The Battle of Strasbourg (Argentoratum, 357) pitted the Roman army commanded by Emperor Julian the Apostate against a coalition of Alemanni barbarian tribes attempting to invade Gaul. During the 4th century AD, the Romans experienced a period of relative tranquility on their borders, in particular thanks to victorious military campaigns which put the Roman army back on its pedestal. The Battle of Strasbourg, where the Emperor Julian distinguished himself, put a temporary end to the great barbarian incursions on the Rhine, and earned its winner immense prestige.
Context of the Battle of Strasbourg
In 357, the young Julian, named Caesar in Gaul by his cousin Constantius II for two years, fought against the Alemanni on the Rhine border in order to restore tranquility to the lands of the 'Empire. Indeed, the Alamans occupied several towns and fortified elements in the land of the Empire because Constantius, in his fight against the usurper Magnentius, had aroused against his rival an attack of the barbarians on his rear to weaken him. Once the victory had been won (victory of Mursa in 351), the emperor had nevertheless not settled the situation on the borders where the Alamans still held firm. Himself pressed by the movements of the Persian Sassanids, therefore instructed his cousin to free the Rhine from the barbarian threat.
However, extremely careful with competing powers, Constantius had placed around the new emperor, a whole crowd of his own men in order to control this potential dissident. Julien operates despite everything with audacity and foresight and in a few years manages to rectify the situation. But the Alamanic threat was not broken by Julien's operations. Thus, the army of General Barbation suffered a bitter failure, surprised and routed by the barbarians.
Julian the Apostate facing an outbreak of violence
At this news, several Alemanni kings joined forces to reclaim the territory they had conquered from the Empire . There were Chnodomaire, Vestralp, Urius, Urcisin, Sérapion, Suomaire and Hortaire. An affair had also finished binding the barbarians under one banner; King Gondomade, faithful supporter of the Romans and faithful to his word, according to the words of the Roman historian Ammien Marcellin, had been killed in an ambush, which had ended up inciting the rebellion against Rome.
Informed of the small number of Julian's troops (about thirteen thousand men) by a defector from the Scutaria of the defeated army of Barbation, the barbarians thought of an easy operation, since they were probably about thirty thousand. Nevertheless, the Caesar resolved to give battle and bringing his army out of the camps, he marched towards the barbarian entrenchment. He gathers his army when they arrive near the enemy and vigorously harangues his men, who carried by his words and proud of the presence of an emperor among them, began a real uproar in which shouts and the crash of weapons on the shields mingled.
This attitude is typical of that of the Roman fighters of the time, who, in a way close to the barbarians, expressed their warlike ardor by a display of brutal violence. In this, the tutelary role of the almost miraculous leader that is the victorious emperor, very clearly accentuates their combativeness. Faced with this, senior army officers were also in favor of an engagement because once the enemy was dispersed into a multitude of units that scoured the countryside while looting, operations became a tactical and logistical nightmare and in addition carried terror among civilian populations. The confidence of the Romans was also increased by the operations that Julian had carried out on the very lands of the barbarians, beyond the Rhine, and where they had not met the slightest opposition, for the enemies had retired without fighting. From their point of view, they were going to face cowards who had not agreed to defend their lands.
Setting up armies
The Roman army then established itself on a gently sloping hill, a very short distance from the Rhine. An Alemanni scout then fell into the hands of the soldiers and revealed that the barbarians had crossed the river for three days and three nights and were approaching their position. The troops soon saw the barbarian warriors spread across the plain and form the corner; a device of attack with a restricted front aiming at breaking in an impetuous charge the enemy lines. The Roman reaction was not long in coming, and the soldiers then formed “a wall impossible to destroy” (Ammien Marcellin, XVI, 12, 20). The Roman shields of the time are above all circular and offer a protection that is often compared to that of the Greek shields.
Facing the Roman cavalry on the right wing, the barbarians placed their own horsemen on the left, mixed with light troops, following an ancient Germanic tactic. On their right, and under cover of a wood, they brought forward a few thousand combatants in order to take the Romans into ambush. At the head of the troops, the kings were ready to set an example. Chnodomaire, the soul of this particular coalition, described by Ammien as a formidable warrior with strong muscles. Serapion, commanded the right wing. His name came from the fact that his father, held hostage in Gaul, had been initiated into the mysteries of Eastern religions.
On the Roman side, the left wing, commanded by Severus, stopped its progress on his order because he sensed the barbarian ambush. Julien, with his two hundred elite horsemen, roamed the ranks encouraging his men, while trying, as Ammien points out, not to appear to seek too much honor, for Constantius had placed him under close surveillance. . He lined up his men as best he could and let out loud exclamations appealing to their pride as warriors.
He thus established his line of battle in two lines, leaving the primani and Palatine auxiliaries, elite troops heavily equipped, just like the units of the first line. The legions of the time are of a reduced size, probably a thousand men because they then formed more mobile groups than the old legions of 5000 men. For the "small war" operations that the barbarians usually fought, these units were much more effective. Likewise, the Palatine Auxiliary units were made up of 500 men, but usually operated in pairs, like Cornutes and Bracchiates, arranged to the right of the first line.
These troops were largely recruited from the barbarian world, but their combative ardor and their loyalty to the Roman Empire are noteworthy. They are very reliable units, found in all theaters of operation. They are sometimes so fierce that they become difficult to control. In any case and at all times, one should not imagine Roman soldiers as always demonstrating impeccable discipline; the Romans left a significant amount of freedom to their men for brilliant actions, when this benefited everyone. Honorary rewards were also planned for this purpose.
The Shock
As Julien fortified his position, cries of indignation rose from the barbarian army. The troops feared that the leaders, mounted on horses, would take advantage of this advantage to abandon them to their fate in case of defeat. The kings therefore jumped from their mounts to take their places near their men in order to strengthen their courage. The trumpets then sounded the signal for battle. The violent shock of the armies took place in an extreme cacophony. The Roman line resisted stubbornly, opposing its coherence to the barbarian frenzy. On the other hand, on the right, the Roman horsemen broke off the fight against the barbarian horsemen and skirmishers.
Julien then went ahead of this rout and rallied the men who then resumed their place in the device. Cornutes and Bracchiates also demonstrated their great valor and impressed the enemy with their courage and indomitable valor. At the height of the battle, the Alemanni managed to break the Roman line in its center. But the second Roman line then intervened; the legion primani reges and the Batavians then went in support and repelled the danger. Ammian, describing the battle, presents the Alamanni as equals of the Romans in war, perhaps to magnify Julian's feat, but no doubt also out of respect for the combative value of the barbarians, who, let us remember, also populated in a not insignificant proportion, the Roman army (without going to the opposite excess either, seeing this army almost entirely barbaric which is false).
Rout of the Barbarians
The battle, violent, continued thus in a quasi status quo where however the barbarians died in greater number; Better protected, more professional, the Romans indeed contained the assaults of their enemies to such an extent that they ended up disbanding and fled, pursued by the Roman light units. The carnage was then great and the terrified barbarians fled in large numbers by swimming in the Rhine where many drowned. At the same time, fleeing the disaster, Chnodomaire had withdrawn from the fight with some warriors, and was trying to hide on a wooded hill when he was joined by a Roman cohort. Surrounded, he surrendered.
The losses of the battle are very disproportionate and testify to the best training and protection available to the Romans . Thus, the latter left 243 troops and 4 officers on the ground when the Alamanni had lost 6,000 of their own on the ground and an unknown number drowned in the Rhine. Ammien is perfectly reliable in the count and his text leaves no doubt about the actual count of the losses. The figures available here are also close to those of another famous battle; that of Marathon, where the Athenians had precisely also counted the dead, since they wished to make a sacrifice for each Persian who had fallen in battle. During this battle, 192 Greeks indeed fell against nearly 6400 Persians.
Battle of Strasbourg Epilogue
Following this battle, Chnodomaire was sent hostage to Rome where he remained until his death. Julien, he does not let his advantage be lost and takes advantage of it to carry out bloody offensives on the territory of the barbarians and stabilize the border durably. The battle of Strasbourg is in any case an element allowing to measure the tactical value of young Julien as well as his ability to transcend men. His epic is in any case significant and he will never be defeated in a pitched battle. His men will follow him into the burning sands of Persia when they refused to join Constantius II there. Crowned with the prestige of victory, Julien had become a victorious emperor, thus blessed with Fortune, called upon to free himself from an oppressive tutelage, now that his men were entirely won over to him.
Bibliography
- Philippe Richardot, The End of the Roman Army. Economica, 3rd edition, 2005.
- Pierre Cosme, The Roman Army. Armand Colin, 2007.
- Jon E. Lendon, Soldiers and Ghosts. Tallandier, 2009.
To go further
- Julian the Apostate by Glen W. Bowersock. Armand Colin, 2008.