
that because the Romans had constructed a
fort on their territory, the raid was justified.
Valentinian burst into a red hot fury, pouring
abuse and insults onto the envoys and their
tribe, before going quiet and dying from a
rage-induced apoplectic fit.
Despairing at the youth and possibly weakness
of the sixteen-year-old heir Gratian, who
was in Trier at the time, Valentinian’s
top generals quickly elevated their late sovereign’s
four-year-old son - Valentinian II - to the
throne as a puppet.
Young Gratian however, quickly proved himself
a shrewd politician, establishing de facto
control over his half-brother’s military
backers and gaining supremacy over the entire
west.
In the east, the late emperor’s brother,
a sixty-seven-year-old Flavius Valens had
been Augustus since 364.
Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus describes
the Eastern Augustus’ character in this
manner: “He was a faithful and reliable
friend, and reprimanded intrigues with severity.
He maintained strict discipline in the army
and civil service, but was extremely slow
to appoint and remove officials, unwilling
to endure fatigue although he professed enormous
toughness.”
Following a shaky start to Valens’ imperial
career, he waged a difficult, hard-fought
but ultimately successful campaign against
the Goths of Ermanaric from 367 to 369, proving
his military mettle.
After the barbarians were dealt with, Valens
returned to Asia and became locked in yet
another years-long dispute with the perennially-hostile
Sassanid Empire over Armenia.
Whilst negotiating to end the war with Persia
during the early part of 376, he received
a fateful message of cataclysmic events taking
place beyond the Danubian frontier.
And while Valens was previously content to
acquiesce when notified of the accession of
Valentinian II, this news was of far greater
importance.
Shortly after Valens thrashed Ermanaric in
the late 360s, the Gothic ruler had a far
more serious problem approaching from the
east.
During the early 370s, the westward migrating
Huns crashed like a storm against their fellow
nomadic Alani cousins, who were either slain
outright or sent barrelling west.
This Alani remnant desperately smashed into
Ermanaric’s Greuthungi kingdom and, after
a brief struggle, defeated it, forcing the
Gothic leader to commit suicide.
His successor, Vithmir, attempted to fight
back by hiring Hunnic mercenaries, but still
was overwhelmed and killed in battle.
Leadership of the Greuthungi Goths then passed
onto Alatheus and Saphrax who, like a civilisational
domino, shepherded their followers across
the Dniester River and into the territory
of their western Gothic cousins - the Tervingi.
Their king Athanaric prepared to resist along
with the Greuthungi, but was badly defeated
and forced to hide in the mountains when the
Huns continued their unstoppable push into
Europe.
Such rapid success spawned rumours among Germanic
tribes and Romans beyond the frontier.
The Hunnic expansion was described as such:
“An unknown race of men appeared from some
remote corner of the earth, uprooting and
destroying everything in its path like a whirlwind
descending from high mountains.”
Athanaric’s authority as king was weakened
by his defeats against the Huns, with the
consequence that a large number of Tervingi
deserted him in favour of two rebel leaders
- Fritigern and Alavivus.
Aware of the Roman Empire’s prosperity and
dreading further conflict with the ferocious
Huns, in 376 they led roughly 90,000 Tervingi
refugees to the Danube and begged Valens for
sanctuary inside Roman borders.
Eager to supplement his armies with the Goths,
and also well aware that the Eastern military
was too thinly spread to resist any forced
crossing, Valens, in Antioch at the time,
granted the barbarians’ request.
The Roman comes in Thrace, Lupicinus, and
his dux colleague, Maximus, were given orders
to assist the Goths in their passage over
the Danube, and then to provide supplies and
vacant land.
As the Tervingi men, women, and children made
their way across the Danube, slowly at first
but with ever increasing volume, the situation
deteriorated with considerable speed due to
a combination of incompetence, malice, and
sheer scale.
The first terrible tragedy was caused by the
in-flood river, which drowned many who attempted
to make the swim.
When luckier Goths reached the shore and began
concentrating around the local area in numbers
far beyond expectation, Roman logistics in
Thrace broke down and the incoming migrants
began starving.
Exacerbating the situation were Lupicinus
and Maximus who, rather than moving the Goths
on and dispersing them as quickly as possible,
notoriously exploited their vulnerability.
According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the Goths
were forced to sell their children to Roman
slave traders in return for rotten dog meat.
As Gothic resentment towards their supposed
Roman ‘benefactors’ began to boil, Alatheus,
Saphrax and the Greuthungi arrived on the
frontier as well, sending Valens their own
request for entry.
However, at this point realising that there
were neither the provisions nor the manpower
in Thrace to deal with any more Goths, the
emperor refused.
Taking action on behalf of his people, Fritigern
forcibly broke out of the containment area
and made for a fertile region in the vicinity
of Marcianople, where food would hopefully
be readily available.
In response, the Roman officials had their
limited army escort Fritigern’s people to
the city, where Lupicinus decided on a swift
stroke to end the unrest for good.
Initially unbeknownst to the Roman forces,
the Greuthungi now took their chance and crossed
the relatively undefended river by raft.
They were under no pretence about what their
relationship with the empire was, and quickly
embarked on a plundering spree, which Lupicinus
was alerted to soon after.
At Lupicinus’ invitation, Fritigern, Alavivus,
and their bodyguards were brought into Marcianople
for a luxurious banquet, which the Tervingi
leaders believed would be the prelude to discussing
food provision for their people.
Instead, Lupicinus had his soldiers butcher
Alavivus and his men while Fritigern managed
to escape.
He got out of Marcianople and, with the aid
of around 7000 combat-ready warriors among
the Tervingi refugees, began furiously ravaging
the city’s hinterland, burning crop fields,
looting villas, and destroying farms.
Lupicinus marched nine miles out of the city
with 5000 provincial limitanei troops of his
own and met Fritigern in battle.
When the Romans came into view of the underfed
and ill-equipped Goths, they deployed in their
typical defensive infantry formation.
Then, in stereotypical barbarian fashion,
Fritigern and his warriors launched a vicious,
headlong charge straight at the imperial forces,
which closed the distance between the two
armies in short time.
Although our sources for Marcianople are limited,
we know that the Tervingi easily got the better
of Lupicinus’ soldiers at such close quarters.
While the limitanei were often unable to even
utilise their weapons in the mass melee, Fritigern’s
individually lethal fighters ‘recklessly’
but effectively used sword, spear and shield
offensively, overwhelming and killing most
of their foes on the field.
In the aftermath, the Gothic army was able
to re-equip itself with superior imperial
equipment captured from the corpses of Roman
legionaries, a fact that would play a role
in our story.
Among the scattering of survivors was Lupicinus
who galloped back to Marcianople in humiliation.
Once he arrived, the comes dispatched messengers
to Antioch informing the eastern-facing Valens
what had happened.
The Roman situation only became more dire
when rumours of this defeat spread.
Rather than depleting his ranks, Fritigern’s
triumphant army swelled with thousands of
escaped slaves, Roman prisoners, and Gothic
auxilia whose units, despite initially remaining
loyal to Rome, turned after the city they
were defending threw them out.
While at first glance the Tervingi seemed
to be riding high, the Goths were only the
masters of Thrace’s hinterland.
They could not take any of the fortified cities,
and had no proper refuge and no source of
supplies.
Fritigern could either keep his large army
together and have it starve to death, or disperse
it and risk the Romans destroying it piecemeal.
He chose the latter option, split up his troops,
and began ‘foraging’ throughout the area.
Understanding that an emphatic response was
necessary, Valens had his magister militum
, Victor, begin peace negotiations with Persia,
while he prepared the elite eastern praesental
army for its march west.
He also sent word to Gratian asking for assistance,
and sent two generals - Profuturus and Trajan
- to Thrace with a small column of troops.
The Western Emperor responded by ordering
Frigeridus to march a force of lower-quality
limitanei troops from Pannonia and Transalpine
Gaul into Thrace, while Richomeres approached
from further west with elements of the Gallic
comitatensis .
After fighting a guerilla war against the
Goths for most of 377 and confining a significant
portion of their foraging bands in the Balkan
Mountains, Trajan and Profuturus rendezvous
with the Western generals near a town called
Ad Salices in the far northeast - near where
the Danube meets the sea.1 A large concentration
of several thousand Goths were nearby, reinforced
by new invaders from across the broken frontier
and shielded by a circular ‘fortress’
of wagons.
Richomeres assumed overall command of the
roughly equal Roman force, approached the
enemy and prepared to attack when an opportunity
arose.
One evening, with the Goths unruly due to
shortages of food and water, a large band
of reinforcements arrived.
Eager to get out of their uncomfortable ‘camp’,
the barbarians vigorously clamoured to be
sent at the Romans, but their leaders held
them back, probably uneasy at the prospect
of a night attack.
When the sun rose, however, the numerically
superior Goths launched their eager assault,
leaving the circle of wagons and dynamically
seizing an area of high ground near Richomeres’
army, defensively deployed in a single battle
line and small reserve.
From this tactically brilliant position the
Goths charged but halted in javelin range,
exchanging missiles with the Romans so fiercely
that some unfortunate souls were even impaled
to the ground by iron-tipped arrows.
As this went on, the line shouted its war
cries, banged on their shields, and used other
intimidation tactics.
After the ranged battle was over, a ferocious
close-quarters clash began - both sides engaging
in a shielded tortoise formation and suffering
significant casualties.
After a short time, Richomeres’ left wing
routed under Gothic pressure, opening up a
vulnerability in the Roman line.
However, the imperial reserves were fed into
this section of the line and counterattacked,
stabilising it.
Battle continued until the sun dipped back
beneath the horizon, after which both sides,
extremely bloodied, returned to camp.
Although Ammianus states that the Romans ‘inflicted
severe distress on the barbarian host’,
Richomeres’ army, the only functional imperial
force in Thrace, was no longer capable of
fighting.
It was a Gothic strategic victory.
In the aftermath, Richomeres returned to Gaul
with the task of raising more men, leaving
Frigeridus to fortify a strong mountain bottleneck
at Beroea between Illyricum and the Central
Balkans.
At the same time, the Eastern leaders were
replaced by Valens’ master of horse, Saturninus,
who assisted in keeping the Goths bottled
up in inhospitable terrain.
By the end of 377, the Goths still hadn’t
been dislodged from Thrace, and it was increasingly
clear that no half measures would be significant
enough to expel them.
So, while Valens began pulling as many troops
away from the Armenian frontier as possible,
Gratian started marching east from Gaul in
concert, set on catching the Goths in a pre-planned
pincer.
Unfortunately, during that winter, it is said
that an Alemannic Roman auxiliary went back
home across the Rhine, revealing that Gratian
was going east.
This prompted his tribe - the Lentienses,
to launch a series of raids across the frozen
river in February 378.
Although these smaller attacks were easily
deflected by some of the emperor’s auxilia
palatina, they were actually just a scouting
force learning if Gratian really had left.
When the raiders returned with news that the
western emperor’s armies were in Illyricum,
the Lentienses crossed the Rhine near Argentaria
and invaded the empire again, this time with
considerable numbers.
Gratian was alerted to this attack and marched
back from Illyricum, raised more Gallic troops,
and crushed the barbarians in a brilliant
campaign.
However swift and well-executed this defence
of the Western Empire had been, it disrupted
all of the preparations Gratian had been making
to aid Valens, drastically reduced the amount
of troops he was willing to bring, and delayed
the intervention by crucial months.
On the other side of the Roman Empire, Valens,
with the Persian situation relatively stable
for the time being, brought most of his formidable
army from Antioch to Constantinople.
On arrival, he was forced to quell unrest
which had been caused by religious divisions,
the terrible state of the Balkans, and fear
of just how close the Goths were.
He then moved his armies to Melanthias, 20
kilometres from the eastern capital, making
it his operational base.
While Valens marshalled his strength and prepared
the army for a grand campaign in 378, he appointed
a newly arrived western general called Sebastian
as magister militum to replace his commanders
in the conflict zone and continue waging the
guerilla war.2
The new magister was far more effective than
his predecessors, rapidly eliminating many
small parties of Fritigern’s Goths in the
vicinity of Adrianople, and all-but clearing
the area in preparation for his sovereign’s
advance.
News of these reverses and the incoming two-pronged
attack reached Fritigern, convincing him to
reconcentrate all his warriors near Cabyle.
Realising what was happening, Valens marched
from Melanthias towards Adrianople with a
15 to 20,000 strong force comprising much
of the veteran praesental army of the east,
with a core of the emperor’s elite scholae
units .
Beyond the great city named by Hadrian 250
years earlier, Valens would follow the Maritsa
west until he met Gratian, coming the other
way.
Unfortunately for the prospects of this neat
plan, Fritigern and his roughly 10,000 hardened
Gothic warriors acted first, striking rapidly
down the Tundzha Valley towards Adrianople
as well.
According to his plan, Fritigern approached
the urban centre after Valens had already
passed by, threatening the emperor’s supply
lines back to Constantinople.
Roman scouts quickly detected the Gothic leader’s
main force, prompting the emperor to pivot
and march back towards Adrianople.
However, the outriders failed to spot several
other significant enemy forces in the nearby
vicinity, such as Alatheus and Saphrax’s
Greuthungi and a small contingent of Alani
nomads.
Valens convened a war council to decide on
the course that the campaign would take - wait
for Gratian or fight now.
Some officers, such as Sebastian, urged their
emperor to take the field immediately, likely
arguing that Gratian’s force was now not
even worth waiting for, especially if on arrival
they would receive some of the glory.
Others, such as Victor, were more ‘prudent
and cautious’, urging Valens to wait for
any reinforcements he could get.
This latter perspective was bolstered by the
newly arrived Richomeres, who came to Valens
in advance of the Western Emperor’s force.
He beseeched the eastern Augustus to ‘wait
a short time until Gratian arrived to share
the danger, and not rashly commit himself
to the risks of a decisive action singlehanded.”
In the end, convinced by flattery and arrogance,
Valens chose to fight a battle alone which,
in his opinion, was already won.
After dismissing a number of Gothic peace
overtures, Valens strode from Adrianople at
the head of the imperial army on August 9th
378, marching north in the sweltering heat
of midsummer through incredibly rough terrain.
After a difficult eight-mile trek, Rome’s
legions caught sight of Fritigern and his
people atop a high ridge near modern Muratcali.
With their vanguard of right wing cavalry
forming a protective screen for the infantry
behind, Valens’ army began deploying for
battle at 2pm.
Eager to play for time so that his Greuthungi
and Alan allies, unknown to the Romans at
the time, could make their appearance, Fritigern
delayed the eastern Augustus with faux peace
negotiations, which he may have accepted upon
observation of the superior Gothic battlefield
position, or their higher-than-expected numbers.
Talks between the two sides went back and
forth, back and forth with no sign of a conclusion,
stalled by protocol and fine print details.
The Romans first rejected the Gothic envoys
outright as they were not high enough in rank,
but were subsequently tempted once again when
Fritigern offered to speak with them in person,
if equivalent hostages were provided.
This intended farce of statecraft went on
for some hours, during which time the Roman
troops stood exposed to terrible heat possibly
rising beyond 40oC, sweating and uncomfortable
in their heavy metal armour, dry-throated,
and crippled by hunger.
Eventually, Richomeres offered himself up
as a high-status hostage, but before he could
leave it was already too late.
A haughty unit of Valens’ elite scholae
mounted archers on the extreme left wing,
known as the Scutarii, were probing around
the ridge near Fritigern’s flank opposite
them when the Gothic right charged.
These Roman skirmishers were knocked totally
off balance and overwhelmed by a superior
force, sending them into retreat.
As Ammianus makes clear: “Their retreat
was as cowardly as their advance had been
rash.
At that very moment, about 10,000 mounted
Greuthungi and Alan cavalry galloped onto
the battlefield, sweeping the Scutarii and
their attached units away.
Seeing this, and realising his great opportunity
had finally arrived, Fritigern had his Tervingi
advance downhill across the entire front at
a Roman army which still wasn’t fully deployed.
As a standard infantry slog began in the centre,
the bulk of the Roman left flank cavalry launched
their attack.
While the forward units on this side broke
through and managed to penetrate as far as
the Goths’ wagon laager, others behind panicked
upon seeing the retreating scholae and followed
them in flight.
The consequent weakness led to the remainder
of the Roman mounted troops on the left being
utterly destroyed.
This disaster left Valens’ infantry completely
vulnerable to a massive Greuthungi/Alan cavalry
strike which which immediately began splintering
their outflanked ranks, pressing the imperial
soldiers together so that “It was impossible
to see the enemy’s missiles in flight and
dodge them: all found their mark and dealt
death on every side.”
Faced with utter encirclement and a terrible
death, many units who could retreated from
the battlefield, but not the empire’s most
senior auxilia palatina.
Two of them - the Lanciarii and Matiarii - held
firm amidst the advancing barbarians and a
tide of their own routing comrades, allowing
Valens, who had been abandoned by his bodyguard,
to take refuge amongst them.
From there he ordered Victor, on the unengaged
Roman right, to bring up the Batavi reserves,
but they had already left the field.
The emperor’s top generals, including Victor,
Saturninus and Richomeres did the same thing,
leaving Valens to his fate.
In the final moments of the battle, with the
corpses of elite palace warriors all around
him, the eastern Augustus was struck by an
arrow.
Some sources state that Valens died then and
there from his wounds, while others relate
how the emperor was taken to a nearby fortified
farmhouse by his remaining companions as night
fell.
The victorious Goths were initially repelled
from the structure, but retaliated by burning
the entire thing down, unwittingly killing
Valens in the process.
Up to two thirds of the Roman army of the
east died at Adrianople, if Ammianus is to
be believed.
Even if this figure is slightly exaggerated,
the horror on show is best described by the
man himself, who states that “The roads
were blocked by many who lay mortally wounded,
lamenting the torment of their wounds; and
with them also mounds of fallen horses filled
the plains with corpses.
To these ever-irreparable losses, so costly
to the Roman state, a night without the bright
light of the moon put an end.”
The Empire’s worst nightmare had finally
come true.
A barbarian people had battered its way into
its lands and, although the Romans would resolve
the situation in the forthcoming years, they
would never fully recover - the beginning
of the end had come.
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