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Topic: Adrianople, Battle of

Adrianople, Battle of

Years: 378 - 378

The Battle of Adrianople (August 9, 378), sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, is fought between a Roman army led by the Roman Emperor Valens and Gothic rebels (largely Thervings as well as Greutungs, non-Gothic Alans, and various local rebels) led by Fritigern.

The battle takes place about 8 miles (13 km) north of Adrianople (modern Edirne in European Turkey, near the border with Greece and Bulgaria) in the Roman province of Thracia and ends with an overwhelming victory for the Goths.

Part of the Gothic War (376–382), the battle is often considered the start of the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century.

Adrianople actually is fought between the Goths and the Eastern Roman Empire, which ultimately withstands the Gothic invasions and develops into the Byzantine Empire.

"{Readers} take infinitely more pleasure in knowing the variety of incidents that are contained in them, without ever thinking of imitating them, believing the imitation not only difficult, but impossible: as if heaven, the sun, the elements, and men should have changed the order of their motions and power, from what they were anciently"

― Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (1517)