The Battle of Marcianople or Marcianopolis took place in 376 following the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

' migration over the Danube. It was the first notable battle of the Gothic War of 376–382. After a failed

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

attempt to assassinate the Gothic leadership at a

banquet A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes inc ...

Marcianople Marcianopolis or Marcianople ( Greek: Μαρκιανούπολις), also known as Parthenopolis was an ancient Greek, then Roman capital city and archbishopric in Moesia Inferior. It is located at the site of modern-day Devnya, Bulgaria. The ...

, the Roman commander Lupicinius gathered all available troops, some 5,000 men, and attacked the 7,000–8,000

Thervingi The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised Tervings or Thervings) were a Gothic people of the plains north of the Lower Danube and west of the Dniester River in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Gre ...

Goths under

Fritigern Fritigern (fl. 370s) was a Thervingian Gothic chieftain whose decisive victory at Adrianople during the Gothic War (376–382) led to favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian and Theodosius I in 382. Name ''Fritigern'' ...

nine miles to the west of the town. While the Romans adopted a defensive posture on the battlefield, the Goths launched an immediate, all-out assault and bashed and slew the Romans with their

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

s, and

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

s. Lupicinius fled as more than half of his army was killed on the spot. The Goths then re-armed themselves with Roman weaponry.

Background

Introduction of the Goths into the Empire

In A.D. 376, after the death of

Ermanaric Ermanaric (died 376) was a Greuthungian king who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled a sizable portion of Oium, the part of Scythia inhabited by the Goths at the time. He is mentioned in two Roman sources: the contemporary writings of ...

's successor Vithimiris in battle against the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

and the disintegration of the

Ostrogothic The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

kingdom, the

were forced to retreat before the feared Asian invaders. After the attempt to hold the

Dniester The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...

against the enemy ended in failure and near encirclement and destruction, the Thervingi retreated; a part into what is now

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

under

Athanaric Athanaric or Atanaric (; died 381) was king of several branches of the Thervingian Goths () for at least two decades in the 4th century. Throughout his reign, Athanaric was faced with invasions by the Roman Empire, the Huns and a civil war with C ...

, while the rest led by

fell back to the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, where they asked permission from the Roman Emperor Valens to be allowed to cross the river, which they thought could be held against the fearsome Asian barbarians.

Valens Valens (; ; 328 – 9 August 378) was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the Byzantine Empire, eastern half of the Roman Em ...

, then emperor in the east, yielded his consent, but on the terms that their wealth, arms, and a certain number of their high-born youth, should be surrendered to him as pledges of their loyalty; and that they were to become the faithful servants of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, subject to the obligations as well as the benefits of residence within her boundaries; the desperate barbarians eagerly accepted his conditions, and close to a million

, including 200,000 effective warriors, according to Gibbon, were ferried across the Danube by the governors of

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

. Eunapius states their number as 200,000 including civilians, but Peter Heather estimates that the Thervings may have had only 10,000 warriors and 50,000 people in total, with the Greuthungi about the same size.

Exploitation

Trouble arose, however, when the corruption of Valens' local ministers came into play. Incapable of resisting the temptation presented by a multitude of desperate, suppliant, and increasingly famished victims, Valens' ministers shamelessly extorted from the Goths their property and even the persons of their wives and daughters, in return for means of bare subsistence, which Valens had engaged to supply with a liberal hand. At the same time, they failed to disarm the Goths as intended, and their camp on the Danube was soon filled with the noise of war. Increasingly alarmed, Valens' generals resolved to disperse the Goths throughout the provinces, and gave orders for Fritigern, their leader, to march to Marcianopolis, where the respective places for each colony would be assigned. Fritigern, apparently still compliant, immediately hurried to obey the order.

Battle

Having assembled the Goths near the city, Lupicinus, the Roman provincial commander in Thrace, who had himself played a conspicuous role in the exploitation and intolerable exactions to which the Goths had been subjected, invited their principal chiefs to a sumptuous feast, prepared in the hopes of conciliating them, and perhaps by bribery to discourage their revelation of his peculations to the emperor. In the midst of the entertainment, however, the main body of the Goths which had been ordered to encamp outside the city, in an attempt to obtain some provisions from the inhabitants, broke into a disorderly struggle with the Roman garrison, which denied them entry into the city. As soon as the noise of the fighting reached Fritigern in Lupicinus's palace, he broke out with the rest of the chiefs, swords drawn, and rejoined the Gothic camp outside the city. War was at once declared upon the Empire. Lupicinius gathered all available troops, some 5,000 men, and attacked the 7,000–8,000

Tervingi The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised Tervings or Thervings) were a Gothic people of the plains north of the Lower Danube and west of the Dniester River in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Gr ...

Goths under

nine miles to the west of the town. While the Romans adopted a defensive posture on the battlefield, the Goths launched an immediate, all-out assault and bashed and slew the Romans with their

s, and

s. The veteran legions fought with marked bravery, but Lupicinius fled as more than half of his army was killed, and ultimately succumbed to the numbers and ferocity of the enraged barbarians. The Goths then re-armed themselves with Roman weaponry and promptly fell to devastating neighboring countryside, burning and desolating what they did not appropriate.Gibbon, Ibid. p. 928

Citations

References

376 370s in the Byzantine Empire Gothic War (376–382) 370s conflicts {{AncientRome-battle-stub