As unprecedented levels of plague, civil war, and economic decay crippled the once invincible
Roman Empire during the Crisis of the Third Century, a new barbarian group from near the
Black Sea - the Goths - started their raids into Roman territory, and as the third-century
crisis progressed, this new confederation would launch invasion after invasion. During
one of these invasions, culminating at Abritus in 251, something would occur for the first
time in the history of the Roman Empire.
Shoutout to Brilliant for sponsoring this video! We are happy to be partners with Brilliant,
as this educational platform and our channel share similar values! Do you know someone
who likes to ask “How does the refrigerator work?” or “How do I solve this puzzle?”
or maybe even “What is quantum computing?” If so, I've got just the thing for you. Spread
the love of knowledge and learning to your loved ones by gifting them Brilliant. This
really excites us, because it is such a fun way to nurture curiosity, build confidence,
and develop problem-solving skills crucial to school, job interviews, or their career.
Brilliant’s thought-provoking content breaks up complexities into bite-sized understandable
chunks that will lead them from curiosity to mastery. Go to Brilliant.org/KingsAndGenerals/
and grab a gift subscription to help your loved ones finish their day a little smarter.
In early spring 235, the last Severan emperor of Rome, Severus Alexander, who was very unpopular
with his legionaries, was murdered by assassins sent by Maximinus Thrax. This physically massive
and incredibly popular general of Thracian origin was hailed as the new Augustus by the
troops - becoming the first true soldier-emperor of Rome. Maximinus deliberately ignored the
traditional step of journeying to the capital for the senate to confirm his legitimacy.
Instead, he would remain with his legionary power-base on the frontier and campaign against
Rome’s barbarian enemies. For three years from his usurpation of the
throne, the emperor personally led his troops into merciless campaigns, first winning a
victory against the Alemanni across the Rhine, after which he took the title Germanicus Maximus.
The year after, he moved to Sirmium and struck against Dacians and Sarmatians on the Danube.
Maximinus’ frequent wars required massive expenditure, funds which could only be obtained
by bleeding the provinces dry with increased taxes. This made the emperor incredibly unpopular
in many parts of the empire, and a revolt eventually broke out at Thysdrus in the province
of Africa Proconsularis, where a predatory Roman procurator was killed in a riot. So,
began 238 AD - the year of the six emperors. An elderly proconsul, Marcus Antonius Gordianus
Sempronianus, was coerced by the mob into taking the imperial purple as Gordian I. After
doing so, he quickly set himself up in the provincial capital at Carthage, and elevated
his son Gordian II to share the responsibility. Hearing of this, the senate in Rome hastily
confirmed the legitimacy of both new emperors in Africa, and declared Maximinus an enemy
of the state. Unfortunately for the makeshift rebellious faction, Numidia’s governor remained
loyal to Maximinus, and led legio III Augusta against Gordian II’s hastily assembled army,
crushing the revolt outside of Carthage, and killing the younger Gordian whilst doing so.
Learning of his son’s fate, Gordian I committed suicide.
The senators in Rome could either throw themselves at the Thracian’s feet and shamelessly beg
for mercy, or continue to resist alone. They chose the latter option, elevating two prominent
senators, Pupienus and Balbinus, to the imperial purple to serve as ‘mega-consuls’, as
historian Patricia Southern called them. Lacking popular support, the aristocratic
leadership was then forced to adopt the young Gordian III - 13-year-old nephew of Gordian
II - as their heir. Predictably livid at this new triad of so-called emperors, Maximinus
began his march south from Sirmium to punish them. In response, Pupienus marched north
to organise the defence of Italy, while Balbinus stayed behind. Though Maximinus’ frontier
legions were battle-hardened veterans, Pupienus’ employment of guerilla tactics, a fierce winter,
and lack of supplies, led to the offensive getting bogged down in a siege at Aquileia.
When the frustrated Maximinus began to push his troops too far, his army mutinied and
killed him outside the city, before mounting his head on a spike.
Despite that victory, the three-way power-sharing arrangement in Rome couldn’t last for long.
Mutual jealousy between Pupienus and Balbinus, along with their inability to win over the
praetorian guard, led to their brutal executions not long after, so the year of the six emperors
ended with Gordian III as sole emperor of Rome. Nobles and generals alike quickly rallied
around this young emperor, whose government made an effort to deal with the various administrative,
financial, and military problems which had accrued since Alexander’s death. After 241,
the main figure in this effort was Gordian’s praetorian prefect Timesitheus. Though he
managed to stabilise the empire briefly, leading successful campaigns on the northern border
and against the Sassanids, he died in 243. Soon after, without a guardian to protect
him, Gordian III died in dubious circumstances, and was succeeded by the new praetorian prefect,
Marcus Julius Verus Philippus - ‘Philip the Arab’, who possibly played a role in
Gordian’s death, although that is a matter of vigorous debate. After leaving his brother
Gaius Priscus in charge of the east, Philip went to Rome in summer 244 and, perhaps trying
to rid himself of regicide accusations, had Gordian III deified. The year after, he left
for a campaign against Carpi invaders on the Danube, and managed to claim a complete victory,
returning to Rome for a very special occasion. 248AD saw the emperor preside over the 1,000th
anniversary of Rome’s supposed foundation by Romulus in 753BC. Combining the celebrations
for his military success and those for the millennium occasion, Philip held a grand Secular
Games, with many theatrical, literary, artistic, and musical events, along with spectacles
in the circus and amphitheatre. This high point in Philip’s reign wasn’t to last
long. In the last months of the same year, two separate
mutinies began, led by Pacatianus on the Danube and Jotapianus in Syria. Philip lost his nerve
at this point and offered to resign, but his spirit was buoyed by the confident oration
of an experienced senator - Gaius Messius Quintus Decius - who deftly predicted that
the revolts would simply collapse on their own. Soon after both did indeed collapse,
and Decius was brought to the emperor’s attention as a brilliant mind.
Such internal unrest near the vulnerable Balkan frontier had weakened imperial defences in
the region, leading to even more attacks by Germanic Quadi and Sarmatian Iazyges. However,
by far the most lethal group was a new, much larger confederation which was making its
first of many appearances in the Roman world - the Goths.
With the border in chaos because of these raids, Philip’s reaction was to give Decius
command over all of Pannonia and Moesia, in hopes that he of all people could restore
order. Accompanied by his son Herennius, Decius did just that, and by mid-249 the barbarian
raiders had been defeated and cast out from Roman lands. However, the legions then clothed
their victorious commander in the imperial purple and forced a supposedly reluctant Decius
to lead them back to Rome as conquerors. In Rome, Philip was informed of the new revolt
and marched out to meet the Danubian legions and their treacherous commander in northern
Italy. The emperor engaged Decius near Verona in the autumn of 249, but despite numerical
superiority, he was utterly defeated by the superior quality of Decius’ veteran Moesian
frontier troops. The sixty-year-old became emperor at the end of 249, accepting the prestigious
addition of Traianus to his name, in recognition of successes on the Danube.
Rome’s new ruler immediately tried to unify the empire religiously by reaffirming the
old religion with Jupiter as the main god. Prominent Christians such as Pope Fabian were
killed for their refusal to conform, as were many other adherents of the faith throughout
the whole empire. However, things would change again - Decius
had drained the Danube frontier of its defenders, opening a breach which the Goths took advantage
of almost immediately. The burgeoning Goths were now under the leadership of a capable
new warlord - Cniva - whose Goths marched into the empire with a combined army of Carpi,
Vandals, Bastarnae, other Germanic tribes, and some Roman deserters.
After first sending a separate horde of Germanic warriors into Dacia to tie up Roman forces
there, Cniva marched straight towards the border city of Novae, which also served as
one of the great Danubian defensive ‘limes, or ‘frontier fortresses’ of the empire.
The local commander - Trebonianus Gallus - managed to repel them, so the Gothic king moved onto
other targets. At this point, Cniva divided his 70,000 strong army into two main columns,
one heading off to besiege Marcianopolis and the other, under the king himself, marching
on Nicopolis. Never the greatest at siegecraft, Cniva’s barbarians failed to take either
city quickly due to the cities’ powerful fortifications, a delay which gave Decius
time to arrive with the Imperial army and uproot the Goths from their siege at Nicopolis.
This rapacious plundering of imperial territory probably prompted the emperor and his legions
to march double-time, and they were eventually forced to take a breather near Augusta Traiana
- formerly Beroe - where they set up camp. However, as the Romans were resting, Cniva’s
army unexpectedly turned and descended on the legions by surprise, inflicting terrible
casualties, scattering the imperial army, and forcing the emperor to flee in humiliation
and defeat. Though Decius managed to escape north into
Moesia, his army had been shredded, and the emperor had to spend the campaigning season
of 250 recovering from the intelligent Gothic attack. Meanwhile, Cniva, his warriors now
equipped with high-quality Roman military equipment looted from the battlefield at Augusta
Traiana, marched on the city of Philippopolis to accomplish the barbarian’s aim of plundering
the empire’s vast wealth. The barbarian army’s arrival outside the
unprepared city prompted its people and the small force of Thracian legionaries defending
it to elevate the local commander - Titus Julius Priscus - to the imperial purple, possibly
in order to give him legal authority to negotiate with the Goths. During the parley, Cniva promised
Priscus Gothic support in his bid for the Roman throne if the city gates were opened.
In what proved to be a fatal mistake, the Thracian governor let the barbarians in, thereby
falling hook, line and sinker for Cniva’s clever ploy. Before himself being killed,
Priscus witnessed Philippopolis be viciously plundered and burned, its material wealth
carted away, and its citizens marched off to be sold as slaves.
The invaders had accomplished their goal of extracting vast amounts of treasure from the
beleaguered empire, and now began their trek towards the Danubian frontier, hampered by
a heavily plunder-laden baggage train. Decius wasn’t about to let the Gothic army escape,
and set about chasing the enemy as quickly as possible. The crafty Cniva predicted this,
and knew that his encumbered army now wasn’t fast enough to outpace the legions.
As the forces of the Roman emperor slowly caught up, Decius dispatched Herennius to
harass and slow them down even more with skirmishing cavalry. However, during one of these engagements,
the caesar pushed too far and was slain by an arrow loosed by one of the retreating Goths.
When Decius found out about the death of his son he was stricken with grief, but supposedly
took the loss stoically, lifting the mood of his soldiers by proclaiming “Let no one
mourn, because the death of one soldier is no great loss to the Republic!”. However,
this quote is almost definitely apocryphal. Realising that the Roman legions were almost
on top of him, Cniva surveyed the nearby terrain and chose a suitable place to set a trap for
Decius, whom he had already observed to be rather careless. The Gothic army turned to
face its pursuers about 9 miles northwest of Abritus, near modern day Dryanovets in
Bulgaria. Cniva arranged his army into three lines of
battle, one behind the other, two on some flat plains in front and a third slightly
further back behind an area of treacherous swampland. The Gothic warlord’s genius was
to array his forces so that the second and third lines, along with the lethal quagmire,
were shielded from view by the vanguard of his army. To Decius, it would have appeared
that he was facing just a reasonably small line of barbarians on good, flat ground, ground
on which the formed-up legions had an unconquerable advantage.
Roman forces formed up for battle opposite the Goths, and then the emperor had an altar
set up, at which he made a pre-battle sacrifice to the eternal city’s old gods before the
battle was joined. With the gods’ favour surely on their side, and eager to regain
honour which had been lost at Augusta Traiana, the Romans charged. Legionaries threw their
pila and the barbarian army threw heavy spears before both lines clashed in gritty face-to-face
combat. The legions were now in their element, slashing bloody holes into the ranks of Cniva’s
first line with their shortswords and breaking it with relative ease.
Those Gothic warriors and their allies who weren’t killed on the spot began to scatter
to the rear, and the Romans advanced in order to catch up. To Decius’ shock, the Gothic
second line then charged at the legions and engaged. It barely did any better than the
first wave, collapsing without much resistance and fleeing in short order. The battle was
going as planned and the Goths were routing - it was time to finish the barbarians off.
Decius either ordered his forces to charge forward, or lost control of his men, who ran
headlong into the sucking morass in front of Cniva’s reserve. At this point the Gothic
king sprang his deadly trap, unleashing the fresh troops in his third line to surround
the Roman army, which was ponderously dragging itself through the muck, on three sides. With
its crucial formations broken apart by the terrain, the fatigued imperial army was cut
to pieces. Somewhere in the horrific massacre, witnessing the utter destruction of his army,
Roman Emperor Trajan Decius was slain by Gothic arms. He was the first Emperor of Rome to
die in battle to a foreign enemy. The defeat at Abritus was a nightmare to the
empire’s citizens, and it quickly spurred rumours of treason, which caused another civil
war. Although the Goths now had the initiative, they decided to retreat to the north carrying
all of their spoils of war. The Goths would continue to be a threat to
the Roman empire, but that is a story for another documentary, so make sure you are
subscribed to our channel and pressed the bell button. We would like to express our
gratitude to our Patreon supporters and channel members, who make the creation of our videos
possible. Now, you can also support us by buying our merchandise via the link in the
description. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next
one.