Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric (Key Conflicts of Classical Antiquity) (27 page)

Ambrose

see
Biographical Glossary

Ammianus Marcellinus

from a well-connected family in Syria, perhaps Antioch, he joined the elite military corps of
protectores
as a young man, but retired after the death of the emperor Julian, going on to write a history of Rome which he completed around the year 390. This
Res Gestae
, which ran from A.D. 96 to 378 and is extant from 353, is our single most important source for fourth-century history and our most detailed treatment of the Adrianople campaign.

Arrian

c. 86–160, governor of Cappadocia under Hadrian, author of a famous history of Alexander the Great, and also the
Order of Battle against the Alans
(c. 135).

Aurelius Victor

governor of Pannonia Ⅱ (361) and prefect of Rome (389), author of a short epitome of Roman imperial history, the
Caesars
, running from Augustus to Constantius Ⅱ and completed in about 360, which is particularly important for the history of the later third and parts of the fourth century.

Basil of Caesarea

c. 330–379, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and the most important Greek theologian of the later fourth century. His letters provide important information about the Gothic martyr Saba, as well as general statements about the conditions in Thrace in the chaotic years that preceded Adrianople.

Cassiodorus

c. 490–c. 585, official at the court of several Ostrogothic kings of Italy, most importantly Theodoric, before abandoning the Gothic cause around 537 and retiring to Constantinople. Author of many surviving works, but also of a now lost Gothic history in twelve books which Jordanes used, though to what extent is controversial.

Claudian

born Claudius Claudianus in Alexandria in Egypt, Claudian made his career as a poet in the Latin West; his earliest poems date from the early 390s and after mid-395 he was the chief spokesman for Stilicho. His poems provide much of our information on Alaric and court politics from 395 to 404.

Dexippus

third-century Athenian historian who wrote a universal history in twelve books and an account of the third-century Gothic invasions from 238 to c. 275 called the
Scythica
. Though both survive only in fragments, they were used by Zosimus in his
New History
.

Epitome de Caesaribus

a later fourth-century account of Roman history which preserves some fragments of information not in Aurelius Victor or Eutropius.

Eunapius of Sardis

author of a classicizing history of his own times written in the aftermath of Adrianople which survives only in fragments but which formed a major source for Zosimus’
New History
. Eunapius also wrote a volume of
Lives of the Sophists
, some of which sheds light on Alaric’s invasion of Greece.

Eutropius

imperial administrator and author of a
Breviary
or abridgement of Roman history from its beginnings until the death of Jovian, which he dedicated to Valens and which preserves some otherwise unknown information on the third and fourth centuries.

Gregory Thaumaturgus

c. 213–c. 270, bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, his canonical letter is the most vivid and important testimony to the effects of Gothic raids in Asia Minor during the 250s.

Gregory of Nyssa

c. 330–395, bishop of Nyssa, younger brother of Basil of Caesarea, and like him an important theologian. Two of his sermons record the depredations of Goths in Asia Minor in the aftermath of the battle of Adrianople.

Herodotus

fifth century B.C., author of a large history, completed before 425 B.C., and centred on the wars between Greece and Persia. This work provided a model for much later Greek history and invented the stereotype of the Scythian that was so prevalent in third- and fourth-century accounts of the Goths.

Historia Augusta

late fourth-century collection of imperial biographies from Hadrian to Carus and Carinus, based on generally good sources for the second century, but descending into almost total fiction by the end of the third. Nonetheless, the
Historia Augusta
preserves a few details of Gothic history derived from better sources like Dexippus and otherwise lost.

Jerome

Christian priest and polemicist, c. 345–420, author of many works, including a
Chronicle
that translated into Latin and continued the chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea; Jerome’s
Chronicle
provides some information about Gothic history not known – or at least not dated – in other sources.

Jordanes

sixth-century historian from Constantinople who wrote both a Roman and a Gothic history (the
Romana
and the
Getica
), the latter at some point after 550. Jordanes made some use of Cassiodorus’ Gothic history – how much is controversial – but he added a great deal to it and thoroughly endorsed the destruction of the Gothic kingdom of the Ostrogoths by Justinian.

Julian

see
Biographical Glossary

Lactantius

c. 240–c. 320, a Latin rhetorician at Nicomedia, among whose many works is a polemic
On the Deaths of the Persecutors
which provides accurate details of imperial history in the third and fourth centuries, including the death of Decius in a Gothic war.

Olympiodorus of Thebes

Greek historian, before 380–after 425. Wrote a detailed history of the years 407 to 425 which, though now preserved only in fragments, was a major source for Sozomen, Philostorgius and Zosimus, and thereby central to our understanding of Alaric’s actions in Italy just before the sack of Rome.

Orosius

Christian priest from Spain who wrote a polemical
History against the Pagans
in seven books which continued down to 417 and argued, against pagans who saw Adrianople and the sack of Rome as divine anger for the imperial conversion to Christianity, that Rome had been much worse before the conversion.

Panegyrici Latini

collection of speeches in honour of emperors compiled in late fourth-century Gaul and including eleven panegyrics from the late third to the fourth century, many of which attest otherwise unknown imperial campaigns against barbarians beyond the frontiers.

Paulinus

deacon of the church of Milan and author in c. 422 of the
Life
of Bishop Ambrose of Milan, which helps establishes the sequence of events in 397.

Philostorgius

c. 368–c. 440, author of a now fragmentary Greek church history written from a homoean point of view, drawing on the (also now fragmentary) history of Olympiodorus and preserving otherwise unknown information on Ulfila.

Socrates

fifth-century lawyer and author of the earliest of several Greek church histories extant from the fifth century, continuing the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius. Socrates provides a great deal of unique information on the fourth and earlier fifth century, particularly on the eastern provinces.

Sozomen

fifth-century lawyer and church historian whose church history offers a parallel, and rather different, perspective to that of Socrates, with considerably greater interest in secular history, and much more evidence for western affairs, most of it drawn from the now fragmentary history of Olympiodorus.

Synesius

philosopher, and later bishop of Ptolemais, resident in Constantinople in the later 390s, where he wrote two treatises,
De regno
and
De providentia
, which are key to understanding the political manoeuvres at the eastern court surrounding the revolts of Alaric, Tribigild and Gainas.

Tacitus

senator and historian, c. 56–c. 118, author of histories of the early Roman empire and of the
Germania
, an ethnographic account of Germany and its
gentes
which provided early modern humanists with their most important material for inventing a Germanic, non-Roman history.

Themistius

c. 317–c. 388, Greek philosopher, rhetorician and spokesman for Constantius Ⅱ, Valens and Theodosius Ⅰ. The author of numerous works, several of his 34 surviving speeches are the best available evidence for imperial attitudes and policy towards the Goths.

Theoderet of Cyrrhus

c. 393–466, monk and bishop of Cyrrhus in Syria, his church history drew on that of Socrates and preserves much information otherwise unknown.

Theodosian Code

compilation of imperial constitutions from 312–438, put together at the behest of Theodosius Ⅱ (r. 408–450), beginning in 429. It is our major source for the legislation of the later Roman empire and preserves a vast amount of historical detail on imperial administration and political history.

Zosimus

imperial bureaucrat in the later fifth or the early sixth century, author of a
New History
in six books, running from Augustus to 410, but concentrated on the later fourth century, and probably unfinished. The history drew heavily on Dexippus, Eunapius and Olympiodorus, and is our fullest evidence for their contents and for the history they recounted.

Aequitius

tribune and relative of Valens, killed at the battle of Adrianople in 378.

Alanoviamuth

father of the sixth-century author Jordanes.

Alaric

Gothic chieftain, perhaps king, 395–410, first attested in 391 as a bandit in the Balkans. After service on Theodosius’ campaign of 394, he raised a rebellion in 395. After several years in the eastern provinces he led his followers to Italy and repeatedly attempted to negotiate a peace with the government in Ravenna, finally allowing his troops to sack Rome in 410.

Alatheus

Gothic
dux
and co-regent with Saphrax for the Greuthungian child-king Videric. Together they led some of the Greuthungi across the Danube in 376, eventually joining forces with the Tervingi of Fritigern and fighting at the battle of Adrianople in 378.

Alavivus

Gothic leader of the Tervingi, and with Fritigern one of two chieftains primarily responsible for the Danube crossing of 376. Last heard of in 377 when the Gothic revolt broke out at Marcianople.

Alexander Severus

emperor 222–235. Last emperor of the Severan dynasty, his murder in 235 began the political crisis of the third century.

Alica

Gothic general who led a Gothic regiment in the army of Licinius during his civil war with Constantine in 324.

Ambrose

bishop of Milan 374–397, famous for having imposed public penance on Theodosius after the massacre of Christians in Thessalonica in 390. The prologue of his
On the Holy Spirit
gives important evidence for Gothic royal titles in the period before Adrianople.

Arbogast

general of Gratian and later Theodosius, who served with Bauto in the Balkans after Adrianople. In 391 Theodosius left him in Gaul to supervise Valentinian Ⅱ, but the latter’s suicide forced Arbogast to revolt against Theodosius, raising up Eugenius as a usurper in 392 and killing himself shortly after losing the battle of the Frigidus in 394.

Arcadius

emperor 383–408, eldest son of Theodosius, named augustus while still a child in 383. Left in Constantinople in 394, he was eastern ruler after his father’s death in 395, but was controlled by a series of high-ranking officials opposed to Stilicho, whose final falling-out with Honorius was precipitated by Arcadius’ death in 408.

Ardashir

founder of the Sassanian Persian royal dynasty, ruling from c. 224 to 241.

Argaith

Gothic king in 249, he invaded the eastern provinces along with Guntheric.

Ariaric

Gothic king of the Tervingi defeated by Constantine and Constantinus in 332 and forced to hand over his son as a hostage to be raised in Constantinople. He may be the grandfather of Athanaric.

Arinthaeus

general of Valens who negotiated peace with the Gothic
iudex
Athanaric in 369.

Arius

Egyptian priest whose christology postulated that God the Son was subordinate to God the Father in the holy trinity. This ‘Arianism’ was condemned at the council of Nicaea in 325, but a variant of it became dominant among Gothic Christians within the empire.

Arminius

chieftain of the Cherusci who destroyed three Roman legions in the battle of the Teutoburger forest in A.D. 9.

Arpulas

fourth-century Gothic monk and martyr whose relics were deposited at Cyzicus by the Gothic noblewoman Dulcilla.

Athanaric

Gothic
iudex
– ‘judge’ or ‘king’ – of the Tervingi. Defeated by Valens after three-year Gothic war, 367–369, he sought refuge in the empire in January 381 and died two weeks after being welcomed to Constantinople by Theodosius.

Atharid

son of the Gothic king Rothesteus, he commanded the execution of the Christian Goth Saba in 372.

Athaulf

Gothic leader, perhaps king, 410–415, brother-in-law and successor of Alaric. He led the Goths out of Italy into Gaul, then Spain, and married the emperor Honorius’ sister Galla Placidia before being murdered in Barcelona in 415.

Augustus

princeps
or first citizen, 27 B.C.–A.D. 14, and thus the first Roman emperor.

Aurelian

emperor 270–275. Very active general who fought a Gothic war among many others. The city of Rome was fortified by the massive ‘Aurelianic’ wall during his reign.

Aurelian (2)

praetorian prefect of the East in 400, he succeeded Eutropius as the chief power at the court of Arcadius. Like Eutropius, he was brought down by the revolts of Tribigild and Gainas.

Aureolus

general of Gallienus who campaigned against the Goths, but rebelled in 268.

Auxonius

praetorian prefect of the East under Valens, and principally responsible for organizing the supply of the Gothic wars of 367–369.

Bacurius

tribune of an elite
schola palatina
unit, the Sagitarii, he and Cassio began the fighting at the battle of Adrianople in 378.

Basil of Caesarea

see
Glossary of Ancient Sources

Bathouses

fourth-century Gothic priest and martyr whose relics were deposited at Cyzicus by the Gothic noblewoman Dulcilla.

Bauto

general of Gratian who in 381 prevented the Gothic revolt in Thrace from spreading into the western provinces.

Bonitus

Frankish general of high rank in the army of Constantine during the civil wars with Licinius.

Botheric

Roman general stationed in Thessalonica in 390 in response to the Balkan revolt. His murder in the city led to a massacre of civilians in the city’s circus on the orders of Theodosius Ⅰ.

Caesarius

praetorian prefect in the East from 400–403 after the collapse of the regime of Aurelian (2). His reluctance to negotiate with barbarians convinced Alaric to leave the East and move to Italy.

Candac

barbarian chieftain and employer of Paria, who was the grandfather of the sixth-century author Jordanes.

Cannobaudes

Gothic king, possibly fictional, supposedly defeated by Aurelian.

Caracalla

emperor 211–217. He issued the so-called Antonine Constitution extending Roman citizenship to almost every inhabitant of the empire in 212. His defeat of the Parthian monarchy allowed the Sassanian dynasty under Ardashir to come to power.

Carinus

emperor 283–285, older son and co-emperor of Carus. Defeated by Diocletian at the battle of the Margus in 285, he was killed by his own soldiers.

Carus

emperor 282–283, successor of Probus. He was killed on campaign against Persia, paving the way for the accession of Diocletian.

Cassio

tribune of an elite
schola palatina
unit, the Scutarii, he and Bacurius began the fighting at the battle of Adrianople in 378.

Cassiodorus

see
Glossary of Ancient Sources

Castalius

dedicatee of Jordanes’
Getica
.

Claudius

emperor 268–270, winner of a dramatic victory over a Gothic army and thus generally known as Claudius ‘Gothicus’. The emperor Constantine Ⅰ began to claim (fictitious) descent from Claudius after 310.

Cniva

Gothic king in 250–251 who defeated the emperor Decius at Abrittus.

Colias

Gothic commander of a regular unit in the Roman army along with Sueridus, he joined the revolt of Fritigern in 377 after a dispute with the
curia
of Adrianople.

Constans

youngest son of Constantine and emperor 337–350. He defeated and killed his elder brother Constantinus in battle in 340 and thereafter ruled the western half of the empire while Constantius Ⅱ ruled the East. He was killed in the usurpation of Magnentius in 350.

Constans (2)

general of the usurper Priscus Attalus. Sent by Attalus to hold Africa in 409, he was defeated and killed by the
comes Africae
Heraclian who was loyal to Honorius.

Constantine Ⅰ

(‘the Great’) emperor 306–337, acclaimed emperor at York in 306, by 312 the sole ruler of the West and openly Christian. Defeating his rival Licinius in 316 and 324, he became ruler of the whole empire, waging an important Gothic war in 332.

Constantinus (Constantine Ⅱ)

son of Constantine and augustus 337–340. As caesar, he commanded his father’s Gothic campaign of 332. He was killed in a war against his youngest brother Constans in 340.

Constantine Ⅲ

usurper in the West 407–411, raised to the purple in Britain in 407 as a response to the Rhine invasions of 405/406 and
in control of Britain, Gaul and Spain from 408 until his defeat and death in 411.

Constantius Ⅰ

emperor 293–306 (caesar 293–305; augustus 305–306) and father of Constantine Ⅰ, he was a general of Diocletian and Maximian made caesar along with Galerius in 293, when the tetrarchy was created.

Constantius Ⅱ

emperor 337–361. Middle son of Constantine, who outlived his brothers Constantinus and Constans, fighting many wars on the middle Danube, while allowing the Tervingi to grow quite powerful.

Constantius Ⅲ

emperor 419–421, father of Valentinian Ⅲ. The most successful general of Honorius after 408, he orchestrated the Gothic settlement in Aquitania in 418. He became co-emperor with Honorius after marrying Galla Placidia.

Crispus

eldest son of Constantine, left to supervise the West after 324, but executed in obscure circumstances in 326.

Crocus

Alamannic king and Roman general instrumental in the proclamation of Constantine Ⅰ at York in 306.

Decebalus

Dacian king 85–106, defeated by Trajan in his second Dacian war, after which the province of Dacia was created.

Decius

emperor 249–251, killed in battle at Abrittus by the Goths of Cniva.

Diocletian

emperor 284–305. With Maximian as co-emperor from 285, he formed the tetrarchy in 293 by appointing Constantius and Galerius as his caesars, thereby ending the long period of political crisis in the third century and stabilizing the empire. The Gothic Tervingi are first mentioned during his reign.

Dulcilla

daughter of the fourth-century Gothic queen Gaatha, she deposited relics of many Gothic martyrs at Cyzicus in Asia Minor.

Eriulf

Gothic general and rival of Fravitta, who killed him at a banquet hosted by Theodosius.

Ermanaric

Gothic king of the Greuthungi in the decade or more prior to 376, he killed himself after several defeats by the Huns. His story is the subject of much legendary embellishment by the sixth-century author Jordanes.

Eucherius

son of Stilicho and Serena, murdered after the fall of his father’s regime in 408.

Eudoxia

wife of Arcadius and enemy of Eutropius.

Eugenius

usurper in the West, 392–394. A grammarian chosen by Arbogast to be a figurehead emperor for his rebellion, he was executed after defeat at the battle of the Frigidus in 394.

Eusebius of Nicomedia

bishop of Nicomedia in Bithynia until his death c. 342, he was a homoean sympathiser of Arius and consecrated Ulfila.

Eusebius of Samosata

fourth-century bishop of Samosata (c. 360–c. 380) exiled in Thrace during the Gothic revolt and the recipient of an important letter from Basil of Caesarea attesting to Gothic ravages in that province.

Eutropius

eunuch grand chamberlain of Arcadius and chief official at the eastern court from the death of Rufinus in 395 until the coup of Gainas in 400.

Farnobius

Gothic noble defeated in Thrace by Frigeridus in 377, after which his followers were settled as farmers in Italy.

Fravitta

Gothic general in Roman service and rival of Eriulf whom he killed in the 380s. He suppressed Gainas’ revolt in 400.

Frigeridus

general of Gratian, sent to the Balkans with Richomeres in 377 to assist the generals of Valens against the Goths.

Fritigern

Gothic leader of the Tervingi, and with Alavivus one of two chieftains primarily responsible for the Danube crossing of 376. At Marcianople in 377, Fritigern took overall military command of Gothic and other rebels in the Balkans, eventually winning the battle of Adrianople in 378.

Gaatha

fourth-century Gothic queen, interested in preserving the memory of Christian martyrs of Athanaric’s persecution of the 370s.