Lupicinus

Lupicinus was a 4th century Roman military official under Valentinian I and Valens. When the encroaching Huns drove the Thervingi and Greuthingi Goths into Roman territory as refugees Valens, who was occupied fighting to expand in Antioch, put him in charge of accepting and managing the refugees. The Thervingi were granted asylum and allowed to cross the Danube into Roman territory, but the Greuthingi were not and were even actively blocked from crossing (maybe because of their role in past Gothic Wars?). Upon crossing it was typical procedure to force the refugees to give up all weapons, but part of Valens' purpose in granting the Thervingi asylum was to bring the men of fighting age into the army in a time when he felt that he needed as many troops as he could get. As a consequence, the Romans took some weapons, but the Goths were able to hide and keep many of them. It was also standard to break a new population up into smaller groups that would then be resettled throughout the empire to keep them from coming together and rebelling, but the Thervingi kings Frittigern and Alavivus had negotiated terms that would allow not only for them to stay together but to select where they settled.

Bringing such a large population of people was already putting a strain on the natural resources, which Lupicinus and his officials worsened by withholding food from the Goths. The situation came to a head when the Romans offered refugee families dogs to eat in exchange for selling their sons into slavery. The Goths were reasonably upset by this insult and unrest began to grow. Perhaps sensing his mistake, Lupicinus decided to resettle the Thervingi at his base of Marcianople, but moving such a large group of people presented the logistical issue of needing protection. In order to provide the necessary safety and support Lupicinus pulled Roman forces from where they were stationed along the Danube. Almost immediately the Greuthingi took the opportunity to cross the river and follow behind. For their part, the Thervingi moved as slowly as they could to help give their former neighbors as much time as possible to make their move. Once they reached Marcianople Lupicinus invited co-kings Frittigern and Alavivus to a dinner in his quarters while the bulk of the population was left outside of the city with a force of Romans in between them and the city. His reasoning for inviting the leaders to dinner could have been a plot to assassinate them from the start or simply to have them as hostages should it be needed.

Fighting broke out almost immediately when the Roman soldiers in town refused to let the Goths purchase goods. This was not necessarily a bad decision given the situation; it was not a good idea to give resources to a people who were already on the edge of rebelling, but a bit of diplomacy may have helped the situation in this case. By evening several soldiers had been killed and robbed. When the Thervingi outside the city heard of this they began to prepare for battle, likely assuming correctly that the Romans would not take it well. Lupicinus received word while he was at dinner with the kings and immediately ordered their retainers to be executed, likely in a show of force and psychological warfare (an area in which the Romans had always excelled). Frittigern was able to convince him that he could calm down the situation if he was returned to his people safely in a show of good faith. Interestingly this dinner is the last time the king Alavivus was ever mentioned, and it is not proven but likely that he did not survive to be returned to his people.

Upon being returned to his people Frittigern decided that they would break the terms of their treaty with Rome (although it could be argued that the Romans had done this first when they refused to comply with Valens' plans to supply them with sufficient resources) and formally rebel. The Greuthingi, who by now were nearby, joined the rebellion and both populations headed for Scythia under the head of Frittigern. Lupicinus and his forces caught up with them about 9 miles outside of the city where they fought the Battle of Marcianople. The Romans were soundly defeated by the Goths who strengthened their position by looting the battlefield and gaining a significant supply of Roman weaponry. Reports state that Lupicinus' actions during the battle were considered to be both foolish and cowardly (both damning assessments by Roman standards), as he fled the battlefield early on upon seeing half his men be killed and he does not appear in the records past 377. It is unclear if he was discharged, executed, or died in the ensuing conflicts.

Simply based on his actions leading up to and during the ensuing Gothic War one could assume that Lupicinus was not very bright or at least not fit to be a leader. Although having a high position does not necessarily mean that someone is qualified, he seems to have by this time distinguished himself first in the Scholae Palatinae, an elite military guard similar to the Praetorian guard set up by Constantine I, and then while fighting the Alemanni and serving as a military tribune in Pannonia (present day Balkans). While it is certainly possible for someone completely unqualified to have gotten so far based on connections, the importance of his positions seems to cast doubt on that assumption. It is much more likely that his problem was not intelligence but rather corruption and a false sense of security in being a Roman. They had been the dominant force within the known world for over six hundred years at this point and had many good reasons to believe in their infallibility, but things were not as they once were. Years of constant fighting and expansion, infighting, unstable emperors, and being broken into two entities had destabilized the empire. Unfortunately for Lupicinus this was not readily apparent until it was too late.

It is impossible to know how things would have gone had the local officials abided by the terms of Valens' agreement with the Goths, but judging by the behavior of the refugees it is likely that they never intended for the situation to turn out like it did. At every step in the story they seemed to show a healthy respect for Roman power if not for Rome itself: they negotiated with the emperor rather than simply crossing the river themselves, they gave up as many weapons as the Romans insisted upon, they put up with the humiliations heaped on them until it was taken too far, and even cooperated when they were expected to comply with the Roman relocation plan. Their behavior throughout shows that while they were ready to fight if need be, they made every attempt to avoid it. This brings up the question of why the Romans, outnumbered as they were by the refugees, proceeded to abuse and humiliate them at every turn. The answer is likely that they had such a long history of getting away with this behavior. At this point Rome had been the dominant power in the Mediterranean for time beyond memory. They had been able to get their way by use of brute force for centuries, but they did not seem to realize that their power was waning. Corruption from the top down was likely a big factor in their downfall.