Adrianople, << `AY` drih uh NOH puhl, >> Battle of, was fought between the Romans and the Goths in August A.D. 378 at Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey). It was a catastrophic defeat for the Roman army.
The Goths were a Germanic people whose homelands lay north of the Roman Empire, in southeastern Europe and along the Black Sea shore. In the 370’s, the westward migration of nomadic Huns from central Asia disrupted the Goths’ settled way of life. Alarmed, large groups of Goths sought refuge in the Roman Empire, across the Danube River to the south.
The Roman authorities proved unsympathetic to the Goths and ill-prepared for a large-scale migration into their territory. Nevertheless, the Roman Emperor Valens let them settle there, hoping to integrate them into his army. But Roman officials mistreated the Goths, and they revolted. Valens decided to advance from Constantinople, with 40,000 of his finest soldiers, against the Goths. However, he underestimated the Goths, who outmaneuvered him. Valens and two-thirds of his army died in battle.
Following their defeat at the Battle of Adrianople, the Romans found it increasingly difficult to control the growing numbers of Goths and other Germanic peoples entering or already living in the empire. The situation helped bring about the end of the West Roman Empire in 476.
