Battle of Naissus
The Battle of Naissus was fought in either 268 or 269. A Roman army met a huge coalition of Gothic and allied tribes near the town of Naissus, known today as Niš. Ancient writers cannot even agree on who commanded the winning side. Some credit Emperor Gallienus. Others credit his successor, Claudius II Gothicus. Still others point to the young cavalry officer who would later rule as Emperor Aurelian. That disagreement is not a minor footnote. It runs straight through the surviving accounts of the whole crisis gripping Rome in the third century. Near Naissus, Roman forces won a victory so decisive that it helped push Germanic pressure off the Balkan frontier for decades to come. But which emperor deserves the credit? How many separate invasions actually took place? And what happened to the tribes who survived the fighting? Historians still argue over all three questions.
The Athenian historian Dexippus wrote an account of this period that has not survived on its own. Yet nearly every ancient source on Naissus depends on it. Zosimus' New History, Zonaras' Epitome of the Histories, George Syncellus' Selection of Chronography, and the Augustan History all draw from Dexippus' lost work. They do so directly or indirectly. His text survives only through quotations preserved in the fourth-century Augustan History and extracts made by ninth-century Byzantine compilers.
David S. Potter, a modern historian, has judged Dexippus a poor source despite his importance for the period. Worse, the works that rely on Dexippus, and likely on another unnamed contemporary source, offer almost totally different versions of events.
Imperial propaganda under Constantine's dynasty added another layer of confusion. It blamed the disasters of the era on Gallienus, protecting the reputation of Claudius, whom the dynasty claimed as an ancestor.
In 1939, the historian Andreas Alföldi argued for a single invasion theory, in which Gallienus alone defeated the barbarian invasions, Naissus included. Many scholars accepted his reading for decades, but modern scholarship generally now credits the final victory to Claudius II instead. The single invasion theory has since given ground to a view that counts two separate invasions. This account follows that two-invasion reading, starting with a fleet that a later, disputed source count would put in the thousands.
In 267, during the reign of Gallienus, the Heruli launched the first of two great invasions, raiding the empire on some 500 ships. They ravaged the southern coast of the Black Sea and tried, unsuccessfully, to take Byzantium and Cyzicus.
The Roman navy defeated them there, but the Heruli slipped into the Aegean Sea and kept raiding. They plundered the islands of Lemnos and Skyros, then sacked Athens, Corinth, Argos, and Sparta in the Greek province of Achaea.
An Athenian militia led by the historian Dexippus himself pushed the raiders north, where the Roman army under Gallienus intercepted them. Gallienus won a major victory near the Nestos River, on the border between Macedonia and Thrace, aided by Dalmatian cavalry. Ancient sources put barbarian losses at 3,000 men, and the Heruli leader Naulobatus soon came to terms with Rome.
Older scholarship once mistook this fight on the Nestos for the Battle of Naissus itself, a reading modern historians now reject. One theory holds that the Nestos victory was so complete that Claudius' later campaign, including Naissus, was little more than a mopping-up operation.
After the Nestos campaign, Gallienus left the officer Lucius Aurelius Marcianus in charge of the Balkans. He then hurried back to Italy to put down a revolt led by his cavalry commander Aureolus. In the summer of 268, Gallienus was assassinated outside Milan in a plot organized by senior officers in his own army.
Claudius was proclaimed emperor and marched toward Rome to secure his rule. His first fight was against the Alemanni, who had invaded Raetia and Italy. He beat them at the Battle of Lake Benacus, then turned his attention to the Balkans.
While Claudius was still dealing with the Alemanni, a second and far larger sea-borne invasion had already begun gathering. This coalition included Goths of the Greuthungi and Thervingi peoples, along with Gepids and Peucini. Once again the Heruli led the way. They all assembled at the mouth of the river Tyras, known today as the Dniester.
The Augustan History and Zosimus claim the invaders numbered between 2,000 and 6,000 ships, and 325,000 men. That figure is almost certainly exaggerated, but it still signals the scale of the invasion. After failing to take the towns of Tomis and Marcianopolis, the invaders struck at Byzantium and Chrysopolis.
In the Propontis, part of the invading fleet was wrecked, either from Gothic inexperience in its violent currents or from a Roman naval defeat. The survivors sailed into the Aegean, and one detachment raided as far as Crete and Rhodes.
The main invasion force built siege works outside Thessalonica and Cassandreia. It pulled back into the Balkan interior once word came that the emperor himself was marching against it. Along the retreat, the Goths plundered Doberus and Pelagonia. That retreat pulled the invaders back toward a Roman force already moving to meet them.
Near Naissus, the Goths ran into a Roman army advancing from the north, and the fighting that followed was fierce on both sides. The battle most likely took place in 268. Casualties were heavy on both sides, but the Romans turned the tide with a feigned retreat that lured the Goths into an ambush.
Some 50,000 Goths were reportedly killed or captured in that ambush, an extraordinary toll even allowing for ancient exaggeration. Aurelian, who commanded all of Claudius' cavalry, appears to have led the decisive charge that broke the Gothic lines.
Not every Goth at Naissus died in the ambush. Many broke away instead, carrying the war into the harsher country beyond the battlefield.
Thousands of Goths who escaped the ambush fled toward Macedonia, forming a defensive laager against the pursuing Romans. Hunger set in fast. Harried by Roman cavalry and cut off from supplies, many of the Goths and their pack animals starved.
The Roman army tracked the survivors to Mount Haemus and surrounded them there, where an epidemic broke out among the trapped Goths. A bloody but inconclusive battle followed; the Goths broke free, were pursued once more, and eventually surrendered.
Rome absorbed the prisoners into its own army or settled them on land as coloni, tenant farmers bound to work it. The remnants of the seaborne raiding fleet, turned back after failed attacks on Crete and Rhodes, met a similar fate.
Emperor Claudius caught the same epidemic while pursuing the Goths, and he died from it in 270.
The psychological effect of the victory was so great that posterity gave Claudius a new title, Claudius II Gothicus Maximus. That name meant conqueror of the Goths. Even so, the defeat did not fully break the military strength of the Gothic tribes.
Rome had little time to enjoy the relief. Trouble with Zenobia in the east and a breakaway Gallic Empire in the west meant Naissus offered only a temporary respite. In 271, after Aurelian turned back another Gothic invasion, he abandoned the province of Dacia north of the Danube to simplify the empire's defenses.
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Common questions
What was the Battle of Naissus and when did it happen?
The Battle of Naissus was a battle fought in 268 or 269 in which Roman forces defeated a large coalition of Gothic and allied tribes near Naissus, in modern Niš. The victory was part of Rome's response to major invasions during the Crisis of the Third Century.
Who commanded the Roman army at the Battle of Naissus?
Ancient sources disagree on which emperor commanded at Naissus, crediting either Gallienus or his successor, Claudius II Gothicus. Modern scholarship generally credits the final victory to Claudius II, while the future emperor Aurelian, who led all of Claudius' cavalry, appears to have led the decisive charge.
How many Goths were killed or captured at the Battle of Naissus?
Some 50,000 Goths were allegedly killed or captured after Roman forces lured them into an ambush with a feigned retreat. This figure comes from ancient sources and is treated by modern historians as an extraordinary, possibly exaggerated, toll.
What happened to the Goths who survived the Battle of Naissus?
Survivors fled toward Macedonia and formed a defensive laager, but hunger, Roman cavalry harassment, and an epidemic at Mount Haemus wore them down. Rome eventually absorbed the prisoners into its army or settled them on land as coloni.
Why is the Battle of Naissus important to the history of the Crisis of the Third Century?
The battle largely removed the threat from Germanic tribes on the Balkan frontier for decades afterward. It also gave Claudius the title Claudius II Gothicus Maximus, meaning conqueror of the Goths, though he died from an epidemic linked to the campaign in 270.
How large was the Gothic invasion that led to the Battle of Naissus?
Ancient sources such as the Augustan History and Zosimus claim the second, larger invasion involved between 2,000 and 6,000 ships and 325,000 men, though this is probably an exaggeration. The coalition included Goths of the Greuthungi and Thervingi peoples along with Gepids and Peucini, led by the Heruli.