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***Battle of Teutoberg
Forest***
Sides: Romans
vs. Germans
Time: 9 AD
Place: north
of Munster, Germany
Action: Roman
expansion began moving into the northern forests of Germania beyond the Rhine
and Elbe rivers. The tribes sporadically
revolted, and in 9, over 15,000 soldiers under Publius Varus were sent, along
with German mercenaries under Arminius, to secure the frontier. After some
fighting, Arminius, who the Germans call Hermann, experienced an awakening of
heart. With his men, he realized there were things more important than payment
and social benefits, and abandoned the Romans. But this was not enough. The
line was drawn, and Hermann had drawn it. Now the Germans struck at the Romans
in the Teutoberg Forest, and struck mercilessly, again
and again, and the Romans lost their way. Soldier's families were not spared,
and all was soon lost. Varus took his own life. Upon hearing about the tragedy,
Augustus wrung his hands, saying, "Varus, give me back my legions!"
Casualties: c.
14,000 Romans
Consequence:
While the Romans would enter the forests of Germania many times, and conduct
punishing assaults on the tribes there, the lands beyond the Rhine and Danube rivers would remain permanently outside the
suzerainty of the Empire.
***Siege of Masada***
Sides: Romans
vs. Israelites
Time: 73
Place: Dead Sea, Israel
Action: When
the province of Judea
rebelled against Roman rule in 66, Nero's order to have his statue worshiped as
a god-idol in the Temple in Jerusalem being the last straw, the legions
marched under Vespasian and Titus. When Jerusalem
fell in 70, the rebellion was over, but one fortress town in the mountains near
the Dead Sea, Masada, refused to surrender.
The 10th Legion surrounded the tall fortress, but it was well defended and
well-provisioned. It could hold out for years in a siege. So the Romans went to
work building an amazing 660 ft. high ramp. They butted the ramp against the
wall of the fort, and rolled a multistory siege tower slowly but inexorably up.
Its bottom level had a battering ram, and its top had ballistas to give cover
to those operating the ram. When the smashing began, the Jewish resistance knew
it was only a matter of time. Their commander, Eleazar ben Yair, ordered every
last fighter to take his own life rather than be taken prisoner, which they
did.
Casualties:
953 Jews
Consequence:
Masada ended Jewish resistance, and many Jews were exiled from the area of the
former Kingdom of
Israel. Some went east to
Babylon, others south to Egypt, and
across north Africa. By the middle ages, many were in Spain and Italy,
and beginning in the 14th century, many moved to Poland,
Russia and Germany. When
the Zionist movement began in the 19th century, and especially after 1945 and
the Holocaust, many came back, full circle as it were, to recreate Israel.
***Revolt of the Iceni***
Sides: Romans
vs. Britons
Time: 60
Place: north
of London, England
Action: The
Roman conquest of Britannia was led by Emperor Claudius. But a decade later,
Boudicca, queen of the Iceni tribe, led a revolt that attracted her neighbor
tribes to revolt as well. Londinium and other towns were sacked. The legions
marched from Anglesey in Wales
and met the rebels with pila javelins, which cut down the first line, and then
they advanced upon them with their swords until a rout of the rebels was
attained. Boudicca drank poison and the revolt was over.
Casualties:
Romans: 400, Briton rebels: over 10,000
Consequence:
Britannia was quiet for decades.
***Battle of Mons
Graupius***
Sides: Romans
vs. Caledonians
Time: 84
Place: near Aberdeen, Scotland
Action: The
Roman governor of Britannia, Agricola, heard of an uprising of the Celts in the
north. He sent his men to forestall it with cavalry. The Caledonians had
chariots, but these were defeated by the cavalry, and then the infantry was
felled as well, ending any potential for a revolt.
Casualties:
Romans: 360, Caledonians: 10,000
Consequence:
Britannia would see other skirmishes, and finally in 122, Emperor Hadrian
ordered construction of a wall across the island, just south of the
English-Scottish border of today. The wall still stands in many places.
***Dacian Campaign***
Sides: Romans
vs. Dacians
Time: 106
Place: Dacia (modern Romania)
Action: At the
zenith of the Roman Imperium, Emperor Trajan moved to conquer the area
northeast of Greece.
The Dacian tribe had been raiding across the Danube
into Roman territory, and Trajan sent in the legions in the year 101. They
built a bridge of boats over the Danube and
crossed. The Dacians surrendered but when the legions left they reorganized
their forces. In 106 they moved into raiding again, and this time Trajan saw
red. The legions built an actual bridge across the mighty river, and moved in
force. The Dacians went on the run, and the Romans smashed their headquarters
to pieces and hacked away the men one by one. With no relief in sight, the
Dacians committed mass suicide.
Casualties:
unknown
Consequence:
After this campaign, Trajan moved into Arabia, Assyria and Mesopotamia, and
under his rule, recalled by Trajan's Column still standing in Rome, the Imperium achieved its greatest
extent.
BATTLES DURING THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
***Marcomannic (Germanic) War***
Sides: Romans vs. Germans
Time: 180
Place: Germania (present day Slovakia)
Action: In the battle portrayed at the beginning of
the movie Gladiator (2000), Emperor Marcus Aurelius and General Maximianus
(Maximus in the movie) led a decisive Roman victory against a coalition of
Germanic tribes including the Marcomanni and the Quadi, who had been involved
in border skirmishes for many years. Emperor Marcus Aurelius had been battling
them on and off for almost a decade. At the forest of Laugaricio,
they vanquished the coalition.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: In the movie, Emperor Marcus Aurelius is
treacherously murdered by his son Commodus, who then becomes emperor. The more
likely story, however, is that he died of fever in Vindobona (modern Vienna) sometime after
the battle. In either case, upon his death, the 300-year long decline of the
Empire began.
***Battle of Edessa***
Sides: Romans vs. Persians
Time: 260
Place: The Roman East (modern southeastern Turkey)
Action: After nearly a century of decline, the Roman
Empire fought a border war with the reinvigorated Persian
Empire, now called the Sassanian Persians, under Shah Shapur I. It
ended in utter disaster and is a symbol of how far decay had set in the
previous 80 years. It began when Shapur boldly led forces into the eastern part
of the Empire, sacking Antioch.
Meanwhile, the Romans had not good leadership- the imperial purple was worn by
a revolving door of men, usurpers, and whoever could kill the current emperor
and take it by force did. Emperor Aemilianus held the scepter for three months
after declaring himself general following a victory in battle against the
Germans. He marched into Italy
and his forces killed the current emperor. He was then assassinated in turn by
how own men when another general, Valerian, began his own 'march on Rome' with a larger
force. It was Emperor Valerian who met the Persians in battle, after many of
his soldiers caught the plague en route. He was routed and the entire Roman
army was captured, including the emperor.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Shapur spared the lives of the Romans
and transported them to Susa,
the ancient capital, where they built a feat of engineering known as Caesar's
Dam. As for Valerian, he was humiliated by being used as a footstool by Shapur,
and then was slaughtered and stuffed, though sources differ as to if and how.
Either way, this was a low point, a nadir, for the forces of the SPQR.
It was 14 years later that a strong emperor, Diocletian, finally reigned in the
political chaos.
***Battle of the Milvian Bridge***
Sides: Constantine
vs. Maxentius
Time: 312
Place: outside Rome
Action: Diocletian's reforms included splitting
the Empire into units like West and East, and delegating regional
responsibility to other emperors and vice-emperors. Two such were Maxentius,
ruler of Italy, and Constantine, ruler of Gaul
and Britannia. When Diocletian died, a power struggle ensued. Maxentius was the
favorite, he had 25,000 more men in his ranks than Constantine. But Constantine,
while marching from Gaul to Italia, he
"had been pondering the misfortunes that befall commanders that invoke the
help of many different gods, and decided to seek divine aid in the forthcoming
battle from the One God." At noon, he saw a cross of light imposed over
the sun, and the message, "Through this sign, conquer." According to
Eusebius, not only Constantine, but the whole army saw the miracle. That night,
Constantine
dreamed Christ appeared to him, and told him to make a replica of the sign he
had seen in the sky. He placed Chi Rho (CR), the first two letters of the name
Christ, on the shields of his soldiers, and marched into Italy. His
forces defeated opponents in one battle after another, and instead of waiting
for Constantine to get to Rome,
Maxentius met him at the Milvian
Bridge, and was defeated.
His forces clamored across a pontoon bridge across the Tiber,
but it collapsed and Maxentius himself died in the river.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: When Constantine marched into the city, he did not
take revenge on Maxentius' supporters. Also he did not, as was longstanding
tradition, make a final stop at the Temple
of Jupiter at the end of
his victory parade. He was coming to the realization that something else
entirely was involved in the order of things. A year later in 313, Constantine issued the
Edict of Milan, making legal the religion of the God he believed he saw on the
face of the sun, and in his dreams. He himself was baptized into Christianity,
and a new chapter in the history of Europe
began.
***Battle of Strasbourg***
Sides: Romans vs. Alemanni
Time: 357
Place: Eastern France at the Rhine
river
Action: The German Alemanni had been making raids
across the Rhine. Emperor Julian moved to
intercept them and conducted on and off fighting for a year. When the Alemanni
crossed the Rhine at present day Strasbourg,
they outnumbered the Romans and moved in on the Roman cavalry, stabbing the
horses before the riders. But the Roman infantry fired barrage after barrage of
artillery, bows and slingshots., wearing them down. The Romans and their
(other) German auxiliaries then went on the offensive, driving the Alemanni out
into the forests. Many drowned in the river in escape.
Casualties: Romans 243, Alemanni: 6,000
Consequence: So many skirmishes occurred between the
Romans and Alemanni, that the name of this particular German tribe survives in
the French name for Germany:
Allemagne.
***Battle of Ctesiphon***
Sides: Romans vs. Persians
Time: 363
Place: near Baghdad,
Iraq
Action: Six years after winning at Strasbourg,
and a century after the humiliation of Edessa,
Emperor Julian went on the offensive against Sassanian Persia. They
loaded 1,000 supply boats into the Euphrates
River, to provision the legions
marching into Mesopotamia. After moving the
army, and the boats, across canals to the Tigris, they marched on the Sassanian
capital, Ctesiphon.
Shah Shapur II fled after a skirmish, but Emperor Julian could not break
through the capital's fortifications, and had to withdraw. He burned his supply
boats and the army marched back west. However, the Persians did not let them
go. They saw weakness, and acted. Using hit and run tactics, they harried the
Romans, and in one night raid, Julian himself was killed.
Casualties: Persians: unknown, Romans: 83,000
Consequence: This was the second time a Roman ruler
was killed fighting Persia.
Like before, it revealed Rome's
increasing weakness.
***Battle of Adrianopole***
Sides: Romans vs. Goths
Time: 378
Place: northeast Greece
(present Edirne, Turkey)
Action: As Troy was
located on the strategic straits leading from the Mediterranean to the Sea of
Marmara, Constantine had decreed a new city to be built on the site of the small Greek town
of Byzantium, located on the straits leading
from the Sea of Marmara into the Black Sea.
These places are the dominant points in the area, and today Constantinople
separates Europe from the Middle East. It
became the second Rome-
the second capital of the Empire, the jewel of the east. Now an Asiatic force
was on the move west into Europe, the Huns.
They did battle with the German Goths northwest of the Black
Sea, who fled with their entire tribes to take refuge and regroup
from the storm. Eastern Emperor Valens rejected the Ostrogoths request to cross
the Danube into Roman territory and settle.
But they did anyway, 2,000,000 strong. Visigoths, Sarmatians (Slavs) and Alans
joined them, and Valens marched out with the legions from Constantinople
to their makeshift camp at Adrianopole. But the Goths built the first great wagon
laager, an encirclement of connected wagons to make a base camp that could be
defended in hostile territory. The Gothic cavalry was away, and Valens decided
to begin the fight without his infantry yet in battle formation- and tired from
the 126 mile march. A general attack began, but the Gothic cavalry returned
just then, and swiped in "like a thunderbold." Now the Gothic
infantry emerged from the laager, and began a rout of the Romans. Valens was
cut down and killed in the chaos.
Casualties: Goths: unknown, Romans: 40,000
Consequence: "The plain was covered with
carcasses, strewing the mutual ruin of the combatants; the groans of the dying
men were intense." Adrianople was one of
the largest battles of the era. Though the Romans lost, they would, as was
typical, regroup under Theodosius and secure the area. But the offer was made
to many Goths to remain as allies in exchange for the land to settle on.
***Battle of Frigidus***
Sides: Theodosius vs. Arbogast
Time: 394
Place: Trieste,
northeastern Italy
Action: One thing the hiring of German soldiers did
was confuse an already confused situation between east and west emperors. One
such leader, Arbogast, a Germanic Frank, having just suppressed a rebellion in Gaul at the behest of Emperor Theodosius I, promptly
executed the western emperor, when he tried to force him out of the area when
the rebellion was staid. He even set up a scholar, Eugenius, to take his place
as western emperor! Now Theodosius went after Arbogast, hiring 20,000 Visigoths
under Alaric and some Vandals to help against the Franks. On the north shore of
the Adriatic, the forces met, and Arbogast won the day, but the next day, high
winds blew dust and sand into the eyes of the Franks, "almost knocking
them down" according to Grant, and the Vandal leader, Stilicho, skillfully
struck the heart of the Frankish force. It was a rout, and Arbogast took his
own life rather than be caught.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Theodosius put the Vandal leader in
charge of the military defense of the Western Empire, and retired to Constantinople, where he soon died. The barbarians,
however, learned of their true power over Rome.
The capital was moved to Ravenna, considered a
safer location for the western emperor, but the pope remained in Rome.
***First and Second Visigoth Sack of Rome***
Sides: Visigoths vs. Rome
Time: 408
Place: Rome
Action: When Theodosius died, Stilicho, the Vandal
leader, remained the defender of the Empire. Alaric and the Visigoths made
incursions into Italy
but he drove them back every time. But now the Western Empire wanted to claim
land from the Eastern Empire, specifically the Pretorian Prefecture of
Illyricum, centered on Salonika in Greece. After a mess of barbarians
under the Visigoth leader Alaric came across the Rhine
to organize as a fighting force to achieve this twisted goal, the Senate
decided to call it off. But the barbarians wanted to be paid anyway. Stilicho
argued to the Senate they should indeed pay them off under the condition they
would just to go away, but they deliberated too long before voting to pay, and
it wasn't much. Alaric was inflamed, and political chaos started in the city.
Eastern Emperor Arcadius died of an illness, and Western Emperor Honorius was
persuaded not to go east to oversee the change of power by Stilicho, but
Honorius believed Stilicho was going to go to put his son on the throne. A
mutiny in the Roman army started, fomented by a power hungry general, Olympius,
who declared Stilicho an enemy of the state. The Vandal leader hid out in a
church but was discovered and executed. Olympius now led the legions against
all barbarian elements in Italy,
and a general massacre began. The Vandals and others moved north and joined
Alaric's Visigothic forces. Alaric marched against Rome in 408 and starved the city out until
they paid a hefty ransom including 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of
silver, some silks, and some pepper.
Casualties: unknown.
Consequence: Pope Innocent I went to Ravenna
to convince Emperor Honorius to make a deal with Alaric whereby the Goths would
be given a permanent homeland in the northern provinces
of Rhaetia (Switzerland)
and Noricum (Austria), and elevate Alaric as an
official general. Honorius refused and insulted Alaric in a letter. The Goths
advanced on Rome
again, and burned its granaries at Portus. Now the Senate voted to replace
Honorius, and Alaric departed to Ravenna
to depose him and install the new emperor. But the Eastern Emperor sent
reinforcements just in time to save Honorius. Now Alaric asked for negotiations
and Honorius agreed. But just as they were being finalized, a Gothic force
loyal to Honorius attacked Alaric's forces, and Alaric's patience was at an
end.
***Third Visigoth Sack of Rome***
Sides: Visigoths vs. Romans
Time: 410
Place: Rome
Action: Alaric and the Visigoths came over the Seven
Hills and burst through Rome's
Salarian Gate. They pillaged the city for three days straight. They ransacked
the mausoleum tombs of Augustus and Hadrian. They stole things from St. John
Lateran, but left St. Peter's alone. The citizens were cut up, taken to slavery
and otherwise mistreated. The emperor's sister married one of Alaric's
lieutenants.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: No matter how corrupt or misguided or
evil the Roman government and populace was, the Eternal City
had not been sacked for 800 years. Now it had, and this sent shockwaves
throughout the Empire and beyond. St.
Jerome said, "If Rome can perish, what can be
safe?" And St. Augustine wrote City of God as a response to
those who blamed the decayed state of the Empire on the early Christians. A few
decades later, the Vandals appeared on the horizon and laid another sack upon
the city.
***Battle of Chalons***
Sides: Roman-Gothic alliance vs. Huns
Time: 451
Place: Marne river, northeast France
Action: For a decade, a wave of Asiatic horsemen
called the Huns struck fear into the settled peoples of the Roman
Empire. Their leader, Attila, was called the Scourge of God. He
cared nothing of conquest- only of pillage and destruction. Grant says:
"It seemed no one could resist the Huns' swarms of horsemen, who darted
around the battlefield, showered their enemy with bone-tipped arrows, before
closing in to finish off survivors with swords and lassos." Now the Huns
crossed the Rhine and invaded Gaul. They
sacked Strasbourg, Worms,
Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Metz, Tournai,
Cambrai, Amiens, Beauvais,
and Reims in quick succession, and threatened Paris
and Troyes, but
at these locations the bishop was able to make a truce with them, probably by
giving them valuables from the churches in exchange for not carrying out the
sack. Now Attila's forces broke open the wall of Orleans, when they received the message that
the Romans were on the march to them. The Romans at this time were desperate,
the core of the legions was made up of Visigothic mercenaries fighting for Rome in exchange for
citizenship- a symbol of advanced imperial decay. General Aetius also sought
the help of the Visigoths themselves, under Theodoric. The details of the
battle of Chalons, on the Catalaunian Plains are hazy, but it is clear that in
this last large Roman military movement, the Huns never felt the kind of losses
like those they incurred at this battle, in which the Visigoths reigned
supreme, though Theodoric was killed in the battle.
Casualties: unknown- very high losses for both sides
Consequence: Gibbon said, "Atilla's retreat
across the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved in the name of
the Western Roman Empire." The Huns moved
south later in the year, however, into Italy.
***Battle of Nadeo***
Sides: Germans vs. Huns
Time: 454
Place: Pannonia
(western Hungary)
Action: After Chalons, Attila regrouped and with
Ostrogoth mercenaries, moved into northern Italy,
sacking many towns including Milan.
In 452 he sent a letter to Rome
demanding the sister of the reigning emperor for marriage, sensing he could
then have a claim to the throne. Without compliance in this, Rome would be sacked. Emperor Valentinian III
sent a delegation to meet Attila, headed by Pope Leo I the Great. For an
unknown reason, Attila retreated after their conversation and Rome was saved. It could be the pope bought
him off with a large amount of gold. There is a story that Leo looked into the
eyes of the Hun and told him to leave, and that Attila was so impressed
with his gravity that he obeyed. He may also have been afraid of the coalition
that defeated him at Chalons being reorganized. It is also possible plague
broke out in his camp, or that starvation was sweeping the land. But now in
453, the Hunnic army moved north, sacking towns near present day Venice. Attila planned a
sacking of Constantinople, but died. In 454 on
the plains of Pannonia near the Sava river, all the Germanic tribes of the area mobilized
together against the Huns, now led by Attila's son. Led by the Ostrogoths, the
Gepids and others stormed from all sides and utterly vanquished the Huns, whose
total collapse was effected.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The Hun survivors returned to Asia.
***Vandal Sack of Rome***
Sides: Vandals vs. Romans
Time: 455
Place: Rome
Action: When Emperor Valentinian III died, his
successor married his widow to secure his claim to the throne and link himself
with the family of Theodosius the Great. His son married the daughter of
Valentinian as well. However, this daughter was already promised to the leader
of the Vandals, Genseric, who did not take kindly to that, as it terminated his
intended future claim to the throne. The Vandals advanced on Rome, and Pope Leo met him. He convinced
Gensaric not to 'vandalize' the city, made him promise not to kill people,
pillage churches, etc. if only they would open the gates to him. He agreed, and
the new emperor fled with his son, demonstrating how little power the political
leadership actually had left. Both were killed in shame by a mob of angry
citizens. Unfortunately the Vandals did not exactly keep their word. They spent
two weeks vandalizing the city, stealing roof plates made of gold and bronze,
burning at least one church, and carrying off some people to slavery to their
headquarters in North Africa. Despite all
this, less brutality was shown to people than without Leo's intervention.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The Vandals moved on, but the further
humiliation of Rome
and its protracted decline was clear, and only the last fell swoop was needed,
and 21 years later, it happened.
***Ostrogoth Sack of Rome***
Sides: Ostragoths vs. Romans
Time: 476
Place: Rome
Action: In 475 Orestes, the top general in Rome, lead a coup and
deposed Emperor Julius Nepos. For reasons unclear, he had his young son crowned
instead of himself. This son was named Romulus Augustulus, an eerie name for
the last emperor of Rome because it recalls both
the first true Roman, Romulus,
and the first true emperor, Augustus. When the Odoacer, leader of the paid
Ostrogoth mercenaries of the Romans, heard about the change of power, he
demanded lands distributed to his tribe in northern Italy. Odoacer called upon all
Germanic mercenaries in Italy
to rally to his standard, and Orestes (who answered no in his son's name) fled
to Pavia, a
walled town. Odoacer took the city and executed Orestes, but the bishop was
able to save the lives of the people by paying him off. Other Ostrogoths
executed Orestes' brother near Ravenna.
Now Odoacer marched into the capital and deposed young Romulus Augustalus,
exiling him, and ending the Western Empire.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Odoacer sent the royal vestments to Constantinople as a peace offering to Emperor Zeno, in
hopes of his recognizing him as ruler of the west. They compromised on titles,
but in reality, all was crumbled at this point. The East would remain, as the
Empire of Byzantium, while the west would be divided into 'barbarian kingdoms.'
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