Most discussions of the Roman Empire’s wars focus on its great successes. Battles won by the barbarians are nearly universally described as tragic losses from the viewpoint of the Romans. But every loss of the Romans was a victory for the little-understood barbarians – that catchall term for the relatively uncivilized northern tribes that bring to mind fur-wearing, tree-worshipping, bloodthirsty conquerors. Here, let’s instead adopt the lens presented to us in George Lucas’ Star Wars by putting ourselves in the shoes of the rebel barbarians fighting for survival against the encroaching empire. Specifically, let’s look at seven of the wartime heroes of the barbarians in their resistance to this southern empire.
1. Arminius
Arminius, born circa 18 B.C. as the son of Segimer and prince of the Cherusci tribe, initially showed signs as a great friend of the Roman Empire. His education in Latin and service in the Roman army granted him Roman citizenship. When Roman general and governor Publius Quinctilius Varus required aid in his conquest of the tribes in Germania, Arminius mobilized his troops.
Instead, when deep within the Teutoborg Forest, Arminius executed a revolt in league with the Germanic tribes against the three Roman legions. The battle was decisively won, and marked a turning point in Roman expansion into Germania and eastward of the Rhine. Aided greatly by his knowledge of Roman military tactics, he then successfully defended the region in three later battles led, ironically, by the Roman general Germanicus.
Arminius, however, would prove true the maxim that “those who live by the sword, die by the sword”. His ascendancy to prominence led to his downfall, as the Germanic nobles began to fear his quickly growing power in the region. He had already deposed rival Maroboduus, the Marcomanni king. In 21 A.D., Arminius was assassinated. Unlike later Germanic heroes, he fought the Roman Empire at the peak of its power, and thus inspired many others in later generations.
2. Fritigern
Fritigern was a Thervingian Gothic chieftain who likely rose to power during a civil war of uncertain cause against another prominent Therving ruler, Athanaric. According to earliy historians Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen, Athanaric and Fritigern were rival rulers of the Therving Goths. When Athanaric’s military advantage became apparent, Fritigern instigated military aid from Emperor Valens. Upon defeat of Athanaric, Fritigern adopted Valens’ Arian Christianity.
The Thervingi and Fritigern further appeared to enter the bosom of the Roman Empire when the Huns threatened invasion. Fritigern and his people were aided in relocation by the Empire to Moesia across the Danube, beyond the reach of the Huns. This is where the amicable relationship between Fritigern and Valens would take a dark turn.
In the winter of 376 A.D., famine struck the resettled Thervingi, leading the Roman governors in the region to sell food to the starving people at extremely high prices. This extortion resulted in the draining of the Thervingi resources, forcing many families to sell their children into slavery. Worse, the governors hosted several Thervingi leaders to a feast that ended in many of their deaths and captivity. The gauntlet was thrown. Fritigern escaped, finding himself sole leader of the Thervingi. It was war.
Fritigern then decisively defeated the Roman army in the Battle of Marcianople in 376 A.D., resulting in much of Thracia being taken by the Goths. Now threatening Constantinople itself, Valens had no choice but to take to the field himself. The Battle of Adrianople ensued in 378 A.D., ending in decisive defeat of the Romans and the death of the emperor on the field of battle. Fritigern would then retake the Balkan peninsula. He continued his campaign into Greece for two years, but the Thervingi eventually settled for peace. The fate of Fritigern is unknown.
3. Radagaisus
Radagaisus was a pagan, Gothic king who invaded northern Italy with about 20,000 fighters in 405 and 406 A.D. His invasion seriously threatened the Western Roman Empire. He took his pagan faith seriously, and evidently planned to burn Rome to the ground and sacrifice the Senators of the now Christian Roman Empire to the gods. Radagaisus, in the aftermath of a terrible defeat at Florentia, attempted to flee his own army – possibly fearing a revolt. Nonetheless, he was captured by the Romans and executed in August 406 A.D.
4. Alaric I
Alaric I was born in 370 A.D. As a young man, he joined the Roman army with hopes of military leadership. Helped defeat the Franks led by Arbogast at the battle of Frigidus while serving under Emperor Theodosius. Despite losing more than 10,000 of his men, Alaric did not achieve his expected promotion to magister militum, resulting in his leaving the Roman army to instead fight against it. He came to power with the Goths of Moesia, only occupied by the barbarians a couple decades after the battle of Adrianople.
At the same time, Theodosius’ death left the Roman Empire in a precarious position. The field armies were falling apart, and the Empire was once again divided between the late emperor’s incompetent sons. The famed Stilicho would effectively take control of the West and at times showed interest in moving upon the Eastern Empire. However, Alaric’s forces were in the middle of this three-way conflict, though Alaric sought to force peace between himself and the Eastern Empire by sacking Athens.
As the cards fell, Eutropius now led the Eastern Empire and had favor for Alaric. Thus, Alaric finally achieved the position of magister militum per Illyricum, entitling him to gold and grain for his men. This legitimization of Alaric seems to have tamed his forces for two years, until Eutropius’ reign suddenly ended in 399 A.D. Under new leadership, the Eastern Empire removed Alaric from his desired position and reassigned his province to the oversight of the West – leaving Alaric in the hands of Stilicho.
Alaric then invaded Italy around 402 A.D. After two costly defeats, he was permitted to retreat in peace. A few years later, when Stilicho was strained by further inroads from barbarians, Alaric would march again, demanding 4000 pounds of gold to halt his invasion. Stilicho acquiesced despite its negative impacts on his own standing in the court of Honorius.
After a coup following the death of Arcadius, Stilicho was betrayed and killed by followers of Olympius, Honorius’s minister and leader of the coup. The new leadership pronounced Alaric an enemy, eventually spurring Alaric to begin again his conquest of Italy.
At the walls of Rome in 408 A.D., Alaric enriched himself in precious metals, fabrics, and spices in return for leaving Rome unharmed. Apparently, a last condition to lift the siege was for Alaric to be named head of the Roman army. On this point, Honorius later recanted, leading Alaric to siege again and take Rome in three days. Alaric and his men stripped the city of its wealth; however, it is believed Alaric respected the relics of the Church and those who requested safety within its walls. Only a year later, Alaric died from fever while making his way back north through Italy. He was buried in the bottom of a riverbed with his previous spoils, as per the custom of the Visigoths.
5. Attila the Hun
Attila’s people had only recently arrived in Europe by crossing the Volga in about 370 A.D. The Huns rapidly expanded into the territories of the Alans and the Goths, forcing many of the existing barbarian populations into the bosom of the Romans. The new settlements would persist in the worlds of Fritigern and Alaric.
Contrary to popular knowledge, the Hunnic invasions were already extremely successful prior to Attila’s rise. Attila and his brother Bleda took control of an empire that already spanned from Crimea in the east to the Lombards in central Europe,and south to the Danube.
While previously operating in relative peace with the Romans, Attila and Bleda began crossing the Danube and attacking forts and Illyricum. Stretched for manpower in light of Genseric’s conquests in Africa, the Romans were forced to pull their armies out of the Balkans, leaving an open door for Atttila and Bleda in 441 A.D. The Huns pushed as far as Constantinople, which repelled them with its double walls.
Theodosius was forced to make concessions for peace, and Huns withdrew after securing increased tribute and thousands of pounds of gold. Attila then took sole command of the Hunnic Empire once his brother passed away.
Attila resumed his conquest through the Balkans, topping more than 100 Balkan cities within the Hunnic control.
In the early 450s, Attila began his conquest westward with his many barbarian vassals, taking Metz, Strasbourg, and Rheims. His advance was not checked until he reached Orleans, where he was repelled by the Visigothic king Theodoric I and the Romans. The Visigothic-Roman alliance pursued him into the plains of the Catalaunia and defeated Attila again, though Theodoric fell in battle.
However, Attila reemerged in a new invasion of Italy to claim what he believed was a legitimate marriage proposal from Honoria, the sister of Valentinian III. The invasion made it as far as the River Po, but here the Hunnic steam ran out, likely due to disease and starvation. Due to efforts in negotiation by Pope Leo I as well as two high officers from Emperor Valentinian III, the Huns agreed to peace and return to their homeland across the Danube.
While there, he renewed plans to strike Constantinople, but his plans were cut short by his death in 453 A.D. In the Medieval Age, Attila became known as the “Scourge of God”.
6. Genseric
Genseric, otherwise known as Geiseric or Gaiseric, was a Vandal king ruling from 428 to 477 A.D. Under pressure from the Visigoths, Genseric looked to move his people from Hispania Baetica (southern region in modern Spain) into Africa. In circa 428 A.D., Genseric ventured across the Strait of Gibraltar with tens of thousands of men, quickly overrunning the Roman defenses there. Modern day Morocco and north Algeria fell under his control, followed by Hippo Regius – the city where St. Augustine presided as bishop until his death during this Vandal siege. After taking parts of Numidia, a temporary peace was negotiated with Rome, sparing Carthage from Vandal control. Nonetheless, Genseric broke the peace and captured Carthage in 439 A.D. in a major blow to the Roman coffers and naval power.
Using his now mighty maritime forces, the Vandal king eventually captured many of the major islands in the Western Mediterranean.
When Emperor Valentinian III was murdered by two Scythians in response to the Emperor’s murder of Aetius the previous year, Genseric invaded Italy in a moment of opportunity. Under this invasion, Genseric conquered and sacked Rome bare. Pope Leo I negotiated with Genseric that the city would be left intact and its inhabitants unharmed, but virtually all the wealth within the walls was plundered.
In 468 A.D., the Eastern and Western Roman Empires combined their efforts in a massive fleet meant to defeat Genseric. Despite heavy losses, Genseric emerged victorious in a second battle, owing much to his effective use of fire ships. Consequently, Genseric safely ruled supreme over the Western Mediterranean until his death in Carthage in 477 A.D.
7. Odoacer
Little is known of the early life of Odoacer, also known as Odovacer. One of the earliest accounts of Odoacer by Eugippus in his work “Life of Saint Severinus” records how a young Odoacer meets Severinus, who prophetically tells the young barbarian to “Go to Italy, go, now covered with mean hides; soon you will make rich gifts to many.” After being an officer in the Roman Army for at least five years, Odoacer became the leader of the Germanic foederati of Italy. After the Roman Army’s magister militum Orestes revolted against the Emperor Julius Nepos, Odoacer and the foederati desired a permanent settlement in Italy. When Orestes refused, Odoacer and his men revolted and killed Orestes at Placentia. Subsequently, Odoacer was pronounced by the foederati, the Scirians, the Heruli, and much of the Roman army in Italy to be king in 476 A.D. Odoacer then dethroned the young Emperor Romulus – then only a child – by taking Ravenna. Odoacer was not opposed by the Eastern Emperor; instead, Odoacer was granted the title of Patrician and legal authority over Italy. These events yield the traditional date for the fall of the Roman Empire.
Odoacer’s final saga was his battle for Italy against Theodoric, who invaded Italy in 489 A.D. Suffering several defeats, Odoacer retreated into the protection of Ravenna and its marshes. After more than a year of siege, the bishop of Ravenna settled a treaty between Odoacer and Theodoric in which both would rule Ravenna together. Ten days after entering the city, Theodoric slew Odoacer as they shared a meal. Odoacer’s last words were “Where is God?,” to which Theodoric replied “This is what you did to my friends.”
Conclusions
These seven barbarian kings – Arminius, Fritigern, Radagaisus, Alaric I, Attila the Hun, Genseric, and Odoacer – are history-makers from beyond the edges of the Roman Empire who dared to challenge the Roman hegemony. Nonetheless, there are many other barbarian names that would rise in the ashes of the Roman Empire henceforth, including Theodoric in Italy, King Rechiar in Hispania, King Godegisel in Burgundy, Ricimer, and King Childeric I of the Franks.