Gothic War (376–382), AD 376-382
In the summer and fall of 376, tens of thousands of displaced Goths and other tribes arrived on the Danube River, on the border of the Roman Empire, requesting asylum from the Huns. Fritigern, a leader of the Thervingi, appealed to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube, where they hoped to find refuge from the Huns, who lacked the ability to cross the wide river in force. Valens permitted this, and even helped the Goths cross the river, probably at the fortress of Durostorum.
Valens promised the Goths farming land, grain rations, and protection under the Roman armies as foederati. His major reasons for quickly accepting the Goths into Roman territory were to increase the size of his army, and to gain a new tax base to increase his treasury. The selection of Goths that were allowed to cross the Danube was unforgiving: the weak, old, and sickly were left on the far bank to fend for themselves against the Huns. The ones that crossed were supposed to have their weapons confiscated; however, the Romans in charge accepted bribes to allow the Goths to retain their weapons.
Outbreak
With so many people in such a small area, famine struck the Goths, and Rome was unable to supply them with either the food they were promised or the land; they herded the Goths into a temporary holding area surrounded by an armed Roman garrison. There was only enough grain left for the Roman garrison, and so they simply let the Goths starve. The Romans provided a grim alternative: the trade of slaves (often children and young women) for dog meat. When Fritigern appealed to Valens for help, he was told that his people would find food and trade in the markets of the distant city of Marcianople. Having no alternative, some of the Goths trekked south in a death march, losing the sickly and old along the path.
When they finally reached Marcianople's gates, they were barred by the city's military garrison and denied entry; to add insult to injury, the Romans unsuccessfully tried to assassinate the Goth leaders during a banquet. Open revolt began. The main body of Goths spent the rest of 376 and early 377 near the Danube plundering food from the immediate region. Roman garrisons were able to defend isolated forts but most of the country was vulnerable to Gothic plunder.
The War
In late winter 377 war began in earnest and would last for six years before peace would be restored in 382. The remaining Goths moved south from the Danube to Marcianople, and next appeared near Adrianople.
Battle of the Willows
The Battle of the Willows (377) took place at a road way-station called Ad Salices ("by the Willows"); located within 15 kilometres of Marcianople. Forces from the Western Roman Empire under the command of Richomeres advanced westward, while forces of the Eastern Roman Empire under Traianus and Profuturus advanced northward where they joined forces to attack the Goths.
At one point the Roman left wing gave way, but it was re-enforced and held. The battle ended with nightfall. The result was a bloody draw with both sides taking many losses; the Goths remained encamped behind their war-wagon circle for over a week after the battle.
Battle of Adrianople
In 378, Valens decided to take control himself. Valens would bring more troops from Syria and Gratian would bring more troops from Gaul.
Valens left Antioch for Constantinople, and arrived on the 30th of May. He appointed Sebastianus, newly arrived from Italy, to reorganize the Roman armies already in Thrace. Sebastianus picked 2,000 of his legionaries and marched towards Adrianople. They ambushed some small Gothic detachments. Fritigern assembled the Gothic forces at Nicopolis and Beroe to deal with this Roman threat.
Gratian had sent much of his army to Pannonia when the Lentienses (part of the Alamanni) attacked across the Rhine. Gratian recalled his army and defeated the Lentienses near Argentaria . After this campaign, Gratian, with part of his field army, went east by boat; the rest of his field army went east overland. The former group arrived at Sirmium in Pannonia and at the Camp of Mars (a fort near the Iron Gates), 400 kilometers from Adrianople, where some Alans attacked them. Gratian's group withdrew to Pannonia shortly thereafter.
After learning of Sebastian's success against the Goths, and of Gratian's victory over the Alamanni, Valens was more than ready for a victory of his own. He brought his army from Melanthias to Adrianople, where he met with Sebastian's force. On 6 August, reconnaissance informed Valens that about 10,000 Goths were marching towards Adrianople from the north, about 25 kilometers away. Despite the difficult ground, Valens reached Adrianople where the Roman army fortified its camp with ditch and rampart.
Richomeres, sent by Gratian, carried a letter asking Valens to wait for the arrival of reinforcements from Gratian before engaging in battle. Valens' officers also recommended that he wait for Gratian, but Valens decided to fight without waiting, ready to claim the ultimate prize.
The Goths were also watching the Romans, and on 8 August Fritigern sent an emissary to propose a peace and an alliance in exchange for some Roman territory. Sure that he would be victorious due to his supposed numerical superiority, Valens rejected these proposals. However, his estimates did not take into consideration a part of the Gothic cavalry that had gone to forage further away.
Composition of the Roman troops
Valens' army may have included troops from any of three Roman field armies: the Army of Thrace, based in the eastern Balkans, but which may have sustained heavy losses in 376–377, the 1st Army in the Emperor's Presence, and the 2nd Army in the Emperor's Presence, both based at Constantinople in peacetime but committed to the Persian frontier in 376 and sent west in 377–378.
Valens' army was composed of veterans and men accustomed to war. It comprised seven legions — among which were the Legio I Maximiana and imperial auxiliaries — of 700 to 1000 men each. The cavalry was composed of mounted archers (sagittarii) and Scholae (the imperial guard). However, these did not represent the strong point of the army and would flee on the arrival of the Gothic cavalry. There were also squadrons of Arab cavalry, but they were more suited to skirmishes than to pitched battle.
Shield pattern of the Germaniciani seniores, according to Notitia dignitatum.
Ammianus Marcellinus makes references to the following forces under Valens:
Legions of Lanciarii, and Mattiarii, both legiones palatinae.Mattiarii refer to mace-armed infantry (mattea being Latin for mace). Valens is referred to as seeking protection with the Lanciarii and Mattiarii as the other Roman forces collapsed (apparently a sign of how desperate the battle had become). Eventually they were unable to hold off the Goths' superior numbers.
A battalion of Batavians; they were apparently held in reserve and fled, given a reference to a comes named Victor attempting to bring them up into battle but unable to find them.
Scutarii (shielded cavalry) and archers. As one or both were under the command of Bacurius the Iberian, these may have been allied auxiliary troops from Caucasian Iberia rather than Roman.
He also refers to the following officers:
Ricimer (Richomeres), Frankish Comes of Gratian's Domestici (the corps of bodyguards of the emperor who were stationed in the imperial palace) sent to assist Valens in 376. He offered to act as a hostage to facilitate negotiations when Equitus refused. He survived the battle, indicated due to retreating.
Sebastianus, arrived from Italy previously, and operating as one of Valens' generals. Killed in the battle.
Victor, master-general of the cavalry, a Sarmatian by birth, who led the officers counselling waiting for Gratian.
Equitius, a relation of Valens, a tribune and high steward of the palace. He refused to act as a hostage, as he had been a prisoner of the Goths in Dibaltum and escaped, and now feared revenge. Killed in the battle.
Bacurius (presumably Romanised Bakur), a prince of Iberia, in command of the archers and/or scutarii with Cassio that accompanied Ricimer as hostage, and who attacked without orders.
Traianus, in command of Roman forces before Valens assumed command, an illustrious man whose death in the battle was a great loss. He was still alive when Valens sought refuge with the Lanciarii and Mattiarii.
Victor, the comes who tried to bring the Batavian reserve battalion into action.
Cassio, in command of the archers and/or scutarii accompanying Ricimer as hostage.
Saturninus, an officer referred to as being able to stay alive by retreating.
Valerianus, Master of the Stable. Killed in battle.
Potentius, tribune of the Promoti, a branch of the cavalry, son of Ursicinus, former commander of the forces.[clarification needed] He "fell in the flower of his age, a man respected by all persons of virtue."
Thirty five tribunes, including those of units and those of the staff, who were killed.
Strength of Valens' army
The real number of Roman troops to be as many as 15,000 men, 10,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry.
Composition of the Gothic forces
The Gothic armies were mostly infantry with some cavalry, however; in the battle of Adrianople the large force of Gothic cavalry was 5,000 strong.
There were two main Gothic armies south of the Danube. Fritigern led one army, largely recruited from the Therving exiles, while Alatheus and Saphrax led another army, largely recruited from the Greuthung exiles.
Fritigern brought all of his fighters to the battle, and appears to have been the force the Romans first encountered. Alatheus and Saphrax brought most of their cavalry, and some of their infantry, to the battlefield late. These infantry were indicated as being an Alan battalion.
Roman scouts estimated 10,000 Gothic troops due to Alatheus and Saphrax's forces being away when the Roman scouts estimated the Goth's numbers before battle.
Course of battle
On the morning of 9 August, Valens decamped from Adrianople, where he left the imperial treasury and administration under the guard of the legions. The reconnaissance of the preceding days informed him of the location of the Gothic camp north of the city. Valens arrived there after marching for seven hours over difficult terrain.
At around 14:30, the Roman troops arrived in disorder, exhausted and dehydrated, facing the Gothic camp that had been set up on the top of a hill. The Goths, except for their cavalry, took position in front of their wagon circle, inside of which were their families and possessions. Fritigern's objective was to delay the Romans, in order to give enough time for the Gothic cavalry to return. The fields were burnt by the Goths to delay and harass the Romans with smoke, and negotiations began for an exchange of hostages. The negotiations exasperated the Roman soldiers who seemed to hold the stronger position, but they gained precious time for Fritigern.
A detachment of Romans began the battle without orders to do so, believing they would have an easy victory, and perhaps over-eager to exact revenge on the Goths after two years of unchecked devastation throughout the Balkans. The imperial scholae of shield-archers under the command of the Iberian prince Bacurius attacked, but lacking support they were easily pushed back. Then the Roman left-wing reached the circle of wagons, but it was too late. At that moment, the Gothic cavalry, alerted by messengers from the embattled wagon circle, arrived to support the infantry. The cavalry surrounded the Roman troops, who were already in disarray after the failure of the first assault. The Romans retreated to the base of the hill where they were unable to maneuver, encumbered by their heavy armor and long shields. The casualties, exhaustion, and psychological pressure led to a rout of the Roman army. The cavalry continued their attack, and the massacre continued until nightfall.
In the rout, the Emperor himself was abandoned by his guards. Some tried to retrieve him, but the majority of the cavalry deserted. Valens' final fate is unknown; he probably died anonymously on the field. His body was never found. An alternative story circulated after the battle that Valens had escaped the field with a bodyguard and some eunuchs, and hid in a peasant's cottage. The enemy attempted to pillage the cottage, apparently unaware Valens was inside. Valens' men fired arrows from the second floor to defend the cottage and in response the Goths set the cottage on fire. The bodyguard leaped out the window and told the Goths who was inside, but it was too late. Valens perished in the flames.
The Battle of Thessalonica (380) was fought in the summer or autumn of 380 by Fritigern's Goths and a Roman army led by Theodosius I. Reconstituted after Adrianople, the Eastern Roman army suffered another major defeat. Theodosius retreated to Thessalonica and surrendered control of operations to the Western Emperor, Gratian.
Implications
The most immediate implication was that the Goths attempted to take the city of Adrianople; few Romans fleeing from the battle ran towards the city. A third of the Roman army succeeded in retreating, but the losses were uncountable. Many officers, among them the general Sebastian, were killed in the worst Roman defeat since the Battle of Edessa, the high point of the Crisis of the Third Century. The battle was a significant blow for the late Empire, resulting in the destruction of the core army of the eastern Empire, the deaths of valuable administrators, and the destruction of all of the arms factories on the Danube following the battle. The lack of reserves for the army led to a recruitment crisis, which accentuated the strategic and morale impact of the defeat.
The victory gave the Goths freedom to roam at will, plundering throughout Thrace for the rest of 378. In 379 the Goths met only light Roman resistance and advanced north-west into Dacia, plundering that region.
In 380 the Goths divided into Terving and Greuthung armies, in part because of the difficulty of keeping such a large number supplied. The Greuthungi moved north into Pannonia where they were defeated by western emperor Gratian. The Tervingi under Fritigern moved south and east to Macedonia, where they took "protection money" from towns and cities rather than sacking them outright. In 381, forces of the western Empire drove the Goths back to Thrace, where finally in 382, peace was made on October 3.
Consequences
The defeat at Adrianople signified that the barbarians, fighting for or against the Romans, had become powerful adversaries. The Goths, though partly tamed by Valens' successor Theodosius I (who accepted them once more as allies), were to remain as a distinct entity within its frontiers; sometimes allies; other times enemies. Roman losses could only be compensated by co-opting barbarians into the army as Foederati under their own commanders, translating into political influence.
By the end of the war, the Goths had killed a Roman emperor, destroyed a Roman army and laid waste large tracts of the Roman Balkans, much of which never recovered. The Roman Empire had for the first time negotiated a peace settlement with an autonomous barbarian tribe inside the borders of the Empire, a situation that a generation before would have been unthinkable.
In the summer and fall of 376, tens of thousands of displaced Goths and other tribes arrived on the Danube River, on the border of the Roman Empire, requesting asylum from the Huns. Fritigern, a leader of the Thervingi, appealed to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube, where they hoped to find refuge from the Huns, who lacked the ability to cross the wide river in force. Valens permitted this, and even helped the Goths cross the river, probably at the fortress of Durostorum.
Valens promised the Goths farming land, grain rations, and protection under the Roman armies as foederati. His major reasons for quickly accepting the Goths into Roman territory were to increase the size of his army, and to gain a new tax base to increase his treasury. The selection of Goths that were allowed to cross the Danube was unforgiving: the weak, old, and sickly were left on the far bank to fend for themselves against the Huns. The ones that crossed were supposed to have their weapons confiscated; however, the Romans in charge accepted bribes to allow the Goths to retain their weapons.
Outbreak
With so many people in such a small area, famine struck the Goths, and Rome was unable to supply them with either the food they were promised or the land; they herded the Goths into a temporary holding area surrounded by an armed Roman garrison. There was only enough grain left for the Roman garrison, and so they simply let the Goths starve. The Romans provided a grim alternative: the trade of slaves (often children and young women) for dog meat. When Fritigern appealed to Valens for help, he was told that his people would find food and trade in the markets of the distant city of Marcianople. Having no alternative, some of the Goths trekked south in a death march, losing the sickly and old along the path.
When they finally reached Marcianople's gates, they were barred by the city's military garrison and denied entry; to add insult to injury, the Romans unsuccessfully tried to assassinate the Goth leaders during a banquet. Open revolt began. The main body of Goths spent the rest of 376 and early 377 near the Danube plundering food from the immediate region. Roman garrisons were able to defend isolated forts but most of the country was vulnerable to Gothic plunder.
The War
In late winter 377 war began in earnest and would last for six years before peace would be restored in 382. The remaining Goths moved south from the Danube to Marcianople, and next appeared near Adrianople.
Battle of the Willows
The Battle of the Willows (377) took place at a road way-station called Ad Salices ("by the Willows"); located within 15 kilometres of Marcianople. Forces from the Western Roman Empire under the command of Richomeres advanced westward, while forces of the Eastern Roman Empire under Traianus and Profuturus advanced northward where they joined forces to attack the Goths.
At one point the Roman left wing gave way, but it was re-enforced and held. The battle ended with nightfall. The result was a bloody draw with both sides taking many losses; the Goths remained encamped behind their war-wagon circle for over a week after the battle.
Battle of Adrianople
In 378, Valens decided to take control himself. Valens would bring more troops from Syria and Gratian would bring more troops from Gaul.
Valens left Antioch for Constantinople, and arrived on the 30th of May. He appointed Sebastianus, newly arrived from Italy, to reorganize the Roman armies already in Thrace. Sebastianus picked 2,000 of his legionaries and marched towards Adrianople. They ambushed some small Gothic detachments. Fritigern assembled the Gothic forces at Nicopolis and Beroe to deal with this Roman threat.
Gratian had sent much of his army to Pannonia when the Lentienses (part of the Alamanni) attacked across the Rhine. Gratian recalled his army and defeated the Lentienses near Argentaria . After this campaign, Gratian, with part of his field army, went east by boat; the rest of his field army went east overland. The former group arrived at Sirmium in Pannonia and at the Camp of Mars (a fort near the Iron Gates), 400 kilometers from Adrianople, where some Alans attacked them. Gratian's group withdrew to Pannonia shortly thereafter.
After learning of Sebastian's success against the Goths, and of Gratian's victory over the Alamanni, Valens was more than ready for a victory of his own. He brought his army from Melanthias to Adrianople, where he met with Sebastian's force. On 6 August, reconnaissance informed Valens that about 10,000 Goths were marching towards Adrianople from the north, about 25 kilometers away. Despite the difficult ground, Valens reached Adrianople where the Roman army fortified its camp with ditch and rampart.
Richomeres, sent by Gratian, carried a letter asking Valens to wait for the arrival of reinforcements from Gratian before engaging in battle. Valens' officers also recommended that he wait for Gratian, but Valens decided to fight without waiting, ready to claim the ultimate prize.
The Goths were also watching the Romans, and on 8 August Fritigern sent an emissary to propose a peace and an alliance in exchange for some Roman territory. Sure that he would be victorious due to his supposed numerical superiority, Valens rejected these proposals. However, his estimates did not take into consideration a part of the Gothic cavalry that had gone to forage further away.
Composition of the Roman troops
Valens' army may have included troops from any of three Roman field armies: the Army of Thrace, based in the eastern Balkans, but which may have sustained heavy losses in 376–377, the 1st Army in the Emperor's Presence, and the 2nd Army in the Emperor's Presence, both based at Constantinople in peacetime but committed to the Persian frontier in 376 and sent west in 377–378.
Valens' army was composed of veterans and men accustomed to war. It comprised seven legions — among which were the Legio I Maximiana and imperial auxiliaries — of 700 to 1000 men each. The cavalry was composed of mounted archers (sagittarii) and Scholae (the imperial guard). However, these did not represent the strong point of the army and would flee on the arrival of the Gothic cavalry. There were also squadrons of Arab cavalry, but they were more suited to skirmishes than to pitched battle.
Shield pattern of the Germaniciani seniores, according to Notitia dignitatum.
Ammianus Marcellinus makes references to the following forces under Valens:
Legions of Lanciarii, and Mattiarii, both legiones palatinae.Mattiarii refer to mace-armed infantry (mattea being Latin for mace). Valens is referred to as seeking protection with the Lanciarii and Mattiarii as the other Roman forces collapsed (apparently a sign of how desperate the battle had become). Eventually they were unable to hold off the Goths' superior numbers.
A battalion of Batavians; they were apparently held in reserve and fled, given a reference to a comes named Victor attempting to bring them up into battle but unable to find them.
Scutarii (shielded cavalry) and archers. As one or both were under the command of Bacurius the Iberian, these may have been allied auxiliary troops from Caucasian Iberia rather than Roman.
He also refers to the following officers:
Ricimer (Richomeres), Frankish Comes of Gratian's Domestici (the corps of bodyguards of the emperor who were stationed in the imperial palace) sent to assist Valens in 376. He offered to act as a hostage to facilitate negotiations when Equitus refused. He survived the battle, indicated due to retreating.
Sebastianus, arrived from Italy previously, and operating as one of Valens' generals. Killed in the battle.
Victor, master-general of the cavalry, a Sarmatian by birth, who led the officers counselling waiting for Gratian.
Equitius, a relation of Valens, a tribune and high steward of the palace. He refused to act as a hostage, as he had been a prisoner of the Goths in Dibaltum and escaped, and now feared revenge. Killed in the battle.
Bacurius (presumably Romanised Bakur), a prince of Iberia, in command of the archers and/or scutarii with Cassio that accompanied Ricimer as hostage, and who attacked without orders.
Traianus, in command of Roman forces before Valens assumed command, an illustrious man whose death in the battle was a great loss. He was still alive when Valens sought refuge with the Lanciarii and Mattiarii.
Victor, the comes who tried to bring the Batavian reserve battalion into action.
Cassio, in command of the archers and/or scutarii accompanying Ricimer as hostage.
Saturninus, an officer referred to as being able to stay alive by retreating.
Valerianus, Master of the Stable. Killed in battle.
Potentius, tribune of the Promoti, a branch of the cavalry, son of Ursicinus, former commander of the forces.[clarification needed] He "fell in the flower of his age, a man respected by all persons of virtue."
Thirty five tribunes, including those of units and those of the staff, who were killed.
Strength of Valens' army
The real number of Roman troops to be as many as 15,000 men, 10,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry.
Composition of the Gothic forces
The Gothic armies were mostly infantry with some cavalry, however; in the battle of Adrianople the large force of Gothic cavalry was 5,000 strong.
There were two main Gothic armies south of the Danube. Fritigern led one army, largely recruited from the Therving exiles, while Alatheus and Saphrax led another army, largely recruited from the Greuthung exiles.
Fritigern brought all of his fighters to the battle, and appears to have been the force the Romans first encountered. Alatheus and Saphrax brought most of their cavalry, and some of their infantry, to the battlefield late. These infantry were indicated as being an Alan battalion.
Roman scouts estimated 10,000 Gothic troops due to Alatheus and Saphrax's forces being away when the Roman scouts estimated the Goth's numbers before battle.
Course of battle
On the morning of 9 August, Valens decamped from Adrianople, where he left the imperial treasury and administration under the guard of the legions. The reconnaissance of the preceding days informed him of the location of the Gothic camp north of the city. Valens arrived there after marching for seven hours over difficult terrain.
At around 14:30, the Roman troops arrived in disorder, exhausted and dehydrated, facing the Gothic camp that had been set up on the top of a hill. The Goths, except for their cavalry, took position in front of their wagon circle, inside of which were their families and possessions. Fritigern's objective was to delay the Romans, in order to give enough time for the Gothic cavalry to return. The fields were burnt by the Goths to delay and harass the Romans with smoke, and negotiations began for an exchange of hostages. The negotiations exasperated the Roman soldiers who seemed to hold the stronger position, but they gained precious time for Fritigern.
A detachment of Romans began the battle without orders to do so, believing they would have an easy victory, and perhaps over-eager to exact revenge on the Goths after two years of unchecked devastation throughout the Balkans. The imperial scholae of shield-archers under the command of the Iberian prince Bacurius attacked, but lacking support they were easily pushed back. Then the Roman left-wing reached the circle of wagons, but it was too late. At that moment, the Gothic cavalry, alerted by messengers from the embattled wagon circle, arrived to support the infantry. The cavalry surrounded the Roman troops, who were already in disarray after the failure of the first assault. The Romans retreated to the base of the hill where they were unable to maneuver, encumbered by their heavy armor and long shields. The casualties, exhaustion, and psychological pressure led to a rout of the Roman army. The cavalry continued their attack, and the massacre continued until nightfall.
In the rout, the Emperor himself was abandoned by his guards. Some tried to retrieve him, but the majority of the cavalry deserted. Valens' final fate is unknown; he probably died anonymously on the field. His body was never found. An alternative story circulated after the battle that Valens had escaped the field with a bodyguard and some eunuchs, and hid in a peasant's cottage. The enemy attempted to pillage the cottage, apparently unaware Valens was inside. Valens' men fired arrows from the second floor to defend the cottage and in response the Goths set the cottage on fire. The bodyguard leaped out the window and told the Goths who was inside, but it was too late. Valens perished in the flames.
The Battle of Thessalonica (380) was fought in the summer or autumn of 380 by Fritigern's Goths and a Roman army led by Theodosius I. Reconstituted after Adrianople, the Eastern Roman army suffered another major defeat. Theodosius retreated to Thessalonica and surrendered control of operations to the Western Emperor, Gratian.
Implications
The most immediate implication was that the Goths attempted to take the city of Adrianople; few Romans fleeing from the battle ran towards the city. A third of the Roman army succeeded in retreating, but the losses were uncountable. Many officers, among them the general Sebastian, were killed in the worst Roman defeat since the Battle of Edessa, the high point of the Crisis of the Third Century. The battle was a significant blow for the late Empire, resulting in the destruction of the core army of the eastern Empire, the deaths of valuable administrators, and the destruction of all of the arms factories on the Danube following the battle. The lack of reserves for the army led to a recruitment crisis, which accentuated the strategic and morale impact of the defeat.
The victory gave the Goths freedom to roam at will, plundering throughout Thrace for the rest of 378. In 379 the Goths met only light Roman resistance and advanced north-west into Dacia, plundering that region.
In 380 the Goths divided into Terving and Greuthung armies, in part because of the difficulty of keeping such a large number supplied. The Greuthungi moved north into Pannonia where they were defeated by western emperor Gratian. The Tervingi under Fritigern moved south and east to Macedonia, where they took "protection money" from towns and cities rather than sacking them outright. In 381, forces of the western Empire drove the Goths back to Thrace, where finally in 382, peace was made on October 3.
Consequences
The defeat at Adrianople signified that the barbarians, fighting for or against the Romans, had become powerful adversaries. The Goths, though partly tamed by Valens' successor Theodosius I (who accepted them once more as allies), were to remain as a distinct entity within its frontiers; sometimes allies; other times enemies. Roman losses could only be compensated by co-opting barbarians into the army as Foederati under their own commanders, translating into political influence.
By the end of the war, the Goths had killed a Roman emperor, destroyed a Roman army and laid waste large tracts of the Roman Balkans, much of which never recovered. The Roman Empire had for the first time negotiated a peace settlement with an autonomous barbarian tribe inside the borders of the Empire, a situation that a generation before would have been unthinkable.
Battle of Argentovaria, May AD 378
The Battle of Argentovaria or Battle of Argentaria was fought in May 378 between the Roman Empire and the invading army of the Lentienses, a branch of the Alamanni, at Argentovaria . The Alemanni were overwhelmed by the Roman legionaries, though they stood their ground bravely. Only 5,000 escaped from the field. The king of the Lentienses, Priarius, died during the battle. Emperor Gratian, who had given the command of the army for the battle to Nannienus and Mallobaudes, gained the title of Alemannicus Maximus.
The Battle of Argentovaria or Battle of Argentaria was fought in May 378 between the Roman Empire and the invading army of the Lentienses, a branch of the Alamanni, at Argentovaria . The Alemanni were overwhelmed by the Roman legionaries, though they stood their ground bravely. Only 5,000 escaped from the field. The king of the Lentienses, Priarius, died during the battle. Emperor Gratian, who had given the command of the army for the battle to Nannienus and Mallobaudes, gained the title of Alemannicus Maximus.
Gothic War, AD 395-410
Visigothic invasion of Greece
Theodosius I, the last emperor of both eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire, died in 395, leaving his sons Arcadius and Honorius emperors of the East and West, respectively. Both new emperors were only boys at their ascension to the thrones, thereby making it necessary for older and more experienced men to step in as consuls.
Flavius Stilicho, son of a Vandal father, though he identified with his maternal Roman heritage, was the magister utriusque militae when Honorius came to power and was able to act as consul and commander-in-chief because of his close relationship to the imperial family. Theodosius I had great trust in Stilicho and their families became formally linked when Stilicho’s daughter was married to Honorius.
Meanwhile, the disgruntled Visigoths ended their service to the empire as foederati on the charge that they were not being compensated as promised. When Theodosius died on January 17, 395, the Visigoths considered their 382 treaty with Rome at an end. Alaric quickly led his warriors back to their lands in Moesia, gathered most of the federated Goths in the Danubian provinces under his leadership, and instantly rebelled, invading Thrace and approaching the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople.
They began wreaking havoc in land very close to Constantinople and ironically, the city had to buy off the Visigoths to end the threat. Rufinus, the praetorian prefect of the East negotiated with Alaric to get him to withdraw from Constantinople promising him lands in Thessaly. Alaric did march away from Constantinople to Greece, looting the diocese of Macedonia.
This short-sighted policy of bribery proved ineffective and Alaric, king of the Visigoths, devastated the Peloponnese and Balkans in the following year, including Piraeus, Corinth, Argos, and Sparta. Athens was able to pay a ransom to avoid being sacked. After he had good control over the Balkan region, Alaric then tried negotiating with the western empire for senior military rank (magister militum) and rations of food and supplies for his troops. He was rebuffed – Roman government thought it was beneath them to make deals with barbarians.
Magister utriusque militiae Stilicho marched east at the head of a combined Western and Eastern Roman army out of Italy. Alaric fortified himself behind a circle of wagons on the plain of Larissa, in Thessaly, where Stilicho besieged him for several months, unwilling to seek battle. Eventually Arcadius, under the influence of those hostile to Stilicho, commanded him to leave Thessaly. Stilicho obeyed the orders of his emperor, sending his Eastern troops to Constantinople, and leading his Western ones back to Italy. The Eastern troops Stilicho had sent to Constantinople were led by a Goth named Gainas. When Rufinus met the soldiers, he was hacked to death in November 395. This was done on the orders of Stilicho, or perhaps on Eutropius', the man who replaced Rufinus.
It was only in 397 that Stilicho returned to Greece, having rebuilt his army with mainly barbarian allies. After some fighting, Stilicho trapped and besieged Alaric at Pholoe. Then, once again, Stilicho retreated to Italy, and Alaric marched into Epirus. Stilicho's mostly-barbarian army had been unreliable, and another order from Arcadius and the Eastern government forced his withdrawal. Others suggest that Stilicho made an agreement with Alaric and betrayed the East. Whatever the case, Stilicho was declared a public enemy in the Eastern Empire that same year.
Alaric's rampage in Epirus was enough to make the Eastern Roman government offer him terms in 398. They made Alaric magister militum per Illyricum, giving him the Roman command he wanted and giving him free rein to take what resources he needed, including armaments, in his assigned province
First Visigothic invasion of Italy
Aurelianus, the new praetorian prefect of the east after Eutropius' execution, stripped Alaric of his title to Illyricum in 400. 7,000 Gothic soldiers and their families were slaughtered in a riot at Constantinople on July 12, 400. Gainas, who at one point had been made magister militum, rebelled, but he was killed by the Huns under Uldin, who sent his head back to Constantinople as a gift. With these events, particularly Rome's use of the feared Huns and cut off from Roman officialdom, Alaric felt his position in the East was precarious. So, while Stilicho was busy fighting an invasion of Vandals and Alans in Rhaetia and Noricum, Alaric led his people into an invasion of Italy in 401, reaching it in November without encountering much resistance. The Goths captured a few cities and besieged the Western Roman capital Mediolanum
Alaric set his sights on Gaul and began marching, invading Italy in early 402 on his way across the western empire. General Stilicho was concurrently occupied at Raetia and Noricum in the north dealing with Vandal and Alan raids. When he heard of Alaric’s invasion, Stilicho quickly recruited troops from the very people he was fighting in order to gain enough manpower to confront the Visigoths. Now with Alan and Vandal federates in his army, relieved the siege, forcing a crossing at the Adda river.
Since February, the Visigoths, led by Alaric, had besieged the Emperor Honorius of the Western Roman Empire in the fortress of Hasta in Liguria. The Visigoths had been assisted by the unseasonably dry weather in northern Italy and also by the absence of most of the imperial troops that would normally have been stationed in Italy. These circumstances had left Mediolanum, the imperial capital, and the young emperor within, both dangerously exposed.
As the enemy approached the city outskirts in early 402, Honorius and his retainers decided to flee and attempt to relocate the imperial court to Arles in Gaul. However, after he had vacated the city, his alpine escape route was cut off by the Visigoth cavalry. With the option to retreat back to Mediolanum now lost (by now the Visigothic infantry had the city surrounded), the desperate convoy of Honorius headed south to the fortified city of Hasta, pursued by the Visigoths. As soon as the emperor arrived, the Visigoths immediately placed the city under siege, hoping to capture him as a valuable hostage.
General Stilicho crossed the Po and reached the Visigoth army besieging Hasta. The Visigoths retreated to Pollentia. On Easter Sunday, 6 April 402, the Visigoths, who were Arian Christians, were distracted and celebrating the holiday when Stilicho decided to time a strategic attack. The result was a very costly draw. Although there was no clear victor, Stilicho had managed to capture Alaric's wife, children, and other important relations. Serena, wife of Stilicho, paid for a musive floor in the basilica of the Apostles in Mediolanum as an ex-voto for Stilicho's victory.
Stilicho offered to return the prisoners in exchange for the Visigoths returning to Illyricum, but upon reaching Verona, Alaric stopped his retreat and endeavoured to capture the city. Stilicho and local forces surrounded the Visigoths and defeated them in the Battle of Verona. At this point, a number of Goths in his army started deserting him, including Sarus who went over to the Romans. Alaric and his army then withdrew to the borderlands next to Dalmatia and Pannonia. Honorius, fearful after the near capture of Mediolanum, moved the Western Roman capital to Ravenna, which was more defensible with its natural swamps and more escapable with its access to the sea. Moving the capital to Ravenna may have disconnected the Western court from events beyond the Alps towards a preoccupation with the defense of Italy, weakening the Western Empire as a whole.
Aftermath
By 403 Alaric and the Visigoths had been pushed back to the Balkans where they remained a minor threat. In time, Alaric became an ally of Stilicho, agreeing to help claim the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum for the Western Empire. To that end, Stilicho named Alaric magister militum of Illyricum in 405. Unfortunately, the Goth Radagaisus invaded Italy that same year, putting any such plans on hold. The new incursion of Vandals and Goths led by Radagaisus attacked Florence. Stilicho ultimately defeated the invaders at Faesulae with support from Alans, Goths under Sarus, and Huns under Uldin, managed to defeat Radagaisus in August 406, but only after the devastation of northern Italy. 12,000 of Radagaisus' Goths were pressed into Roman military service, and others were enslaved. So many were sold into slavery by the victorious Roman forces that slave prices temporarily collapsed. Radagaisus was executed after the battle and survivors of his armies fled to Alaric.
Visigothic invasion of Greece
Theodosius I, the last emperor of both eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire, died in 395, leaving his sons Arcadius and Honorius emperors of the East and West, respectively. Both new emperors were only boys at their ascension to the thrones, thereby making it necessary for older and more experienced men to step in as consuls.
Flavius Stilicho, son of a Vandal father, though he identified with his maternal Roman heritage, was the magister utriusque militae when Honorius came to power and was able to act as consul and commander-in-chief because of his close relationship to the imperial family. Theodosius I had great trust in Stilicho and their families became formally linked when Stilicho’s daughter was married to Honorius.
Meanwhile, the disgruntled Visigoths ended their service to the empire as foederati on the charge that they were not being compensated as promised. When Theodosius died on January 17, 395, the Visigoths considered their 382 treaty with Rome at an end. Alaric quickly led his warriors back to their lands in Moesia, gathered most of the federated Goths in the Danubian provinces under his leadership, and instantly rebelled, invading Thrace and approaching the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople.
They began wreaking havoc in land very close to Constantinople and ironically, the city had to buy off the Visigoths to end the threat. Rufinus, the praetorian prefect of the East negotiated with Alaric to get him to withdraw from Constantinople promising him lands in Thessaly. Alaric did march away from Constantinople to Greece, looting the diocese of Macedonia.
This short-sighted policy of bribery proved ineffective and Alaric, king of the Visigoths, devastated the Peloponnese and Balkans in the following year, including Piraeus, Corinth, Argos, and Sparta. Athens was able to pay a ransom to avoid being sacked. After he had good control over the Balkan region, Alaric then tried negotiating with the western empire for senior military rank (magister militum) and rations of food and supplies for his troops. He was rebuffed – Roman government thought it was beneath them to make deals with barbarians.
Magister utriusque militiae Stilicho marched east at the head of a combined Western and Eastern Roman army out of Italy. Alaric fortified himself behind a circle of wagons on the plain of Larissa, in Thessaly, where Stilicho besieged him for several months, unwilling to seek battle. Eventually Arcadius, under the influence of those hostile to Stilicho, commanded him to leave Thessaly. Stilicho obeyed the orders of his emperor, sending his Eastern troops to Constantinople, and leading his Western ones back to Italy. The Eastern troops Stilicho had sent to Constantinople were led by a Goth named Gainas. When Rufinus met the soldiers, he was hacked to death in November 395. This was done on the orders of Stilicho, or perhaps on Eutropius', the man who replaced Rufinus.
It was only in 397 that Stilicho returned to Greece, having rebuilt his army with mainly barbarian allies. After some fighting, Stilicho trapped and besieged Alaric at Pholoe. Then, once again, Stilicho retreated to Italy, and Alaric marched into Epirus. Stilicho's mostly-barbarian army had been unreliable, and another order from Arcadius and the Eastern government forced his withdrawal. Others suggest that Stilicho made an agreement with Alaric and betrayed the East. Whatever the case, Stilicho was declared a public enemy in the Eastern Empire that same year.
Alaric's rampage in Epirus was enough to make the Eastern Roman government offer him terms in 398. They made Alaric magister militum per Illyricum, giving him the Roman command he wanted and giving him free rein to take what resources he needed, including armaments, in his assigned province
First Visigothic invasion of Italy
Aurelianus, the new praetorian prefect of the east after Eutropius' execution, stripped Alaric of his title to Illyricum in 400. 7,000 Gothic soldiers and their families were slaughtered in a riot at Constantinople on July 12, 400. Gainas, who at one point had been made magister militum, rebelled, but he was killed by the Huns under Uldin, who sent his head back to Constantinople as a gift. With these events, particularly Rome's use of the feared Huns and cut off from Roman officialdom, Alaric felt his position in the East was precarious. So, while Stilicho was busy fighting an invasion of Vandals and Alans in Rhaetia and Noricum, Alaric led his people into an invasion of Italy in 401, reaching it in November without encountering much resistance. The Goths captured a few cities and besieged the Western Roman capital Mediolanum
Alaric set his sights on Gaul and began marching, invading Italy in early 402 on his way across the western empire. General Stilicho was concurrently occupied at Raetia and Noricum in the north dealing with Vandal and Alan raids. When he heard of Alaric’s invasion, Stilicho quickly recruited troops from the very people he was fighting in order to gain enough manpower to confront the Visigoths. Now with Alan and Vandal federates in his army, relieved the siege, forcing a crossing at the Adda river.
Since February, the Visigoths, led by Alaric, had besieged the Emperor Honorius of the Western Roman Empire in the fortress of Hasta in Liguria. The Visigoths had been assisted by the unseasonably dry weather in northern Italy and also by the absence of most of the imperial troops that would normally have been stationed in Italy. These circumstances had left Mediolanum, the imperial capital, and the young emperor within, both dangerously exposed.
As the enemy approached the city outskirts in early 402, Honorius and his retainers decided to flee and attempt to relocate the imperial court to Arles in Gaul. However, after he had vacated the city, his alpine escape route was cut off by the Visigoth cavalry. With the option to retreat back to Mediolanum now lost (by now the Visigothic infantry had the city surrounded), the desperate convoy of Honorius headed south to the fortified city of Hasta, pursued by the Visigoths. As soon as the emperor arrived, the Visigoths immediately placed the city under siege, hoping to capture him as a valuable hostage.
General Stilicho crossed the Po and reached the Visigoth army besieging Hasta. The Visigoths retreated to Pollentia. On Easter Sunday, 6 April 402, the Visigoths, who were Arian Christians, were distracted and celebrating the holiday when Stilicho decided to time a strategic attack. The result was a very costly draw. Although there was no clear victor, Stilicho had managed to capture Alaric's wife, children, and other important relations. Serena, wife of Stilicho, paid for a musive floor in the basilica of the Apostles in Mediolanum as an ex-voto for Stilicho's victory.
Stilicho offered to return the prisoners in exchange for the Visigoths returning to Illyricum, but upon reaching Verona, Alaric stopped his retreat and endeavoured to capture the city. Stilicho and local forces surrounded the Visigoths and defeated them in the Battle of Verona. At this point, a number of Goths in his army started deserting him, including Sarus who went over to the Romans. Alaric and his army then withdrew to the borderlands next to Dalmatia and Pannonia. Honorius, fearful after the near capture of Mediolanum, moved the Western Roman capital to Ravenna, which was more defensible with its natural swamps and more escapable with its access to the sea. Moving the capital to Ravenna may have disconnected the Western court from events beyond the Alps towards a preoccupation with the defense of Italy, weakening the Western Empire as a whole.
Aftermath
By 403 Alaric and the Visigoths had been pushed back to the Balkans where they remained a minor threat. In time, Alaric became an ally of Stilicho, agreeing to help claim the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum for the Western Empire. To that end, Stilicho named Alaric magister militum of Illyricum in 405. Unfortunately, the Goth Radagaisus invaded Italy that same year, putting any such plans on hold. The new incursion of Vandals and Goths led by Radagaisus attacked Florence. Stilicho ultimately defeated the invaders at Faesulae with support from Alans, Goths under Sarus, and Huns under Uldin, managed to defeat Radagaisus in August 406, but only after the devastation of northern Italy. 12,000 of Radagaisus' Goths were pressed into Roman military service, and others were enslaved. So many were sold into slavery by the victorious Roman forces that slave prices temporarily collapsed. Radagaisus was executed after the battle and survivors of his armies fled to Alaric.
Only in 407 did Stilicho turn his attention back to Illyrcium, gathering a fleet to support Alaric’s proposed invasion. But then the Rhine limes collapsed under the weight of hordes of Vandals, Suebi, and Alans who flooded into Gaul. The Roman population there thus attacked rose in rebellion under the usurper Constantine III. Stilicho reconciled with the Eastern Roman Empire in 408, and the Visigoths under Alaric had lost their value to Stilicho. Alaric then invaded and took control of parts of Noricum and upper Pannonia in the spring of 408. He demanded 288,000 solidi (four thousand pounds of gold), and threatened to invade Italy if he did not get it. This was equivalent to the amount of money earned in property revenue by a single senatorial family in one year. Only with the greatest difficulty was Stilicho able to get the Roman Senate to agree to pay the ransom, which was to buy the Romans a new alliance with Alaric who was to go to Gaul and fight the usurper Constantine III. Pay Alaric weakened Stilicho’s relationship with Honorius.
Olympius, a palatine official and an enemy of Stilicho’s, spread false rumors that Stilicho planned to place his own son Eucherius on the throne of the East. Roman soldiers mutinied and began killing officials who were known supporters of Stilicho. He was arrested and told he was to be immediately executed on Honorius’ orders. Stilicho refused to allow his followers to resist, and he was executed on August 22, 408. His son Eucherius was executed shortly after in Rome. Stilicho’s execution stopped the payment to Alaric and his Visigoths, who had received none of it.
Olympius was appointed magister officiorum and replaced Stilicho as the power behind the throne. His new government was strongly anti-Germanic and obsessed with purging any and all of Stilicho’s former supporters. Roman soldiers began to indiscriminately slaughter allied barbarian foederati soldiers and their families in Roman cities. Thousands of them fled Italy and sought refuge with Alaric in Noricum. 30,000 is the total number of fighting-men under Alaric's command after the refugees joined Alaric.
First siege of Rome
Attempting to come to an agreement with Honorius, Alaric asked for hostages, gold, and permission to move to Pannonia, but Honorius refused. Alaric, aware of the weakened state of defenses in Italy, invaded six weeks after Stilicho's death. He also sent word to his brother-in-law Ataulf to join the invasion as soon as he was able with reinforcements. Alaric and his Visigoths sacked Ariminum and other cities as they moved south. Alaric's march was unopposed and leisurely. Sarus and his band of Goths, still in Italy, remained neutral and aloof.[46]
The city of Rome may have held as many as 800,000 people, making it the largest in the world at the time. The Goths under Alaric laid siege to the city in late 408. Panic swept through the city, and there was an attempt to reinstate pagan rituals in the still-religiously mixed city to ward off the Visigoths. Pope Innocent I even agreed to it, provided it be done in private. The pagan priests, however, said the sacrifices could only be done publicly in the Roman forum, and the idea was abandoned.
Serena, the wife of the proscribed Stilicho and a cousin of emperor Honorius, was in the city and believed by the Roman populace to be encouraging Alaric's invasion. Galla Placidia, the sister of the emperor Honorius, was also trapped in the city and gave her consent to the Roman Senate to execute Serena. Serena was then strangled to death.
Hopes of help from the Imperial government faded as the siege continued and Alaric took control of the Tiber river, which cut the supplies going into Rome. Grain was rationed to one-half and then one-third of its previous amount. Starvation and disease rapidly spread throughout the city, and rotting bodies were left unburied in the streets. The Roman Senate then decided to send two envoys to Alaric. When the envoys boasted to him that the Roman people were trained to fight and ready for war, Alaric laughed at them and said, "The thickest grass is easier to cut than the thinnest." The envoys asked under what terms could the siege be lifted, and Alaric demanded all the gold and silver, household goods, and barbarian slaves in the city. One envoy asked what would be left to the citizens of Rome. Alaric replied, "Their lives." Ultimately, the city was forced to give the Goths 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper in exchange for lifting the siege. The barbarian slaves fled to Alaric as well, who swelled his ranks to about 40,000. Many of the barbarian slaves were Radagaisus' former followers. To raise the needed money, Roman senators were to contribute according to their means. This led to corruption and abuse, and the sum came up short. The Romans then stripped down and melted pagan statues and shrines to make up the difference. One such statue was of Virtus, and that when it was melted down to pay off barbarians it seemed "all that remained of the Roman valor and intrepidity was totally extinguished".
Honorius consented to the payment of the ransom, and with it the Visigoths lifted the siege and withdrew to Etruria in December 408.
The Second siege
In January 409, the Senate sent an embassy to the imperial court at Ravenna to encourage the Emperor to come to terms with the Goths, and to give Roman aristocratic children as hostages to the Goths as insurance. Alaric would then resume his alliance with the Roman Empire. Honorius, under the influence of Olympius, refused and called in five legions from Dalmatia, totaling six thousand men. They were to go to Rome and garrison the city, but their commander, a man named Valens, marched his men into Etruria, believing it cowardly to go around the Goths. He and his men were intercepted and attacked by Alaric's full force, and almost all were killed or captured. Only 100 managed to escape and reach Rome.
A second Senatorial embassy, this time including Pope Innocent I, was sent with Gothic guards to Honorius to plead with him to accept the Visigoths' demands. The imperial government also received word that Ataulf, Alaric's brother-in-law, had crossed the Julian Alps with his Goths into Italy with the intent of joining Alaric. Honorius summoned together all available Roman forces in northern Italy. Honorius placed 300 Huns of the imperial guard under the command of Olympius, and possibly the other forces as well, and ordered him to intercept Ataulf. They clashed near Pisa and Olympius was forced to retreat back to Ravenna. Ataulf then joined Alaric. This failure caused Olympius to fall from power, who fled for his life to Dalmatia. Jovius, the praetorian prefect of Italy, replaced Olympius as the power behind the throne and received the title of patrician. Jovius engineered a mutiny of soldiers in Ravenna who demanded the killing of magister utriusque militae Turpilio and magister equitum Vigilantius, and Jovius had both men killed.
Jovius was a friend of Alaric's and had been a supporter of Stilicho, and thus the new government was open to negotiations. Alaric went to Ariminum to meet Jovius and offer his demands. Alaric wanted yearly tribute in gold and grain, and lands in the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and Venetia for his people. Jovius also wrote privately to Honorius, suggesting that if Alaric was offered the position of magister utriusque militae, they could lessen Alaric's other demands. Honorius rejected the demand for a Roman office, and he sent an insulting letter to Alaric, which was read out in the negotiations.
Infuriated, Alaric broke off negotiations, and Jovius returned to Ravenna to strengthen his relationship with the Emperor. Honorius was now firmly committed to war, and Jovius swore on the Emperor's head to never to make peace with Alaric. Alaric himself soon changed his mind when he heard Honorius was attempting to recruit 10,000 Huns to fight the Goths. He gathered a group of Roman bishops and sent them to Honorius with his new terms. He no longer sought Roman office or tribute in gold. He now only requested lands in Noricum and as much grain as the Emperor found necessary But it was too late: Honorius' government, bound by oath and intent on war, rejected the offer. Alaric then marched on Rome. The 10,000 Huns never materialized.
Alaric took Portus and renewed the siege of Rome in late 409. Faced with the return of starvation and disease, the Senate met with Alaric. He demanded that they appoint one of their own as Emperor to rival Honorius, and he instigated the election of the elderly Priscus Attalus to that end, a pagan who permitted himself to be baptized. Alaric was then made magister utriusque militiae and his brother-in-law Ataulf was given the position comes domesticorum equitum in the new, rival government, and the siege was lifted.
Heraclian, governor of the food-rich province of Africa, remained loyal to Honorius. Attalus sent a Roman force to subdue him, refusing to send Gothic soldiers there as he was distrustful of their intentions. Attalus and Alaric then marched to Ravenna, forcing some cities in northern Italy to submit to Attalus. Honorius, extremely fearful at this turn of events, sent Jovius and others to Attalus, pleading that they share the Western Empire. Attalus said he would only negotiate on Honorius' place of exile. Jovius, for his part, switched sides to Attalus and was named patrician by his new master. Jovius wanted to have Honorius mutilated as well (something that was to become common in the Eastern Empire), but Attalus rejected it.
Now in pure panic, Honorius was preparing to flee to Constantinople when 4,000 Eastern Roman soldiers appeared at Ravenna's docks to defend the city. Their arrival strengthened Honorius' resolve to await news of what had happened in Africa: Heraclian had defeated Attalus' force and cut supplies to Rome, threatening another famine in the city. Alaric wanted to send Gothic soldiers to invade Africa and secure the province, but Attalus again refused, distrustful of the Visigoths' intentions for the province. Counseled by Jovius to do away with his puppet emperor, Alaric summoned Attalus to Ariminum and ceremonially stripped him of his imperial regalia and title in the summer of 410. Alaric then reopened negotiations with Honorius.
Olympius, a palatine official and an enemy of Stilicho’s, spread false rumors that Stilicho planned to place his own son Eucherius on the throne of the East. Roman soldiers mutinied and began killing officials who were known supporters of Stilicho. He was arrested and told he was to be immediately executed on Honorius’ orders. Stilicho refused to allow his followers to resist, and he was executed on August 22, 408. His son Eucherius was executed shortly after in Rome. Stilicho’s execution stopped the payment to Alaric and his Visigoths, who had received none of it.
Olympius was appointed magister officiorum and replaced Stilicho as the power behind the throne. His new government was strongly anti-Germanic and obsessed with purging any and all of Stilicho’s former supporters. Roman soldiers began to indiscriminately slaughter allied barbarian foederati soldiers and their families in Roman cities. Thousands of them fled Italy and sought refuge with Alaric in Noricum. 30,000 is the total number of fighting-men under Alaric's command after the refugees joined Alaric.
First siege of Rome
Attempting to come to an agreement with Honorius, Alaric asked for hostages, gold, and permission to move to Pannonia, but Honorius refused. Alaric, aware of the weakened state of defenses in Italy, invaded six weeks after Stilicho's death. He also sent word to his brother-in-law Ataulf to join the invasion as soon as he was able with reinforcements. Alaric and his Visigoths sacked Ariminum and other cities as they moved south. Alaric's march was unopposed and leisurely. Sarus and his band of Goths, still in Italy, remained neutral and aloof.[46]
The city of Rome may have held as many as 800,000 people, making it the largest in the world at the time. The Goths under Alaric laid siege to the city in late 408. Panic swept through the city, and there was an attempt to reinstate pagan rituals in the still-religiously mixed city to ward off the Visigoths. Pope Innocent I even agreed to it, provided it be done in private. The pagan priests, however, said the sacrifices could only be done publicly in the Roman forum, and the idea was abandoned.
Serena, the wife of the proscribed Stilicho and a cousin of emperor Honorius, was in the city and believed by the Roman populace to be encouraging Alaric's invasion. Galla Placidia, the sister of the emperor Honorius, was also trapped in the city and gave her consent to the Roman Senate to execute Serena. Serena was then strangled to death.
Hopes of help from the Imperial government faded as the siege continued and Alaric took control of the Tiber river, which cut the supplies going into Rome. Grain was rationed to one-half and then one-third of its previous amount. Starvation and disease rapidly spread throughout the city, and rotting bodies were left unburied in the streets. The Roman Senate then decided to send two envoys to Alaric. When the envoys boasted to him that the Roman people were trained to fight and ready for war, Alaric laughed at them and said, "The thickest grass is easier to cut than the thinnest." The envoys asked under what terms could the siege be lifted, and Alaric demanded all the gold and silver, household goods, and barbarian slaves in the city. One envoy asked what would be left to the citizens of Rome. Alaric replied, "Their lives." Ultimately, the city was forced to give the Goths 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper in exchange for lifting the siege. The barbarian slaves fled to Alaric as well, who swelled his ranks to about 40,000. Many of the barbarian slaves were Radagaisus' former followers. To raise the needed money, Roman senators were to contribute according to their means. This led to corruption and abuse, and the sum came up short. The Romans then stripped down and melted pagan statues and shrines to make up the difference. One such statue was of Virtus, and that when it was melted down to pay off barbarians it seemed "all that remained of the Roman valor and intrepidity was totally extinguished".
Honorius consented to the payment of the ransom, and with it the Visigoths lifted the siege and withdrew to Etruria in December 408.
The Second siege
In January 409, the Senate sent an embassy to the imperial court at Ravenna to encourage the Emperor to come to terms with the Goths, and to give Roman aristocratic children as hostages to the Goths as insurance. Alaric would then resume his alliance with the Roman Empire. Honorius, under the influence of Olympius, refused and called in five legions from Dalmatia, totaling six thousand men. They were to go to Rome and garrison the city, but their commander, a man named Valens, marched his men into Etruria, believing it cowardly to go around the Goths. He and his men were intercepted and attacked by Alaric's full force, and almost all were killed or captured. Only 100 managed to escape and reach Rome.
A second Senatorial embassy, this time including Pope Innocent I, was sent with Gothic guards to Honorius to plead with him to accept the Visigoths' demands. The imperial government also received word that Ataulf, Alaric's brother-in-law, had crossed the Julian Alps with his Goths into Italy with the intent of joining Alaric. Honorius summoned together all available Roman forces in northern Italy. Honorius placed 300 Huns of the imperial guard under the command of Olympius, and possibly the other forces as well, and ordered him to intercept Ataulf. They clashed near Pisa and Olympius was forced to retreat back to Ravenna. Ataulf then joined Alaric. This failure caused Olympius to fall from power, who fled for his life to Dalmatia. Jovius, the praetorian prefect of Italy, replaced Olympius as the power behind the throne and received the title of patrician. Jovius engineered a mutiny of soldiers in Ravenna who demanded the killing of magister utriusque militae Turpilio and magister equitum Vigilantius, and Jovius had both men killed.
Jovius was a friend of Alaric's and had been a supporter of Stilicho, and thus the new government was open to negotiations. Alaric went to Ariminum to meet Jovius and offer his demands. Alaric wanted yearly tribute in gold and grain, and lands in the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and Venetia for his people. Jovius also wrote privately to Honorius, suggesting that if Alaric was offered the position of magister utriusque militae, they could lessen Alaric's other demands. Honorius rejected the demand for a Roman office, and he sent an insulting letter to Alaric, which was read out in the negotiations.
Infuriated, Alaric broke off negotiations, and Jovius returned to Ravenna to strengthen his relationship with the Emperor. Honorius was now firmly committed to war, and Jovius swore on the Emperor's head to never to make peace with Alaric. Alaric himself soon changed his mind when he heard Honorius was attempting to recruit 10,000 Huns to fight the Goths. He gathered a group of Roman bishops and sent them to Honorius with his new terms. He no longer sought Roman office or tribute in gold. He now only requested lands in Noricum and as much grain as the Emperor found necessary But it was too late: Honorius' government, bound by oath and intent on war, rejected the offer. Alaric then marched on Rome. The 10,000 Huns never materialized.
Alaric took Portus and renewed the siege of Rome in late 409. Faced with the return of starvation and disease, the Senate met with Alaric. He demanded that they appoint one of their own as Emperor to rival Honorius, and he instigated the election of the elderly Priscus Attalus to that end, a pagan who permitted himself to be baptized. Alaric was then made magister utriusque militiae and his brother-in-law Ataulf was given the position comes domesticorum equitum in the new, rival government, and the siege was lifted.
Heraclian, governor of the food-rich province of Africa, remained loyal to Honorius. Attalus sent a Roman force to subdue him, refusing to send Gothic soldiers there as he was distrustful of their intentions. Attalus and Alaric then marched to Ravenna, forcing some cities in northern Italy to submit to Attalus. Honorius, extremely fearful at this turn of events, sent Jovius and others to Attalus, pleading that they share the Western Empire. Attalus said he would only negotiate on Honorius' place of exile. Jovius, for his part, switched sides to Attalus and was named patrician by his new master. Jovius wanted to have Honorius mutilated as well (something that was to become common in the Eastern Empire), but Attalus rejected it.
Now in pure panic, Honorius was preparing to flee to Constantinople when 4,000 Eastern Roman soldiers appeared at Ravenna's docks to defend the city. Their arrival strengthened Honorius' resolve to await news of what had happened in Africa: Heraclian had defeated Attalus' force and cut supplies to Rome, threatening another famine in the city. Alaric wanted to send Gothic soldiers to invade Africa and secure the province, but Attalus again refused, distrustful of the Visigoths' intentions for the province. Counseled by Jovius to do away with his puppet emperor, Alaric summoned Attalus to Ariminum and ceremonially stripped him of his imperial regalia and title in the summer of 410. Alaric then reopened negotiations with Honorius.
Third siege and sack
Honorius arranged for a meeting with Alaric about 12 kilometers outside of Ravenna. As Alaric waited at the meeting place, Sarus, who was a sworn enemy of Ataulf and now allied to Honorius, attacked Alaric and his men with a small Roman force (Sarus had also lost the election for the kingship of the Goths to Alaric in the 390s).
Alaric survived the attack and, outraged at this treachery and frustrated by all the past failures at accommodation, gave up on negotiating with Honorius and headed back to Rome, which he besieged for the third and final time. On August 24, 410, the Visigoths entered Rome through its Salarian Gate, according to some opened by treachery, according to others by want of food, and pillaged the city for three days.
Many of the city's great buildings were ransacked, including the mausoleums of Augustus and Hadrian, in which many Roman Emperors of the past were buried; the ashes of the urns in both tombs were scattered. Any and all moveable goods were stolen all over the city. Some of the few places the Goths spared were the two major basilicas connected to Peter and Paul, though from the Lateran Palace they stole a massive, 2,025 pound silver ciborium that had been a gift from Constantine. Structural damage to buildings was largely limited to the areas near the old Senate house and the Salarian Gate, where the Gardens of Sallust were burned and never rebuilt. The Basilica Aemilia and the Basilica Julia were also burned.
The city's citizens were devastated. Many Romans were taken captive, including the Emperor's sister, Galla Placidia. Some citizens would be ransomed, others would be sold into slavery, and still others would be raped and killed. Refugees from Rome fleeing the Goths flooded the province of Africa. Heraclian, the Count of Africa, sold some of the young refugees into Eastern brothels.
Many Romans were tortured into revealing the locations of their valuables. One was the 85-year-old Saint Marcella.Marcella died of her injuries a few days later.
The sack was nonetheless, by the standards of the age, restrained. There was no general slaughter of the inhabitants and the two main basilicas of Peter and Paul were nominated places of sanctuary. Most of the buildings and monuments in the city survived intact, though stripped of their valuables.
The historian Procopius records a story where, on hearing the news that Rome had "perished", Honorius was initially shocked, thinking the news was in reference to a favorite chicken he had named "Rome".
Aftermath
After three days of looting and pillage, Alaric quickly left Rome and headed for southern Italy. He took with him the wealth of the city and a valuable hostage, Galla Placidia, the sister of emperor Honorius. The Visigoths ravaged Campania, Lucania, and Calabria. Nola and perhaps Capua were sacked, and the Visigoths threatened to invade Sicily and Africa. However, they were unable to cross the Strait of Messina as the ships they had gathered were wrecked by a storm. Alaric died of illness at Consentia in late 410, mere months after the sack. According to legend, he was buried with his treasure by slaves in the bed of the Busento river. The slaves were then killed to hide its location. The Visigoths elected Ataulf, Alaric's brother-in-law, as their new king. The Visigoths then moved north, heading for Gaul. Ataulf married Galla Placidia in 414, but he died one year later. The Visigoths established the Visigothic kingdom in southwestern Gaul in 418, and they would go on to help the Western Roman Empire fight Attila the Hun at the battle of the Catalaunian Fields in 451.
The Visigothic invasion of Italy caused land taxes to drop anywhere to one-fifth to one-ninth of their pre-invasion value in the affected provinces. Aristocratic munificence, the local support of public buildings and monuments by the upper classes, ended in south-central Italy after the sack and pillaging of those regions. The city of Rome's total population fell from 800,000 in 408 to 500,000 by 419.
This was the first time the city of Rome had been sacked in almost 800 years, and it had revealed the Western Roman Empire's increasing vulnerability and military weakness. It was shocking to people across both halves of the Empire who viewed Rome as the eternal city and the symbolic heart of their country. The Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II declared three days of mourning in Constantinople. Jerome wrote in grief, "If Rome can perish, what can be safe?"
The Roman Empire at this time was still in the midst of religious conflict between pagans and Christians. The sack was used by both sides to bolster their competing claims of divine legitimacy. Paulus Orosius, a Christian priest and theologian, believed the sack was God's wrath against a proud and blasphemous city, and that it was only through God's benevolence that the sack had not been too severe. Rome had lost its wealth, but Roman sovereignty endured, and that to talk to the survivors in Rome one would think "nothing had happened." Other Romans felt the sack was divine punishment for turning away from the traditional pagan gods to Christ. Zosimus, a Roman pagan historian, believed that Christianity, through its abandonment of the ancient traditional rites, had weakened the Empire's political virtues, and that the poor decisions of the Imperial government that led to the sack were due to the lack of the gods' care.
The religious and political attacks on Christianity spurred Saint Augustine to write a defense, The City of God, which went on to become foundational to Christian thought.
The sack was a culmination of many terminal problems facing the Western Roman Empire. Domestic rebellions and usurpations weakened the Empire in the face of external invasions. These factors would permanently harm the stability of the Roman Empire in the west. The Roman army meanwhile became increasingly barbarian and disloyal to the Empire.
Honorius arranged for a meeting with Alaric about 12 kilometers outside of Ravenna. As Alaric waited at the meeting place, Sarus, who was a sworn enemy of Ataulf and now allied to Honorius, attacked Alaric and his men with a small Roman force (Sarus had also lost the election for the kingship of the Goths to Alaric in the 390s).
Alaric survived the attack and, outraged at this treachery and frustrated by all the past failures at accommodation, gave up on negotiating with Honorius and headed back to Rome, which he besieged for the third and final time. On August 24, 410, the Visigoths entered Rome through its Salarian Gate, according to some opened by treachery, according to others by want of food, and pillaged the city for three days.
Many of the city's great buildings were ransacked, including the mausoleums of Augustus and Hadrian, in which many Roman Emperors of the past were buried; the ashes of the urns in both tombs were scattered. Any and all moveable goods were stolen all over the city. Some of the few places the Goths spared were the two major basilicas connected to Peter and Paul, though from the Lateran Palace they stole a massive, 2,025 pound silver ciborium that had been a gift from Constantine. Structural damage to buildings was largely limited to the areas near the old Senate house and the Salarian Gate, where the Gardens of Sallust were burned and never rebuilt. The Basilica Aemilia and the Basilica Julia were also burned.
The city's citizens were devastated. Many Romans were taken captive, including the Emperor's sister, Galla Placidia. Some citizens would be ransomed, others would be sold into slavery, and still others would be raped and killed. Refugees from Rome fleeing the Goths flooded the province of Africa. Heraclian, the Count of Africa, sold some of the young refugees into Eastern brothels.
Many Romans were tortured into revealing the locations of their valuables. One was the 85-year-old Saint Marcella.Marcella died of her injuries a few days later.
The sack was nonetheless, by the standards of the age, restrained. There was no general slaughter of the inhabitants and the two main basilicas of Peter and Paul were nominated places of sanctuary. Most of the buildings and monuments in the city survived intact, though stripped of their valuables.
The historian Procopius records a story where, on hearing the news that Rome had "perished", Honorius was initially shocked, thinking the news was in reference to a favorite chicken he had named "Rome".
Aftermath
After three days of looting and pillage, Alaric quickly left Rome and headed for southern Italy. He took with him the wealth of the city and a valuable hostage, Galla Placidia, the sister of emperor Honorius. The Visigoths ravaged Campania, Lucania, and Calabria. Nola and perhaps Capua were sacked, and the Visigoths threatened to invade Sicily and Africa. However, they were unable to cross the Strait of Messina as the ships they had gathered were wrecked by a storm. Alaric died of illness at Consentia in late 410, mere months after the sack. According to legend, he was buried with his treasure by slaves in the bed of the Busento river. The slaves were then killed to hide its location. The Visigoths elected Ataulf, Alaric's brother-in-law, as their new king. The Visigoths then moved north, heading for Gaul. Ataulf married Galla Placidia in 414, but he died one year later. The Visigoths established the Visigothic kingdom in southwestern Gaul in 418, and they would go on to help the Western Roman Empire fight Attila the Hun at the battle of the Catalaunian Fields in 451.
The Visigothic invasion of Italy caused land taxes to drop anywhere to one-fifth to one-ninth of their pre-invasion value in the affected provinces. Aristocratic munificence, the local support of public buildings and monuments by the upper classes, ended in south-central Italy after the sack and pillaging of those regions. The city of Rome's total population fell from 800,000 in 408 to 500,000 by 419.
This was the first time the city of Rome had been sacked in almost 800 years, and it had revealed the Western Roman Empire's increasing vulnerability and military weakness. It was shocking to people across both halves of the Empire who viewed Rome as the eternal city and the symbolic heart of their country. The Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II declared three days of mourning in Constantinople. Jerome wrote in grief, "If Rome can perish, what can be safe?"
The Roman Empire at this time was still in the midst of religious conflict between pagans and Christians. The sack was used by both sides to bolster their competing claims of divine legitimacy. Paulus Orosius, a Christian priest and theologian, believed the sack was God's wrath against a proud and blasphemous city, and that it was only through God's benevolence that the sack had not been too severe. Rome had lost its wealth, but Roman sovereignty endured, and that to talk to the survivors in Rome one would think "nothing had happened." Other Romans felt the sack was divine punishment for turning away from the traditional pagan gods to Christ. Zosimus, a Roman pagan historian, believed that Christianity, through its abandonment of the ancient traditional rites, had weakened the Empire's political virtues, and that the poor decisions of the Imperial government that led to the sack were due to the lack of the gods' care.
The religious and political attacks on Christianity spurred Saint Augustine to write a defense, The City of God, which went on to become foundational to Christian thought.
The sack was a culmination of many terminal problems facing the Western Roman Empire. Domestic rebellions and usurpations weakened the Empire in the face of external invasions. These factors would permanently harm the stability of the Roman Empire in the west. The Roman army meanwhile became increasingly barbarian and disloyal to the Empire.
Crossing of the Rhine, 31 December AD 406
31 December 406 is the date of the crossing of the Rhine by a mixed group of barbarians that included Vandals, Alans and Suebi. The Rhine-crossing transgressed one of the Late Roman Empire's most secure limites or boundaries, and so was a climactic moment in the decline of the Empire. It initiated a wave of destruction of Roman cities and the collapse of Roman civic order in northern Gaul. That, in turn, occasioned the rise of three usurpers in succession in the province of Britannia.
The initial gathering of barbarians on the east bank of a frozen (making the crossing easier ) Rhine were banding of refugees from the Huns and the remnants of Radagaisus' defeated Goths. The mixed band of Hasdingi Vandals and Alans fought a raiding party of Franks. The Vandal king Godigisel was killed, but the Alans came to the rescue of the Vandals, and once on the Roman side, they met with no organized resistance. Stilicho had depleted the garrisons in 402 to face Alaric in Italy.
The usurpation of Marcus in Britannia was a reaction to the presence of barbarians in Gaul in 406. The acclamation as Emperor of Marcus, the first of the Romano-Britannic usurpers, took place that same summer.
Cities now known as Mainz, Worms, Rheims, Amiens, Arras, Thérouanne, Tournai, Speyer and Strasbourg were pillaged.
31 December 406 is the date of the crossing of the Rhine by a mixed group of barbarians that included Vandals, Alans and Suebi. The Rhine-crossing transgressed one of the Late Roman Empire's most secure limites or boundaries, and so was a climactic moment in the decline of the Empire. It initiated a wave of destruction of Roman cities and the collapse of Roman civic order in northern Gaul. That, in turn, occasioned the rise of three usurpers in succession in the province of Britannia.
The initial gathering of barbarians on the east bank of a frozen (making the crossing easier ) Rhine were banding of refugees from the Huns and the remnants of Radagaisus' defeated Goths. The mixed band of Hasdingi Vandals and Alans fought a raiding party of Franks. The Vandal king Godigisel was killed, but the Alans came to the rescue of the Vandals, and once on the Roman side, they met with no organized resistance. Stilicho had depleted the garrisons in 402 to face Alaric in Italy.
The usurpation of Marcus in Britannia was a reaction to the presence of barbarians in Gaul in 406. The acclamation as Emperor of Marcus, the first of the Romano-Britannic usurpers, took place that same summer.
Cities now known as Mainz, Worms, Rheims, Amiens, Arras, Thérouanne, Tournai, Speyer and Strasbourg were pillaged.
Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, June 20 AD 451
The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields), also called the Battle of Châlons or the Battle of Maurica, took place in AD 451 between a coalition led by the Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I against the Huns and their allies commanded by their leader Attila. It was one of the last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire, although Germanic federates composed the majority of the allied Roman army. The battle was strategically inconclusive: the Romans stopped the Huns' attempt to establish vassals in Roman Gaul, and installed Merovech as king of the Franks. However, the Huns successfully looted and pillaged much of Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. The Huns were later destroyed by a coalition of their Germanic vassals at the Battle of Nedao in 454.
Prelude
By 450 AD Roman control of Gaul had been restored in much of the province, although control over all of the provinces beyond Italy was continuing to diminish. Armorica was only nominally part of the empire, and Germanic tribes occupying Roman territory had been forcibly settled and bound by treaty as Foederati under their own leaders. Northern Gaul between the Rhine north of Xanten and the Marne rivers (Germania Secunda) had unofficially been abandoned to the Salian Franks. The line of nominal Roman control ran from Cologne to Amiens and to the coast at Boulogne. The Visigoths on the River Garonne were growing restive. The Burgundians in Sapaudia were more submissive, but likewise awaiting an opening for revolt. The parts of Gaul still securely in Roman control were the Mediterranean coastline; a region including Aurelianum, the Seine and the Loire, as far north as Amiens; the middle and upper Rhine; and downstream along the Rhône River.
Attila was enticed by the Vandal king Gaiseric to wage war on the Visigoths. At the same time, Gaiseric would attempt to sow strife between the Visigoths and the Western Roman Empire .
Honoria, the sister of the emperor Valentinian III, had been betrothed to the former consul Herculanus the year before. In 450, she sent the eunuch Hyacinthus to the Hunnic king asking for Attila's help in escaping her confinement, with her ring as proof of the letter's legitimacy. Attila interpreted it as offering her hand in marriage, and he claimed half of the empire as a dowry. He demanded Honoria to be delivered along with the dowry. Valentinian rejected these demands, and Attila used it as an excuse to launch a destructive campaign through Gaul. Maybe Honoria was using Attila's status as honorary Magister Militum for political leverage.
In 449, the King of the Franks, Chlodio, died. Aetius had adopted the younger son of the Franks to secure the Rhine Frontier, and the elder son had fled to the court of Attila. Childeric was a vassal of Attila, and the two claimants to the Frankish throne were the founders of the Merovingian dynasty. Childeric was expelled by the Franks and forced to live in exile in Thuringia for eight years, which was a Hunnic vassal at the time. The Huns who helped Childeric fight the Romans and engineered his return from exile, the main objective of Attila at Chalons was conquest of the Franks and establishment of vassal states on the Rhine.
Attila crossed the Rhine early in 451 with his followers and a large number of allies, sacking Divodurum on April 7. Nicasius was slaughtered before the altar of his church in Rheims; Saint Servatius is alleged to have saved Tongeren with his prayers, as Genevieve is to have saved Paris. Lupus, bishop of Troyes, is also credited with saving his city by meeting Attila in person. Attila's widespread devastation of Gaul was explained because his main column crossed the Rhine at Worms or Mainz and then marched to Trier, Metz, Reims, and finally Orleans, while sending a small detachment north into Frankish territory to plunder the countryside.
Attila's army had reached Aurelianum before June. The Alan king Sangiban, whose Foederati realm included Aurelianum, had promised to open the city gates. However, the inhabitants of Aurelianum shut their gates against the advancing invaders. Attila began to besiege the city, while he waited for Sangiban to deliver on his promise. The siege of Aurelianum was the high point of Attila's attack on the West, and the staunch Alan defence of the city was the real decisive factor in the war of 451. Many Alans were never planning to defect as they were the loyal backbone of the Roman defence in Gaul.
Battle
Upon learning of the invasion, the Magister Utriusque Militiae Flavius Aetius moved his army quickly from Italy into Gaul. He was leading forth a force consisting of few and sparse auxiliaries without one regular soldier due to the fact the majority of Aetius' army was stationed in Gaul. He immediately attempted to convince Theodoric I, king of the Visigoths, to join him. Allegedly Theodoric learned how few troops Aetius had with him and decided it was wiser to wait to oppose the Huns in his own lands, so Aetius turned then to the former Praetorian Prefect of Gaul, Avitus, for help. Avitus was not only able to convince Theodoric to join with the Romans, but also a number of other wavering barbarian residents in Gaul. The coalition assembled at Arles before moving to meet the Goths at Toulouse, and that the army was supplied by Tonatius Ferreolus who had been preparing for a Hunnic attack for a few years prior. The combined armies then marched to Aurelianum, reaching that city on June 14.
The city was besieged when four days of heavy rain hampered the Hunnic assault. After the rain cleared, on June 14 they assaulted the city and managed to breach the walls, when word reached the Huns that Aetius' forces were in the immediate vicinity. Hughes suggests that it was at this point in the account that Attila called off the attack and began his retreat out of Gaul with the majority of his objectives completed. Aetius and his coalition began to pursue Attila. The two forces at last met somewhere on the Catalaunian Fields circa June 20. The night before the main battle, some of the Franks allied with the Romans encountered a band of the Gepids loyal to Attila and engaged them in a skirmish.
Attila had his diviners examine the entrails of a sacrifice the morning of the day of the battle. They foretold disaster would befall the Huns, but one of the enemy leaders would be killed. Attila delayed until the ninth hour (about 14:30) so the impending sunset would help his troops to flee the battlefield in case of defeat. Also, the choice to begin the battle at the ninth hour was due to the fact both sides spent the whole day carefully deploying their coalition armies.
The Catalaunian plain rose on one side by a sharp slope to a ridge; this geographical feature dominated the battlefield and became the center of the battle. The Huns first seized the right side of the ridge, while the Romans seized the left, with the crest unoccupied between them. Jordanes explains that the Visigoths held the right side, the Romans the left, with Sangiban of uncertain loyalty and his Alans surrounded in the middle. The Hunnic forces attempted to take the ridge, but were outstripped by the Romans under Aetius and the Gothic left flank under Thorismund. The Huns remained unable to take the ridge, but routed the Alans under Sangiban.
Theodoric, whilst leading his own men against the enemy Goths, was killed in the assault without his men noticing. Maybe Theodoric was either thrown from his horse and trampled to death by his advancing men, or slain by the spear of the Goth Andag.
The Visigoths outstripped the speed of the Alans beside them and fell upon Attila's own Hunnic household unit. Attila was forced to seek refuge in his own camp, which he had fortified with wagons. The Romano-Gothic charge apparently swept past the Hunnic camp in pursuit; when night fell, Thorismund, son of king Theodoric, returning to friendly lines, mistakenly entered Attila's encampment. There he was wounded in the ensuing melee before his followers could rescue him. Darkness also separated Aetius from his own men. As he feared that disaster had befallen them, he spent the rest of the night with his Gothic allies.
On the following day, finding the battlefield was "piled high with bodies and the Huns did not venture forth", the Goths and Romans met to decide their next move. Knowing that Attila was low on provisions and "was hindered from approaching by a shower of arrows placed within the confines of the Roman camp", they started to besiege his camp. In this desperate situation, Attila remained unbowed and "heaped up a funeral pyre of horse saddles, so that if the enemy should attack him, he was determined to cast himself into the flames, that none might have the joy of wounding him and that the lord of so many races might not fall into the hands of his foes".
While Attila was trapped in his camp, the Visigoths searched for their missing king and his son Thorismund. After a long search, they found Theodoric's corpse beneath a mound of corpses and bore him away with heroic songs in sight of the enemy. Upon learning of his father's death, Thorismund wanted to assault Attila's camp, but Aetius dissuaded him. Aetius feared that if the Huns were completely destroyed, the Visigoths would break off their allegiance to the Roman Empire and become an even graver threat. At this point Attila's "aura of invincibility" was broken, and that Aetius allowed the Huns to retreat in the hopes he could return to a status of partnership with them and draw on the Huns for future military support. So Aetius convinced Thorismund to quickly return home and secure the throne for himself, before his five brothers could. Otherwise, civil war would ensue among the Visigoths. Thorismund quickly returned to Tolosa and became king without any resistance. Aetius used the same reasoning to dismiss his Frankish allies, and collected the booty of the battlefield for himself.
The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields), also called the Battle of Châlons or the Battle of Maurica, took place in AD 451 between a coalition led by the Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I against the Huns and their allies commanded by their leader Attila. It was one of the last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire, although Germanic federates composed the majority of the allied Roman army. The battle was strategically inconclusive: the Romans stopped the Huns' attempt to establish vassals in Roman Gaul, and installed Merovech as king of the Franks. However, the Huns successfully looted and pillaged much of Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. The Huns were later destroyed by a coalition of their Germanic vassals at the Battle of Nedao in 454.
Prelude
By 450 AD Roman control of Gaul had been restored in much of the province, although control over all of the provinces beyond Italy was continuing to diminish. Armorica was only nominally part of the empire, and Germanic tribes occupying Roman territory had been forcibly settled and bound by treaty as Foederati under their own leaders. Northern Gaul between the Rhine north of Xanten and the Marne rivers (Germania Secunda) had unofficially been abandoned to the Salian Franks. The line of nominal Roman control ran from Cologne to Amiens and to the coast at Boulogne. The Visigoths on the River Garonne were growing restive. The Burgundians in Sapaudia were more submissive, but likewise awaiting an opening for revolt. The parts of Gaul still securely in Roman control were the Mediterranean coastline; a region including Aurelianum, the Seine and the Loire, as far north as Amiens; the middle and upper Rhine; and downstream along the Rhône River.
Attila was enticed by the Vandal king Gaiseric to wage war on the Visigoths. At the same time, Gaiseric would attempt to sow strife between the Visigoths and the Western Roman Empire .
Honoria, the sister of the emperor Valentinian III, had been betrothed to the former consul Herculanus the year before. In 450, she sent the eunuch Hyacinthus to the Hunnic king asking for Attila's help in escaping her confinement, with her ring as proof of the letter's legitimacy. Attila interpreted it as offering her hand in marriage, and he claimed half of the empire as a dowry. He demanded Honoria to be delivered along with the dowry. Valentinian rejected these demands, and Attila used it as an excuse to launch a destructive campaign through Gaul. Maybe Honoria was using Attila's status as honorary Magister Militum for political leverage.
In 449, the King of the Franks, Chlodio, died. Aetius had adopted the younger son of the Franks to secure the Rhine Frontier, and the elder son had fled to the court of Attila. Childeric was a vassal of Attila, and the two claimants to the Frankish throne were the founders of the Merovingian dynasty. Childeric was expelled by the Franks and forced to live in exile in Thuringia for eight years, which was a Hunnic vassal at the time. The Huns who helped Childeric fight the Romans and engineered his return from exile, the main objective of Attila at Chalons was conquest of the Franks and establishment of vassal states on the Rhine.
Attila crossed the Rhine early in 451 with his followers and a large number of allies, sacking Divodurum on April 7. Nicasius was slaughtered before the altar of his church in Rheims; Saint Servatius is alleged to have saved Tongeren with his prayers, as Genevieve is to have saved Paris. Lupus, bishop of Troyes, is also credited with saving his city by meeting Attila in person. Attila's widespread devastation of Gaul was explained because his main column crossed the Rhine at Worms or Mainz and then marched to Trier, Metz, Reims, and finally Orleans, while sending a small detachment north into Frankish territory to plunder the countryside.
Attila's army had reached Aurelianum before June. The Alan king Sangiban, whose Foederati realm included Aurelianum, had promised to open the city gates. However, the inhabitants of Aurelianum shut their gates against the advancing invaders. Attila began to besiege the city, while he waited for Sangiban to deliver on his promise. The siege of Aurelianum was the high point of Attila's attack on the West, and the staunch Alan defence of the city was the real decisive factor in the war of 451. Many Alans were never planning to defect as they were the loyal backbone of the Roman defence in Gaul.
Battle
Upon learning of the invasion, the Magister Utriusque Militiae Flavius Aetius moved his army quickly from Italy into Gaul. He was leading forth a force consisting of few and sparse auxiliaries without one regular soldier due to the fact the majority of Aetius' army was stationed in Gaul. He immediately attempted to convince Theodoric I, king of the Visigoths, to join him. Allegedly Theodoric learned how few troops Aetius had with him and decided it was wiser to wait to oppose the Huns in his own lands, so Aetius turned then to the former Praetorian Prefect of Gaul, Avitus, for help. Avitus was not only able to convince Theodoric to join with the Romans, but also a number of other wavering barbarian residents in Gaul. The coalition assembled at Arles before moving to meet the Goths at Toulouse, and that the army was supplied by Tonatius Ferreolus who had been preparing for a Hunnic attack for a few years prior. The combined armies then marched to Aurelianum, reaching that city on June 14.
The city was besieged when four days of heavy rain hampered the Hunnic assault. After the rain cleared, on June 14 they assaulted the city and managed to breach the walls, when word reached the Huns that Aetius' forces were in the immediate vicinity. Hughes suggests that it was at this point in the account that Attila called off the attack and began his retreat out of Gaul with the majority of his objectives completed. Aetius and his coalition began to pursue Attila. The two forces at last met somewhere on the Catalaunian Fields circa June 20. The night before the main battle, some of the Franks allied with the Romans encountered a band of the Gepids loyal to Attila and engaged them in a skirmish.
Attila had his diviners examine the entrails of a sacrifice the morning of the day of the battle. They foretold disaster would befall the Huns, but one of the enemy leaders would be killed. Attila delayed until the ninth hour (about 14:30) so the impending sunset would help his troops to flee the battlefield in case of defeat. Also, the choice to begin the battle at the ninth hour was due to the fact both sides spent the whole day carefully deploying their coalition armies.
The Catalaunian plain rose on one side by a sharp slope to a ridge; this geographical feature dominated the battlefield and became the center of the battle. The Huns first seized the right side of the ridge, while the Romans seized the left, with the crest unoccupied between them. Jordanes explains that the Visigoths held the right side, the Romans the left, with Sangiban of uncertain loyalty and his Alans surrounded in the middle. The Hunnic forces attempted to take the ridge, but were outstripped by the Romans under Aetius and the Gothic left flank under Thorismund. The Huns remained unable to take the ridge, but routed the Alans under Sangiban.
Theodoric, whilst leading his own men against the enemy Goths, was killed in the assault without his men noticing. Maybe Theodoric was either thrown from his horse and trampled to death by his advancing men, or slain by the spear of the Goth Andag.
The Visigoths outstripped the speed of the Alans beside them and fell upon Attila's own Hunnic household unit. Attila was forced to seek refuge in his own camp, which he had fortified with wagons. The Romano-Gothic charge apparently swept past the Hunnic camp in pursuit; when night fell, Thorismund, son of king Theodoric, returning to friendly lines, mistakenly entered Attila's encampment. There he was wounded in the ensuing melee before his followers could rescue him. Darkness also separated Aetius from his own men. As he feared that disaster had befallen them, he spent the rest of the night with his Gothic allies.
On the following day, finding the battlefield was "piled high with bodies and the Huns did not venture forth", the Goths and Romans met to decide their next move. Knowing that Attila was low on provisions and "was hindered from approaching by a shower of arrows placed within the confines of the Roman camp", they started to besiege his camp. In this desperate situation, Attila remained unbowed and "heaped up a funeral pyre of horse saddles, so that if the enemy should attack him, he was determined to cast himself into the flames, that none might have the joy of wounding him and that the lord of so many races might not fall into the hands of his foes".
While Attila was trapped in his camp, the Visigoths searched for their missing king and his son Thorismund. After a long search, they found Theodoric's corpse beneath a mound of corpses and bore him away with heroic songs in sight of the enemy. Upon learning of his father's death, Thorismund wanted to assault Attila's camp, but Aetius dissuaded him. Aetius feared that if the Huns were completely destroyed, the Visigoths would break off their allegiance to the Roman Empire and become an even graver threat. At this point Attila's "aura of invincibility" was broken, and that Aetius allowed the Huns to retreat in the hopes he could return to a status of partnership with them and draw on the Huns for future military support. So Aetius convinced Thorismund to quickly return home and secure the throne for himself, before his five brothers could. Otherwise, civil war would ensue among the Visigoths. Thorismund quickly returned to Tolosa and became king without any resistance. Aetius used the same reasoning to dismiss his Frankish allies, and collected the booty of the battlefield for himself.
Outcome of the Battle
The battle was either inconclusive or a Roman victory, even aa defeat for Aetius and his coalition. The Huns deploy in the center, with their vassals on the wings, because they were expecting a Roman infantry center, with cavalry wings. This way Attila could pin down the center with the disorganized Hunnic style of warfare, while the majority of his troops focused on breaking one or both of the enemy flanks. However, the Romans were expecting this, which is why he placed the Alans in the center of the formation, who were skilled cavalrymen and had advanced knowledge of how to fight alongside the Roman style of warfare.
Attila's forces arrived on the ridge first, on the far right side, before the Visigoths could take that position. Then Aetius' Romans arrived on the left side of the ridge, and repulsed the Gepids as they came up. Finally the Alans and the Visigoths under Thorismund fought their way up and secured the center of the ridge, holding it against the Goths.
The final phase of the battle is characterized by the Gothic attempt to take the right side of the ridge, in which Theodoric is slain, the rest of his army unaware of his death. It is at this point that Thorismund located Attila's position in the Hunnic battle line, and attacked the Hunnic center, nearly slaying Attila himself and forcing the Hunnic center to retreat. At this point both armies fell into confusion as darkness descended, and neither side knew the outcome of the battle until the following morning.
Forces
Both armies consisted of combatants from many peoples. Besides the Roman troops Aetius' allies as including (besides the Visigoths) the Francii, Riparii, Sauromationes, Aremoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundians, Saxones, and Olibrones (whom he describes as "once Roman soldiers and now the flower of the allied forces"), and "other Celtic or German tribes." The British Litaui also joined Aetius in the battle, being called Liticiani. The Rhine Limitanei and the old British field army composed that of the Armoricans. The Visigoths may have been able to field about 25,000 men total. Alamanni may have participated in the battle, possibly on both sides like the Franks and Burgundians.
Attila's allies includes the Gepids under their king Ardaric, as well as an army of various Gothic groups led by the brothers Valamir, Theodemir (the father of the later Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great) and Widimer, scions of the Amali Goths, Rugians, Gepids, , Burgundians, Sciri, Thuringians, , and Franks living along the Neckar River.
Huns continued use of the Xiongnu decimal system, meaning their army was organized into divisions of 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000. The total Hunnic forces could have been in excess of 48,000 men.
The federates would have been far greater in number, possibly totaling between 20,000 and 50,000 men, while the Roman forces in Gaul had become much smaller by this time. If we accept this number as the total of all of the forces fighting with Theodoric and Aetius, one should not be too far off. The number involved in battle could be around 100,000 combatants in total (This excludes the inevitable servants and camp followers).
Aftermath and reputation of the battle
"Cadavera vero innumera," the Romans said afterwards: "Truly countless bodies."
Attila's retreat across the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved in the name of the Western Roman Empire. After he secured the Rhine, Attila moved into central Gaul and put Orleans under siege. Had he gained his objective, he would have been in a strong position to subdue the Visigoths in Aquitaine, but Aetius had put together a formidable coalition against the Hun. Working frenetically, the Roman leader had built a powerful alliance of Visigoths, Alans and Burgundians, uniting them with their traditional enemy, the Romans, for the defense of Gaul. Even though all parties to the protection of the Western Roman Empire had a common hatred of the Huns, it was still a remarkable achievement on Aetius' part to have drawn them into an effective military relationship.
The following year, Attila renewed his claims to Honoria and territory in the Western Roman Empire. Leading his troops across the Alps and into Northern Italy, he conquered the cities of Aquileia, Vicetia, Verona, Brixia, Bergomum and Milan. Finally, at the very gates of Rome, he turned his army back only after negotiating with the pope.
Another reason the ferocity of this campaign left a deep impression upon its contemporaries is that not only did Attila savage much of Europe in a manner unrepeated for centuries, but the battle acquired a reputation for carnage almost immediately. "suppose a real and effective loss, sufficient to justify the historian's remark that whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings in a single hour".
A further reason for the reputation of this battle is that it was the first major battle since the death of Constantine I where a predominantly Christian force faced a predominantly pagan opponent.
The battle was either inconclusive or a Roman victory, even aa defeat for Aetius and his coalition. The Huns deploy in the center, with their vassals on the wings, because they were expecting a Roman infantry center, with cavalry wings. This way Attila could pin down the center with the disorganized Hunnic style of warfare, while the majority of his troops focused on breaking one or both of the enemy flanks. However, the Romans were expecting this, which is why he placed the Alans in the center of the formation, who were skilled cavalrymen and had advanced knowledge of how to fight alongside the Roman style of warfare.
Attila's forces arrived on the ridge first, on the far right side, before the Visigoths could take that position. Then Aetius' Romans arrived on the left side of the ridge, and repulsed the Gepids as they came up. Finally the Alans and the Visigoths under Thorismund fought their way up and secured the center of the ridge, holding it against the Goths.
The final phase of the battle is characterized by the Gothic attempt to take the right side of the ridge, in which Theodoric is slain, the rest of his army unaware of his death. It is at this point that Thorismund located Attila's position in the Hunnic battle line, and attacked the Hunnic center, nearly slaying Attila himself and forcing the Hunnic center to retreat. At this point both armies fell into confusion as darkness descended, and neither side knew the outcome of the battle until the following morning.
Forces
Both armies consisted of combatants from many peoples. Besides the Roman troops Aetius' allies as including (besides the Visigoths) the Francii, Riparii, Sauromationes, Aremoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundians, Saxones, and Olibrones (whom he describes as "once Roman soldiers and now the flower of the allied forces"), and "other Celtic or German tribes." The British Litaui also joined Aetius in the battle, being called Liticiani. The Rhine Limitanei and the old British field army composed that of the Armoricans. The Visigoths may have been able to field about 25,000 men total. Alamanni may have participated in the battle, possibly on both sides like the Franks and Burgundians.
Attila's allies includes the Gepids under their king Ardaric, as well as an army of various Gothic groups led by the brothers Valamir, Theodemir (the father of the later Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great) and Widimer, scions of the Amali Goths, Rugians, Gepids, , Burgundians, Sciri, Thuringians, , and Franks living along the Neckar River.
Huns continued use of the Xiongnu decimal system, meaning their army was organized into divisions of 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000. The total Hunnic forces could have been in excess of 48,000 men.
The federates would have been far greater in number, possibly totaling between 20,000 and 50,000 men, while the Roman forces in Gaul had become much smaller by this time. If we accept this number as the total of all of the forces fighting with Theodoric and Aetius, one should not be too far off. The number involved in battle could be around 100,000 combatants in total (This excludes the inevitable servants and camp followers).
Aftermath and reputation of the battle
"Cadavera vero innumera," the Romans said afterwards: "Truly countless bodies."
Attila's retreat across the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved in the name of the Western Roman Empire. After he secured the Rhine, Attila moved into central Gaul and put Orleans under siege. Had he gained his objective, he would have been in a strong position to subdue the Visigoths in Aquitaine, but Aetius had put together a formidable coalition against the Hun. Working frenetically, the Roman leader had built a powerful alliance of Visigoths, Alans and Burgundians, uniting them with their traditional enemy, the Romans, for the defense of Gaul. Even though all parties to the protection of the Western Roman Empire had a common hatred of the Huns, it was still a remarkable achievement on Aetius' part to have drawn them into an effective military relationship.
The following year, Attila renewed his claims to Honoria and territory in the Western Roman Empire. Leading his troops across the Alps and into Northern Italy, he conquered the cities of Aquileia, Vicetia, Verona, Brixia, Bergomum and Milan. Finally, at the very gates of Rome, he turned his army back only after negotiating with the pope.
Another reason the ferocity of this campaign left a deep impression upon its contemporaries is that not only did Attila savage much of Europe in a manner unrepeated for centuries, but the battle acquired a reputation for carnage almost immediately. "suppose a real and effective loss, sufficient to justify the historian's remark that whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings in a single hour".
A further reason for the reputation of this battle is that it was the first major battle since the death of Constantine I where a predominantly Christian force faced a predominantly pagan opponent.
Battle of Nedao, AD 454
The Battle of Nedao, was a battle fought in Pannonia in 454, between Huns and their former vassals. Nedao is a tributary of Sava river.
After the death of Attila the Hun, allied forces of the subject peoples under the leadership of Ardaric, king of the Gepids, defeated the Hunnic forces of Ellac, the son of Attila, who had struggled with his brothers Ernak and Dengizich for supremacy after Attila's death. Ellac himself was killed in the battle.
Hunnic dominance in Central and Eastern Europe was broken as a result of the battle. By early 460's the Hunnic Empire was finally dissolved with Gepids, Rugi, Heruli, Suebi and Ostrogoths achieving independence and eventually becoming federates of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Huns, reorganized under Dengizish, moved to the east where they attacked the Eastern Roman Empire and were decisively defeated in 469. After that point, Huns cease to exist in the European history.
The Battle of Nedao, was a battle fought in Pannonia in 454, between Huns and their former vassals. Nedao is a tributary of Sava river.
After the death of Attila the Hun, allied forces of the subject peoples under the leadership of Ardaric, king of the Gepids, defeated the Hunnic forces of Ellac, the son of Attila, who had struggled with his brothers Ernak and Dengizich for supremacy after Attila's death. Ellac himself was killed in the battle.
Hunnic dominance in Central and Eastern Europe was broken as a result of the battle. By early 460's the Hunnic Empire was finally dissolved with Gepids, Rugi, Heruli, Suebi and Ostrogoths achieving independence and eventually becoming federates of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Huns, reorganized under Dengizish, moved to the east where they attacked the Eastern Roman Empire and were decisively defeated in 469. After that point, Huns cease to exist in the European history.
Sack of Rome, AD 455
The sack of 455 was the second of three sacks of Rome; it was conducted by the Vandals, who were then at war with the usurping Western Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus.
In the 440s, the Vandal king Genseric and the Roman Emperor Valentinian III, had betrothed their children, Huneric and Eudocia, to strengthen their alliance, reached in 442 with a peace treaty (the marriage was delayed as Eudocia was too young). In 455 Valentinian was killed, and Petronius Maximus rose to the throne. Petronius married Valentinian's widow, Licinia Eudoxia, and had his son Palladius marry Eudocia; in this way Petronius was to strengthen his bond with the Theodosian dynasty. This move, however, damaged Genseric's ambitions. The king of the Vandals claimed that the broken betrothal between Huneric and Eudocia was an invalidation of his peace treaty with Valentinian, and set sail to attack Rome.
Upon the Vandal arrival Pope Leo I requested that Genseric not destroy the ancient city nor murder its inhabitants. Genseric agreed and the gates of Rome were thrown open to him and his men. Maximus, who fled rather than fight the Vandal warlord, was killed by a Roman mob outside the city, possibly together with his son Palladius.
Before attacking the city Genseric knocked down all the aqueducts leading into Rome and looted great amounts of treasure from the city, damaging objects of cultural significance such as the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus by stripping away the gilt bronze roof tiles (hence the modern term vandalism), and also took Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters hostage. Eudocia later married Huneric. The sack of 455 was more thorough than the Visigothic sack of 410, because the Vandals plundered Rome for fourteen days whereas the Visigoths spent only three days in the city.
However, the sack was relatively "clean", in that there was little murder and violence, and the Vandals did not burn the buildings of the city. However, many shiploads of captives arrived in Africa from Rome, with the purpose of being sold into slavery.
This battle effectively ended the Western Roman Empire even though it continued until 476.
The sack of 455 was the second of three sacks of Rome; it was conducted by the Vandals, who were then at war with the usurping Western Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus.
In the 440s, the Vandal king Genseric and the Roman Emperor Valentinian III, had betrothed their children, Huneric and Eudocia, to strengthen their alliance, reached in 442 with a peace treaty (the marriage was delayed as Eudocia was too young). In 455 Valentinian was killed, and Petronius Maximus rose to the throne. Petronius married Valentinian's widow, Licinia Eudoxia, and had his son Palladius marry Eudocia; in this way Petronius was to strengthen his bond with the Theodosian dynasty. This move, however, damaged Genseric's ambitions. The king of the Vandals claimed that the broken betrothal between Huneric and Eudocia was an invalidation of his peace treaty with Valentinian, and set sail to attack Rome.
Upon the Vandal arrival Pope Leo I requested that Genseric not destroy the ancient city nor murder its inhabitants. Genseric agreed and the gates of Rome were thrown open to him and his men. Maximus, who fled rather than fight the Vandal warlord, was killed by a Roman mob outside the city, possibly together with his son Palladius.
Before attacking the city Genseric knocked down all the aqueducts leading into Rome and looted great amounts of treasure from the city, damaging objects of cultural significance such as the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus by stripping away the gilt bronze roof tiles (hence the modern term vandalism), and also took Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters hostage. Eudocia later married Huneric. The sack of 455 was more thorough than the Visigothic sack of 410, because the Vandals plundered Rome for fourteen days whereas the Visigoths spent only three days in the city.
However, the sack was relatively "clean", in that there was little murder and violence, and the Vandals did not burn the buildings of the city. However, many shiploads of captives arrived in Africa from Rome, with the purpose of being sold into slavery.
This battle effectively ended the Western Roman Empire even though it continued until 476.
Wars of Majorian, AD 458-461
Battle of Arelate
The Battle of Arelate was fought in late 458 near Arelate (Arles) between Western Roman Emperor Majorian and Visigothic king Theodoric II. After the assassination of Flavius Aetius in 454, the Visigoths began to expand their kingdom at the expense of the crumbling Roman administration in Gaul and Hispania. When Majorian became emperor in 457, the Visigoths under king Theodoric II had just recently defeated the Suebic Kingdom in north-west Hispania and were consolidating their hold on the rest of the peninsula.
Majorian, a young, capable general in his late thirties, inherited a collapsing empire consisting of only Italy, Dalmatia, and some fractured territories in northern Gaul. He decided the first step towards consolidating the empire would be to confront the Visigoths in Septimania. Traveling with his generals Aegidius and Nepotianus, Majorian encountered the Visigothic king and his army at Arelate, at the mouth of the Rhodanus river (Rhone). The ensuing battle was an overwhelming Gothic defeat. Theodoric II was forced to flee Arelate, abandon Septimania, and conclude a hasty peace treaty. The treaty returned all Visigothic territory in Hispania to the Romans, and the Visigoths were reduced to federate status.
The battle allowed Majorian to campaign deeper in Gaul against the Burgundian Kingdom, and later in Hispania against the Suebic Kingdom.
Battle of Arelate
The Battle of Arelate was fought in late 458 near Arelate (Arles) between Western Roman Emperor Majorian and Visigothic king Theodoric II. After the assassination of Flavius Aetius in 454, the Visigoths began to expand their kingdom at the expense of the crumbling Roman administration in Gaul and Hispania. When Majorian became emperor in 457, the Visigoths under king Theodoric II had just recently defeated the Suebic Kingdom in north-west Hispania and were consolidating their hold on the rest of the peninsula.
Majorian, a young, capable general in his late thirties, inherited a collapsing empire consisting of only Italy, Dalmatia, and some fractured territories in northern Gaul. He decided the first step towards consolidating the empire would be to confront the Visigoths in Septimania. Traveling with his generals Aegidius and Nepotianus, Majorian encountered the Visigothic king and his army at Arelate, at the mouth of the Rhodanus river (Rhone). The ensuing battle was an overwhelming Gothic defeat. Theodoric II was forced to flee Arelate, abandon Septimania, and conclude a hasty peace treaty. The treaty returned all Visigothic territory in Hispania to the Romans, and the Visigoths were reduced to federate status.
The battle allowed Majorian to campaign deeper in Gaul against the Burgundian Kingdom, and later in Hispania against the Suebic Kingdom.
Battle of Cartagena
The Battle of Cartagena occurred on May 13, 461, and was part of the Wars of Majorian.
Majorian began to assemble a fleet at Cartagena, Spain, with which he intended to invade the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa.
By spring 461, Majorian had 40 ships already built and he would have had another five ready by the autumn. The Vandals decided to strike before the Roman navy became unbeatable. On May 13, a fleet of 17 Vandal ships surprised the Roman fleet. Many of the Roman captains had been bribed to switch sides. The Roman navy was totally destroyed, ending any hope of reconquering North Africa.
The Battle of Cartagena occurred on May 13, 461, and was part of the Wars of Majorian.
Majorian began to assemble a fleet at Cartagena, Spain, with which he intended to invade the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa.
By spring 461, Majorian had 40 ships already built and he would have had another five ready by the autumn. The Vandals decided to strike before the Roman navy became unbeatable. On May 13, a fleet of 17 Vandal ships surprised the Roman fleet. Many of the Roman captains had been bribed to switch sides. The Roman navy was totally destroyed, ending any hope of reconquering North Africa.
Battle of Orleans, AD 463
The Battle of Orléans took place in the year 463 pitting the forces of the Western Roman Empire, under the command of the magister militum Aegidius, against those of the Visigoths who were commanded by the Visigoth King Theodoric II and his brother Federico.
Aegidius, who had proclaimed the secession of the northern part of Gaul in 461 after the assassination of Emperor Majorian by Ricimer, a magister militum of Germanic origin who wanted greater control over the Western Empire. Ricimer installed what he hoped would be a more easily controllable emperor, Flavius Libius Severus Serpentius, a move that backfired as he was not recognized by a few of the provinces or by the eastern half of the empire.
Aegidius, having been stripped of his title by Ricimer, threatened to attack the Italian Peninsula with his considerable army. The Visigoths, sensing an opportunity to extend the frontier of their northern kingdom past the Loire River which was the contemporary boundary of their empire, and having been encouraged by Ricimer to attack the northern Gallo-Romans to deflect their attention away from Italy, mobilized their army for an attack and Aegidius countered them with his own forces. The two armies met at Orléans in 463. The conflict ended in a costly defeat and rout of the Visigothic army and the death of their commander, Federico, the brother of Theodoric II.
This defeat halted for some time the ambitions of the Visigoths with respect to this northern region of Gaul. This was fortunate for Aegidius and the Roman rump state as they were also being constantly harassed by the Saxons under Odoacer. This Visigoth timidity ended with the Roman provocation at Battle of Déols where a Romano-British invasion army under Riothamus was defeated by the Visigoths from 470-71.
The Battle of Orléans took place in the year 463 pitting the forces of the Western Roman Empire, under the command of the magister militum Aegidius, against those of the Visigoths who were commanded by the Visigoth King Theodoric II and his brother Federico.
Aegidius, who had proclaimed the secession of the northern part of Gaul in 461 after the assassination of Emperor Majorian by Ricimer, a magister militum of Germanic origin who wanted greater control over the Western Empire. Ricimer installed what he hoped would be a more easily controllable emperor, Flavius Libius Severus Serpentius, a move that backfired as he was not recognized by a few of the provinces or by the eastern half of the empire.
Aegidius, having been stripped of his title by Ricimer, threatened to attack the Italian Peninsula with his considerable army. The Visigoths, sensing an opportunity to extend the frontier of their northern kingdom past the Loire River which was the contemporary boundary of their empire, and having been encouraged by Ricimer to attack the northern Gallo-Romans to deflect their attention away from Italy, mobilized their army for an attack and Aegidius countered them with his own forces. The two armies met at Orléans in 463. The conflict ended in a costly defeat and rout of the Visigothic army and the death of their commander, Federico, the brother of Theodoric II.
This defeat halted for some time the ambitions of the Visigoths with respect to this northern region of Gaul. This was fortunate for Aegidius and the Roman rump state as they were also being constantly harassed by the Saxons under Odoacer. This Visigoth timidity ended with the Roman provocation at Battle of Déols where a Romano-British invasion army under Riothamus was defeated by the Visigoths from 470-71.
Battle of Déols, AD 469
The Battle of Déols was a battle c. 469 when the Visigoths thwarted an attack by an alliance of Bretons or Britons of the Romano-British Riothamus and Romans.
The Battle of Déols was a battle c. 469 when the Visigoths thwarted an attack by an alliance of Bretons or Britons of the Romano-British Riothamus and Romans.
Roman-Vandal Kingdom War, AD 468
The Battle of Cap Bon was an engagement during a joint military expedition of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires led by Basiliscus against the Vandal capital of Carthage in 468. The invasion of the kingdom of the Vandals was one of the greatest military undertakings recorded in the annals of history, a combined amphibious operation with over ten thousand ships and one hundred thousand soldiers. The purpose of the operation was to punish the Vandal king Gaiseric for the sacking of Rome in 455, in which the former capital of the Western Roman Empire had been overwhelmed, and the Empress Licinia Eudoxia (widow of Emperor Valentinian III) and her daughters had been taken as hostages.
Background
The plan was concerted between Eastern Emperor Leo, Western Emperor Anthemius, and General Marcellinus, who enjoyed independence in Illyricum. Basiliscus was ordered to sail directly to Carthage, while Marcellinus attacked and took Sardinia, and a third army, commanded by Heraclius of Edessa, landed on the Libyan coast east of Carthage, making rapid progress. The combined forces met in Sicily, whence the three fleets moved at different periods.
Basiliscus, brother-in-law to Emperor Leo, had been selected as general by the emperor in hope he would balance the growing influence of the Alan Magister militum Aspar who sought to control Leo; however, Basiliscus sought the friendship of Aspar to further his own designs on the throne, and Aspar repeatedly urged upon Basiliscus that he should spare the Vandals and Genseric.
The number of ships and troops commanded by Basiliscus, as well as for the expenses of the expedition, were enormous sums. 113 ships were assembled, and the figures for the money spent on this expedition were 64,000 pounds of gold and 700,000 pounds of silver.
Battle
Sardinia and Libya were already conquered by Marcellinus and Heraclius, when Basiliscus cast anchor off the Promontorium Mercurii, now Cap Bon, opposite Sicily, about forty miles from Carthage. Gaiseric asked Basiliscus to allow him five days to draw up conditions for a peace. During the negotiations, Gaiseric gathered his ships and suddenly attacked the Roman fleet. The Vandals had filled many vessels with combustible materials. During the night, these fire ships were propelled against the unguarded and unsuspecting Roman fleet. The Byzantine commanders tried to rescue some ships from destruction, but these manoeuvres were blocked by the attack of other Vandal vessels. Basiliscus fled in the heat of the battle.
One act of heroism stands forth from this naval defeat. Despite the situation, Basiliscus' lieutenant, Joannes, bravely fought the Vandal onslaught, standing on the deck and turning from side to side kept killing very great numbers of the enemy. Upon seeing that his ship was about to be captured, he refused to surrender to Genso, the son of Gaiseric, instead leaped overboard in heavy armor and drowned himself. His last words were that he "would never come under the hands of dogs".
Aftermath
One half of the Roman fleet was burned, sunk, or captured, and the other half followed the fugitive Basiliscus. The whole expedition had failed. Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert into Tripolitania, holding the position for two years until recalled; Marcellinus retired to Sicily, where he was reached by Basiliscus; the general was, however, assassinated, at the instigation of Ricimer, by one of his own captains; and the king of the Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction, that the Romans themselves would remove from the world his most formidable antagonists.
After returning to Constantinople, Basiliscus hid in the church of Hagia Sophia to escape the wrath of the people and the revenge of the Emperor. By the mediation of Verina, Basiliscus obtained the Imperial pardon, and was punished merely with banishment to Heraclea Sintica, in Thrace.
The Battle of Cap Bon was an engagement during a joint military expedition of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires led by Basiliscus against the Vandal capital of Carthage in 468. The invasion of the kingdom of the Vandals was one of the greatest military undertakings recorded in the annals of history, a combined amphibious operation with over ten thousand ships and one hundred thousand soldiers. The purpose of the operation was to punish the Vandal king Gaiseric for the sacking of Rome in 455, in which the former capital of the Western Roman Empire had been overwhelmed, and the Empress Licinia Eudoxia (widow of Emperor Valentinian III) and her daughters had been taken as hostages.
Background
The plan was concerted between Eastern Emperor Leo, Western Emperor Anthemius, and General Marcellinus, who enjoyed independence in Illyricum. Basiliscus was ordered to sail directly to Carthage, while Marcellinus attacked and took Sardinia, and a third army, commanded by Heraclius of Edessa, landed on the Libyan coast east of Carthage, making rapid progress. The combined forces met in Sicily, whence the three fleets moved at different periods.
Basiliscus, brother-in-law to Emperor Leo, had been selected as general by the emperor in hope he would balance the growing influence of the Alan Magister militum Aspar who sought to control Leo; however, Basiliscus sought the friendship of Aspar to further his own designs on the throne, and Aspar repeatedly urged upon Basiliscus that he should spare the Vandals and Genseric.
The number of ships and troops commanded by Basiliscus, as well as for the expenses of the expedition, were enormous sums. 113 ships were assembled, and the figures for the money spent on this expedition were 64,000 pounds of gold and 700,000 pounds of silver.
Battle
Sardinia and Libya were already conquered by Marcellinus and Heraclius, when Basiliscus cast anchor off the Promontorium Mercurii, now Cap Bon, opposite Sicily, about forty miles from Carthage. Gaiseric asked Basiliscus to allow him five days to draw up conditions for a peace. During the negotiations, Gaiseric gathered his ships and suddenly attacked the Roman fleet. The Vandals had filled many vessels with combustible materials. During the night, these fire ships were propelled against the unguarded and unsuspecting Roman fleet. The Byzantine commanders tried to rescue some ships from destruction, but these manoeuvres were blocked by the attack of other Vandal vessels. Basiliscus fled in the heat of the battle.
One act of heroism stands forth from this naval defeat. Despite the situation, Basiliscus' lieutenant, Joannes, bravely fought the Vandal onslaught, standing on the deck and turning from side to side kept killing very great numbers of the enemy. Upon seeing that his ship was about to be captured, he refused to surrender to Genso, the son of Gaiseric, instead leaped overboard in heavy armor and drowned himself. His last words were that he "would never come under the hands of dogs".
Aftermath
One half of the Roman fleet was burned, sunk, or captured, and the other half followed the fugitive Basiliscus. The whole expedition had failed. Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert into Tripolitania, holding the position for two years until recalled; Marcellinus retired to Sicily, where he was reached by Basiliscus; the general was, however, assassinated, at the instigation of Ricimer, by one of his own captains; and the king of the Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction, that the Romans themselves would remove from the world his most formidable antagonists.
After returning to Constantinople, Basiliscus hid in the church of Hagia Sophia to escape the wrath of the people and the revenge of the Emperor. By the mediation of Verina, Basiliscus obtained the Imperial pardon, and was punished merely with banishment to Heraclea Sintica, in Thrace.
Heruli Revolt (End of Western Roman Empire), AD 476
The Battle of Ravenna took place on the 2 September 476 and was a minor confrontation between the Heruli under their King Odoacer and the remnants of the Western Roman Army in Italy. The Roman Empire had been in relative decline until 455 when the Vandals sacked Rome effectively destroying the empire. By 476 the Roman Empire was little more than a name having very little de facto control of any territory outside Italy. The Roman emperor at the time wasn't even recognized as a legitimate ruler outside of Italy.
Herulians were foederati of the Western Roman Empire; they were mercenary troops of the Roman Army of Italy. They envied the fortune of their brethren in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they insisted that a third part of the lands of Italy should be immediately divided among them. Orestes, the father of the last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, rejected their demand causing their revolt. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy the confederates flocked to the standard of Odoacer, their leader; and Orestes retreated to Pavia. Pavia was pillaged and Orestes was executed.
The decisive battle was fought near Ravenna, the capital of the Western Roman Empire: the Foederati defeat the undersized Roman garrison. The city was captured swiftly and easily. Two days later the sixteen year old Emperor Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate by Odoacer ending twelve-hundred years of Roman rule in Italy beginning with the Roman Kingdom in 753 BC. Romulus was sent into retirement in Campania.
The Battle of Ravenna took place on the 2 September 476 and was a minor confrontation between the Heruli under their King Odoacer and the remnants of the Western Roman Army in Italy. The Roman Empire had been in relative decline until 455 when the Vandals sacked Rome effectively destroying the empire. By 476 the Roman Empire was little more than a name having very little de facto control of any territory outside Italy. The Roman emperor at the time wasn't even recognized as a legitimate ruler outside of Italy.
Herulians were foederati of the Western Roman Empire; they were mercenary troops of the Roman Army of Italy. They envied the fortune of their brethren in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they insisted that a third part of the lands of Italy should be immediately divided among them. Orestes, the father of the last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, rejected their demand causing their revolt. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy the confederates flocked to the standard of Odoacer, their leader; and Orestes retreated to Pavia. Pavia was pillaged and Orestes was executed.
The decisive battle was fought near Ravenna, the capital of the Western Roman Empire: the Foederati defeat the undersized Roman garrison. The city was captured swiftly and easily. Two days later the sixteen year old Emperor Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate by Odoacer ending twelve-hundred years of Roman rule in Italy beginning with the Roman Kingdom in 753 BC. Romulus was sent into retirement in Campania.
Kingdom of Soissons Conquest, AD 486
The Battle of Soissons was fought in 486 between Frankish forces under Clovis I and the Gallo-Roman domain of Soissons under Syagrius. The battle was a victory for the Franks, and led to the conquest of the Roman rump state of Soissons, a milestone for the Franks in their attempt to establish themselves as a major regional power.
In the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire between 476 and 480, Syagrius was the only remaining representative of Roman rule in the area between the Loire and the Somme. Syagrius was the son of Aegidius, the last Roman magister militum per Gallias; he preserved his father's rump state, the Domain of Soissons, between the Somme and the Loire, calling himself dux.
The central location of Soissons in northern Gaul and its largely intact infrastructure allowed a level of stability in the years of the Migration Period, but also made the area tempting for their Frankish neighbours to the north-east. The realm of Syagrius was of almost the same size as the Frankish area, though the Franks were divided into small kingdoms, and, on the right bank of the Rhine, little touched by Roman culture.
Nevertheless, Clovis I managed to assemble enough Franks to confront Syagrius's forces. Clovis issued a challenge to Syagrius naming the time and place of the battle. Chararic had brought his forces to the battlefield but then stood aloof, hoping to ally with the winner.
The ensuing battle was a decisive victory for Clovis and his Franks. Syagrius fled to the Visigoths (under Alaric II), but Clovis threatened war and the Visigoths handed Syagrius over for execution.
Consequently the realm of the Franks almost doubled in size; its border was now on the Loire adjacent to the realm of the Visigoths, who were finally routed at the Battle of Vouillé in 507 and forced to retreat south of the Pyrenées.
In due course Clovis marched against Chararic, captured him and his sons, and forced them to accept ordination and tonsures as deacons. On report of their hope to regain power, he had them executed.
The Battle of Soissons was fought in 486 between Frankish forces under Clovis I and the Gallo-Roman domain of Soissons under Syagrius. The battle was a victory for the Franks, and led to the conquest of the Roman rump state of Soissons, a milestone for the Franks in their attempt to establish themselves as a major regional power.
In the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire between 476 and 480, Syagrius was the only remaining representative of Roman rule in the area between the Loire and the Somme. Syagrius was the son of Aegidius, the last Roman magister militum per Gallias; he preserved his father's rump state, the Domain of Soissons, between the Somme and the Loire, calling himself dux.
The central location of Soissons in northern Gaul and its largely intact infrastructure allowed a level of stability in the years of the Migration Period, but also made the area tempting for their Frankish neighbours to the north-east. The realm of Syagrius was of almost the same size as the Frankish area, though the Franks were divided into small kingdoms, and, on the right bank of the Rhine, little touched by Roman culture.
Nevertheless, Clovis I managed to assemble enough Franks to confront Syagrius's forces. Clovis issued a challenge to Syagrius naming the time and place of the battle. Chararic had brought his forces to the battlefield but then stood aloof, hoping to ally with the winner.
The ensuing battle was a decisive victory for Clovis and his Franks. Syagrius fled to the Visigoths (under Alaric II), but Clovis threatened war and the Visigoths handed Syagrius over for execution.
Consequently the realm of the Franks almost doubled in size; its border was now on the Loire adjacent to the realm of the Visigoths, who were finally routed at the Battle of Vouillé in 507 and forced to retreat south of the Pyrenées.
In due course Clovis marched against Chararic, captured him and his sons, and forced them to accept ordination and tonsures as deacons. On report of their hope to regain power, he had them executed.