| Battle of Thermopylae (254) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Roman-Germanic wars | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Roman Empire | Goths | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Marianus Philostratus Dexippus | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Militia | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Thermopylae in 254 [1] [2] was the successful defense of the pass of Thermopylae by local Greek militia under Marianus, the Roman proconsul of Achaea, during an invasion of the Balkans by the Goths. [3]
In 254 the Goths invaded and plundered Thrace and Macedonia. [1] [4] [5] In 1979, Herwig Wolfram regarded 254 as the date, while Mallan and Davenport in 2015 suggested 262. [6] [1] Goltz and Hartmann estimated 254 as the date. [2] David Potter in 2016 rejected Mallan and Davenport's estimate and dated it to either 253 or 259. [4] The Goths attempted to storm Thessalonica with close order formations and assault columns. [5] The Thessalonians mobilized to defend their city and beat off the attacks. [5] The Goths abandoned the siege and moved off to invade Greece south of Thermopylae, seeking to loot the gold and silver wealth of Greek temples. [5]
The Greeks learned of the Goths' approach and the Roman proconsul Marianus, the Athenian Philostratus, and the Boeotian Dexippus mobilized a militia to block the pass of Thermopylae. [5] The militia were armed with bronze or iron-tipped wooden pikes, small spears, axes, and assorted weapons. [5] They set to work fortifying the pass. [5] [1] [4] Marianus gave a pre-battle speech to them, emphasizing the defense of the pass by previous generations of Greeks and Romans. [5]
The Graeco-Roman forces successfully blocked the Goths' way at Thermopylae and the Goths returned home, albeit with considerable loot. [7]
A fragment of text attributed to the contemporary historian Dexippus, discovered in Vienna in 2010, provides detail on the weapons, leadership, and geography of the engagement. [8] The fragment cuts off before the battle's outcome. [5] Dexippus was used as a source by the Byzantine chronicler George Syncellus, who mentioned the blocking of the pass and the Goths' return home with plunder. [7]
Alaric II was the King of the Visigoths from 484 until 507. He succeeded his father Euric as king of the Visigoths in Toulouse on 28 December 484; he was the great-grandson of the more famous Alaric I, who sacked Rome in 410. He established his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour in Aquitaine. His dominions included not only the majority of Hispania but also Gallia Aquitania and the greater part of an as-yet undivided Gallia Narbonensis.
The Battle of Abritus, also known as the Battle of Forum Terebronii, occurred near Abritus in the Roman province of Moesia Inferior in the summer of 251. It was fought between the Romans and a federation of Gothic and Scythian tribesmen under the Gothic king Cniva. The Roman army of three legions was soundly defeated, and Roman emperors Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus were both killed in battle. They became the first Roman emperors to be killed by a foreign enemy. It was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Roman Empire against the Germanic tribes, rated by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus as on par with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, the Marcomannic invasion of Roman Italy in 170, and the Battle of Adrianople in 378.
The Goths were Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe.
The Ostrogoths were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the large Gothic populations who had settled in the Balkans in the 4th century, having crossed the Lower Danube. While the Visigoths had formed under the leadership of Alaric I, the new Ostrogothic political entity which came to rule Italy was formed in the Balkans under the influence of the Amal dynasty, the family of Theodoric the Great.
Theodoricthe Great, also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526), and a patrician of the Eastern Roman Empire. As ruler of the combined Gothic realms, Theodoric controlled an empire stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Adriatic Sea. Though Theodoric himself only used the title 'king' (rex), some scholars characterize him as a Western Roman Emperor in all but name, since he ruled large parts of the former Western Roman Empire, had received the former Western imperial regalia from Constantinople in 497, and was referred to by the title augustus by some of his subjects.
The Heruli were an early Germanic people. Possibly originating in Scandinavia, the Heruli are first mentioned by Roman authors as one of several "Scythian" groups raiding Roman provinces in the Balkans and the Aegean Sea, attacking by land, and notably also by sea. During this time they reportedly lived near the Sea of Azov.
The Battle of Naissus was the defeat of a Gothic coalition by the Roman Empire under Emperor Gallienus and the future Emperor Aurelian near Naissus. The events around the invasion and the battle are an important part of the history of the Crisis of the Third Century.
Thermopylae is a narrow pass and modern town in Lamia, Phthiotis, Greece. It derives its name from its hot sulphur springs. In Greek mythology the Hot Gates is one of the entrances to Hades.
Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus was Roman emperor from June 251 to August 253, in a joint rule with his son Volusianus.
De origine actibusque Getarum, commonly abbreviated Getica, written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the origin and history of the Gothic people, which is now lost. However, the extent to which Jordanes actually used the work of Cassiodorus is unknown. It is significant as the only remaining contemporaneous resource that gives an extended account of the origin and history of the Goths, although to what extent it should be considered history or origin mythology is a matter of dispute.
Cniva was a Gothic king who invaded the Roman Empire. He successfully captured the city of Philippopolis in 250 and killed Emperor Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus at the Battle of Abritus as he was attempting to leave the Empire in 251. This was the first time a Roman Emperor had been killed in combat against foreigners. He was allowed by the new Emperor Trebonianus Gallus to leave with his spoils and was paid tribute to stay out of the empire.
Herwig Wolfram is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the Institute of Austrian Historical Research. He is a leading member of the Vienna School of History, and internationally known for his authoritative works on the history of Austria, the Goths, and relationships between the Germanic peoples and the Roman Empire.
The Gold of Tolosa was a treasure hoard seized by the ancient Roman proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio from the Volcae town of Tolosa, modern-day Toulouse.
Lucius Aurelius Marcianus was a Roman soldier whose military career coincided with the period of crisis that characterized the middle decades of the Third Century AD – see Crisis of the Third Century. Probably of humble origins in one of the Illyrician provinces of the Empire he was one of the group of men from this region who chose a military career – or had it chosen for them – whose professional capabilities brought them to the fore of public life in those troubled times. Marcianus rose to the highest levels of the military hierarchy. The evidence suggests that he earned the trust of the Emperors Gallienus and Claudius II and, possibly, Marcus Aurelius Probus among their successors and that he was one of the principal commanders in the prolonged war against a coalition of what the late antique Greek writers called Scythian peoples whose incursions in that period seemed to threaten the very survival of the Roman state. These would refer to the major Germanic and Iranian peoples, among them the Goths and Roxolani, who invaded the Roman empire across the lower Danube River.
Cannabaudes or Cannabas was a third-century leader of the Gothic tribe of the Tervings, who died in a battle against the Roman emperor Aurelian.
The name of the Goths is one of the most discussed topics in Germanic philology. It is first recorded by Greco-Roman writers in the 3rd century AD, although names that are probably related appear earlier. Derived from Proto-Germanic *Gutōz ~ *Gutaniz, it is closely related to and probably means the same as the names of both the Geats of southern Sweden and Gutes of Gotland. The implications of these similarities, and the actual meaning of the Gothic name, are disputed in scholarship. Although the Goths have disappeared as a people, their name has survived in various appellations up to the present day.
The siege of Thessalonica in 254 was the successful defense of the city of Thessalonica by local Roman militia during an invasion of the Balkans by the Goths.
Ostrogotha was a leader of the eastern Goths in the Ukraine, who invaded Roman Moesia during the Crisis of the Third Century, mentioned by the 6th-century historian Jordanes. He was a contemporary of King Cniva.
The Gothic War took place between the years 248 and 249, as well as in the year 253. Within this war, a series of battles occurred and plundering was carried out by the Goths and their allies in the eastern territory of the Roman Empire, specifically in the Balkans. With the cessation of the payment of tribute previously made by the Roman emperor Philip the Arab to the tribes beyond the Danube, the Goths and their allies, led by King Ostrogotha and his subcommanders Argedo and Gundericus, moved towards the Roman border and began a series of attacks, including against the fortified city of Marcianopolis in Thracia. After these actions, the Goths withdrew with their spoils of war.
The revolt of Alaric I was a military conflict between the Roman Empire and a rebel army, probably composed mainly of Goths. This war consisted a number of armed conflicts in the period between 395 and 398, interspersed with periods of negotiations and sometimes even cooperation. During this war, the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire did not always joint together because of conflicting interests. The protagonists in this conflict were the West-Roman commander-in-chief Stilicho, the Eastern-Roman prefect Rufinus, his successor Eutropius and Alaric I. The latter was an elected Gothic military leader and monarch, and later considered one of first Visigothic kings.