153- Adrianople

Hello, and welcome to the History of Rome. Episode 153, Adrianople. In early three seventy seven AD, after months of deprivation, frustration and humiliation, the Goths finally snapped. They had begged for entry into the Roman Empire because they thought they might find refuge there. Instead, they had been unforgivably mistreated by the local authorities. What was the point of fleeing from the Huns who, and I can't believe I messed this up, used composite bows, not compound bows because compound bows weren't invented until, like, the nineteen sixties, and God help us all if the Huns had ever gotten a hold of compound bows. Anyway, what was the point of fleeing from the Huns if the Romans were going to prove just as menacing a threat? Was this a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire? Not exactly. More a case of out of the frying pan and onto the ground next to the fire. Still in danger, but not quite so immediately, especially given the military situation on the Danube frontier. The Goths may have been weak from a year of flight and harassment. But as we saw last time, the Romans were not exactly in tip top shape themselves. They were outnumbered locally and run by a commander whose judgment has to be seriously questioned. You'll recall from last week that following Lupicinus' botched attempt to blackmail the Goths into submission by taking their leaders hostage, the Tervingi leader, Fritigern, promised to go to his people and calm them down. Instead, as much snapped as his fellow goths, Fritigern stirred them to war. The morning after the fatal banquet, Lupicinus led a Roman army out of Marcianopolis toward the Gothic camp, where he hoped to put down their rabble rousing once and for all. But Fritigern and the Goths were now eager for a fight. And when Lupicinus arrived, he was hit full in the face by a bunch of really ticked off Gothic warriors. Like most of the engagements we'll run through over the next couple of years, the battle that ensued is not well described, but it appears that Lupicinus' army was overwhelmed, broken, and put to flight. Once the Goths were ready to move on, there was literally no one around to stop them. The immediate vicinity had been defended only by the Roman forces the Goths had just broken. What garrisons remained on the frontier line were spread out and isolated. Attempting to do something about the Goths without reinforcements would have been suicide, so these garrisons simply sat tight behind their walls and waited. The word immediately went out to east and west that the Goths were loose in the central part of the empire. In the East, Valens had to have greeted this news with a profanity laced tirade. I know that I would have anyway. The emperor was gearing up for a major war against the Sassanids. And the last time he had checked, the goths …