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.
Year 251 (CCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Traianus and Etruscus. The denomination 251 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 250s was a decade that ran from January 1, 250, to December 31, 259.
Year 250 (CCL) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Traianus and Gratus. The denomination 250 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.
Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius, sometimes translated as Trajan Decius or Decius, was the emperor of the Roman Empire from 249 to 251.
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River, which included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Albania, northern parts of North Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobruja and small parts of Southern Ukraine.
Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus was Roman emperor from June 251 to August 253, in a joint rule with his son Volusianus.
Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus, also known in English as Aemilian, was Roman emperor for three months in 253.
Quintus Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius was briefly Roman emperor in 251, ruling jointly under his father Decius. His father was proclaimed emperor by his troops in September 249 while in Pannonia and Moesia, in opposition to Emperor Philip the Arab. Decius defeated Philip in battle, and was then proclaimed emperor by the Roman Senate. Herennius Etruscus was elevated to Caesar in 250, then further raised to Augustus in May 251. When the Goths, under Cniva, invaded the Danubian provinces, Herennius Etruscus was sent with a vanguard, followed by the main body of Roman troops, led by Decius. They ambushed Cniva at the Battle of Nicopolis ad Istrum in 250, routing him, before being ambushed and routed themselves at the Battle of Beroe. Herennius Etruscus was killed in the Battle of Abritus the following year, alongside his father. After the deaths of both emperors, Trebonianus Gallus, who had been governor of Moesia, was elected emperor by the remaining Roman forces.
Hostilian was briefly Roman emperor in 251. Hostilian was born to Decius and Herennia Etruscilla at an unknown date and elevated to caesar in 250 by Decius. After Decius and Herennius Etruscus, Hostilian's brother, were killed at the Battle of Abritus, an ambush by the Goths, Trebonianus Gallus was proclaimed emperor by the legions. Almost immediately, he elevated Hostilian to co-emperor and his own son, Volusianus, to caesar. Hostilian died soon after, either due to plague or being murdered by Trebonianus Gallus.
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.
Gaius Vibius Volusianus was a Roman emperor from 251 to 253, ruling with his father Trebonianus Gallus.
This is a chronology of warfare between the Romans and various Germanic peoples between 113 BC and 476. The nature of these wars varied through time between Roman conquest, Germanic uprisings and later Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire that started in the late second century BC. The series of conflicts was one factor which led to the ultimate downfall of the Western Roman Empire in particular and ancient Rome in general in 476.
The Gothic Wars were a long series of conflicts between the Goths and the Roman Empire between the years 249 and 554. The main wars are detailed below.
The siege of Philippopolis was fought in about 250 between Rome and the Goths during the invasions of 249–253 at the Thracian city of Philippopolis, modern Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It was part of the long-running series of Gothic Wars.
Nicopolis ad Istrum or Nicopolis ad Iatrum was a Roman and Early Byzantine town.
Thracia or Thrace is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek Diadochi ruler Lysimachus, but became a client state of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire as the Sapaean kingdom. Roman emperor Claudius annexed the kingdom as a Roman province in 46 AD.
The Battle of Verona was fought between the Roman general and usurper Decius, and emperor Philip the Arab in 249. Decius was victorious and Philip and his son Philip II were both killed. Decius was subsequently declared Roman emperor.
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 territory of the Byzantine 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.
Roman Empire