Battle of Adrianople, 378
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Ancient Era
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3 comments
| Emperor Flavius Valens versus Fritigern: A Gothic army under Fritigern fights for not only its own but its families’ lives as well against a Roman army under Valens. Can Fritigern delay Valens long enough for his cavalry to turn the tides? Click on images below to view battle; first image opens video presentation and the second image opens PowerPoint presentation.
A battle that makes Western historians shiver for it accelerated the fall of the Roman Empire and all the order it represented.
Valens was so outgeneraled that it is arduous to consider how he could have won. He should have ensured the battle was decided by infantry, which the Romans always held an advantage, and assaulted the Gothic hill immediately. He did not and Fritigern was able to delay the attack further and wear down the Romans by spreading fire in the fields.
 This battle widely varies in its numbers and events. Unfortunately, my honest nature requires I point out that my original sources for animating this battle were relatively unreliable, all of which being websites or books describing over seventy battles. Well, maybe I should not knock the reliability of websites, considering I am using the website medium for educational purposes. Regardless, I would not keep an erroneous animation on the site if I did not truly believe it was accurate and dependable as a source of its own. I compared my original sources to more professional sources when they became available to me and can say that this animation portrays a probable account of this battle.
- Jonathan Webb
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            Tags: adrianople, Ancient Era, attack from a defensive position, cavalry, envelopment of both flanks, fritigern, goth, gothic, infantry, roman, rome, valens
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3 Comments to “Battle of Adrianople, 378”
I think the numbers and impact of the Gothic cavalry are highly inflated…see writing of T.S Burns as opposed to Oman. Nice animation though.
By Brian on Sep 9, 2009 at 6:33 pm
There is actually a number of sources that suggest all numbers of “barbarian” enemies the Romans faced are highly inflated. This is based on the theory that man for man, fighters from less civilized armies were more aggressive, violent and overall more effective in combat than the Romans who were constrained by norms of society.
I obviously do not have the knowledge of anthropology to decide if this theory is correct or not. In most cases, I use the lower numbers but for this battle, it seems plausible that a great number of Gothic cavalry must have been present to overcome such a strong Roman force.
By Jonathan Webb on Sep 13, 2009 at 8:52 pm
the roman army which were terminated here was the last important roman army. as i know.
in the battle of chalons in 451, the army of aetius included many gothic warriors
By Burak on Jan 3, 2010 at 10:38 pm