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Where was the Roman Army in AD408?
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(01-18-2017, 08:06 AM)Robert Vermaat Wrote: Technically the Goths were also a Roman army,

Technically, yes - but was there not quite a dispute between those soldiers (at Ticinum) who saw themselves as 'Roman' and the foederati or others under Sarus and Stilicho (who may also have seen themselves as 'Roman', of course)? I don't quite understand what the mutiny at Ticinum was about, but the troops seem to have slaughtered the Goths quite enthusiastically afterwards, which maybe implies that they were inspired by a sort of anti-'barbarian' sentiment...


(01-18-2017, 08:06 AM)Robert Vermaat Wrote: Olympius may have thought so... he is shortly afterwards himself replaced by the praefectus praetorio Jovinus.

As far as I can tell, Olympius hung on for a year or so, until early/mid 409, before being ousted. Just beforehand he won a battle against the Goths under Ataulf at Pisa, apparently in command of a large (?) Roman force:

When the emperor heard of (Ataulf's) approach, and that he had with him an inconsiderable force, he ordered all his troops both horse and foot, which were in the different towns, to march under their own officers to meet him. To Olympius, who was commander of the court guards, he gave the Huns who were in Ravenna, amounting to three hundred. (At Pisa they met the Goths) attacked them, killed eleven hundred Goths, and returned in safety to Ravenna, with the loss of only seventeen men. (Zosimus Book V)

Shortly after this Olympius is deposed and the 'troops in Ravenna' (Romans? Huns? 'Court guards'?) mutiny. So it seems that there were quite a few military units scattered about the place - so why was Honorius unable or unwilling to use them against Alaric? Was Alaric simply too strong to be opposed? Valens seems to have considered six thousand men from Dalmatia to be sufficient to confront the Goths (more fool him!)



(01-18-2017, 08:06 AM)Robert Vermaat Wrote: we see plenty of military action shortly afterwards... But having fought Alaric in the years before that, as well as beating Radagais and suffering a (no doubt not unanimous) mutiny so shortly before the siege of Rome, maybe the troop couldn't be sent anywhere. Maybe that was one of the grounds for the mutiny anyway?

Yes, Constantius III certainly had troops available when he marched into Gaul to attack Arles in 411-ish - were they the same soldiers that had remained at Ticinum all this time? What had they been doing while Alaric and Ataulf roamed about Italy?

Could it have been that the field army units originally mutinied in summer 408 because they didn't want to be sent into Gaul while a large 'barbarian' force (Alaric and his Goths) remained behind them in Italy? And after that they were effectively 'on strike'?
Nathan Ross
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RE: Where was the Roman Army in AD408? - by Nathan Ross - 01-18-2017, 11:50 AM

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