On 9 August 378 CE, the Battle of Adrianople was fought between the Romans under Valens and the Goths under Fritigern during the Second Gothic War.
Why did it happen?
In 373 CE, the Huns, known to the Chinese as the Xiongnu, emerged from the steppes of Eurasia to attack the Ostrogoths who lived in Ukraine. Despite being fierce warriors, the Ostrogoths were routed by the Huns and fled westward, driving their cousins, the Visigoths, before them. In 376 CE, the Visigoths received permission from the East Roman emperor Valens to settle within the Roman Empire. Although a similar request from the Ostrogoths was denied, the Ostrogoths crossed into the empire regardless. Numbering two million people in total, the Goths were treated poorly by Roman officials, who sold them dead dogs as food at inflated prices and raped their women. In response, the Goths turned to pillaging the surrounding countryside and attempted unsuccessfully to besiege Adrianople in Thrace. In the summer of 378 CE, Valens decided to deal with the Goths in person and assembled a large army to confront the Goths in battle.
Who was involved?
The Gothic army at Adrianople numbered 10,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry. The Gothic infantry under Fritigern was positioned on a hill surrounded by a circle of wagons known as a laager. The Gothic cavalry was away foraging, but word was sent out for them to return to participate in the battle. The Roman army at Adrianople numbered 50,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. The Roman legionaries were massed in two lines in the centre, with cavalry and light infantry positioned on the wings.
What happened?
On 9 August, the Roman army arrived in front of the Gothic laager and began to arrange itself in battle formation. However, before the Roman legionaries could finish forming up, the cavalry and light infantry on the left wing began the battle by attacking the laager and exchanging missile fire with the Gothic infantry inside it. At that point, Valens ordered a general assault on the laager by his legionaries and right wing. However, before they could penetrate the circle of wagons, the Gothic cavalry under Alatheus and Saphrax returned from their foraging to attack the Roman cavalry, driving them from the field. Upon seeing the return of their cavalry, Fritigern ordered his Gothic infantry to emerge from behind their wagons and attack the Roman army from the front. At the same time, the Gothic cavalry wheeled around to attack the Roman army from the flanks and rear, effectively surrounding them. Valens himself fell in the battle along with 40,000 of his soldiers.
What changed as a result?
The Battle of Adrianople was decisive victory for the Goths. Although Fritigern would be killed in 383 CE, Adrianople was a disaster from which the Roman Empire never fully recovered. The new Eastern Roman Emperor, Theodosius I, was forced to allow the Visigoths and Ostrogoths to fully settle within the Roman Empire and even recruited tribes of Goths commanded by their chieftains into the Roman army. In the words of Nigel Rodgers, “While earlier Germans had been Romanized by service in the imperial army, the Roman army now rapidly became barbarized” (Rodgers, 2007, p.239). Adrianople also marked the beginning of cavalry superiority over infantry that would characterise much of Medieval warfare over the next one thousand years. It was not until the fourteenth century that infantry equipped with pikes and longbows would displace cavalry and once again become the dominant fighting force on the battlefield.
Bibliography
Grant, R.G. Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat. London, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
MacDowall, Simon. “Wargaming Adrianople AD 378.” Wargames Illustrated. May 2018.
Regan, Geoffrey. Battles That Changed History: Fifty Decisive Battles Spanning Over 2,500 Years of Warfare. London, Andre Deutsch, 2002.
Rodgers, Nigel. The History and Conquests of Ancient Rome. London, Hermes House, 2007.