The Eastern Emperor Valens seems to have initially underestimated the danger posed by the Gothic revolt in Thrace. He was still in action in the east and his attention was on his war with the Persians, so early actions against the Goths were piecemeal and uncoordinated. He had campaigned against the Tervingians north of the frontier in his Gothic War (367-369 AD), when the wily Tervingian chief Athanaric had consistently retreated before him, and he had a low regard for the Goths' capacity for war as a result. Confident they would be rounded up and destroyed quickly, he left the war against Fritigern to his subordinate commanders, with the infantry under Traianus and cavalry units under Profuturus being dispatched to deal with the rebels.

The Western Emperor, Valens' nephew Gratian was also asked for help, and he sent Frigeridus with a substantial part of the army of Pannonia Valeria. At first these commanders had some success and the Goths were contained in the Dobrudja region, where it was hoped that a lack of opportunity to forage for the huge amount of food required to sustain his large army would break Fritigern's hold on his warriors, causing rival chiefs to break the large Gothic army up. The Romans were then joined by Gallic units led by the Western Imperial comes domesticorum Richomeres (another Roman commander with a Germanic name). It was now late in the summer of 377, and the Roman generals, though still outnumbered by the Goths, thought the time had come to strike and destroy the Gothic army.

The Roman troops who faced Fritigern's warriors were a far cry from the legionaries of the old Empire. The extensive armour of Augustus or Trajan's times had long since proved too expensive to produce and maintain for the stretched economy of the late Empire. The elaborate Gallic or Italic style helmet - had been replaced by a much simpler and cheaper 'ridge-helm' - two beaten half-hemispheres joined by a central ridge piece with simple cheek and neck guards. The lorica segmentata cuirass worn by the old legionaries had also gone. The later Imperial soldiers either wore simple mail shirts or no body armour at all. The short stabbing gladius sword and long, curved scutum shield had likewise been replaced by the longer, slashing spatha and a flat oval or round shield.

Since Roman fashions, decoration and military equipment styles had long been filtering north into Germania, and since the recruitment of many ethnically Germanic troops had been going on for over two centuries, the dress, equipment, tactics and behaviour of the Roman army and their Germanic opponents had moved closer and closer together. Before one battle against Fritigern the Roman troops are said to have raised the barritus, the ancient war song of the Germans, which shows that this force was possibly almost as Germanic as they Goths they faced. And with the Goths stripping the Roman dead and raiding other sources of Roman arms, it was not long before they were comparatively well equipped with large quantities of helmets, armour and swords. In many ways the two sides would have resembled each other greatly.

That said, the average Tervingian Gothic warrior would have been a footman, armed with a couple of spears and protected solely by a shield. Despite the Goths' newfound weapons and their superior numbers, the Romans still had a well-trained and disciplined military force and they were confident that the Goths were about to face a crushing defeat.

Frigeridus and Richomeres found Fritigern's army encamped ad Salices ('at the Willows' - the exact battle site is unknown). The Tervingians were now on the defensive and they were drawn up within the circle of their wagon laager, so the Roman commanders decided to starve them out. Fritigern realised their plan and began to call in his foraging units to reinforce the besieged army, forcing the Romans to press their attack. The Goths counter attacked strongly, but after some hard fighting and many casualties neither side won the day. Both armies withdrew after taking heavy losses, but this meant Fritigern's force remained intact and at large. Changing tack, the Romans blocked the Balkan passes and gathered their food supplies in cities that the Goths could not take. Once again, they then waited to starve the Goths out.

Still confident of eventual victory, Valens stayed in the east, sending his vice-commander of cavalry, Saturninus to reinforce the army in Thrace. But at this point Fritigern managed something of a coup. He had been in contact with Alatheus and Safrax, the chiefs of the Greuthungian Gothic refugees and their Hunnic, Sarmatian, Alan and Taifalian allies since these cavalrymen had forced a passage over the Danube the year before. Now he managed to convince them to join the Tervingian rebels against the Romans. The entry of the Greuthungians into the war soon turned the tables and Saturninus was forced to abandon his blocking of the passes. The Goths broke out into Thrace once more and soon took their revenge on the Romans, burning and looting their way across the province with great savagery.

Traditionally the Tervingians fought on foot, but they had forged a strong alliance with their steppe-dwelling neighbours the Taifali who had generally provided a cavalry arm to their forces back in their homelands north of the Danube. Now Alatheus and Saphrax reinforced the Tervingian infantry in a similar manner, bringing a large force of mixed cavalry to bear on Fritigern's enemies. Their collection of eastern warbands included both the heavy lancers of the Greuthungians, Taifali and Sarmatians and the lighter horse archers of the Hun bands who accompanied them. Together with the Fritigern's large army of well-armed Tervingian Goths, Valens now had an even more serious military problem on his hands.

In response to these new setbacks, Gratian once again sent Frigeridus with Western Imperial troops to aid the Eastern Empire, but he soon found his defensive strategies were no match for the newly mobile and versatile Gothic force. In danger of attack from all sides, Frigeridus was forced to withdraw into the West again. As he retreated he encountered yet another force of Germanic refugees - the large force of Greuthungians and Taifalians led by the chief Farnobius. The Western general inflicted a crushing defeat on this warband and settled the survivors, mainly Taifali, in northern Italy where several towns still bear their name.

The winter of 377/78 AD brought more frustrations for the Romans. The Western Emperor Gratian was prevented from coming to the aid of the East in person by a sudden invasion by the Alamanni, to which Gratian responded with a massive counterattack. This was coupled by another defeat of the junior Roman generals in Thrace and Valens was soon arranging a peace with the Persians and hurrying back to Constantinople to deal with the Gothic threat once and for all.

He arrived in the strongly fortified city of Adrianople in mid-July, 378 AD with an estimated force of 20-25,000 troops and was greeted with several pieces of good news. Firstly, his infantry commander Sebastianus had just destroyed a large Gothic column returning from plundering the southern Thracian province of Rhodope. Secondly, word came from his nephew Gratian that he had concluded his war against the Alamanni and had already reached northwestern Bulgaria with a large reinforcing army of Western Imperial troops. Valens was strongly advised not to underestimate the Goths - indeed, Gratian's army had just been suddenly attacked by some of the Alanic horsemen from Alatheus and Saphrax's cavalry forces and taken surprisingly heavy losses. But Valens was eager to move in for the kill after Sebastianus' recent victory and was perhaps keen to win a victory over the Goths to match his nephew's defeat of the Alamanni.

Around August 8 Valens' scouts reported that Fritigern was heading towards Nike with only 10,000 warriors. Valens decided that this was his chance for a decisive victory over the Tervingian leader and prepared his forces to march out and crush the Gothic army while it was on the march. He was confident that he could win a decisive victory without his nephew's aid, but that was a decision that was to prove a costly and deadly mistake.

(To be continued ...)