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The Late Roman Empire
Part 2
The End of the Roman Army
The 4th Century
general remarks
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By 4th century the Imperial Roman Army was
modified and had become the Army of the Late
Empire;
Recruitment became more difficult –
Although it was the regular Roman army contained large component of barbarians
Army continued to recover after set-backs
Turning point the two great disasters: at
Adrianople AD 378 – destroyed the eastern army
At Frigidus AD 394 - destroyed western army
Emperors Valentinian and Valens
(364-75/78)
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364 Valentinius declared emperor:
context: frontiers threatened everywhere, eastern army decimated
, Alamanni were devastating Gaul and Raetia, Sarmatians and Quadi
attacked Pannonia, Goths were plundering Thrace; Britain raided by
Picts, Scots, Attacotti; Moorish tribes harassed African provinces
In short - chaos and destruction on all fronts
At request of army – Valentinian appointed colleague to share
throne and deal with the various crises, chose his brother Valens;
364 Empire and army divided between them:
Valentian went to the West to restore peace at western front - with
base at Trier;
Valens went to the East, campaigning against Goths
Recruitment in the 4th century
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Recruitment became more difficult
In 355 Emperor Constantius passed laws to curtail activities of
veterans who turned to banditry
364 Valentinian – laws outlining more privileges for veterans (to
ease their lot and prevent them from turning to crime)
In 365 tougher measures to round up deserters; height for recruits
reduced
The avoidance of service by cutting off fingers and thumbs –was
countered by forcing such men into service despite disabilities
following year lost patience and had those who mutilated
themselves burnt to death
Valens tried to correct other abuses such as the trick of claiming pay
of dead comrades, selling off supplies intended for troops for a
profit
Conscriptions held annually
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Emperor Constantine Augustus to Octavianus.
We order that veterans’ sons who are fit for
military service, of whom some indolently refuse
to perform compulsory military duties while
others are so cowardly that they wish to evade
the necessity of military service by mutilating
their own bodies, if they should be judged
incapable of military service because their
fingers have been cut off, are to be assigned,
without any ambiguity, to perform the complete
compulsory public services and duties of
decurions. ….CTh 7.22, Ad 319 (#390,
Campbell)
Valens’ Settlement of the Goths
375 settlement of Goths at Danube
frontier
 Many Goths drafted into army, not enough
to prevent pressure on food supply;
 Resulting famine coupled with exploitation
of Goths by Roman officials ended in
revolt; defeat of Romans at Adrianople in
378, Valens killed in battle
 Eastern army almost completely destroyed
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The disaster at Adrianople 378
defeat of Romans at Adrianople in 378,
Valens killed in battle
 Eastern army almost completely destroyed
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Theodosius 379-392
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Needed 3 years to bring Goths to terms
Allowed them to settle in Thrace on lands they
had ravaged; given autonomy
Some authors criticized Theodosius for this,
Others like Author Salvian agreed that
barbarians were there to stay and had either to
be assimilated or defeated;
Defeating them has proved to be impossible
Barbarization of Army
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Usually after conclusion of war, treaty that required enemy to
contribute number of men to Roman army, en masse and annually,
or similar arrangement. Could be distributed among existing armies,
diluting barbarian influence, or as one body sent to distant
provinces
Defeated tribesmen dediticii – sometimes settled in large numbers
inside Empire; other groups came voluntarily; sometimes admitted
and given land:
Augustus 50,000 Getae settled in Moesia; Tiberius let 40,000
Germans into Gaul and Rhineland; Marcus Aurelius let 3,000
Naristae in; Probus 100,000 Bastarnae, Constantine settled 300,000
Sarmatians in Thrace, Italy and Macedonia.
Common feature = expectation that tribesmen would defend
sections of frontier where they were granted land, or provide troops
for army,
Foederati (federates)
Employment of barbarians by means of alliance with a
tribal leader or client king
 2 types: 1. barbarian groups, settled or garrisoned in
regions of Empire who had to provide military assistance
(i.e. Visigoths in Aquitaine, Burgundians in Burgundy)
 2. barbarian military units recruited for particular
campaigns (Goths, Franks, Huns, sometimes a mix of
different ethnic groups; sometimes under their own
leader; usually disbanded after campaign)
 Occasionally recruited into regular army to fill gaps
 a method of increasing size of Roman army for
campaigns
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Barbarian soldiers and officers
Many served in regular army, some rose to high rank
(Magnentius – became emperor for short time (350 –
351))
 Individual recruitment and enrollment of large groups of
barbarians was common since early empire
 Usually loyal to Rome – Germans for example, had little
sense of nationality, no among Germanic tribes unity,
 Roman versus German a modern dichotomy, did not
exist in antiquity.
 Signed up for 20-25 years service; received citizenship at
completion. Germans in positions of authority in army or
civilian office were more Roman than Romans
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Barbarians and the Western Roman
Army
Purges of barbarians in western army backfired
 408 - Romans in Honorius’ court massacred
Germans among the emperor’s followers;
 killed Stilicho who was in command of the Italian
army, an excellent general; the foederati of his
army (c. 30,000) deserted to Alaric and his
Goths
 left western court almost defenseles
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Responses to barbarization of Army
Author Synesis recommended removal of all barbarians
from high office (purifying army)
 After defeat at Adrianople (378) – sealed orders went
out to commanders of Eastern troops to summon Goths
in army to pay parade and then kill them.
 More purges in 386 when group of Goths committed
massacre at Tomi and after revolt of Gainas in
Constantinople (Gainas was behind assassination of
praetorian prefect Rufinus, led march on Constantinople,
was defeated, and then killed by Huns)
 Defeat of western army at Frigidus 394
 Attempts made to reduce numbers of Germanic
tribesmen in army
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Adrianople 378
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Their counsel, though the least prudent, so far prevailed, that the
emperor led forth his whole army without order. The Barbarians
resolutely opposed them, and gained so signal a victory, that they
slew all, except a few with whom the emperor fled into an
unfortified village. The Barbarians, therefore, surrounded the place
with a quantity of wood, which they set on fire. All who had fled
thither, together with the inhabitants, were consumed in the tlames,
and in such a manner, that the body of the emperor could never be
found. When the affairs of the empire were reduced to this low
condition, Victor, who commanded the Roman cavalry, escaping the
danger with some of his troops, entered Macedon and Thessaly.
From thence he proceeded into Moesia and Pannonia, and informed
Gratian, who was then in that quarter, of what had occurred, and of
the loss of the emperor and his army. (Zosimus Book 4)
The 5th century and our Sources
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Source Difficulties
No sources covering the army in this period when most
important changes took place
4th century army: described by Ammianus Marcellinus
6th century army: described by Procopius
Between 4th and 6th century – western army disappeared
Eastern army was modified and emerged as Byzantine
army
Have glimpses of the beginnings of changes and the end
– have no details about the period in which the major
changes took place.
The Army in the 5th century
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Liebeschuetz argues that by mid 5th century the regular army had become
unimportant
Difficulties to recruit Romans into army; resistance from large landowners; many
barbarian groups had settled inside Empire; local cooperation with barbarians
Foederati eager to provide troops for Empire; provided opportunity for profit;
especially the Germans were professional fighters;
Western army could not afford to stop recruiting barbarians as in east;
Aetius, magister militum, last great commander in west was supported by his own
private army of Huns (murdered in 454)
See similar pattern of personal armies as in Late Republic (but now consisting of
barbarians)
At same time Western Empire failed to assimilate barbarians properly, which
contributed significantly to its demise.
After mid 5th century Western Army unable to recover from losses of trained Roman
soldiers to hand down Roman tradition
Inability to train new troops led to decline of army in short time
Roman combat methods disappeared
Romanization ceased; in past Roman army was most important and effective
instrument of Romanization process
End of the Western Empire
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Western government unstable; no centralized administration;
impoverishment of resources;
Civil wars between usurpers; 410 CE Alaric and the Visigoths sack
Rome
Troops withdrawn from Britain in 407; Army withdraws from Spain
411; Western Empire shrunk to Italy and Gaul
Frontiers on Rhine overrun; constant raids; infiltration rather than
‘invasion’ composition of population simply changed
Exact date of end of western Empire not clear; accepted date 476
Roman laws, military institutions continued to live on in barbarian
kingdoms; no formal disbandment of army directed from Ravenna or
Rome
Even the soldiers in the army did not know that their Empire had
ended
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By these means, the Roman empire, having
been devastated by degrees, is become the
habitation of Barbarians, or rather having lost all
its inhabitants, is reduced to such a form, that
no person can distinguish where its cities
formerly stood. That affairs were thus brought
into so melancholy a state will be evident from a
particular narrative of them. The emperor
Theodosius, having consigned Italy, Spain,
Celtica, and Libya to his son Honorius, died of a
disease on his journey towards Constantinople.
His body was embalmed, and deposited in the
imperial sepulchres of that city. (Zosimus 4)
The end of the Western army
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“ So long as the Roman dominion lasted, soldiers were maintained
in many towns at the public expense to guard the boundary wall.67
When this custom ceased, the squadrons of soldiers and the
boundary wall were blotted out together. The troop at Batavis,
however, held out. Some soldiers of this troop had gone to Italy to
fetch the final pay to their comrades, and no one knew that the
barbarians had slain them on the way. One day, as Saint Severinus
was reading in his cell, he suddenly closed the book and began to
sigh greatly and to weep. He ordered the bystanders to run out with
haste to the river, which he declared was in that hour besprinkled
with human blood; and straightway word was brought that the
bodies of the soldiers mentioned above had been brought to land by
the current of the river.” (Eugippius, Vita Sancti Severini)
The 6th century Army
When army in east reappeared in our
sources it was the Byzantine Army
 Basic 4th century army still recognizable:
limitanei on frontiers; comitatenses in
field army; scholae, protectores, foederati
still existed
 Changes: tactical functions: scholae and
protectores had become show-case troops
 foederati had become regular troops
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Justinian and the 6th century Army
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Justinian’s changes: created more magistri militum
Divided command of magister militum per Orientem by
splitting off some territory under a magister militum per
Armenian.
Magister militum per Africam had also jurisdiction over
Sardinia and Corsica.
Eventually replaced by a new office” exarch
Powerful position, embodying civil and military functions,
with civil subordinated to the military
Not a special rank, by late 6th century exarchs of Italy
and Africa were equivalent of kings attending to civil,
military, judicial and religious matters, answered only to
the Emperor.
Justinian and the 6th century Army
Able to keep up strength of army
 Recruitment for frontier and field armies
local and voluntary
 Proportions of Romans to Barbarians in
regular army higher than in previous
periods
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