page_title: Battle of Strasbourg
section_title: Prelude
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Strasbourg / Prelude
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Istanbul: un lato della base dell'obelisco di Teodosio I all'Ippodromo, eretto nel 390 d.C. Dettaglio con soldati della Guardia Palatina. Foto di: Giovanni Dall'Orto, 25-5-2006. English: A face of the Theodosius I obelisk in Istanbul/Constantinople.
context_page_description: The Battle of Strasbourg, also known as the Battle of Argentoratum, was fought in 357 between the Western Roman army under the Caesar Julian and the Alamanni tribal confederation led by the joint paramount King Chnodomar. The battle took place near Strasbourg, called Argentoratum in Ammianus Marcellinus' account, Argentorate in the Tabula Peutingeriana.
  Although outnumbered by a substantial margin, the Roman army won a decisive victory after a hard-fought struggle with the Alamanni. With negligible casualties of their own, the Romans drove the Alamanni beyond the river, inflicting heavy losses. The Roman force, the imperial escort army of Julian, was small but of high quality. The battle was won by the skill of the Roman infantry, with the Roman cavalry initially performing poorly.
  The battle was the climax of Julian's campaigns in 355–57 to evict barbarian marauders from Gaul and to restore the Roman defensive line of fortifications along the Rhine, which had been largely destroyed during the Roman civil war of 350–53.
context_section_description: As a personal cavalry escort, Constantius provided Julian with 200 scholares, a regiment of cataphractarii (heavily armoured cavalry), and some mounted archers (in total 360 men). En route to Gaul from Milan, at Taurini (Turin), he received the calamitous news that Cologne, Rome's most important city and military fortress on the Rhine, had fallen to the Franks. He spent the winter of 355/356 with his escorting troops at Vienna (Vienne), not far south of Lugdunum (Lyons). For the 356 campaigning season, Julian's first task was to link up with the main Gaul comitatus, which had wintered at Remi (Reims) under the command of the magister equitum, Ursicinus' recently appointed successor, Marcellus. This involved a long march through country swarming with Alamanni raiding bands, many of which were as large or larger than Julian's own escort and expert at ambuscades. On the way, Julian surprised and drove off a large barbarian force that had surrounded Augustodunum (Autun) and defeated a raiding band in the Morvan wilderness.
  At Reims, Julian showed his characteristic boldness by deciding, in conference with his senior commanders, to deal with the Alamanni problem at the source by marching straight to Alsace and restoring Roman control of the region. On the way, however, his army was ambushed and nearly destroyed at Decem Pagi (Dieuze) by a large German band who fell on two rearguard legions which had lost contact with the rest of the column in dense mist. They were rescued by auxilia palatina regiments that heard the uproar. Proceeding to Brotomagus (Brumath) in Alsace, Julian's army routed another German band in the field.
  But after assessing the situation in Alsace, Julian evidently decided that his force was insufficient to prevail over the Alamanni alone. Instead, he set out to recover Cologne. From Metz, he led his army via Treviri (Trier) to Roman-held Koblenz and thence along the Rhine to Cologne. Entering the ruined city unopposed, Julian's men were set to work to rebuild the city walls. Julian then concluded a peace treaty with the Franks. This had the important result of removing half the opposition from the equation and allowing Julian to focus his resources on dealing with the Alamanni.
  For the winter of 356/7, he chose Senones (Sens) near Paris as his own wintering base, but quartered most of his troops in other towns, including the main body at Reims under Marcellus, to spread the burden. A large band of Alamanni heard of his reduced escort, however, and besieged him at Sens. Julian's forces were able to hold out until, after a month, the Germans withdrew. He was so outnumbered by the enemy, however, that he was unable to sally forth and give chase. During the siege, Marcellus had failed to come to his assistance. For this omission, denounced as cowardice by Ammianus, Marcellus was dismissed as magister equitum by Constantius and replaced by Severus, a distinguished officer who was more compatible with Julian.
  For the 357 campaign season, a plan was laid down at Constantius' headquarters in Mediolanum (Milan) to trap the Alamanni in eastern Gaul in a pincer movement. Julian would advance eastward from Reims, while the major part of Constantius' comitatus in Italy (25,000 strong) was despatched under magister peditum (field marshal) Barbatio to Augusta Rauracorum (Augst) in Raetia, from which he was to advance northward to meet Julian. The Alamanni bands would be cornered and destroyed in the southern part of Germania I province (Alsace).
  But large bands of Alamanni, ignoring the threat posed by the Roman manoeuvre, invaded and ravaged the rich Rhone valley, even trying to take the major city of Lugdunum (Lyon) by assault. The attack was repulsed as the walls of the city proved too strong and the garrison, presumably limitanei troops, too valorous. Nevertheless, the Germans had devastated a large area and taken vast amounts of booty.
  However, the Germans were now trapped in the interior of Gaul, as their return route to the Rhine was barred by the Roman armies. In Julian's sector, the Caesar despatched squadrons o
caption: Late 4th-century Roman soldiers, mostly barbarian-born, as depicted (back row) by bas-relief on the base of Theodosius' obelisk in Constantinople. Note the necklaces with regimental pendants and the long hair, a style imported by barbarian recruits, in contrast to the short hair norm of the Principate
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