Re-enactors for the battle of Battle of Strasbourg (Argentoratum) 357 AD
Julian and The Decision to Fight: Strasbourg, 357
Adam Glen Hough
The Graduate History Review: Vol.2 (2010)
Abstract
In the year 357, the armies of the Alamanni king Chnodomar crossed the Rhine and assembled just north of present day Strasbourg. Answering this challenge was the western empire’s new Caesar, Julian (known to wider circles as Julian the Apostate). Ammianus Marcellinus, one of our primary sources for details of Julian’s Gallic campaign, tells us that going into the battle, Julian’s forces were significantly outnumbered. Despite this apparent disadvantage, however, Julian won a decisive victory, routing an enemy perhaps 35,000 strong,(though there is debate as to whether or not this figure is plausible) while only losing 243 men.This engagement, and particularly its outcome, raises a number of questions. First among them, why would Julian consent to pitched battle against such an overwhelming force?
To understand what motivated Julian to engage the Alamanni, we ought first to consider why he was victorious. Ammianus describes Julian’s decision to fight as an act of bravery in the face of desperate odds. This paper proposes, however, that Julian’s position was hardly as desperate as Ammianus describes it. In fact, Julian had every reason to believe that he would defeat the Alamanni. Evidence suggests, furthermore, that he was even responsible for instigating the conflict.
One way to begin this examination is to ask why Chnodomar would raise an army and seek a pitched battle against the Romans in the first place. Much has been learned about the Alamanni and the role they played in late antiquity over last few decades. In much of this research, particularly with respect to interpretations of primary source narratives, one finds little precedent for Chnodomar’s actions. A more likely explanation is that Chnodomar was not the great threat he was portrayed to be, but rather was constructed as a literary figure to stand against Julian. The vilification of the Alamanni king and his German confederation, in other words, was largely an invention of Julian’s polemicists.
Julian and The Decision to Fight: Strasbourg, 357
Adam Glen Hough
The Graduate History Review: Vol.2 (2010)
Abstract
In the year 357, the armies of the Alamanni king Chnodomar crossed the Rhine and assembled just north of present day Strasbourg. Answering this challenge was the western empire’s new Caesar, Julian (known to wider circles as Julian the Apostate). Ammianus Marcellinus, one of our primary sources for details of Julian’s Gallic campaign, tells us that going into the battle, Julian’s forces were significantly outnumbered. Despite this apparent disadvantage, however, Julian won a decisive victory, routing an enemy perhaps 35,000 strong,(though there is debate as to whether or not this figure is plausible) while only losing 243 men.This engagement, and particularly its outcome, raises a number of questions. First among them, why would Julian consent to pitched battle against such an overwhelming force?
To understand what motivated Julian to engage the Alamanni, we ought first to consider why he was victorious. Ammianus describes Julian’s decision to fight as an act of bravery in the face of desperate odds. This paper proposes, however, that Julian’s position was hardly as desperate as Ammianus describes it. In fact, Julian had every reason to believe that he would defeat the Alamanni. Evidence suggests, furthermore, that he was even responsible for instigating the conflict.
One way to begin this examination is to ask why Chnodomar would raise an army and seek a pitched battle against the Romans in the first place. Much has been learned about the Alamanni and the role they played in late antiquity over last few decades. In much of this research, particularly with respect to interpretations of primary source narratives, one finds little precedent for Chnodomar’s actions. A more likely explanation is that Chnodomar was not the great threat he was portrayed to be, but rather was constructed as a literary figure to stand against Julian. The vilification of the Alamanni king and his German confederation, in other words, was largely an invention of Julian’s polemicists.
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