The Battle of Fano, also known as the Battle of Fanum Fortunae,Michael Grant, The History of Rome, p. 285 was fought in 271 between the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

and the

Juthungi The Juthungi (Greek: ''Iouthungoi'', Latin: ''Iuthungi'') were a Germanic tribe in the region north of the rivers Danube and Altmühl in what is now the modern German state of Bavaria. The tribe was mentioned by the Roman historians Publius Her ...

. The Romans, led by 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 t ...

, were victorious.

Background

Aurelian had been defeated by the Juthungi at the Battle of Placentia in 271, but he had rallied his men, and started pursuing the Juthungi, who were quickly moving towards a defenceless

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

The battle

Finally, the

Roman Army The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...

caught and forced a fight with the Juthungi on the

Metaurus River The Metauro is a river in the Marche region of central Italy. It rises in the Apennine Mountains and runs east for or if the Meta is included as its uppermost reach. The name of the river in Latin is ''Metaurus'' or ''Mataurus.'' In Ancient ...

, just inland of

Fano Fano is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the ''Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by popula ...

. The crucial moment of the battle was when the Juthungi were pinned against the river, so that, when the Germanic line was forced to give way, many of the Juthungi fell into the river and drowned according to the Romans.

Aftermath

In spite of this and a following defeat in the

Battle of Pavia The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–1526 between the Kingdom of France and the Habsburg empire of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as well as ruler of Spain, Au ...

, they remained in existence as an independent tribe until at least the beginning of the 5th century and probably even longer. They besieged and ultimately tore down the very important Roman military camp Castra Regina in 356 or 358AD together with the

Alamanni 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 pres ...

. This camp was in fact one of the biggest in all of Roman-ruled Germania and borderland Gallia, and it even had thick stone walls surrounding the camp as well a village within it. The camp laid at what more or less corresponds to modern day

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

in Germany. After the Juthungi took the camp the Romans never recovered it or won the area surrounding it back. The Juthungi and Alamanni who had fought alongside them probably settled in the area and became a part of the later germanic nation of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

References

Bibliography

Crisis of the Third Century Fano Fano 271 Fano 271 3rd century in Italy 271

Aurelian {{AncientRome-battle-stub