How did the Roman army get defeated?

In one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman army under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, is defeated by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey. Two-thirds of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens himself, were overrun and slaughtered by the mounted barbarians.

Did the Romans ever lose?

The Roman Empire of the 1st century AD is renowned as one of the most deadly and successful fighting forces in history. But even the greats sometimes suffer defeats, and in 9 AD, in the forests of Germany, the Roman army lost a tenth of its men in a single disaster.

Why did the Roman Empire fail?

Our sources on all this are poor, but it may be conjectured that a shortage of officers and soldiers seasoned by warfare had a great deal to do with Rome’s failure, and this in turn was the indirect result of conscious policy.

Why did the Roman army fail to defend the frontiers?

Later Roman emperors eventually concluded that the long-standing dispositions of the Roman army, with the great majority of the soldiers stationed on or near the frontiers, were ill adapted to resisting major invasions that might come from different directions.

How did the Roman military change prior to 235 BC?

The other military change of potentially great importance in the period prior to 235 was not so much that many units in the Roman army became ‘sedentary’ from generation to generation, becoming deeply involved in essentially administrative duties, but that many Roman soldiers never experienced battle.

Did the Germanic tribes destroy Rome?

While it is true that the Germanic tribes ultimately extinguished the Roman rulers, they did not do so with the sword, and the Fall of Rome cannot be fully explained as being the result of military incompetence. A second hypothesis, closely associated with the military, is that the West lacked competent political leaders, although the East did not.