Day of the Barbarians: The First Battle in the Fall of the Roman Empire

On 9 Augues, 378 AD, at Adrianople in the Roman province of Thrace, the Roman Empire began to fall. Two years earlier, a flood of refugees from the East Germanic tribe known as the Goths had arrived at the Empire's eastern border, seeking admittance. Gradually forming an army, the barbarian horde inflicted on Emperor Valens the most disastrous defeat suffered by the Roman army since Hannibal's victory at Cannae almost 600 years earlier. The Empire did not actually fall for anthor century but, as renowned historian Alessandro Barbero shows, this battle signaled nothing less than the end of the ancient world and the start of the Middle Ages.

Vividly recreating the events leading up to the conflict, and bringing alive leaders and common soldiers alike, The Day of the Barbarians is a heart-stopping account of one of the most significant turning points in world history.