FINAL- Military Affairs

Year of the Five Emperors (193)

•  Civil war year after Commodus; Severus emerges victorious.

Year of the Six Emperors (238)

• Chaotic year of rapid imperial turnover; ends with Gordian III.

Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312)

•  Constantine defeats Maxentius; associated with his conversion.

Battle of Adiranople (378)

•  Goths defeat Eastern army; Valens killed; huge blow to Roman military.

Sack of Rome (410)

•  Alaric’s Goths sack the city; symbolic shock to Roman world.

Battle of Catalaunian Plains (451)

•  Romans + allies stop Attila; one of last major Western victories.

Limitanei

• Frontier soldiers; fixed-position troops defending borders.

Comitatenses

•  Mobile field armies; respond to crises within empire.

Magister Militum

•  Top general; often kingmaker in Late Empire.

Cataphract

•  Heavily armored cavalry; key in late Roman and Persian warfare.

Third Century Crisis

•  Period of civil war, invasions, economic collapse (235–284).

Gallic Empire/ Postumus

 Breakaway western state (260–274) under Postumus; later reunified by Aurelian.

Hadrian’s Wall

Northern frontier in Britain; defensive line

Aurelian Wall (Rome)

•  Massive fortifications built by Aurelian to defend Rome in crisis.

Praetorian Guard

• Emperor’s elite bodyguard; powerful political force.