Battle of Naissus

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Battle of Naissus

The Battle of Naissus (268 or 269 AD) was the defeat of a Gothic

Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
coalition by the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
under Emperor Gallienus

Gallienus

Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus ruled the Roman Empire as co-emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and then as the sole Roman Emperor from 260 to 268....
(or Claudius II

Claudius II

Marcus Aurelius Claudius , often referred to as Claudius Gothicus or Claudius II, was a Roman Emperor. He ruled the Roman Empire for less than two years , but during that brief time he managed to obtain some successes....
) near Naissus (Niš

Niš

Ni? is a city in Ni?ava District, Serbia situated at 43.3? N 21.9? E, on the Ni?ava River. With more than 250,000 inhabitants it is the largest city of South Serbia and third-largest city in the country, after Belgrade and Novi Sad....
in present-day Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country in Central Europe and Balkans Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans....
). The events around the invasion and the battle are an important part of the history of the Crisis of the Third Century

Crisis of the Third Century

Crisis of the Third Century was the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284 caused by invasion, civil war, Plague of Cyprian, and economic collapse....
.

The result was a great Roman victory which, combined with the effective pursuit of the invaders in the aftermath of the battle and the energetic efforts of the Emperor Aurelian

Aurelian

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus , known in English as Aurelian, Roman Emperor , was the second of several highly successful "soldier-emperors" who helped the Roman Empire regain its power during the latter part of the third century and the beginning of the fourth....
, largely removed the threat from Germanic tribes in the Balkan frontier for the following decades.

s often the case in the history of the Roman Empire in the troubled 3rd century, it is very difficult to reconstruct the course of events around the battle of Naissus.

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The Battle of Naissus (268 or 269 AD) was the defeat of a Gothic

Goths

Roman Empire

Gallienus

Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus ruled the Roman Empire as co-emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and then as the sole Roman Emperor from 260 to 268....
(or Claudius II

Claudius II

Niš

Serbia

Crisis of the Third Century

Aurelian

Sources

As is often the case in the history of the Roman Empire in the troubled 3rd century, it is very difficult to reconstruct the course of events around the battle of Naissus. Surviving accounts of the period, including Zosimus

Zosimus

Zosimus was a Byzantine Empire historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photios I of Constantinople, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury....
' New History, Zonaras

Joannes Zonaras

Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine Empire chronicler and theology, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of Drungarios of the Vigla and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his life in writing books....
' Epitome of the Histories, George Syncellus

George Syncellus

George Syncellus was a Byzantine Empire chronicler and ecclesiastic. He had lived many years in Palestine as a monk, before coming to Constantinople, where he was appointed syncellus to Patriarch Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople....
' Selection of Chronography, and the Augustan History, rely principally on the lost history of the Athenian Dexippus

Dexippus

Publius Herennius Dexippus , Greece historian, statesman and general, was an hereditary priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries family of the Kerykes, and held the offices of archon basileus and Archons of Athens in Athens....
. The text of Dexippus has survived only indirectly, through quotations in the fourth-century Augustan History and extracts in ninth-century Byzantine compilations. Despite his importance for the period, Dexippus has been declared a "poor" source by the modern historian David S. Potter. To make matters worse, the works making use of Dexippus (and likely another unknown contemporary source) provide an almost radically different interpretation of events. The imperial propaganda in the age of Constantine

Constantine I

Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus , commonly known in English_language as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine , was Roman Emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 until his death in 337....
's dynasty added more confusion by attributing all the calamities to the reign of Gallienus to avoid blemishing the memory of Claudius (supposed ancestor of the dynasty).

As a consequence, controversy still exists on the number of invasions and the order of events and on which reign those events must be attributed. Therefore, there is a dispute over who was the Emperor and head of the army at the time of the battle. In 1939, Andreas Alföldi, preferring the single invasion theory, suggested that Gallienus was the only one responsible for defeating the barbarian invasions, including the victory at Naissus. His view had been broadly accepted since then, but modern scholarship usually attributes the final victory to Claudius II. The single invasion theory has been also rejected in favour of the two separate invasions. The narrative below follows the latter view but the reader must be warned that the evidence is too confused for an entirely safe reconstruction.

Background

The battle of Naissus came about as a result of two massive invasions of "Scythian" tribes (as our sources anachronistically call them) into Roman territory between 267 and 269. The first wave came during Gallienus' reign (267) and started when the Heruli

Heruli

The Heruli were a nomadic Germanic people, who were subjugated by the Ostrogoths, Huns, and Byzantine Empires in the 3rd to 5th centuries. The name is related to earl and was probably an honorific military title....
, raiding on 500 ships, ravaged the southern Black Sea coast and unsuccessfully attacked Byzantium

Byzantium

Byzantium was an Ancient Greece city, which was founded by Greeks colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas ....
and Cyzicus

Cyzicus

Cyzicus was an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia, situated in Balikesir Province on the shoreward side of the present peninsula of Kapu-Dagh , which is said to have been originally an island in the Sea of Marmara, and to have been artificially connected with the mainland in historic times....
. They were defeated by the Roman navy

Roman Navy

The Roman Navy comprised the naval forces of the Roman state. Although the navy was instrumental in the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean Sea basin, it never enjoyed the prestige of the Roman legions....
but managed to escape into Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkans and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively....
, where they ravaged the islands of Lemnos

Lemnos

Lemnos is an island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. It is part of the prefecture of Greece of Lesbos Prefecture and has a considerable area, about 477 km?....
and Scyros and sacked several cities of the southern Greece (province of Achaea

Achaea (Roman province)

Achaea was a Roman province of the Roman Empire, consisting of the modern-day Peloponnese in southern Greece and bordered on the north by the provinces of Epirus and Macedonia ....
) including Athens

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, Corinth

Corinth

Corinth, or Korinth Corinth is now the capital of the Prefectures of Greece of Corinthia. The city is surrounded by the coastal townlets of Lechaio, Isthmia, Kechries, and the inland townlets of Examilia and the archaeological site....
, Argos

Argos

Argos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour, named for Nauplius ....
and Sparta

Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
. Then an Athenian militia, led by the historian Dexippus

Dexippus

Publius Herennius Dexippus , Greece historian, statesman and general, was an hereditary priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries family of the Kerykes, and held the offices of archon basileus and Archons of Athens in Athens....
, pushed the invaders to the north where they were intercepted by the Roman army under Gallienus. He won an important victory near the Nessos (Nestos

Mesta River

The Mesta or Nestos is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. It rises in the Rila Mountains and flows into the Aegean Sea near the island of Thasos....
) river, on the boundary between Macedonia

Macedonia (Roman province)

The Roman province of Macedonia was officially established in 146 BC, after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus defeated Andriscus of Macedon in 148 BC, and after the four client republics established by Rome in the region were dissolved....
and Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. Today the name Thrace designates a region spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
, with the aid of the Dalmatian cavalry. Reported barbarian casualties were 3,000 men. Subsequently, the Heruli leader Naulobatus came to terms with the Romans.

In the past, the battle on the Nessos was identified as the Battle of Naissus, but modern scholarship has rejected this view. On the contrary, there is a theory that the victory at Nessos was so decisive that Claudius' efforts against the Goths (including the battle of Naissus) were no more than a mopping-up operation. After his victory, Gallienus left Marcianus in place and hastily left for Italy, intending to suppress the revolt of his cavalry officer Aureolus

Aureolus

For the Frankish ruler of Aragon, see Aureolus of Aragon.Aureolus was a Roman Empire Roman army and would-be usurper. He was one of the of the so-called Thirty Tyrants who populated the reign of the Emperor Gallienus....
. After Gallienus was assassinated outside Milan

Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
in the summer of 268 in a plot led by high officers in his army, Claudius was proclaimed emperor and headed to Rome to establish his rule. Claudius' immediate concerns were with the Alamanni

Alamanni

The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic languagess located around the upper Main river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211?17 and claimed thereby to be their defeater....
, who had invaded Raetia

Raetia

File:REmpire Rhetia.pngRaetia was a Roman province of the Roman Empire, bounded on the west by the country of the Helvetii, on the east by Noricum, on the north by Vindelicia, and on the south by Cisalpine Gaul....
and Italy. After he defeated them in the Battle of Lake Benacus

Battle of Lake Benacus

The Battle of Lake Benacus was one of the decisive battles that marked the beginning of the Roman Empire's emergence from the Crisis of the Third Century....
, he was finally able to take care of the invasions in the Balkan provinces.

In the meantime, the second and larger sea-borne invasion had started. An enormous coalition of "Scythians", actually consisting of Goths (Greuthungi

Greuthungi

The Greuthungs, Greuthungi, or Greutungi were a Goths people of the Black Sea steppes in the third and fourth centuries. They had close contacts with the Thervings, another Gothic people from west of the river Dnestr....
and Tervingi), Gepids and Peucini

Peuce Island

Peuce in ancient geography was an island located near one of the mouths of the Danube, in the Danube Delta in the Romanian portion of Dobrudja. Its name came from the ancient Greek language word peuke, 'pine'....
, led again by the Heruli

Heruli

Dniester

The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe....
). The Augustan History and Zosimus claim a total number of 2,000–6,000 ships and 325,000 men. This is probably a gross exaggeration but remains indicative of the scale of the invasion. After failing to storm some towns on the coasts of the western Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is an inland sea sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolia and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Seas and various straits....
and the Danube

Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
(Tommi

Constanta

Constanta is the oldest living city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located on the Black Sea coast. Constan?a is part of the group of four equal size cities which ranks after Bucharest, Romania's capital, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca and Ia?i....
, Marcianopolis

Marcianopolis

Marcianopolis, or Marcianople , is a Roman Catholic titular see in the former Roman province of Lower Moesia, on the right bank of the Danube...
), the invaders attacked Byzantium

Byzantium

Byzantium was an Ancient Greece city, which was founded by Greeks colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas ....
and Chrysopolis. Part of their fleet was wrecked, either because of the Gothic inexperience in sailing through the violent currents of the Propontis or because it was defeated by the Roman navy. Then they entered Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
and Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes is a Greece List of islands of Greece approximately southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007 of which 53,709 resided in the Rhodes capital city of the island....
. While their main force was close to take the cities of Thessalonica and Cassandreia

Cassandreia

Cassandra was one of the most important cities in Ancient Macedonia founded by and named after Cassander in 316 BC located near the site of the earlier Ancient Greece city of Potidaea....
using siege machinery, it retreated to the Balkan interior at the news that the emperor was advancing. On their way, they plundered Doberus (Paionia

Paionia

Paionia or Paeonia was in ancient geography, the land of the Paeonians , the exact boundaries of which, like the early history of its inhabitants, are very obscure but they were in the region of Thrace....
?) and Pelagonia

Pelagonia

Pelagonia was an ancient region of Europe later incorporated into Macedon. It was roughly bounded by Dardania to the far north, Illyria to the west and north, Paionia to the east, and Lynkestis to the south and west....
.

The battle

The Goths were engaged near Naissus by a Roman army advancing from the north. The battle most likely took place in 269, and was fiercely contested. Large numbers on both sides were killed but, at the critical point, the Romans tricked the Goths into an ambuscade by a pretended flight. Some 50,000 Goths were allegedly killed. It seems that Aurelian was in charge of all Roman cavalry during Claudius' reign, making it possible that he participated in the battle.

Aftermath

A large number of Goths managed to escape towards Macedonia, initially defending themselves behind their laager. Soon, many of them and their pack animals, distressed as they were by the harassment of the Roman cavalry and the lack of provisions, died of hunger. The Roman army methodically pursued and surrounded the survivors at Mount Haemus

Balkan Mountains

The Balkan mountain range is a mountain in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea....
where an epidemic affected the entrapped Goths. After a bloody but inconclusive battle, they escaped but were pursued again until they surrendered. Prisoners were admitted to the army or given land to cultivate and become coloni

Colonus (person)

A colonus was a type of Roman peasant farmer, a serf. This designation was carried into the Middle Ages period for much of Europe.Coloni worked on large Roman estates called "latifundias" and could never leave....
. The members of the pirate fleet, after the failed attacks on Crete and Rhodes, retreated and many of them suffered a similar end. However the disease also affected the pursuing Romans and the emperor as well, who died from it in 270.

The psychological impact of this victory was so strong that Claudius became known to posterity as Claudius II Gothicus ("conqueror of the Goths"). However devastating the defeat, the battle did not entirely break the Gothic tribes' military strength. Besides, the troubles with Zenobia

Zenobia

Zenobia was a Roman Syrian queen who lived in the 3rd century. She was a Queen regnant of the Palmyrene Empire and the second wife of King Septimius Odaenathus....
in the East and the breakaway Gallic Empire

Gallic Empire

The Gallic Empire is the modern name for the independent realm that existed from 260 to 273, during the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century....
in the West were so urgent that the victory at Naissus could only serve as a temporary relief for the troubled Empire. In 271, after Aurelian repelled another Gothic invasion, he abandoned the province of Dacia

Dacia

In ancient geography, Dacia was the land of the Dacians. It was named by the ancient Greeks "Getae". Dacia was a large district of East-Central Europe, bounded on the north by the Carpathian Mountains, on the south by the Danube, on the west by the Tisia or Tisza, on the east by the Tyras or Dniester, now in eastern Moldova....
north of Danube forever, in order to rationalize the defense of the Empire.

Battle of Naissus

Sources

Background

The battle

Aftermath

Citations

Primary sources

Secondary sources