What is the significance of the Battle of Adrianople?
The Battle of Adrianople was extremely important. It was such a defeat for the Romans that many historians regard it as the begining of the end for the Roman Empire. The Romans had managed to keep the Germanic “barbarians” at arms length for many centuries but with this Battle that all changed. The Goths would not be taken advantage of by Rome. Also because so many Roman soldiers died in that one battle they could not be replaced by recruits from within the empire so a deal was struck in which the Goths and their Germanic allies were absorbed into the Roman military. Now for the first time ever there were more Germans than Italians and other mediteranian peoples in the Roman army. This “barbarianisation” or Germanisation of the Roman army changed the whole balance of power in the empire with German generals rising to the very top of the Roman hirachy, see General Stilicho for example.
