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Where was the Roman Army in AD408?
#35
(11-14-2017, 09:40 AM)Robert Vermaat Wrote: I can't recall that battle?

Zosimus mentions it directly after the quote above: "[Valens] disdained, therefore, to appear so cowardly as to march by a way that was not guarded by the enemy. Thus Alaric, delaying until he came up to him, and attacking him with all his forces, cut off all his troops, except a hundred, who with much difficulty escaped, together with their commander. He arrived in safety at Rome together with Attalus, whom the senate had sent to the emperor."

'A way not guarded by the enemy' could have referred to the route down the Adriatic coast from Ravenna and then directly across the Apennines from Pescara or somesuch. Alternatively, the Via Flaminia may not have been guarded - Alaric had sacked all the towns and fortresses the year before, but then pulled back into Etruria. I would guess that Valens decided to cross the mountains further north and march straight down through Etruria though, as a show of strength; Alaric could have intercepted him somewhere relatively close to Rome, perhaps; his forces at the time appear to have numbered about 40,000.

Anyway, if this battle really did see the destruction of 6000 men (or 5900!) of the best and strongest units in the Roman army at the time, it must have been fairly important!

I mentioned somewhere up above an inscription from Rome to the Cornuti Seniores (CIL 06, 32963: ...de numero cornutorum seniorum / dd(ominis) nn(ostris) Honorio Aug(usto) et Theodosio co(n)s(ulibus)...) - the 'consulate of Honorius and Theodosius' would make this either AD407, 409, 411, 415, 418 or 422, I think. The second date is presumably out of the question (unless our cornutus was one of the survivors of Valens's doomed expedition!); 407 could be plausible, as Honorius was in Rome in early 408 I think. But it does mean that the prestigious palatine auxilium of the Cornuti Seniores was still in existence around these dates.

This begs the question of what happened to all the other famous and prestigious units in the western army - the Ioviani and Herculiani, Bracchiati and Petulantes Seniores, etc. Could they really have just melted away in the conflicts and crises of the early 5th century?
Nathan Ross
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RE: Where was the Roman Army in AD408? - by Nathan Ross - 11-14-2017, 02:42 PM

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