The Battle of Châlons was fought in 274 between Roman Emperor

Aurelian Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited ...

and Emperor

Tetricus I Gaius Pius Esuvius Tetricus was the emperor of the Gallic Empire from 271 to 274 AD. He was originally the (governor) of Gallia Aquitania and became emperor after the murder of Emperor Victorinus in 271, with the support of Victorinus's mother, ...

of the

Gallic Empire The Gallic Empire or the Gallic Roman Empire are names used in modern historiography for a breakaway part of the Roman Empire that functioned ''de facto'' as a separate state from 260 to 274. It originated during the Crisis of the Third Century, ...

. Fought in what is now

Châlons-en-Champagne Châlons-en-Champagne () is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the department of Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims. Formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne, the city was officially renam ...

, France, it was the battle that marked the end of the independent Gallic Empire, and its unification back to the Roman Empire, after fourteen years of separation.

Background

Aurelian, having subdued revolts in the eastern Roman Empire, began preparing to reconquer the Gallic Empire by early 274. Meanwhile, Tetricus' hold on his domain was steadily weakening, facing continuous raids from Germanic tribes and internal troubles with the rebellion of

Faustinus Faustinus was a 3rd-century CE political figure who launched a rebellion against the Gallic Emperor Tetricus I. His full name and his year of birth are unknown. According to a small number of literary sources (Aurelius Victor, Eutropius,Eutropius ...

, a provincial governor. Tetricus ordered his troops to leave the Rhine and march southward, where they met the Roman army in the Catalunian fields of Châlons-sur-Marne.

The battle

Aurelian's army was better trained and well commanded, and when Tetricus was captured in the midst of the fighting, the Rhine army disintegrated and was torn apart by Aurelian's troops. The battle was remembered for years for its high death toll.

Aftermath

The costly battle made it much harder for Aurelian to defend the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...

area. In the years to come, Alamans and

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools ...

invaded the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

, taking forts and destroying cities. In the aftermath of the Battle of Châlons, Tetricus and his

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some curren ...

were taken to Rome and paraded in a

triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

. Tetricus was spared further punishment; instead, Aurelian made him a Roman administrator, a ''

corrector A corrector (English plural ''correctors'', Latin plural ''correctores'') is a person or object practicing correction, usually by removing or rectifying errors. The word is originally a Roman title, ''corrector'', derived from the Latin verb '' ...

Lucaniae'', overseeing the region

Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Bruttiu ...

in southern Italy.

Historical controversies

Historians dispute whether Tetricus actually wished to fight at Chalons. Various older accounts portray him as unhappy with his position as Gallic emperor. According to these, Tetricus deliberately placed his army in a disadvantageous situation, and deserted at the outset of the battle, having previously arranged the elaborate treachery with

. However, modern historians have demurred, considering the story of Tetricus' disloyalty propaganda fomented by Aurelian. As a simple matter of logic, Aurelian might have prevented the heavy casualties to his army by having Tetricus ordinarily surrender. The empire was in desperate need of manpower to protect Gaul from the barbarian incursions, and the slaughter of Chalons left the Rhine frontier dangerously defenseless and exposed to the invasions of

and

Alemans The Alemanni or Alamanni, were a confederation of Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Caracalla of 213, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into pre ...

. But the narrative of

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, '' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, i ...

appears to answer these objections: according to that historian, the Gallic army revered the memory of

Postumus Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman commander of Batavian origin, who ruled as Emperor of the splinter state of the Roman Empire known to modern historians as the Gallic Empire. The Roman army in Gaul threw off its allegiance to Ga ...

, and would have deposed or killed Tetricus if he tried to surrender Postumus' empire without a fight; further, Aurelian could not trust the rebellious army to submit to him permanently unless he broke its spirit with a military defeat. Another controversy concerns the date of the battle. Although the vast majority of ancient and modern historians place it in 273, or 274, ''after'' the fall of

Zenobia Septimia Zenobia ( Palmyrene Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; AD 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner and she married the ruler of the cit ...

, Gibbon dates it before (270 or 271), on the basis of a letter from

given in the ''

Augustan History The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the si ...

'', which implies that

Firmus According to the ''Historia Augusta'', Firmus (died 273) was a usurper during the reign of Aurelian. The contradictory accounts of his life and the man himself are considered to be a complete fabrication, perhaps based on the later Firmus. His ...

, suppressed in 274, was the last of the usurpers.Gibbon, Ibid. p. 261, note; p. 269, note

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Chalons (274) 274 270s in the Roman Empire Châlons Gallic Empire Chalons 274 Chalons 274 History of Marne (department) 3rd century in Roman Gaul Aurelian