Several factors influenced Valens’ final decision. First, his scouts reported that the Goth force contained only about 10,000 fighting men. Since Valens had about 15,000 soldiers in his own army, it was tempting to engage the Goths in battle then and there. Moreover, Valens’ standing in Constantinople was very low at that time. If he allowed a Goth army to take position between Adrianople and Constantinople, he would not only find his supply lines cut off but also risk the likelihood that the populace in the eastern capital would feel abandoned by their emperor.

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Valens’ contemporary, Ammianus, and many later historians believed that the emperor—jealous of his young nephew—decided on an immediate battle to gain personal glory. Though that was perhaps true, it would not have been the only reason for Valens’ hasty actions. He might have underestimated the Goths’ strength, for he had defeated them on the Danube nine years earlier. In any case, Valens seemed confident of an easy victory on the morning of August 9 as he led the field army of the east from Adrianople to attack the Goths, who were camped 12 miles from the city.

The Romans marched rapidly under a blazing sun, coming upon the Goth camp at about 2 that afternoon. The Goths were encamped in a secure position, probably on high and easily defensible ground. The imperial troops were hastily drawn up into battle formation while the Goths broke into savage howls, as they were accustomed to do just before an engagement.

Either because of unfamiliarity with the terrain or by mistake, the right wing of the Roman cavalry came within sight of the Goths while the left was still a considerable distance away, with many of the horsemen on the left wing scattered along roads leading up to the Goth camp. Some historians assume that the Goths fought from behind their wagon laager at Adrianople, but that would have been unlikely. Their usual procedure was to engage their enemies in the open and fall back on the camp only when an encounter was not going well. Had they remained behind the laager, they would not only have surrendered the initiative to the Romans but also would have been unable to use their preferred fighting tactic of charging into hand-to-hand combat with spears, swords and shields. On several occasions Ammianus’ descriptions of the battle explain that one part of the Roman line managed to fight its way forward as far as the wagons, clearly indicating that the fighting took place primarily in the open, beyond the wagon laager.

Riding boldly into the Roman right wing, the Goth cavalry scattered the surprised Roman cavalry line and then turned to attack the Roman left wing. Within moments, all the Roman horsemen had been driven from the field, leaving the weary infantry exposed.

Fritigern chose that moment to burst from the laager at the head of his own infantry. Ammianus described the Roman soldiers’ plight: “The different companies became so huddled together that hardly anyone could pull out his sword, or draw back his arm, and because of immense clouds of dust, the heavens could no longer be seen….Hence Goth arrows whirling death from every side found their mark with fatal effect, since they could not be seen beforehand nor guarded against.”

Hemmed in from all sides, the Roman foot was packed together too tightly to create any effective battle formation. The slaughter was frightful as Fritigern’s infantry closed in, while his cavalry kept any Romans who broke out from getting very far. The battlefield ran red with blood, most of it Roman. Men slipped on the bloody ground, and many died after falling on their own weapons. Heaps of bodies littered the field, including that of Comes Sebastianus.

There are two stories concerning Valens’ fate. One claims that an arrow struck him while he was among the ranks of his army, and his body was never found. The other claims that, wounded by an arrow, he was taken by his guards to a nearby peasant dwelling, which the Goths subsequently attacked. The Roman defenders initially managed to drive back the Goths with arrows, but they soon returned, piled up brushwood and straw against the house and set fire to it. One Roman soldier jumped from a window and was captured by the Goths, but the others, including the emperor, perished in the blaze. The prisoner later escaped to tell the story.

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