Adrianopole, AD 378
Author: Simon MacDowall
Publisher:
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 104
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPosts
Eagles in the Dust
Author: Adrian Coombs-Hoar
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-01-30
Total Pages: 193
ISBN-13: 1781590885
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn AD376 large groups of Goths, seeking refuge from the Huns, sought admittance to the Eastern Roman Empire. Emperor Valens took the strategic decision to grant them entry, hoping to utilize them as a source of manpower for his campaigns against Persia. The Goths had been providing good warriors to Roman armies for decades. However, mistreatment of the refugees by Roman officials led them to take up arms against their hosts. ?The resultant battle near Adrianopolis in AD378, in which Valens lost his life, is regarded as one of the most significant defeats ever suffered by Roman arms. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus called it the worst massacre since Cannae, nearly six hundred years previously. Modern historians have accorded it great significance both at a tactical level, due to the success of Gothic cavalry over the vaunted Roman infantry, and in strategic terms, often citing it as the beginning of the end for the Empire. Adrian Coombs-Hoar untangles the debate that still surrounds many aspects such claims with an insightful account that draws on the latest research.
Rome's Gothic Wars
Author: Michael Kulikowski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2006-10-30
Total Pages: 15
ISBN-13: 1139458094
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRome's Gothic Wars is a concise introduction to research on the Roman Empire's relations with one of the most important barbarian groups of the ancient world. The book uses archaeological and historical evidence to look not just at the course of events, but at the social and political causes of conflict between the empire and its Gothic neighbours. In eight chapters, Michael Kulikowski traces the history of Romano-Gothic relations from their earliest stage in the third century, through the development of strong Gothic politics in the early fourth century, until the entry of many Goths into the empire in 376 and the catastrophic Gothic war that followed. The book closes with a detailed look at the career of Alaric, the powerful Gothic general who sacked the city of Rome in 410.
Twilight of Empire
Author: Martijn Nicasie
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2023-01-16
Total Pages: 331
ISBN-13: 9004525807
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNicasie, Martijn Twilight of Empire. The Roman Army from the Reign of Diocletian until the Battle of Adrianople. 1998 This book discusses the development of the Roman army during the fourth century. The author argues that the Roman army of the fourth century was by no means inferior to its early Imperial counterpart, and in some ways even much superior. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, the book discusses the development of the Roman army in the period immediately preceding the reign of Diocletian, the massive reorganization of the army in the fourth century under Diocletian and Constantine, recruitment and barbariza tion, and the Grand Strategy of the Empire in the fourth century. The final chapter is devoted to an analysis of battlefield tactics and of two important fourth-century battles, the Battle of Strasbourg in 357 and the Battle of Adrianople in 378. DMAHA 19 (1998), 330 p. Cloth. - 66.00 EURO, ISBN: 9050634486
The Later Roman Empire
Author: Ammianus Marcellinus
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2004-07-01
Total Pages: 532
ISBN-13: 0141921501
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAmmianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. The Later Roman Empire chronicles a period of twenty-five years during Marcellinus' own lifetime, covering the reigns of Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens, and providing eyewitness accounts of significant military events including the Battle of Strasbourg and the Goth's Revolt. Portraying a time of rapid and dramatic change, Marcellinus describes an Empire exhausted by excessive taxation, corruption, the financial ruin of the middle classes and the progressive decline in the morale of the army. In this magisterial depiction of the closing decades of the Roman Empire, we can see the seeds of events that were to lead to the fall of the city, just twenty years after Marcellinus' death.
Late Roman Infantryman vs Gothic Warrior
Author: Murray Dahm
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-06-24
Total Pages: 81
ISBN-13: 1472845293
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRavaged by civil war and pressure from the Huns to the east, in late summer AD 376 the Gothic tribe of the Theruingi – up to 200,000 people under their leader Fritigern – gathered on the northern bank of the River Danube and asked the Eastern Roman emperor, Valens, for asylum within the empire. After agreeing to convert to Arian Christianity and enrol in the Roman Army, the Goths were allowed to cross the Danube and settle in the province of Thrace. Far more people crossed the Danube than the Romans expected, however, and with winter approaching, the local Roman commander, Lupicinus, lacked the resources to feed the newcomers and did not possess sufficient troops to control them. Treated poorly and running out of food, the Goths very quickly lost faith in the Roman promises. Meanwhile, other Gothic tribes also sought permission to cross the Danube. The Greuthungi were refused permission, but soon learned that local Roman garrisons had been depleted to supervise the march of the Theruingi to the town of Marcianopolis, close to the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Taking advantage of this, the Greuthungi also entered Roman territory. Camping outside Marcianopolis, Lupicinus denied the Goths access to the town's food stores, provoking the Theruingi to begin skirmishing with the Roman troops. Fritigern convinced Lupicinus to let the Gothic leaders go and calm their people, but they did nothing to quell the warlike temper of his warriors. Lupicinus summoned troops to him, but in late 376 these Roman forces were defeated – the first of several defeats for the Romans that would culminate in the fateful battle of Adrianople in August 378, at which Roman forces led by the emperor himself confronted the Gothic host. The aftermath and repercussions of Adrianople have been much debated, but historians agree that it marks a decisive moment in the history of the Roman world. This fully illustrated book investigates the fighting men of both sides who clashed at the battles of Marcianopolis, Ad Salices and Adrianople, as the fate of the Western Roman Empire hung in the balance.
New History
Author: Zosimus
Publisher: DigiCat
Published: 2022-05-29
Total Pages: 205
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNew History is a historical narrative by Zosimus. The author was a Greek historian known for condemning Constantine's rejection of the traditional polytheistic religion.
The Vandals
Author: Simon MacDowall
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2016-07-31
Total Pages: 195
ISBN-13: 147388022X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn up-close look at the Germanic people who sacked Rome in the fifth century AD. On 31 December AD 406, a group of German tribes crossed the Rhine, pierced the Roman defensive lines, and began a rampage across Roman Gaul, sacking cities such as Metz, Arras, and Strasbourg. Foremost amongst them were the Vandals, and their search for a new homeland took them on the most remarkable odyssey. The Romans were unable to stop them and their closest allies, the Alans, marching the breadth of Gaul, crossing the Pyrenees, and making themselves masters of Spain. However, this kingdom of the Vandals and Alans soon came under intense pressure from Rome’s Visigothic allies. In 429, under their new king, Gaiseric, they crossed the straits of Gibraltar to North Africa. They quickly overran this rich Roman province and established a stable kingdom. Taking to the seas, they soon dominated the Western Mediterranean and raided Italy, famously sacking Rome itself in 455. Eventually, however, they were utterly conquered by Belisarius in 533 and vanished from history. Simon MacDowall narrates and analyzes these events, with particular focus on the evolution of Vandal armies and warfare.
Imperial Brothers
Author: Ian Hughes
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-08-05
Total Pages: 239
ISBN-13: 1473828635
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe latest of Ian Hughes' Late Roman biographies here tackles the careers of the brother emperors, Valentinian and Valens. Valentian was selected and proclaimed as emperor in AD 364, when the Empire was still reeling from the disastrous defeat and death in battle of Julian the Apostate (363) and the short reign of his murdered successor, Jovian (364). With the Empire weakened and vulnerable to a victorious Persia in the East and opportunistic Germanic tribes along the Rhine and Danube frontiers, not to mention usurpers and rebellions within, it was not an enviable position. Valentian decided the responsibility had to be divided (not for the first or last time) and appointed his brother as his co-emperor to rule the eastern half of the Empire. Valentinian went on to stabilize the Western Empire, quelling revolt in North Africa, defeating the 'Barbarian Conspiracy' that attacked Britain in 367 and conducting successful wars against the Germanic Alemanni, Quadi and Saxons; he is remembered by History as a strong and successful Emperor. Valens on the other hand, fare less well and is most remembered for his (mis)treatment of the Goths who sought refuge within the Empire's borders from the westward-moving Huns. Valens mishandling of this situation led to the Battle of Adrianople in 378, where he was killed and Rome suffered one of the worst defeats in her long history, often seen as the 'beginning of the end' for the Western Roman empire. Ian Hughes, by tracing the careers of both men in tandem, compares their achievements and analyzes the extent to which they deserve the contrasting reputations handed down by history.
Empires of Bronze: The Shadow of Troy (Empires of Bronze #5)
Author: Gordon Doherty
Publisher: Gordon Doherty
Published: 2021-09-30
Total Pages: 586
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe war at Troy has raged for ten years. Its final throes will echo through eternity… 1258 BC: Surrounded and outnumbered by the army of Agamemnon, King Priam and his Trojan forces fight desperately to defend their city. In the lulls between battle, all talk inevitably turns to the mighty ally that has not yet arrived to their aid. Agamemnon will weep for mercy, the Trojans say, when the eastern horizons darken with the endless ranks of the Hittite Empire. King Hattu has endured a miserable time since claiming the Hittite throne. Vassals distance themselves while rival empires circle, mocking him as an illegitimate king. Worst of all, the army of the Hittites is but a memory, destroyed in the civil war that won him the throne. Knowing that he must honour his empire’s oath to protect Troy, he sets off for Priam’s city with almost nothing, praying that the dreams he has endured since his youth – of Troy in ruins – can be thwarted. All the way, an ancient mantra rings in his head: Hittites should always heed their dreams.
