The Day of the Barbarians by Alessandro Barbero

Author:Alessandro Barbero
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2009-09-14T04:00:00+00:00

IX

ADRIANOPLE, AUGUST 9, 378

Adrianople was the first great city the emperor came to after his departure from the suburbs of the capital; since Sebastianus's victorious counterraid, however, the Goths had stopped venturing so far, and so Valens decided to press on toward the Rhodope Mountains in the hope of making contact with the enemy. The Goths, too, were moving, marching south from Cabyle as if Fritigern, having been informed that the emperor in person was leading the hunt for him, had decided on a confrontation. Of the two adversaries, the Roman side seemed to be operating more completely in the dark. Although the Romans had a great deal of cavalry, their reconnaissance activities were not very efficient, and at least part of the mounted forces were heavy cavalry, cataphracts or clibanarii, as the Romans called them, who fought while enclosed in impenetrable armor and could surely not be wasted in scouting duties. Valens's army had already marched some distance northwest on its way to the mountains where, it was believed, the enemy was still encamped, when some scouting patrols returned and reported that the Goths were much closer than expected: They were coming down the Tundzha river valley behind the Roman column, and there was a chance they might reach the plain and fall on Adrianople.

Fritigern's strategic ability was evident again, as he apparently planned to seal off the road to Constantinople, stop the emperor's supplies from reaching him, and cut off his retreat, thus forcing him to fight on unfavorable ground. Valens, however, grasped the situation and reacted quickly The Goths were crossing a mountainous region where they had to move comparatively slowly, and it was still possible to block their passage before they completed their outflanking maneuver. Valens sent troops suited for such a mission—light, fast-moving cavalry and archers—and ordered them to occupy the mountain passes the Goths were most likely to traverse. The barbarians, for their part, proceeded with caution, not wishing to expose themselves to a surprise attack in the mountains; they did not try to force the passes, choosing instead a more circuitous route. Their idea was still to descend onto the plain and cut the road to Constantinople, but the Romans had identified their position and the element of surprise was gone. Judging from the reports that reached him in his tent, Valens was unable to determine the exact number of the enemy; he did not know whether he was dealing with the main Gothic army or a detachment that his forces could overwhelm. Finally, he received a report more precise than the others: A scouting party had observed at length the enemy on the march and figured that the Goths had no more than ten thousand men. Valens had more, perhaps even twice as many. He immediately gave orders to turn back to Adrianople, where he planned to attack the Goths as soon as they came out onto the plain.

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Valens's army set up a fortified encampment in the suburbs of Adrianople, complete with ditch and palisade.

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