Lets Talk Adrianople

[Robert Vermaat]

!. Wrong. Up to the Battle of Adrianople when the Romans hired non-Roman troops they were always called auxiliaries, that is what Ammianus always calls the Taifali, Franks, Alamanni and Goths who were hired by the Romans for specific campaigns rather than being enrolled into the Auxilia.
2. Not all the historians who were either contemporary with the events or writing shortly afterwards speak of any ill-feeling between Valens and Gratian. Indeed it could be Christian writers who made up this tale as both Emperors worshiped different forms of Christianity and Valens form was frowned upon at the time.
3. It was clear that the officers sent to oversee the crossing of the Danube were military officers, not landlords. Dux was a military title at the time.
4. We are talking about Adrianople, not the situation when Theodosius took up the purple. The Goths could not be considered lacky's even during Theodosius' reign as they held the balance of power.
5. Are you forgetting Valens three campaigns against the Goths between 367 and 369AD? The campaigns Gratian waged against the Alamanni and other tribes north of the Rhine and Danube? The African campaign fought by Theodosius before Adrianople? Valens campaign against Procopius?
6. No evidence that the Emperors before Adrianople were afraid of upsetting the Christians. In fact there is much evidence of both Valentinian and Valens meddling in Christian matters. Did Valens worry about upsetting the Nicene Christians when he converted Fritigern and his Goths to Arianism?
7. You need to reread Ammianus and then compare his account to the other accounts and then perhaps try and deduce exactly what happened that day.

1.Correct, but the Batavi were neither hired nor non-Roman as far as we know. Normal regiments of the field army. Roman troops. Therefore no foederati, nor auxilia, just ‘reserves’.
2. I agree about Valens and Gratian. We just don’t know for sure. But Valens could have waited for his colleague, and the fact is that he did not do so.
3. Indeed. A dux is commonly a commander of a frontier command.
4. The Goths were neither starving and therefore loyal, nor were they holding the balance of power. But they signed a treaty and stuck with that. It was the enormous losses suffered at Frigidus which helped Alaric into power a commander of a small band of unsatisfied veterans of Frigidus, starting out as brigands in the salt marches.
5. Indeed, Valens was an able commander. Hence his overconfidence I think.
6. Indeed, I see no pressure from the church here. Fear of casualties was a strategic concern, not a religious one.
7. the right wing cavalry seems to have been in place, but the left wing cavalry seems to have been still spread out along the road, no doubt behind the infantry of the left flank, still forming up but eager to join battle. However it was the sagittarii and the scutarii who seem to have joined battle against orders.
Ammianus Marcellinus book 31.16.12:
Eo ad vallum hostile tendente sagittarii et scutarii, quos Bacurius Hiberus quidam tunc regebat et Cassio, avidius impetu calenti progressi iamque adversis conexi, ut inmature proruperant, ita inerti discessu primordia belli foedarunt.
As he was on his way to the enemy's rampart, the archers and the targeteers, then under the command of one Bacurius of Hiberia and Cassio, had rushed forward too eagerly in hot attack, and were already engaged with their adversaries; and as their charge had been untimely, so their retreat was cowardly; and thus they gave an unfavourable omen to the beginning of the battle.
The fact that this is known to Ammianus strengthens my view that afterwards chaos broke out, because we lack names and details later. The troops mentioned may have been the entire left wing or part of it, but after the defeat of their support cavalry they were caught off guard, presumably still not formed up or at least not in deep formation. Anyway they are defeated, with Ammianus only describing dust, blood and chaos, no longer details until he has Valens retreating over heaps of dead bodies, which must have been a much later moment. The varying accounts are telling.

I just realized I’m about the very same age as Valens when he died. :unsure: