Battle of Abritus, 251

Battle of Abritus

The Goths of King Cniva lured the Roman army into marshland and killed the emperor Decius and his son — the first time a Roman emperor fell in battle against a foreign enemy.

Date

between June and August 251exact date unknown: an interval is given

Place

Abritusapproximate locationtoday: near Razgrad, Bulgaria · Balkans and Anatolia

Participants

Roman Empire, Decius, Goths, Cniva

Threads

Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)

Also known as

Battle of Forum Terebronii; Битва при Абритусе

In 250–251 Cniva’s Goths raided Moesia and Thrace and took Philippopolis. Decius caught them near Abritus in the summer of 251 as they withdrew with their booty and captives. The Romans broke the first Gothic line but, pursuing it, were drawn into a swamp where the Gothic reserve was waiting; Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus perished with much of the army, and their bodies were never found.

Trebonianus Gallus, proclaimed emperor in his place, had to let the Goths go with their plunder and pay them to stay away. The defeat opened two decades of Gothic raids by land and sea on the Balkans and Asia Minor.

Connections

Part of

Crisis of the Third CenturyMarch 235 – 20 November 284 · Western and Central Europe

Related events

The Goths settle in Oiumc. 180 – c. 230 · Eastern Europefrom the lands north of the Black Sea the Goths invaded the empire and in 251 killed Emperor Decius

Same participants

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within 25 years of this event

Western and Central Europe

Crisis of the Third CenturyMarch 235 – 20 November 284
Aurelian Walls271–275

Eastern Europe

The Goths settle in Oiumc. 180 – c. 230
Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430
Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430