New Answers and Old Questions about the Battle at Adrianopolis

Abstract

The author analyses modern interpretations of the battle at Adrianopolis in 378 and estimations of significance of this battle for the history of the Roman Empire and for the history of Goths. A special attention is paid to the questions of the manpower of both fighting armies and the methodology of defining the number of soldiers, which remains unreliable. In the deseription of the battle itself, as presented by Ammianus Marcellinus, the author finds many an absurdity, which emerged under the influence of diffrent literarv presentations. Finally the author emphasizes that the key elements of the battle still remain unclear.