Celestial events and the Battle of Adrianople

The Battle of Adrianople is seen as a major turning point in the history of the Roman Empire.
On 9 August 378, the troops of the Emperor Valens were completely defeated by a Gothic
army led by Fritigern. From the words of Ammianus Marcellinus, the principal source for the
battle, this was the worst Roman defeat since the victory of Hannibal at Cannae.
Ammianus calls the Gothic groups of his day not Visigoth and Ostrogoth as Jordanes did, but
Tervingi and Greuthungi.
For half a century, from c. 320 to c. 370, Germanic Gothic tribes were the dominant foreign
power north of the Roman empires lower Danube frontier. However, in 376, the Huns
suddenly appeared north of the Danube and the terrified Goths sought safety across the
Roman frontier. It seems that it was not a unified and massive invasion, but small groups
under independent leaders (Heather 1995).
This is the first appearance of the Huns in Europe. The motives for this Hunnic invasion are
unknown, and little is heard of them for about the next twenty years. Only in 395 do the
sources report a destructive Hunnic raid on the eastern empire. The Huns then attacked, not
across the Danube, however, but through the Caucasus into Asia Minor, some of the raiders
even going on to Persia. Some scientists (see above) presuppose a drought as the cause of the
invasion.
The Goths offered to settle in Roman territory and serve in the Roman army. Valens thought
they would make a good addition to the army and he agreed. The Roman government interned
them in refugee camps. Food was promised to them, but it did not arrive or was sold to the
Goths by corrupt officials at exorbitant prices. These same officials also seized many Goths
and sold them into slavery. Thus, this treatment provoked a revolt in 377, and the Goths began
to ravage Roman territory in Thrace.
Valens immediately moved into the Balkans in summer 378. His nephew Gratian also began
to move his forces from the West to meet the threat. However, Valens was apparently jealous
of him and he received a false report that the Gothic troops were only 10 000 strong1.
Accordingly, as soon as he arrived in Thrace, Valens immediately prepared for battle, hoping
to win the victory for himself. Valens troops however were tired from their long march, and
they were not able to set themselves properly for the battle which took place at Adrianople,
the modern Edirne, in Turkish Thrace.
On 9 August, in the afternoon, the Roman troops caught sight of the wagons of the enemy
drawn up in a circle, with cavalry detachments on both sides facing Valens forces. The
1 According to modern estimation, there were 12 000-15 000 Gothic soldiers with another 55 000 non-combatants and
slaves, totaling approximately 70 000 people, plus another 20 000-30 000 deserting Germanic allies. The Roman force must
have been equal or slightly superior to that of the Goths, totaling approximately 20 000 men.

proceeding of the battle is unclear and vague, because of a lacuna in Ammianus account, and
the fact that his account is overloaded with a supernatural tone.
The description of the battle is more similar to a celestial catastrophe, like an overhead meteor
explosion, than a military confrontation: whirring arrows obscuring the sky, the clouds of
burning dust, the uncountable number of death, the Goth cavalry charging like a
thunderbolt It is also interesting than Ammianus compares Adrianople to Cannae since it is
known from Silius Italicus the numerous celestial events which occurred during the battle.
Finally, the phrasing, in particular about the clouds and the dust, is similar to the thunderstorm
which occurred before the earthquake of 358.
Additionally, Theophanes and Michael the Syrian (Chronique, 7.7, p. 294), borrowing from
the Hypothetical Arian History, record a human prodigy and an unspecified celestial event
before the battle, implying again that a sort of natural disaster occurred. The term clouds in
the shape of armed men seems to refer to an aurora or a fire in the sky event (Dallolmo).
A last clue comes from archaeological records. They indicate widespread devastation in
Thrace and Illyricum around 378. The archeological excavations around Philippopolis in
Thrace, reveal that some of the buildings ceased to exist, destroyed by fire in the late fourth
century (Topalilov). Within the territory of Nicopolis, the villa economy along the Danube
and in Thrace came to a violent end. More significantly, no attempt was made to rebuild the
villas. The Roman villa system, and, with it, the traditional basis of the rural economy,
appears to have ceased around 400 (Poulter 1991 and 2014). Historians attribute the cause of
these destructions to the Gothic invasion; however, a natural cause is more probable.
By the end of the day, two-thirds of the Roman soldiers had been lost, most of them infantry,
the cavalry had ed, and Valens died in the disaster. As Themistius (Oration 16.206d, in
Heather and Moncur), the panegyrist of Theodosius I, would later remark, whole armies had
vanished completely like a shadow.
How exactly Valens died is a matter of debate. Ammianus reports two versions that were
current when he wrote in the early 390s.
According to the rst, in the midst of the melee, Valens was deserted by most of his
commanders and was never seen again. Ammianus says it was conjectured that he was hit by
an arrow and fell amid the slaughter where his corpse was never recovered.
He also reports a second story, according to which Valens was hit by an arrow but was able to
retreat with some bodyguards and attendants to a fortied house nearby. A group of Goths
approached to plunder the place without knowing that the emperor was inside. When they
were shot at from its upper story, they set the house ablaze, and the emperor died in the re. A
single bodyguard, who jumped out of the burning building, escaped to relate the tale.
Ammianus does not inform us which account he believed, although an earlier reference to the
portentous cries of Let Valens be burned alive! by the Antiochenes before Valenss death
may indicate his preference for the latter.

This was certainly the version preferred in the source tradition. The Epitome de Caesaribus
reports only this version, as does Zosimus. So, too, only this version appears in the
ecclesiastical historians Runus, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Philostorgius. Ultimately, the
conagration story became canonical because it perfectly suited pagan and Christian
historians. They portrayed the battle and the death of the Arian Valens as divine punishment
for the emperors religious persecutions against them. After Adrianople, Ambrose felt that the
end of the world was coming (see Lenski 1997 for a full treatment of contemporary reactions
after the battle).
After their victory, the Goths were unable to take advantage to the situation. They had no
experience in besieging cities and raided Thrace countryside during four years. It is generally
thought that the treaty (foedus) signed between them and Theodosius I on 3 October 382 put
an end to the war. Under the terms of this treaty the Goths were allowed to settle in Roman
territory but in return they were to serve in the Roman army as foederati. It was the first treaty
to establish a semi-autonomous non-Roman group on imperial territory. However, as Halsall
has shown, this treaty is in fact a historians construct. The peace was made with a series of
small group rather than with a unified group. The Goths surrendered and never signed a single
treaty with the Emperor. Indeed, the archaeological evidence for the Goths settling as a semiautonomous group in the Roman Empire is almost inexistent (Poulter 2007).
This was not the last trauma inflicted by the Goths on the Roman Empire. Some 30 years
later, they will sack Rome.
Sources:
Dallolmo, U., Latin Terminology Relating to Aurorae Comets Meteors and Novae, Journal
for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 11, 1980, p. 10-27
Eisenberg R, The Battle of Adrianople: A Reappraisal, Hirundo, Vol.8, 2009, p. 108-120
Gregory T.E., History of Byzantium, 2007, p. 88-89
Halsall G., Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376 - 568, 2007, p.180-185
Heather P., The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, The English
Historical Review, Vol. 110, No. 435, February 1995, p. 4-41
Heather P., Goths and Huns, c. 320-425,in Cameron A., Garnsey P. (eds), The Cambridge
Ancient History. Volume XIII: The Late Empire, A.D. 337-425, 2007, p. 487-515
Lenski N., Initium mali Romano imperio: Contemporary Reactions to the Battle of
Adrianople, Transactions of the American Philological Association , Vol. 127, 1997, p. 129168

Lenski N., Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century A.D.,
University of California Press, 2002, p. 320-368
Poulter A., Invisible Goths Within and Beyond the Roman Empire, in Drinkwater J.,
Salway B. (dir), Wolf Liebescbuetz Reflected, London, 2007, p. 169-183
Poulter A., Goths on the Lower Danube: Their Impact upon and behind the Frontier,
Antiquit Tardive: Revue internationale dhistoire et darchologie (4th - 7th centuries AD)
21, 2014, p. 63-76.
Poulter, A.,Town and Country in Moesia Inferior. in ed. Poulter A. (ed.) Ancient Bulgaria:
Papers Presented to the International Symposium on the Ancient History and Archaeology of
Bulgaria, University of Nottingham, Nottingham., 1981, p. 74118
Topalilov I., The barbarians and the city: comparative study of the impact of the barbarian
invasions in 376-378 and 442-447 on the urbanism of Philippopolis, Thrace, in Dzino D.,
Parry K. (eds), Byzantium, its Neighbourg and its Cultures, Australian Association for
Byzantine Studies, 2014, p. 223-244
Ammianus Marcellinus, The History , 31. 12-15
() the Gothic cavalry, returning with Alatheus and Saphrax, combined with a band of the
Halani, dashed out as a thunderbolt does near high mountains, and threw into confusion all
those whom they could find in the way of their swift onslaught, and quickly slew them.
On every side armour and weapons clashed, and Bellona, raging with more than usual
madness for the destruction of the Romans, blew her lamentable war-trumpets; our soldiers
who were giving way rallied, exchanging many encouraging shouts, but the battle, spreading
like flames, filled their hearts with terror, as numbers of them were pierced by strokes of
whirling spears and arrows. Then the lines dashed together like beaked ships, pushing each
other back and forth in turn, and tossed about by alternate movements, like waves at sea.
And because the left wing, which had made its way as far as the very wagons, and would have
gone farther if it had had any support, being deserted by the rest of the cavalry, was hard
pressed by the enemy's numbers, it was crushed, and overwhelmed, as if by the downfall of a
mighty rampart. The foot-soldiers thus stood unprotected, and their companies were so
crowded together that hardly anyone could pull out his sword or draw back his arm. Because
of clouds of dust the heavens could no longer be seen, and echoed with frightful cries. Hence
the arrows whirling death from every side always found their mark with fatal effect, since
they could not be seen beforehand nor guarded against. But when the barbarians, pouring
forth in huge hordes, trampled down horse and man, and in the press of ranks no room for
retreat could be gained anywhere, and the increased crowding left no opportunity for escape,
our soldiers also, showing extreme contempt of falling in the fight, received their deathblows, yet struck down their assailants; and on both sides the strokes of axes split helmet and
breastplate. Here one might see a barbarian filled with lofty courage, his cheeks contracted in

a hiss, hamstrung or with right hand severed, or pierced through the side, on the very verge of
death threateningly casting about his fierce glance; and by the fall of the combatants on both
sides the plains were covered with the bodies of the slain strewn over the ground, while the
groans of the dying and of those who had suffered deep wounds caused immense fear when
they were heard. In this great tumult and confusion the infantry, exhausted by their efforts
and the danger, when in turn strength and mind for planning anything were lacking, their
lances for the most part broken by constant clashing, content to fight with drawn swords,
plunged into the dense masses of the foe, regardless of their lives, seeing all around that every
loophole of escape was lost. The ground covered with streams of blood whirled their slippery
foothold from under them, so they could only strain every nerve to sell their lives dearly; and
they opposed the onrushing foe with such great resolution that some fell by the weapons of
their own comrades. Finally, when the whole scene was discoloured with the hue of dark
blood, and wherever men turned their eyes heaps of slain met them, they trod upon the bodies
of the dead without mercy. Now the sun had risen higher, and when it had finished its course
through Leo, and was passing into the house of the heavenly Virgo,a scorched the Romans,
who were more and more exhausted by hunger and worn out by thirst, as well as distressed by
the heavy burden of their armour. Finally our line was broken by the onrushing weight of the
barbarians, and since that was the only resort in their last extremity, they took to their heels in
disorder as best they could.
()
And so the barbarians, their eyes blazing with frenzy, were pursuing our men, in whose veins
the blood was chilled with numb horror: some fell without knowing who struck them down,
others were buried beneath the mere weight of their assailants; some were slain by the sword
of a comrade; for though they often rallied, there was no ground given, nor did anyone spare
those who retreated. Besides all this, the roads were blocked by many who lay mortally
wounded, lamenting the torment of their wounds; and with them also mounds of fallen horses
filled the plains with corpses. To these ever irreparable losses, so costly to the Roman state, a
night without the bright light of the moon put an end.
()
Others say that Valens did not give up the ghost at once, but with his bodyguardand a few
eunuchs was taken to a peasant's cottage near by, well fortified in its second storey; and while
he was being treated by unskilful hands, he was surrounded by the enemy, who did not know
who he was, but was saved from the shame of captivity. For while the pursuers were trying to
break open the bolted doors, they were assailed with arrows from a balcony of the house; and
fearing through the inevitable delay to lose the opportunity for pillage, they piled bundles of
straw and firewood about the house, set fire to them, and burned it men and all. From it one of
the bodyguard leaped through a window, but was taken by the enemy; when he told them
what had happened, he filled them with sorrow at being cheated of great glory, in not having
taken the ruler of the Roman empire alive. This same young man, having later escaped and
returned secretly to our army, gave this account of what had occurred.
()

Certain it is that barely a third part of our army escaped. The annals record no such massacre
of a battle except the one at Cannae, although the Romans more than once, deceived by
trickery due to an adverse breeze of Fortune, yielded for a time to ill-success in their wars,
and although the storied dirges of the Greeks have mourned over many a contest.
()
After the murderous battle, when night had already spread darkness over the earth, the
survivors departed, some to the right, others to the left, or wherever their fear took them, each
seeking his nearest associates, for none could see anything save himself, and everyone
imagined that the enemy's sword hung over his own head. Yet there were still heard, though
from afar off, the pitiful cries of those who were left behind, the death-rattle of the dying, and
the tortured wails of the wounded.
Theophanes, Chronicle, p. 100:
"377-378
In this year the Goths, united again, invaded Roman territory and devastated numerous
provinces, Scythia, Mysia, Thrace, Macedonia, Achaea, and all of Greece, about twenty
provinces in all.
In this period clouds in the shape of armed men were seen in the sky, and in Antioch a child
was born, complete in its other parts, but having one eye in the middle of the forehead, four
arms, four legs and a beard. (...)
After his departure, some of his household acknowledged that on his command divination was
carried out concerning his proposed rush into war. When battle was joined with the Goths,
Valens was defeated and fled with a few others to a hut. The barbarians overtook him, set fire
to the house and in ignorance incinerated all those inside."