 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(August 2020) |
Traianus (died 9 August 378 at Adrianople) was a Roman general under Emperor Valens, with whom he died in the battle of Adrianople.
| | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(August 2020) |
Traianus (died 9 August 378 at Adrianople) was a Roman general under Emperor Valens, with whom he died in the battle of Adrianople.
Between 367 and 368 he held the military office of dux Aegypti . While in office, he and the praefectus augustalis Eutolmius Tatianus protected the Arian bishop Lucius of Alexandria. He was also ordered to rebuild the Caesareum and he started the building on May 1, 368.
Between 371 and 374 he was comes rei militaris in the East, where, together with the Alamannic king Vadomarius, he fought the Sasanids. At the end of the winter, the Sasanid king Shapur II gathered his army and moved against the Roman territory. Emperor Valens sent Vadomarius and Traianus against him, with a strong army and the order to keep the Sasanids under control but to avoid provoking them into battle. However, at Vagabanta the Sasanid cavalry forced the Roman infantry into contact: the infantry first tried to break contact, but then defeated the enemy. The following encounters had alternate results and so, at the end of summer, the generals signed a truce and retired. [1] In 374, while he commanded the Roman troops in Armenia, he was secretly ordered by Valens to kill King Pap. Traianus obtained Pap's confidence and invited him to dinner: during the banquet, Traianus left the room and a killer killed Pap. [2]
Later he was promoted to the rank of magister peditum and was sent in Thracia to fight the Gothic War. In 376 the Goths had been allowed to enter Roman territory but, oppressed by Roman officers, had rebelled. Gathering under the leadership of Fritigern, the Goths marched towards Adrianople. Emperor Valens was at the time at Antioch, in Syria, where he was preparing the war against the Sasanids. The Emperor decided to send two of his generals, Profuturus and Traianus, to Thracia with fresh troops. The two generals decided to fight the bulk of the enemy army with their Armenian troops, which had proved valiant, and succeeded in pushing the Goths inside the valleys, where they hoped to defeat them by hunger. The Roman troops were, nonetheless, vastly inferior by number to the Goths, and, since the expected reinforcements led by Frigeridus did not arrive, the three generals Profuturus, Traianus, and Richomeres, agreed that Richomeres would be the chief commander. Here, at a site known as Ad Salices ("Near the Willows"), in Dobruja, the Romans and the Goths fought the Battle of the Willows: the Romans fought a huge number of Goths (Gothic soldiers with their families) who had entrenched behind a wall of wagons, then forced them to open-field battle. At first the Roman left wing broke, but thanks to the reinforcement of local troops, the Romans were able to sustain the fight until the night came, despite receiving huge losses. [3]
When the news of the bloody battle arrived in the East, Valens sent the West more troops under the magister equitum Saturninus, who was to substitute the two generals. [4] When he returned to Constantinople, Valens accused Traianus of cowardice, but thanks to the support of the magistri militum Arinthaeus and Victor, Traianus put the blame on Valens' persecution of the Nicenians.
In 378 Traianus was exonerated in favour of Sebastianus, [5] but he was later recalled in service. Traianus followed Valens, who wanted to defeat the Goths before the arrival from the West of his nephew Gratian with the Western army. [6] Valens fought the Goths in the battle of Adrianople (August 9, 378); here, after the Roman line was shattered and had fled, Traianus cried that the Emperor had been left alone by his guards. Hearing this Victor sought unsuccessfully to bring a reserve force of Batavi to the emperor's aid. Traianus and the emperor were among the many who fell on the battlefield. [7]
Valens was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the eastern half of the Roman Empire to rule. In 378, Valens was defeated and killed at the Battle of Adrianople against the invading Goths, which astonished contemporaries and marked the beginning of barbarian encroachment into Roman territory.
Year 378 (CCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valens and Augustus. The denomination 378 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The 370s decade ran from January 1, 370, to December 31, 379.
Year 377 (CCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Merobaudes. The denomination 377 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Fritigern was a Thervingian Gothic chieftain whose decisive victory at Adrianople during the Gothic War (376–382) led to favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian and Theodosius I in 382.
The Battle of Adrianople, sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between an Eastern Roman army led by the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens and Gothic rebels led by Fritigern. The battle took place in the vicinity of Adrianople, in the Roman province of Thracia. It ended with an overwhelming victory for the Goths and the death of Emperor Valens.
Alatheus and Saphrax were Greuthungi chieftains who served as co-regents for Vithericus, son and heir of the Gothic king Vithimiris.
The Gothic wars or Roman–Gothic wars were a long series of conflicts between the Goths and the Roman Empire between the years 249 and 554 AD. The main wars are detailed below.
The Battle of the Willows (377) took place at a place called ad Salices, or according to Ammianus, a road way-station called Ad Salices ; probably located within 15 kilometres of Marcianople, although its exact location is unknown. Forces from the Western Roman Empire under the command of Richomeres advanced westward, while forces of the eastern Roman Empire under Traianus and Profuturus advanced northward where they joined forces to attack the Goths who had recently rebelled under command of Fritigern. and were laying waste to the northern Balkans.
Between 376 and 382 the Goths fought against the Eastern Roman Empire, one of several Gothic Wars in Roman history. This conflict included a catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of Adrianople, and is commonly seen as a part— albeit a part of disputed significance— of the century of events leading to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Lupicinus was a Roman army officer in late antiquity who served under the emperors Valentinian I and Valens. He distinguished himself in the schola Gentilium fighting the Alemanni in 368. He was serving as a military tribune in Pannonia in 376.
Flavius Richomeres or Ricomer was a Frank who lived in the late 4th century. He took service in the Roman army and made a career as comes, magister militum, and consul. He was an uncle of the general Arbogastes. He is possibly to be identified with the Richomeres who married Ascyla, whose son Theodemer later became king of the Franks.
The Greuthungi were a Gothic people who lived on the Pontic steppe between the Dniester and Don rivers in what is now Ukraine, in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Tervingi, another Gothic people, who lived west of the Dniester River. To the east of the Greuthungi, living near the Don river, were the Alans.
Flavius Saturninus was a Roman army officer and politician.
The Battle of Bagavan or the Battle of Vagabanta was fought in 371 near the settlement of Bagavan, in the district of Bagrevand in Greater Armenia, between a joint Roman-Armenian force and a Sassanid army, with the Romans and Armenians emerging victorious. It is recorded by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, as well as the Armenian historian Faustus of Byzantium.
Flavius Arintheus was a Roman army officer who started his career in the middle ranks and rose to senior political and military positions. He served the emperors Constantius II, Julian, Jovian and Valens. In 372 he was appointed consul, alongside Domitius Modestus.
Victor was a Roman military officer and politician, who served the emperors Constantius II, Julian, Jovian and Valens. He was appointed consul in AD 369, alongside Valentinianus Galates.
Athanaric or Atanaric was king of several branches of the Thervingian Goths for at least two decades in the 4th century. Throughout his reign, Athanaric was faced with invasions by the Roman Empire, the Huns and a civil war with Christian rebels. He is considered the first king of the Visigoths, who later settled in Iberia, where they founded the Visigothic Kingdom.
Sebastianus was a Roman general who died at the Battle of Adrianople alongside the Emperor Valens during the Gothic War.
The Battle of Dibaltum was fought between a Roman army and an army of Goths, Huns, and Alans in the summer of 377. The battle took place outside the city of Dibaltum in Thrace and resulted in a Gothic victory.