ROM0186 – The battle of Ad Salices, 377 AD

The Battle of Ad Salices, 377 AD: The First Reckoning with the Goths

377 AD. The Roman Empire is in crisis. The year before, the Eastern Emperor Valens had granted the Visigoths permission to cross the Danube and settle within the empire — a decision driven by genuine administrative need and catastrophically mismanaged in its execution. Corrupt Roman officials had extorted and humiliated the Goths during their crossing and settlement, driving a population of perhaps 200,000 people into open revolt. Now the Gothic host, joined by more Gothic and Hunnic warriors from beyond the Danube, was loose in the Balkans.

The Battle in the Willows

Ad Salices — “at the willows” — was the first major confrontation between Roman forces and the Gothic host that would eventually annihilate the Eastern Roman field army at Adrianople the following year. A Roman force under the joint command of Trajan (not the emperor) and Profuturus encountered the Gothic laager — the enormous circular wagon fortress that the Goths used as both mobile base and battle fortification — somewhere in the Dobrudja region of modern Romania.

The battle was inconclusive but costly. Roman sources suggest the Romans attacked the Gothic position and were repulsed with heavy losses. The Goths, unable to break out of their laager position, also suffered significantly. The result was a standoff: the Romans had failed to destroy the Gothic host, and the Goths had failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough. The strategic situation remained critical — and thirteen months later, at Adrianople, it became catastrophic.

Ad Salices is significant precisely because it was a warning that went unheeded. The Romans had seen how dangerous the Gothic combination of laager defense and aggressive cavalry could be. They drew the wrong tactical conclusions.

The Original Artwork by Giuseppe Rava

This original Roman military art print by Giuseppe Rava — historical illustrator for Osprey Publishing since 2007 — captures the fierce fighting at Ad Salices with the meticulous accuracy that defines every work by the Maestro. Late Roman soldiers against Visigoth warriors, the battle that foreshadowed Adrianople rendered in oil on canvas.

The print is produced as a limited edition, individually numbered and hand-signed by Giuseppe Rava, SRA3 format (45×32 cm / 17.7×12.6 in), on premium fine art paper. Available worldwide with international shipping.