As you look to your right, you are standing near the site of an event that literally changed the course of world history, all because one guy could not keep his mouth shut. We just left the Monument to General Rapp and the nineteenth century, but now we are diving deep into the ancient past, to the spring of the year 378.
This area, stretching between the modern towns of Horbourg-Wihr and Biesheim, was once the staging ground for the Battle of Argentovaria. At the time, the Western Roman Empire was ruled by a young emperor named Gratian. Over in the Eastern Roman Empire, Emperor Valens was facing a massive crisis. Tens of thousands of Goths, fleeing the Huns, were pouring across the Danube. Overwhelmed, Valens begged Gratian for military backup. Gratian agreed, secretly preparing to march his legions east to help.
The plan was strictly confidential, designed to keep the Germanic tribes along the Rhine from realizing the border was about to be left undefended. But a soldier in the Roman imperial guard, who originally belonged to a Germanic tribe called the Lentiens, went home on leave. Over relaxed conversation, he let slip that the Roman army was packing up for the Orient.
Thinking the coast was clear, the Lentiens gathered an army of roughly thirty thousand warriors, led by their king, Priarius, and crossed the Rhine into Gaul. Unfortunately for them, Gratian had not left yet.
The two forces collided right around here. Picture the chaos on this flat Alsace plain. The air filled with the whistle of arrows, flying javelins, and plumbatae, which were deadly lead-weighted darts thrown by hand to break enemy shields. The Roman generals, Nannienus and Mallobaude, quickly realized they were severely outnumbered. The Roman infantry was pushed back, step by step, the clash of iron and the shouts of thousands echoing across the fields.
But the Roman line did not break. They held on just long enough for Gratian's elite reinforcements to arrive. These were the scholae palatinae, the emperor's heavily armored personal guard. Seeing these fresh, terrifying troops storming the field completely shattered the Lentiens' morale. They turned and fled. King Priarius was killed in the slaughter, along with tens of thousands of his men. The survivors were chased across the Rhine, eventually surrendering on a rocky hill after a brutal siege.
The Romans won the battle, but the delay proved catastrophic for the empire. Held up by this surprise invasion for months, Gratian never made it to the East in time. Emperor Valens, growing impatient and jealous of Gratian's military success, decided not to wait for his western allies. He faced the Goths alone at the Battle of Adrianople in modern-day Turkey. It was a bloodbath. Valens and his entire Eastern army were wiped out, an event many historians view as the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire. And to think, the dominoes started falling right here near Colmar, with a little holiday gossip.
Take a moment to soak this in. When you are ready, we can head to the next stop.
