History

Gratian, filled with confidence at this happy success, and being already on his way to the regions of the east, turned his line of march to the left, secretly crossed the Rhine, and spurred on the more by sanguine hope, determined, if fortune favoured his attempt, utterly to destroy a race faithless and greedy for trouble.

When one urgent message after another brought this news to the Lentienses, who were almost annihilated by the disasters to their people and were stunned by the emperor’s sudden arrival, they were in doubt what plan to adopt; and since they could find no respite, however short, from fighting, nor from any action or effort, in swift course they made for the hills, which were beset by pathless crags. There, taking their place round about on the sheer rocks, they tried to defend their possessions and their dear wives and children, whom they had brought with them, with all the strength that they possessed.

After consideration of the difficult situation, five hundred soldiers who were approved by experience as prudent in battle were selected from each legion, to be opposed to obstacles like those of city walls. Their confident spirit was all the greater because the emperor was seen actively engaged in the foremost ranks, and they strove to scale the mountains, expecting that if they should set foot on the higher places, they would at once and without a struggle carry them off, as if they were booty taken in the chase. But the battle, which began towards midday, was even overtaken by the darkness of night.

Both sides indeed suffered severe losses; our men slew many, but not a few of their own number fell, and at the same time the armour of the imperial guard, gleaming with gold and bright colours, was shattered by the heavy missiles thickly cast upon it.

Then, after long conference with the men of highest rank, Gratian thought it dangerous and fruitless to struggle with untimely obstinacy against rugged jutting heights; opinions varied greatly, as was natural in such circumstances, but it was finally decided that, with the soldiers at rest, the barbarians should be shut in on all sides and exhausted by famine, since they were protected by the unevenness of the ground.

But when the Germans resisted with the same persistence, and, being acquainted with the country, made for other mountains, higher than those which they had occupied before, the emperor wheeled in that direction with his army, and with the same courage as before sought to find paths leading to the heights.

When the Lentienses perceived that he was determined with most earnest persistence to have their lives, they obtained mercy as the result of humble supplications, and surrendered; then giving their strong young manhood (as they were ordered) to be mingled with our recruits, they were allowed to go without punishment to their native lands.

Incredibly great energy and conspicuous rapidity were shown by Gratian, while he was hastening in another direction, when through the favour of the eternal deity he won this victory, which was at once seasonable and profitable, since it tamed the western nations. He was a young man of spendid character, eloquent, self-restrained, war-like, and merciful, and was already on his way to rivalry with the most distinguished emperors while yet a comely down was creeping over his cheeks, had not his natural inclination for unbecoming conduct, which was given free rein by his intimates, turned him to the frivolous pursuits of the emperor Commodus, although without that prince’s thirst for blood.

For as that emperor felt superhuman exultation because he so often killed a great number of wild animals with javelins in the presence of the people, and slaughtered with various kinds of weapons in the arena of the amphitheatre a hundred lions that were let in together, without needing to inflict a second wound, just so Gratian also, while he pierced sharptoothed beasts with many an arrow-shot within the enclosures which are called vivaria, neglected as of little moment many serious occurrences; and that too at a time when, even if Marcus Antoninus had been emperor, he could not without like-minded colleagues and most prudent counsel have mitigated the grievous disasters to our country.

Gratian, then, after making the arrangements which affairs and policy throughout Gaul demanded according to the trend of the times, and punishing the traitorous targeteer who had revealed to the barbarians that the emperor was hurrying to Illyricum, hastened next to go by long marches past the castle called Felix Arbor and past Lauriacum, to bring aid to the hard-pressed part of the country.

At that same time Frigeridus, who was carefully making many useful plans for the general security, and was hastening to fortify the pass of Succi, in order that the roving light-armed bands of the enemy might not, like torrents swollen by melting snow, roam at large over the northern provinces, was given a successor in the person of a general called Maurus, notoriously venal under a pretence of boldness, and changeable and unreliable in all his conduct. He it was who (as I have told in my narrative of previous events) when Caesar Julian was in doubt about the crown to be put upon his head, with haughty cleverness took off his neck-chain and boldly offered it to him for the purpose, being at the time one of Julian’s bodyguard.

Thus even in the dizzy whirl of disasters a careful and active leader was removed, whereas he should have been recalled to active service at the demand of such important affairs, even if he had long since retired to a peaceful life.

It chanced that at that time Valens was at last called forth from Antioch, and after making the long journey arrived at Constantinople, where his stay was for only a very few days, and he was disturbed by a slight outbreak of the populace. He gave the command of the infantry, which Trajanus had formerly held, to Sebastianus, a leader of recognized vigilance, who had shortly before been sent from Italy at his own request. He himself went to the imperial villa Melanthias and tried to win the favour of the soldiers by pay, supplies, and many flattering words.

Having commanded a march from there by written order, he came to the military post called Nice, where he learned from the report of scouts that the barbarians, laden with rich spoils, had returned from the lands at the foot of Rhodope to the neighbourhood of Hadrianopolis; they, on hearing that the emperor was on the march with a large force, were hastening to join their countrymen, who were staying in a permanent garrison near Beroea and Nicopolis. At once, as timeliness of the offered opportunity demanded, Sebastianus had been directed to choose three hundred soldiers from each legion and hasten to the spot, to do, as he promised, something advantageous to the state.

He advanced by rapid marches until he was seen near Hadrianopolis, when the gates were strongly barred, and he was not allowed to approach them; for the besieged feared that he came as one who had been captured by the enemy, and won over to their side, and some harm might be caused to the city; such as had happened through the general Acacius, when the troops of Magnentius had captured him by treachery, and brought about the opening of the fastnesses of the Julian Alps.

However, when Sebastianus was recognized, although late, and allowed to enter the city, his men were refreshed with such food and rest as were available; and on the following morning he sallied forth in secret haste. Just as evening was coming on some predatory bands of Goths suddenly came in sight near the river Hebrus, whereupon Sebastianus remained hidden for a time behind mounds and thickets; and when it was dark night he advanced with light step and fell upon them in their sleep, inflicting such a defeat upon them that all the rest perished except a few, whom swiftness of foot saved from death. He brought back countless booty, which was too great to be contained in the city and the broad plain about it.

Fritigern was greatly alarmed by this stroke, and feared lest the general, whom he had always heard to be successful, might make an unexpected attack upon his scattered and heedless bands, which were intent only upon pillage, and utterly destroy them; he therefore recalled all his men to the vicinity of the town of Cabyle and quickly left that neighbourhood, in order that his people, by living in the open plains, might not suffer from famine or from secret attacks.

While this was going on in Thrace, Gratian, having informed his uncle by letter with what energy he had overthrown the Alamanni, sent on ahead by land all his baggage and packs, and descending the Danube with a band of light-armed troops, came to Bononia and entered Sirmium. Having delayed there for four days, he went on over the same river to the Camp of Mars, although attacked by intermittent fevers. In that region the Halani unexpectedly fell upon him, and he lost a few of his followers.

In those same days Valens was troubled for two reasons: first, by the news that the Lentienses had been defeated; secondly, because Sebastianus wrote from time to time exaggerating his exploits. He therefore marched forth from Melanthias, being eager to do some glorious deed to equal his young nephew, whose valiant exploits consumed him with envy. He had under his command a force made up of varying elements, but one neither contemptible, nor unwarlike; for he had joined with them also a large number of veterans, among whom were other officers of high rank and Trajanus, shortly before a commander-in-chief, whom he had recalled to active service.

And since it was learned from careful reconnoitring that the enemy were planning with strong guards to block the roads over which the necessary supplies were being brought, he tried competently to frustrate this attempt by quickly sending an infantry troop of bowmen and a squadron of cavalry, in order to secure the advantages of the narrow passes, which were near by.

During the next three days, when the barbarians, advancing at a slow pace and through unfrequented places, since they feared a sally, were fifteen miles distant from the city, and were making for the station of Nice, through some mistake or other the emperor was assured by his skirmishers that all that part of the enemy’s horde which they had seen consisted of only ten thousand men, and carried away by a kind of rash ardour, he determined to attack them at once.

Accordingly, advancing in square formation, he came to the vicinity of a suburb of Hadrianopolis, where he made a strong rampart of stakes, surrounded by a moat, and impatiently waited for Gratian; there he received Richomeres, general of the household troops, sent in advance by Gratian with a letter, in which he said that he himself also would soon be there.

Since the contents besought him to wait a while for the partner in his dangers, and not rashly to expose himself alone to serious perils, Valens called a council of various of his higher officers and considered what ought to be done.

And while some, influenced by Sebastianus, urged him to give battle at once, the man called Victor, a commander of cavalry, a Sarmatian by birth, but foresighted and careful, with the support of many others recommended that his imperial colleague be awaited, so that, strengthened by the addition of the Gallic army, he might the more easily crush the fiery over-confidence of the barbarians.

However, the fatal insistence of the emperor prevailed, supported by the flattering opinion of some of his courtiers, who urged him to make all haste in order that Gratian might not have a share in the victory which (as they represented) was already all but won.

While the necessary preparations for the decisive battle were going on, a Christian presbyter (to use their own term), who had been sent by Fritigem as an envoy, in company with some humble folk came to the emperor’s camp. He was courteously received and presented a letter from the same chieftain, openly requesting that to him and his people, whom the rapid forays of savage races had made exiles from their native lands, Thrace only should be granted as a habitation, with all its flocks and crops; and they promised lasting peace if this request were granted.

Besides this the aforesaid Christian, apparently a confidant and trusted friend of Fritigern, presented also a private letter of the same king, who, all too skilled in craft and in various forms of deception, informed Valens, pretending that he hoped soon to be his friend and ally, that he could not tame the savagery of his people, or entice them to adopt conditions favourable to the Roman state, unless the emperor should from time to time show them near at hand his army ready for battle, and through the fear aroused by the imperial name check their destructive eagerness for war. But as to the envoys, their sincerity was doubted, and they left without accomplishing their purpose.

But on the dawn of that day which is numbered in the calendar as the fifth before the Ides of August the army began its march with extreme haste, leaving all its baggage and packs near the walls of Hadrianopolis with a suitable guard of legions; for the treasury, and the insignia of imperial dignity besides, with the prefect and the emperor’s council, were kept within the circuit of the walls.

So after hastening a long distance over rough ground, while the hot day was advancing towards noon, finally at the eighth hour they saw the wagons of the enemy, which, as the report of the scouts had declared, were arranged in the form of a perfect circle. And while the barbarian soldiers, according to their custom, uttered savage and dismal howls, the Roman leaders so drew up their line of battle that the cavalry on the right wing were first pushed forward, while the greater part of the infantry waited in reserve.

But the left wing of the horsemen (which was formed with the greatest difficulty, since very many of them were still scattered along the roads) was hastening to the spot at swift pace. And while that same wing was being extended, still without interruption, the barbarians were terrified by the awful din, the hiss of whirring arrows and the menacing clash of shields; and since a part of their forces under Alatheus and Saphrax was far away and, though sent for, had not yet returned, they sent envoys to beg for peace.

The emperor scorned these because of their low origin, demanding for the execution of a lasting treaty that suitable chieftains be sent; meanwhile the enemy purposely delayed, in order that during the pretended truce their cavalry might return, who, they hoped, would soon make their appearance; also that our soldiers might be exposed to the fiery summer heat and exhausted by their dry throats, while the broad plains gleamed with fires, which the enemy were feeding with wood and dry fuel, for this same purpose. To that evil was added another deadly one, namely, that men and beasts were tormented by severe hunger.

Meanwhile Fritigern, shrewd to foresee the future and fearing the uncertainty of war, on his own initiative sent one of his common soldiers as a herald, requesting that picked men of noble rank be sent to him at once as hostages and saying that he himself would fearlessly meet the threats of his soldiers and do what was necessary.

The proposal of the dreaded leader was welcome and approved, and the tribune Aequitius, then marshal of the court and a relative of Valens, with the general consent was chosen to go speedily as a surety. When he objected, on the ground that he had once been captured by the enemy but had escaped from Dibaltum, and therefore feared their unreasonable anger, Richomeres voluntarily offered his own services and gladly promised to go, thinking this also to be a fine act and worthy of a brave man. And soon he was on his way [bringing] proofs of his rank and birth. . . .

As he was on his way to the enemy’s rampart, the archers and the targeteers, then under the command of one Bacurius of Hiberia and Cassio, had rushed forward too eagerly in hot attack, and were already engaged with their adversaries; and as their charge had been untimely, so their retreat was cowardly; and thus they gave an unfavourable omen to the beginning of the battle.

This unseasonable proceeding not only thwarted the prompt action of Richomeres, who was not allowed to go at all, but also 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 death-blows, 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 though Leo, and was passing into the house of the heavenly Virgo, 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.

While all scattered in flight over unknown paths, the emperor, hedged about by dire terrors, and slowly treading over heaps of corpses, took refuge with the lancers and the mattiarii, who, so long as the vast numbers of the enemy could be sustained, had stood unshaken with bodies firmly planted. On seeing him Trajanus cried that all hope was gone, unless the emperor, abandoned by his body-guard, should at least be protected by his foreign auxiliaries.

On hearing this the general called Victor hastened to bring quickly to the emperor’s aid the Batavi, who had been posted not far off as a reserve force; but when he could find none of them, he retired and went away. And in the same way Richomeres and Saturninus made their escape from danger.

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.

At the first coming of darkness the emperor, amid the common soldiers as was supposed (for no one asserted that he had seen him or been with him), fell mortally wounded by an arrow, and presently breathed his last breath; and he was never afterwards found anywhere. For since a few of the foe were active for long in the neighbourhood for the purpose of robbing the dead, no one of the fugitives or of the natives ventured to approach the spot.

The Caesar Decius, we are told, met a similar fate; for when he was fiercely fighting with the barbarians and his horse, whose excitement he could not restrain, stumbled and threw him, he fell into a marsh, from which he could not get out, nor could his body be found.

Others say that Valens did not give up the ghost at once, but with his bodyguard and 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.