|
Gothic War (376–382)
The Gothic War of 376–382 was one of several Gothic Wars in Roman history in which the Goths fought against the Roman Empire. This particular conflict included the catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of Adrianople, which is commonly seen as a cause of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, decline of the Western Roman Empire, although its significance is widely debated. Background In the summer of 376, a massive number of Goths arrived on the Danube River, the border of the Roman Empire, requesting asylum from the Huns. There were two groups: the Thervings led by Fritigern and Alavivus and the Greuthungi led by Alatheus and Saphrax. Eunapius states their number as 200,000 including civilians, but Peter Heather estimates that the Thervings may have had only 10,000 warriors and 50,000 people in total, with the Greuthungi about the same size. ''The Cambridge Ancient History'' places modern estimates at around 90,000 people. Noel Lenski accepts Eunapius' number as approximating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gothic Wars
The Gothic Wars were a long series of conflicts between the Goths and the Roman Empire between the years 249 and 554. The main wars are detailed below. History Crisis of the Third Century During the Crisis of the Third Century, Goths under Cniva fought against the Roman Empire between 248 and 253. The War was probably instigated after emperor Decius's predecessor Philip the Arab had refused to continue payments of annual subsidies to the tribes of the region initiated by Emperor Maximinus Thrax in 238 while they were starving. The Goths were led by King Cniva who had crossed the Danube in 249 or 250 with a number of units, however, the exact number is unknown. Cniva's main column of 70,000 unsuccessfully attacked Novae and were then defeated by Decius at the Battle of Nicopolis ad Istrum before moving on to Augusta Traiana pursued by Decius where at the Battle of Beroe they defeated him and looted the city. Decius was forced to withdraw his army north to Oescus leaving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lupicinus (comes Per Thracias)
Lupicinus ( 368–377) was a Roman army officer in late antiquity who served under the emperors Valentinian I and Valens. He distinguished himself in the fighting the Alemanni in 368. He was serving as a military tribune in Pannonia in 376. Lupicinus was serving as the commander of Roman troops in the diocese of Thrace () in c. 377 during the events which resulted in the Gothic War. There he oversaw the settlement of the Goths within the empire along the Lower Danube, after which, he and the Maximus foolishly proceeded to extort and starve them. At one point, they slaughtered dogs and offered them to the starving tribes at the price of one boy to be sold into slavery for one dog. Famished and humiliated, the Goths broke into an open revolt that led to the Gothic War of 376 and the catastrophic Battle of Adrianople in which the emperor Valens was killed. After orchestrating a failed assassination attempt of the Gothic leaders while ostensibly meeting with them to discuss a pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alavivus
Alavivus (flourished in 4th century AD) was a Gothic co-king of a group of Thervingi together with Fritigern. Along with the latter he led the migration of the Thervingi from Dacia across the Danube into the Roman Empire in the late 4th century AD. Upon arrival in the Roman Empire, the Goths suffered from widespread famine, with some Gothic parents reportedly being forced to sell their children into slavery in return for rotten dog meat in order to avoid starvation. In 376, Valens' lieutenant Lupicinus invited Alavivus and Fritigern to a banquet to discuss provisions for their people, where Alavivus was assassinated. Fritigern on the other hand managed to escape, inciting a revolt which culminated with a decisive Gothic victory at the Battle of Adrianople The Battle of Adrianople also known as Battle of Hadrianopolis was fought between the Eastern Roman army led by the Roman emperor Valens and Gothic rebels (largely Thervings as well as Greutungs, non-Gothic Alans, and va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danube River
The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important river, it was once a frontier of the Roman Empire. In the 21st century, it connects ten European countries, running through their territories or marking a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , passing through or bordering Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine. Among the many cities on the river are four national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade. Its drainage basin amounts to and extends into nine more countries. The Danube's longest headstream, the Breg, rises in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, while the river carries its name from its source confluence in the palace park in Donaueschingen onwards. Since ancient times, the Danube has been a traditio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fall Of The Western Roman Empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast territory was divided among several successor polities. The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control over its Western provinces; modern historians posit factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the emperors, the internal struggles for power, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from invading peoples outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse. Climatic changes and both endemic and epidemic disease drove many of these immediate factors. The reasons for the collapse are major subjects of the hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Adrianople
The Battle of Adrianople also known as Battle of Hadrianopolis was fought between the Eastern Roman army led by the Roman emperor Valens and Gothic rebels (largely Thervings as well as Greutungs, non-Gothic Alans, and various local rebels) led by Fritigern. The battle took place on 9 August 378 in the vicinity of Adrianople, in the Roman province of Thracia (modern Edirne in European Turkey). It ended with an overwhelming victory for the Goths and the death of Emperor Valens.Zosimus, ''Historia Nova'', book 4. As part of the Gothic War of 376–382, the battle is often considered the start of the events which led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. A detailed contemporary account of the lead-up to the battle from the Roman perspective was written by Ammianus Marcellinus and forms the culminating point at the end of his history. Background In 376, the Goths, led by Alavivus and Fritigern, asked to be allowed to settle in the Eastern Roman Empir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of effective sole rule in 27 BC. The Western Roman Empire, western empire collapsed in 476 AD, but the Byzantine Empire, eastern empire lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. By 100 BC, the city of Rome had expanded its rule from the Italian peninsula to most of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and beyond. However, it was severely destabilised by List of Roman civil wars and revolts, civil wars and political conflicts, which culminated in the Wars of Augustus, victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the subsequent conquest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching military power () and the new title of ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goths
The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is now Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. From here they conducted raids into Roman territory, and large numbers of them joined the Roman military. These early Goths lived in the regions where archaeologists find the Chernyakhov culture, which flourished throughout this region during the 3rd and 4th centuries. In the late 4th century, the lands of the Goths in present-day Ukraine were overwhelmed by a significant westward movement of Alans and Huns from the east. Large numbers of Goths subsequently concentrated upon the Roman border at the Lower Danube, seeking refuge inside the Roman Empire. After they entered the Empire, violence broke out, and Goth-led forces inflicted a devastating defeat upon the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alatheus
Alatheus and Saphrax were Greuthungi chieftains who served as co-regents for Vithericus, son and heir of the Gothic king Vithimiris. Alatheus Alatheus ( 376–387) was a chieftain of the Greuthungi. He fought during the Hunnish invasion of 376, engaged in war with Rome from 376 to 383, and incursions into the Balkans in 387. He is most famous for his participation at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. After the death of the Gothic King Vithimiris while fighting against the Huns in 376, Alatheus became, with Saphrax, co-regent and guardian of Vithericus, infant son of Vithimiris. He helped in the leadership of the great Gothic migration before the Hun onslaught, he crossed the Danube while Rome was busy with Thervingi refugees in that year. He soon allied himself with the Thervingi leaders Fritigern and Alavivus against Rome. Alatheus eluded the Romans and rampaged through Thrace and Moesia in 377–378. He marched to Fritigern's aid against Emperor Valens at the battle of Adr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritigern
Fritigern (fl. 370s) was a Thervingian Gothic chieftain whose decisive victory at Adrianople during the Gothic War (376–382) led to favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian and Theodosius I in 382. Name ''Fritigern'' appears in the Latinized form ''Fritigernus''. The Gothic name is reconstructed as *''Frithugairns'' "desiring peace". The Germanized name under which Fritigern is honored in the Walhalla temple (1842) is ''Friediger''. Conflicts against Athanaric The earliest references to Fritigern concern the period between the attack on the Thervingi by Valens (367/9) and the Hunnic raids on the Thervingi (ca. 376). In this time, a civil war may have broken out between Fritigern and Athanaric, a prominent Therving ruler. The conflict between Fritigern and Athanaric is mentioned by Socrates Scholasticus, Sozomen, and Zosimus, but not by Ammianus Marcellinus and Philostorgius. Before or during this civil war, Fritigern converted to A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bauto
Flavius Bauto (died c. 385) was a Romanised Frank who served as a ''magister militum'' of the Roman Empire and was a powerful figure in the court of emperor Valentinian II. Biography In 381, during the Gothic War (376-382), Bauto was sent by western emperor Gratian with an expeditionary field army to aid the eastern emperor, Theodosius I. As is common, the sources do not explicitly name him a ''magister militum'', but the importance of this mission makes it very likely. Gratian was defeated and killed in 383 by the usurper Magnus Maximus, who established himself as emperor in Britain and Gaul. Emperor Valentinian II, previously subordinate to his half-brother Gratian, now became the technical senior ruler, although his authority was limited to Italy and he suffered from a reputation for weakness, stemming from his accession to the throne as a child. Thus, powerful ministers like Bauto were able to exert a great deal of control over Valentinian's regime. For example, Bauto organi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
