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Jovinus' Victories Over the Alemanni and the Securing of Gaul (366–367 CE)

During the reign of Valentinian I (r. 364–375 CE), his general Jovinus achieved a series of significant victories over the Alemanni, securing the Rhine frontier and stabilizing Gaul for years. The third and most decisive battle took place at Durocatalaunum (modern Châlons-sur-Marne, France), where Jovinus inflicted heavy casualties on the Alemanni, ensuring a period of Roman dominance in the region.

1. The Alemanni Threat and Roman Response

• Throughout the mid-4th century, the Alemanni had been a persistent threat to Roman Gaul, frequently crossing the Rhine frontier and conducting raids deep into Roman territory.
• Valentinian I, a highly militarized emperor, sought to eliminate this threat, assigning Jovinus, one of his most capable generals, to lead Roman forces against the Germanic invaders.

2. The Three Victories of Jovinus Against the Alemanni

• First Engagement (c. 366 CE) – Jovinus defeated an invading Alemannic force, pushing them back across the Rhine.
• Second Engagement (c. 367 CE) – Another major Roman victory further weakened the Alemanni, limiting their ability to launch large-scale raids.
• Third Engagement at Durocatalaunum (Châlons-sur-Marne, 367 CE) –
  • This was the decisive battle in the campaign.
  • Jovinus inflicted devastating casualties, effectively breaking Alemannic resistance in Gaul.
  • The Alemanni were forced into a prolonged period of retreat, securing Roman dominance in northeastern Gaul.

3. The Consequences of Jovinus’ Victories

• Gaul was secured for years, ensuring relative stability in the province.
• The Rhine frontier was reinforced, preventing large-scale incursions from Germanic tribes.
• Valentinian I’s military strategy proved effective, strengthening Rome’s control over its western provinces.

4. Conclusion: A Critical Victory for Rome

Jovinus’ series of victories over the Alemanni, culminating in the Battle of Durocatalaunum (367 CE), marked a major success for Rome in its efforts to defend Gaul. His military skill and decisive leadership ensured that the region remained in Roman hands, delaying the barbarian pressures that would eventually contribute to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century.

Baekje reaches its greatest geographic extent and political power under Geunchogo, expanding Baekje's territory to the north through war against Goguryeo, while annexing the remaining Mahan societies in the south in 369, completing Baekje's control over all of present-day Jeolla-do.

Gaya confederacy states west of the Nakdong River were also made Baekje dependencies.

During Geunchogo's reign, the territories of Baekje include most of the western Korean Peninsula (except the two Pyeongan provinces).

Baekje is invaded by Goguryeo in 369, but counterattacks in force at the battle of Chiyang.

Bishop Ulfilas, to escape religious persecution by Gothic chief Athanaric, had in 348 obtained permission from Constantius II to immigrate with his flock of Arian Christian converts to Moesia and settle at Nicopolis ad Istrum, modern northern Bulgaria.

Here, Ulfilas translates the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language, establishing a Gothic alphabet writing system for this purpose.

Surviving fragments, in the University Library of Uppsala, are known as the Codex Argenteus.

The Noviodunum fortress had been rebuilt during the rule of Constantine I (306-337) as part of a bigger project of restoring the Empire's borders along the Lower Danube.

In 369, Valens, using a boat bridge, crosses again from Noviodunum (Isaccea) and attacks the northeasterly Gothic tribe of Greuthungi before facing Athanaric's Tervingi in Bessarabia and defeating them.

Although Valens obtains a victory for the Romans, they retreat (possibly because of the lateness of the season) and the Goths ask for a peace treaty, which is signed in the middle of the Danube, the Goths taking an oath to never set foot on Roman soil.

The treaty seems to have largely cut off relations between Goths and Romans, including free trade and the exchange of troops for tribute.

Valens will feel this loss of military manpower in the following years.

Arshak II's wife Parandzem and their son, the future king Pap, had been holed up with the Armenian treasure in the fortress of Artogerassa defended by a troop of azatk (lesser nobility) during Shapur II's invasion of the Kingdom of Armenia.

According to Ammianus, the Persian invasion force was commanded by two Armenian defectors, Cylaces (Glak) and Artabanes (Vahan).

Shapur's intention was to replace the Armenian Arshakuni monarchy with a non-Arshakuni but still Armenian nakharar (great noble) diarchy.

Faustus of Byzantium in his Epic Histories also mentions two Armenian nakharars, Meruzhan Artsruni and Vahan Mamikonian, in leadership positions under Shapur's suzerainty as well as Zik and Karen who carried Persian noble titles.

This also implies that Shapur might have intended to combine Sassanid administrative rule (Zik and Karen) with that of nakharar rule (Artsruni and Mamikonian).

During the siege, Arshak's wife Parandzem had appealed to Cylaces and Artabanes in the name of her husband who had defected back to the Arshakuni monarchy and engineered the escape of Pap.

Themistius reported of Pap's arrival at Valens' court in Marcianople where the Emperor was wintering.

Valens had bade him to stay at Neocaesarea in Pontus Polemoniacus three hundred kilometers from the Armenian border.

Pap, returning to Armenian territory at the request of the nobility, is accompanied by the comes et dux Terentius but is not yet endowed with a royal title, which Valens is reluctant to bestow, not wishing to violate the treaty signed by Jovian in July of 363.

Valens dispatches his magister peditum praesentalis Arintheus to Armenia just as Shapur invades the country in pursuit of Pap, who is hiding near the Roman frontier in Lazica.

Meanwhile Terentius restores Sauromaces to the throne of Iberia, but the king appointed by the Persians, Aspacures, retains control of the eastern part of that kingdom.

Valentinian, despite maintaining the stability of Roman rule in Africa, as well as in Britain and Gaul, gains a reputation for irritability and cruelty, frequently installing thuggish administrators who ruthlessly oppress the provincials.

Valentinian had at first been benevolent to the Senate of Rome and supervised the provisioning of the city.

However, beginning in 369, under the influence of Maximinus, the prefect of Gaul, he initiates a period of terror, which strikes the great senatorial families.

Maximinus, a Pannonian native whose family was of Carpic origin and whose father was an accountant in the provincial government office of Pannonia Valeria, had studied law, practiced as an attorney, and later been appointed to the governor of Corsica, Sardinia and Tuscia.

Becoming prefectus annonae in Rome, Maximinus used this important position to launch a witch-hunt against the Roman senatorial aristocracy.

At first he also keeps his gubernatorial office because his successor is slow to arrive.

He makes his name prosecuting members of the Roman aristocracy on charges of witchcraft, encouraged by emperor Valentinian, whose prejudice against the Roman nobility brings the two men close together.

The praefectus urbi of Rome, Olybrius, a member of the senatorial aristocracy, is ill and weak, so Maximinus takes the chance to seize the judicial authority.

Historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who gives a detailed description about these unjust trials in the twenty-eighth book of his work, calls Maximinus a "wild beast" and "diabolic inquisitor".

After he gains the consent of the emperor Maximinus becomes excessively confident, and "walked on the streets of the city almost dancing like a brahmin."

The famous victims of Maximinus' witch hunt are Marinus (attorney), Cethegeus (senator), the young Lollianus (son of the former praefectus Lampadius), two noblewomen, Claritas and Flaviana, Paphius and Cornelius (senators), Campensis (haruspex) and others.

All of them have been tortured to extort their "confessions".

Maximinus prosecutes Hymetius, the former proconsul of Africa province, but the man appeals to the emperor.

Valentinianus hands over the case to the Senate which only sends Hymetius into exile to the great rage of the emperor.

According to Marcellinus a string was attached to the side window of the praetorial office of Maximinus, where the anonymous informers could have hooked their denunciations in a letter.

Maximinus also employs many spies.

Maximinus' brother in law, Valentinus, commits an unrecorded but very serious crime in 369.

Maximinus is able to have Valentinus' sentence commuted from execution to exile and he is sent to Britain, where he begins planning a revolt that has to be put down by Count Theodosius.

Emperor Valentinian can be brutal, choleric, and authoritarian, but he serves the state with dedication and his foreign policy is excellent.

All the while he has been fighting barbarians (the Alemanni in Gaul, the Sarmatians and Quadi in Pannonia) and putting down revolts in Britain and Africa (notably that of the Berber Firmus) with the aid of his top general, Theodosius, he has taken care to improve the army's equipment and to protect Gaul by creating a brilliant fortification.

His domestic measures favor the curiales and the lower classes: from now on, taxes will be collected exclusively by officials; the protection of the poor is entrusted to “defenders of the plebs,” chosen from among retired high officials (honorati).

Nevertheless, needs of state oblige him to accentuate social immobility, to reinforce corporation discipline and official hierarchization, and to ruthlessly demand taxes.

Considerable reorganization is undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north.

Count Theodosius strengthens the defenses of the towns with external towers designed to mount artillery.

Claudian suggests that naval activity took place in northern Britain.

It is possible that Theodosius mounted punitive expeditions against the barbarians and extracted terms from them.

Certainly, the Notitia Dignitatum later records four units of Attacotti serving Rome on the continent.

The Areani were removed from duty and the frontiers refortified with cooperation from border tribes such as the Votadini, marking the career of men such as Padarn Beisrudd (which literally translates as Paternus of the Scarlet Robe), who will serve from 389-39 as a native British governor.

One traditional interpretation identifies Padarn as a Roman (or Romano-British) official of reasonably high rank who had been placed in command of Votadini troops stationed in Clackmannanshire in the 380s or earlier by the Emperor Magnus Maximus.

Alternatively, he may have been a frontier chieftain in the same region who was granted Roman military rank, a practice attested elsewhere along the empire's borders at the time.

Former Qin conquers Former Yan in 370.

Shapur, instead of going after Pap, concentrates his attack on the now long besieged fortress of Artogerassa, which falls in the winter of 370.

The royal treasure is captured by the Persians and Pap's mother Queen Parandzem raped and murdered.

Shapur also begins systematically persecuting the local Christians by forcing apostasy to the Mazdaite form of Orthodox Zoroastrianism.

Shapur contacts Pap, who is still in hiding and tries to persuade him to come over to his side.

Under Shapur's influence, Pap murders the duplicitous Cylaces and Artabanes and sends their heads to the shahanshah as a sign of loyalty.

In the spring of 370, Shapur prepares a massive invasion of Armenia.