Battle of Marcianople
Battle of Marcianople | |
---|---|
Part of the Marcianople | |
Result | Gothic victory |
The Battle of Marcianople or Marcianopolis took place in 376 following the Goths' migration over the Danube. It was the first notable battle of the Gothic War of 376–382.[4]
After a failed
Background
Introduction of the Goths into the Empire
In A.D. 376, after the death of
Exploitation
Trouble arose, however, when the corruption of Valens' local ministers came into play. Incapable of resisting the temptation presented by a multitude of desperate, suppliant, and increasingly famished victims, Valens' ministers shamelessly extorted from the Goths their property and even the persons of their wives and daughters, in return for means of bare subsistence, which Valens had engaged to supply with a liberal hand. At the same time, they failed to disarm the Goths as intended, and their camp on the Danube was soon filled with the noise of war. Increasingly alarmed, Valens' generals resolved to disperse the Goths throughout the provinces, and gave orders for Fritigern, their leader, to march to Marcianopolis, where the respective places for each colony would be assigned. Fritigern, apparently still compliant, immediately hurried to obey the order.[8]
Battle
Having assembled the Goths near the city, Lupicinus, the Roman provincial commander in Thrace, who had himself played a conspicuous role in the exploitation and intolerable exactions to which the Goths had been subjected, invited their principal chiefs to a sumptuous feast, prepared in the hopes of conciliating them, and perhaps by bribery to discourage their revelation of his peculations to the emperor.[9]
In the midst of the entertainment, however, the main body of the Goths which had been ordered to encamp outside the city, in an attempt to obtain some provisions from the inhabitants, broke into a disorderly struggle with the Roman garrison, which denied them entry into the city. As soon as the noise of the fighting reached Fritigern in Lupicinus's palace, he broke out with the rest of the chiefs, swords drawn, and rejoined the Gothic camp outside the city. War was at once declared upon the Empire.
Citations
- ^ MacDowall 2001, p. 42.
- ^ MacDowall 2001, p. 43.
- ^ MacDowall 2001, p. 44.
- ^ "Cascading Failure: The Roman Disaster at Adrianople AD 378 - Part 2 of 3" by Jeffrey R. Cox Military History Online accessed 13 August 2013
- ^ Edward Gibbon, The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, (The Modern Library, 1932), chap.XXVI., pp. 921, 922
- ^ Gibbon, Ibid. pp. 923, 924
- ^ Heather, 2005, pp. 145, 507.
- ^ Gibbon, Ibid. pp. 925, 926
- ^ Gibbon, Ibid. P. 927
- ^ Gibbon, Ibid. p. 928
References
- MacDowall, S. (2001). Adrianople AD 378: The Goths Crush Rome's Legions. ISBN 978-1841761473.