Roman Civil War of 387-88

Displaced Goths and other tribes arrive in the summer and fall of 376 on the Danube River, on the border of the Roman Empire, requesting asylum from the Huns.

Fritigern, a leader of the Thervingi, appeas to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube, where they hope to find refuge from the Huns, who lack the ability to cross the wide river in force.

Valens permits this, and promises the Goths farming land, grain rations, and protection under the Roman armies as “allies” (foederati).

The ones that crossed are supposed to have their weapons confiscated; however, the Romans in charge accept bribes to allow the Goths to retain their weapons.

With so many people in such a small area, famine strikes the Goths, and Rome is unable to supply them with either the food they were promised or the land; they herd the Goths into a temporary holding area surrounded by an armed Roman garrison.

There is only enough grain left for the Roman garrison, who simply let the Goths starve.

The Romans provide a grim alternative: the trade of slaves (often children and young women) for dog meat.

When Fritigern appeals to Valens for help, he is told that his people will find food and trade in the markets of the distant city of Marcianople.

Having no alternative, some of the Goths trek south in a death march, losing the sickly and old along the path.

When they finally reach Marcianople's gates, they are barred by the city's military garrison and denied entry; moreover, the Romans unsuccessfully try to assassinate the Goth leaders during a banquet.

Open revolt begins.

The main body of Goths spend the rest of 376 and early 377 near the Danube plundering food from the immediate region.

Roman garrisons are able to defend isolated forts but most of the country is vulnerable to Gothic plunder.

War begins in earnest in late winter 377.

The remaining Goths move south from the Danube to Marcianople, and next appear near Adrianople (modern Edirne).

The Roman response is to send a force under Valens to meet and defeat the Goths.

Valens moves north from Constantinople in 378 and is defeated (and himself killed) at the Battle of Adrianople.

The victory gives the Goths freedom to roam at will, plundering throughout Thrace for the rest of 378.

The Goths meet only light Roman resistance in 379 and advance northwest into Dacia, plundering that region.

The Goths divide in 380 into Terving and Greuthung armies, in part because of the difficulty of keeping such a large number supplied.

The Greuthungi move north into Pannonia, where they are defeated by western emperor Gratian.

The Tervingi under Fritigern move south and east to Macedonia, where they take "protection money" from towns and cities rather than sacking them outright.

Forces of the western Empire in 381 drive the Goths back to Thrace, where finally, peace is made on October 3, 382.

The Goths by the end of the war have killed a Roman emperor, destroyed a Roman army and laid waste large tracts of the Roman Balkans, much of which will never recover.

The Roman Empire has for the first time negotiated a peace settlement with an autonomous barbarian tribe inside the borders of the Empire, a situation that a generation before would have been unthinkable.

The lesson is not lost on other tribes, including the Goths themselves, who will not long remain peaceful.

Rome, after the crushing defeat, is no longer in a position to drive all its enemies from its territories.

Tribes that can no longer be expelled begin to be settled within the empire as foederati, receiving subsidies and in return supplying troops.

The Western Empire under the pressure of continued invasions will collapse within a century and be carved up into barbarian kingdoms.

Theodosius has resided mainly in Constantinople from the end of 380 to 387, during which time he has taken most of his measures to improve the capital.

The plan for the Forum Tauri, designed after the model of Trajan's Forum in Rome, is outstanding: it is the largest public square known in antiquity.

It is unclear, however, to what extent the Emperor has encouraged the flowering of art and literature in his time.

In international affairs, long-standing negotiations with the Persians over the division of power in Armenia have resulted in a treaty that is to become the basis for a long period of peace on Rome’s eastern border.

Maximus' edict of 387 or 388, which censures Christians at Rome for burning down a Jewish synagogue, is condemned by bishop Ambrose, who says people exclaimed: ‘the emperor has become a Jew’.

The ambitious Maximus, aiming to usurp Valentinian’s throne, invades Italy in 387, forcing the young emperor and his mother to flee to Thessalonica to the dominions of Theodosius, whose position has by this time has become stronger.

His decision to aid the Western emperor has perhaps been hastened through the influence of Valentinian's mother, whose daughter Galla he marries at the end of 387, having since 386 been a widower.

The Visigoths, following their sack of Rome in 410, eventually coexist peacefully with the Romans, farming and trading agricultural products and enslaved people for luxury goods.

They adopt many elements of Roman culture, some becoming literate in Latin.

The Western Roman Empire wields negligible military, political, or financial power by the time that the barbarian general Odoacer deposes the Emperor Romulus in 476, and has no effective control over the scattered Western domains that still describe themselves as Roman.

The Western Empire's legitimacy will last for centuries and its cultural influence remains today, but it will never have the strength to rise again.

The Hasdingi, the larger of the two branches of Vandals, had already been Christianized during the first half of the fourth century.

During the reign of Emperor Valens (364–78) the Vandals had accepted, much like the Goths earlier, Arianism, a belief that was in opposition to that of Nicene orthodoxy of the Roman Empire.

Yet there are also some scattered orthodox Vandals, among whom is the famous magister militum Stilicho, the chief minister of the Emperor Honorius.

Theodosius I and the Defeat of Magnus Maximus

In the late fourth century, Emperor Theodosius I faces a formidable challenge in the West from the usurper Magnus Maximus, who had declared himself emperor in 383 CE.

• To support his claim, Maximus strips troops from Britannia, likely replacing some with federate chieftains and their warbands, before launching an invasion of Gaul.
• His forces kill Emperor Gratian, and he is subsequently recognized as Augustus in the Gallic provinces, where he oversees the first official executions of Christian heretics.
• In response to the Western court’s loss of Gaul, Hispania, and Britannia, Theodosius compensates by ceding control of the Diocese of Dacia and the Diocese of Macedonia to the Western Empire.

Maximus’ Invasion of Italy and Theodosius’ Counterattack

In 387 CE, Maximus invades Italy, forcing Emperor Valentinian II to flee to the East, where he formally embraces Nicene Christianity.

Both leaders command large, multi-ethnic armies—Maximus boasts to Bishop Ambrose about the barbarians in his ranks, while Theodosius similarly relies on Goths, Huns, and Alans.

• Maximus seeks to negotiate recognition as Augustus of the West, but Theodosius refuses.
• Instead, in 388 CE, he launches a decisive counteroffensive, crushing Maximus and securing victory in the civil war.

Though the conflict results in heavy troop losses on both sides, Theodosius I emerges as the undisputed ruler of the Roman Empire, consolidating his authority over both East and West.

The Legacy of Magnus Maximus and the Settlement of Armorica

Later Welsh legend recounts that the defeated troops of Magnus Maximus did not return to Britannia but instead resettled in Armorica—the region that would later become Brittany. By 400 CE, Armorica had slipped from direct imperial control, falling instead under the influence of the Bagaudae, groups of peasant insurgents and local warlordswho resisted both Roman taxation and external domination.

The connection between Maximus's soldiers and the emergence of a Romano-British presence in Armorica remains debated, but later medieval traditions credit him with the foundation of Breton identity, linking the migration of Britons to the region with his legacy. Over the coming centuries, waves of Brittonic-speaking migrants fleeing upheaval in Britannia would further cement the cultural and linguistic ties between Armorica and the British Isles, shaping the distinct identity of Brittany within post-Roman Gaul.

Magnus Maximus, proclaimed emperor by his troops in 383 while serving with the army in Britain, had gone to Gaul to pursue his imperial ambitions.

Following his destruction of Gaul, Maximus had gone out to meet his main opponent, Gratian, whom he defeated near Paris.

Gratian, after fleeing, had been killed on August 25, 383, at Lyon.

Maximus had managed soon after to force from Rome Gratian’s son and successor Valentinian II, after which he had fled to Theodosius, the Eastern Roman Emperor.

Establishing his capital at Augusta Treverorum (Treves, Trier) in Gaul, Maximus has become a popular emperor, although he is also a stern persecutor of heretics.

A Christian mob, led by the local bishop and many monks, had looted and burned the synagogue in Callinicum, located on the Euphrates.

Bishop Ambrose of Milan defends the mob’s actions and reprimands Theodosius for ordering Callinicum’s bishop to pay restitution, even though expropriation is illegal under Roman law.

Ambrose offers to burn the synagogue in Milan on his own.

Theodosius, having ordered one army division from Egypt to Africa and having sent young Valentinian II with a fleet to Italy, sets out in the spring of 388 with the main body of troops to move against the army of the usurper Maximus, now invading Pannonia in the Balkans.

His son Arcadius, an augustus since 383, represents him in the East.