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Battle of Naissus

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Battle of Naissus
Part of the Roman-Gothic Wars of the 3rd century AD
Part of the Roman-Germanic wars
File:GothicInvasions 267-269.jpg
Date268 or 269
Location
Naissus (Niš in present-day Serbia)
Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Roman Empire Gothic tribes coalition
Commanders and leaders
Claudius II unknown
Strength
unknown unknown
Casualties and losses
unknown allegedly 50,000[1]

The Battle of Naissus took place in 268 or 269 AD between the armies of a Gothic coalition and forces of the Roman Empire, led by Emperor Gallienus or Claudius II, near the Roman town of Naissus (Niš in present-day Serbia), in the province of Upper Moesia. The events around the invasion and the battle are an important part of the history of the Crisis of the Third Century.

The result was a great Roman victory which, combined with the effective pursuit of the invaders in the aftermath of the battle and the energetic efforts of the Emperor Aurelian, largely removed the threat from Germanic tribes in the Balkan frontier for the following decades.

Sources

As is often the case in the history of the Roman Empire in the troubled 3rd century, it is very difficult to reconstruct the course of events around the battle of Naissus. Surviving accounts of the period, including Zosimus' New History, Zonaras' Epitome of the Histories, George Syncellus' Selection of Chronography, and the Augustan History, rely principally on the lost history of the Athenian Dexippus. The text of Dexippus has survived only indirectly, through quotations in the fourth-century Augustan History and extracts in ninth-century Byzantine compilations.[2] Despite his importance for the period, Dexippus has been declared a "poor" source by the modern historian David S. Potter.[3] To make matters worse, the works making use of Dexippus (and likely another unknown contemporary source) provide an almost radically different interpretation of events.[4] The imperial propaganda in the age of Constantine's dynasty added more confusion by attributing all the calamities to the reign of Gallienus to avoid blemishing the memory of Claudius (supposed ancestor of the dynasty).[5]

As a consequence, controversy still exists on the number of invasions and the order of events and on which reign those events must be attributed.[6] Therefore, there is a dispute over who was the Emperor and head of the army at the time of the battle. In 1939, Andreas Alföldi, preferring the single invasion theory, suggested that Gallienus was the only one responsible for defeating the barbarian invasions, including the victory at Naissus.[7] His view had been broadly accepted since then, but modern scholarship usually attributes the final victory to Claudius II.[8] The single invasion theory has been also rejected in favour of the two separate invasions. The narrative below follows the latter view but the reader must be warned that the evidence is too confused for an entirely safe reconstruction.[9]

Background

File:GothicInvasions 267-269.jpg
Map of the Gothic invasions of 267–269 AD. Click on the image for a larger view

The battle of Naissus came about as a result of two massive invasions of "Scythian" tribes (as our sources anachronistically call them) into Roman territory between 267 and 269. The first wave came under Gallienus' reign (267) and started when the Heruli, raiding on 500 ships,[10] ravaged the southern Black Sea coast and unsuccessfully attacked Byzantium and Cyzicus. They were defeated by the Roman navy but managed to escape into Aegean Sea where they ravaged the islands of Lemnos and Scyros and sacked cities of the southern Greece (province of Achaea) including Athens, Corinth, Argos and Sparta. Then an Athenian militia, led by the historian Dexippus, pushed the invaders to the north where they were intercepted by the Roman army under Gallienus.[11] He won an important victory near the Nessos (Nestos) river, on the boundary between Macedonia and Thrace, with the aid of the Dalmatian cavalry. Reported barbarian casualties were 3,000 men.[1] Heruli leader Naulobatus came in terms with the Romans.[10]

In the past, the battle on the Nessos was identified as the Battle of Naissus, but modern scholarship has rejected this view. On the contrary, there is a theory that the victory at Nessos was so decisive that Claudius' efforts against Goths (including battle of Naissus) were no more than a mopping-up operation.[12] After his victory, Gallienus left Marcianus in place and hastily left for Italy, intending to suppress the revolt of his cavalry officer Aureolus.[13] Gallienus was assassinated outside Milan in the summer of 268, in a plot led by high officers in his army. Claudius was proclaimed emperor and headed to Rome to establish his rule. Claudius immediate concerns were with the Alamanni, who had invaded Raetia and Italy. After he defeated them in the Battle of Lake Benacus, he was finally able to take care of the invasions in the Balkan provinces.[14]

A 19th century imaginary depiction of Gothic warriors from Charlotte Mary Yonge, Young Folks' History of Rome, 1880

In the meantime, the second and larger sea-borne invasion had started. An enormous coalition of 'Scythians', actually consisted of Goths (Greuthungi and Tervingi), Gepids and Peucini, led again by Heruli, assembled at the mouth of river Tyras (Dniester).[15] The Augustan History and Zosimus claim a total number of 2,000–6,000 ships and 325,000 men.[16] This is probably a gross exaggeration but remains indicative of the scale of the invasion. After failing to storm some towns on the coasts of West Black Sea and the Danube (Tommi, Marcianopolis), the invaders attacked Byzantium and Chrysopolis. Part of their fleet was wrecked either because of the Gothic inexperience in sailing through the violent currents of Propontis[17] or because it was defeated by the Roman navy. Then they entered Aegean Sea and a detachment ravaged the Aegean islands as far as Crete and Rhodes. While their main force was close to take the cities of Salonika and Cassandreia using siege machinery, it retreated to Balkan interior at the news that emperor was advancing. On their way, they plundered Doberus (Paionia ?) and Pelagonia.

The Battle

The Goths were engaged near Naissus by a Roman army advancing from the north. The battle most likely took place in 269. The battle was fierce. Large numbers of both sides were killed but, at the critical point, the Romans, by a pretended flight, tricked the Goths into an ambuscade. Allegedly, 50,000 Goths were killed.[1] It seems that Aurelian was in charge of all Roman cavalry during Claudius reign, making it possible that he participated in the battle.

Aftermath

A large number of Goths managed to escape towards Macedonia, initially defending themselves behind their laager. Soon, many of them and their pack animals, distressed as they were by the harassment of the Roman cavalry and the lack of provisions, died of hunger. The Roman army methodically pursued and surrounded the survivors at Mount Haemus where an epidemic affected the entrapped Goths.[18] After an inconclusive but bloody battle, they escaped but were pursued again until they surrendered. Prisoners were admitted to the army or given land to cultivate and become coloni. The members of the pirate fleet, after the failed attacks on Crete and Rhodes, retreated and many of them suffered a similar end.[19] But the disease also affected the pursuing Romans and the emperor as well, who died from it in 270.[20]

The psychological impact of this victory was so strong that Claudius became known to history afterwards as Claudius II Gothicus ("conqueror of the Goths"). However devastating the defeat, the battle did not entirely break the Gothic tribes' military strength.[21] Besides, the troubles with Zenobia in the East and the breakaway Gallic Empire in the West were so urgent that the victory at Naissus could only serve as a temporary relief for the troubled Empire. In 271, after Aurelian repelled another Gothic invasion, he abandoned the province of Dacia north of Danube forever, in order to rationalize the defense of the Empire.[22]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Zosimus, 1.43
  2. ^ David S. Potter, p.232–233
  3. ^ David S. Potter, p.232–234
  4. ^ John Bray, p.283, David S. Potter, p.641–642, n.4.
  5. ^ David S. Potter, p.266
  6. ^ John Bray, p.279. Also David S. Potter, p.263
  7. ^ The Cambridge Ancient History, vol 12, chapter 6, p.165–231, Cambridge University Press, 1939
  8. ^ John Bray, p.284–285, Pat Southern, p.109. Also see Alaric Watson, p.215, David S. Potter, p.266, H. Wolfram, p.54
  9. ^ John Bray, p.286–288, Alaric Watson, p.216
  10. ^ a b G. Syncellus, p.717
  11. ^ Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Vita Gallienii, 13.8
  12. ^ T. Forgiarini, A propos de Claude II: Les invasion gothiques de 269–270 et le role de l' empereur, in Les empeureurs illyriens, Frezouls et Jouffroy, p.81–86. (as cited in D. Potter, p.642). This view is in agreement with A. Alfoldi
  13. ^ Zosimus, 1.40
  14. ^ John Bray, p.290
  15. ^ The Historia Augusta mentions Scythians, Greuthungi, Tervingi, Gepids, Peucini, Celts and Heruli. Zosimus names Scythians, Heruli, Peucini and Goths.
  16. ^ Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Vita Divi Claudii, 6.4
  17. ^ Zosimus, 1.42
  18. ^ Zosimus, 1.45
  19. ^ John Bray, p.282. See Zosimus, 1.46
  20. ^ G. Syncellus, p.720
  21. ^ Alaric Watson, p.216
  22. ^ David S. Potter, p.270

References

Primary sources

  • Zosimus, Historia Nova (Greek: Νέα Ιστορία), book 1, in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, ed. Bekker, Weber, Bonn, 1837
  • George Syncellus, Chronographia (Greek: Εκλογή χρονογραφίας), in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, ed. Dindorf, Bonn, 1829
  • Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Vita Gallieni Duo & Vita Divi Claudii, Loeb Classical Library, 1921–1932 (English translation), on-line at Curtius
  • Zonaras, Epitome historiarum (Greek: Επιτομή ιστοριών), book 12, in Patrologia Graeca, ed. J.P.Migne, Paris, 1864, vol 134

Secondary sources

  • Bray, John. Gallienus: A Study in Reformist and Sexual Politics, Wakefield Press, 1997. ISBN 1-862-54337-2
  • Potter, David S. The Roman Empire at Bay AD 180–395, Routledge, 2004. ISBN 0-415-10058-5
  • Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0-415-23943-5
  • Watson, Alaric. Aurelian and the Third Century, Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-30187-4
  • Wolfram, Herwig. History of the Goths (transl. by Thomas J. Dunlap), University of California Press, 1988. ISBN 0-520-06983-8
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