Osprey CAM 336 Strasbourg AD 357 The Victory that Saved Gaul By Rafael D amato Andrea Frediani True Pdf.pdf

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STRASBOURG AD 357
The victory that saved Gaul
RAFFAELE D’AMATO &
ANDREA FREDIANI
ILLUSTRATED BY FLORENT VINCENT
CAMPAIGN 336
STRASBOURG
AD
357
The victory that saved Gaul
RAFFAELE D’AMATO
& ANDREA FREDIANI
ILLUSTRATED BY FLORENT VINCENT
Series editor Marcus Cowper
CONTENTS
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
The Rhine frontier
n
Constantine’s dynasty
n
The collapse in Gaul
n
The arrival of Julian
4
CHRONOLOGY
THE APPROACH TO ARGENTORATUM
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
Roman
n
Germanic
16
17
29
OPPOSING FORCES
Roman
n
Germanic
33
OPPOSING PLANS
Germanic
n
Roman
51
THE BATTLE OF ARGENTORATUM
AFTERMATH
Julian’s follow-on operations
n
The pacification of Gaul
n
Emperor Julian
56
80
THE BATTLEFIELD TODAY
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
92
93
95
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
Gaul (Gallia), even more than Africa, Dacia and Britannia, undoubtedly
comprised one of the largest and longest-lasting conquests by the Romans,
and the merit goes to Julius Caesar. Its resources and its rapid Romanization
allowed the empire to prosper and rely on a geopolitical and economic
nucleus beyond the confines of the Italian peninsula. Not by chance, it was
only when the Gallic provinces, during the 5th century ad, began to see their
territories shrink that the Western Roman Empire was no longer able to halt
the decline and defend all its other borders. However, in the time period
covered in this volume, the Romans knew how to deal with pressure along
their borders consisting of raids, looting or, at most, temporary occupations
of the frontier by enemy bands.
The Roman hero of the period under discussion, who led the defence of
Gaul for five years, was a man who had never before taken a sword in his
hand or fought an enemy on the battlefield. This man was Flavius Claudius
Iulianus (Julian), at that time
caesar
over the Western provinces and then
later
augustus
(emperor); he later became known as Julian the Apostate
by his Christian enemies for his attempt to restore the ancient Pagan cults
of Rome.
Roman soldiers hunting a boar
and a deer, from a sarcophagus
at Arelate (Arles), second
half of 4th century
ad
. This
sarcophagus, found in 1974 in
the Trinquetaille area, shows
how hunting was one of the
preferred Roman methods for
preparing for war. The presence
of military belts and
fasciae
crurales
(woollen socks laced
up to the knee in a cross-garter
pattern) mark these hunters as
soldiers, probably in the retinue
of a general. Note the fur
collar worn without a cap, the
alicula.
(Musée Départemental
Arles Antique, authors’ photo,
courtesy of the museum)
4
The Battle of Strasbourg (Argentoratum),
fought in ad 357 between the Roman army
under Julian and the confederation of
Germanic tribes led by the Alemannic King
Chnodomar, was the most striking military
masterpiece of this extraordinary man, one
of Rome’s outstanding emperors. Although
numerically inferior, Julian’s army gained a
complete victory by pushing the Alemanni
beyond the Rhine and inflicting heavy
casualties on them. The battle, one of the
best documented military engagements
of the 4th century ad, represented the
culmination of the campaigns of Julian
between 355 and 357 to drive the
barbarians from Gaul and restore the line
of Roman defensive fortifications along the Rhine, which had largely been
destroyed during the civil war of ad 350–53. Julian himself wrote a book on
the battle, which unfortunately remains lost to us, probably because of the
damnatio memoriae
suffered by Julian. There are three fundamental sources
for the battle. Firstly, there is the account of Julian’s personal historian, his
contemporary Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote his
Res Gestae
around ad
392. Secondly, there is Ammianus’ teacher and friend of Julian, the orator
Libanius, who wrote his account in ad 365 and thus is closer to the events.
Thirdly, there is the account of the historian Zosimus, who wrote his
Historia
Nova
in about ad 500. Ammianus has been often criticized by the modern
historians, because he was an admirer of Julian and he celebrated his deeds.
On the other hand, he was with Julian before the battle and, moreover, he
collected additional information on it from his comrades and companion
officers. Of course, a clear and complete reconstruction of what happened
can only be obtained by reading Ammianus in conjunction with the other
two sources and with the modern archaeology.
A Late Roman lord out hunting
with soldiers and servants,
Villa Romana del Tellaro,
Sicily. (Dipartimento dei beni
culturali e dell’identità siciliana;
authors’ photo)
THE RHINE FRONTIER
The tireless activity of Constantine the Great (ad 306–37), first as
usurper, then as
caesar
and finally as
augustus,
restored a certain degree
of stability on the Rhine frontier during the first half of the 4th century
ad. A relative period of peace longer than any witnessed over the
course of the previous century followed, although pressure continued
from the Germanic tribes. The marked institutional and economic crisis
into which the empire had fallen before the advent of Diocletian and
the Tetrarchy, which witnessed 22 emperors across a 50-year timespan,
had undermined Roman defensive emplacements along both its western
and eastern borders. Whilst along the Euphrates Rome had to deal with
the similarly structured kingdom of the Sassanid Persians, in Europe
pressure was exerted by dozens of different tribes, occasionally acting
as a confederation, but more often than not led by individual rulers who
did not always respect any stipulated treaties (foedera) agreed with the
current Roman emperor or his predecessors.
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