![]() ![]() Lacking land and food, they went on a rampage through the Balkans which culminated two years later in the Battle of Hadrianople, in which the Romans suffered one of their most disastrous defeats.īut this was not the real problem. Hoping the refugees would make good soldiers and slaves, Rome let the Goths in. Asylum-seeking Goths by the ten thousand gathered on the northern banks of the Danube, begging for entry. The first adumbration of disaster came in the spring of 376, when the empire suddenly faced a problem with a modern resonance. Something happened to upset the precarious balance. But these tribes had long been troublesome and had been managed, by trade, intermarriage, bribery, brute force and employment in Roman armies. Yes, of course it was the barbarians, Germanic tribes from across the Rhine and Danube. Here, in this magisterial new history, Peter Heather explains what went wrong. ![]()
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