Lets Talk Adrianople

[Mrbsct]

The last year, I have been doing a lot of reading re: the infamous Battle of Adrianople, the events leading up to it, and its aftermath. The latest reading I have done is "The Day of The Barbarians" "Barbarians at Rome's Gate" and the essay posted at http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/anc...ilure.aspx

I have a number of questions/discussion points I would like to bring up.

First, why did Valens offer receptio on such attractice terms to the goths begin with? Were the romans that short of manpower on the frontier? Once they became aware of the size of the incoming "horde", why did they not mass more troops to control the process?.

Valens had some conflict with the religious elite. Plus he was jealous of Gratian. Plus his Cold War with Persia. Most his Comiatenses were on the Persian front when the Goths swarmed in.

From what I know using Goths as lackeys as an attractive option for Emperors. They were out of the sticky political system of Rome. Plus they were most hungry and desperate, so most motivated and loyal. But Valens miscaluted as rich landlords mistreated the Goths.

Second, it appears that in the preceding Battle of Ad Salices, the Romans suffered a bloody stalemate, despite (pressumably) being beter armed, supplied (they had been starving out the goths), and trained. From the accounts I have read, the goths were armed ad hoc with pilfered roman equipment and "fire hardened clubs." In my mind, the stalemate calls into question the assumed notion that the RA was still "superior" to the barbarians at this point. The notion of a half-starved rag-tag band of goths nearing defeating a contingent of the WRA by throwing wooden clubs from a lager wagon seems hard to believe. What else was going on here? If the Romans were severely outnumberd, why didn;t Richomeres just stick with the "block and starve" strategy..

Hungry starving mob.

Fourth, why was there not better coordination of troop movements between east and west before the battle. It seems that before Valens marched out, the romans had sent a number of smaller contingents that engaged the goths and were defeated or at least reduced in effective fighting capacity. Why not wait to concentrate forces instead of throwing raindrops on a fire?.

Guerilla warfare and Raiding was the common strategy of the Late Roman Army. Which the introduction of garrison forces, Romans were much more defensive and less confident to march its soldiers out of its walls to assemble a massive field army. Plus the Church served as a voice of the Roman people. Emperors were very afraid of battles that would cause Roman death and less likely to engage pitched battles like Caesar did because it cause the Church to hate them if they ever lost.

Fifth, what led to the Roman intelligence failure as to the size of the gothic forces at Adrianople? It seems Valens rushed in without being prepared. Also, why did he feel the need to force march his forces for nearly a full day under a blazing hot sun before engaging, gather than following the standard practice of making camp, resting, and attacking the next morning? Was he really THAT inept? Would Gratian have been able to arrive and "steal the day", if Valens had waited 24 hours to attack?

Roman scout predicted 10,000 Gothic fighters. The hidden Gothic forces were probally out foraging and the Romans miscalculated. Yes Valens thought Gratian would arrive and steal the day so he thought it would be a quick victory.

Sixth it appears that the Roman auxilliaries and reserve line fled after the initial gothic cavalry charge during the battle. Why was there no attempt to regroup and reinforce once the main line was in trouble?

There are no such thing as "auxiliaries" in the Late Roman army. Unless you are speaking about Auxilia Palanti, which is compelty different.

The Roman cavalry got impatient and attempted to encircle the Goths. Hidden Gothic cavalry ambushed the Roman cavalry and routed them in a battle.

Seventh, why did the citizens of Adrianople not allow the suriving forces sanctuary in the city following their defeat. Surely, they would have been able to recognize their own forces?

Technically the Roman forces were not even from Adrianople. Goths failed to scale Adrianople BTW.

Eighth, it appears that after the battle there was essentialy no effective fighting force left in the area and that the Goths had pretty much free reign in the balkans. Theodisius then enters the picture and again either loses battles or fights to costly stalemates, resuling in the Foedereti treaty. Again, why are the Romans incapable of a decesive victory at any point during the gothic war? It seems that "the worlds most professional fighting force" is being beaten again and again by relatively unorganized roaming gothic hordes. Again, this makes me question the whether the goths and romans were not more "evenly matched" in fighting ability at this time.

Again Roman strategy after Constantine was more defensive at this time. High walls and a small garrison of Lime troops were much preffered. These troops were less likely to mobilize into coordinated fighting force. That was the job of the Comiatenses.(Field armies)

Total field army was about 100,000 at Constatine. He divided it up between his 3 sons. After a bloody civil, a huge number got depleted. Julian invaded the east and tore it up pretty bad. Valens had to coordinate his forces in East and went to Adrianople with a handful of his troops(only 15,000 or 20,000). This was only 20 percent of the Danube forces. Plus Gratian was busy fighting the Franks and other Germans west.

Again Emperors were now very insecure and less likely to engage in battle. Their war was a game of winning over and defeating members in the Church and Senate, not crushing barbarians. Truces with barbarians was an attractive option. Again Theodosis was used to use Goths as his personal strike force and human shields. Although the Roman Army was fairly large, it was very hard to coordinate massive field army since troops dessert plus the loss of manpower was looked down upon. Recrutiment was hard to come by as military service was avoided. The Goths join the Foederetii because they have no choice and therefore unique. The Romans don't bother joining. Using guerilla warfare, treaties, and poltical pressure to divide and scatter the Goths was a more attractive option that a decisive battle.

Plus Theodosis had the same problem Valens had. He had to fight the West. He couldn't do it without the Goths.