Alans in Europe

From the third century CE, [Attila 406 - 453] the Huns began their first drive westward into Europe. To reach there, they had first to fight or charm their way through the Caucasian and Germanic tribes, including the Alans. The Huns conquered the Alans, but took some of them into the Hun horde as allies. The rest fled west and crossed the Rhine into Gaul, along with the Vandals and Sueves. From this point on, there are at least two major bands of Alans moving independently and a third band remaining in the Caucasus. These splits caused confusion amongst early historians, with different exploits being attributed somewhat randomly to the different bands.

Correct attribution is not helped by the fact that Alan bands changed sides somewhat freely and I think that this partly arose from the small size of Alan bands within larger groupings, which sometimes gave them the ability to create a majority army by choosing one side of two similar sized enemies.

The alliance of Huns and Alans pushed against the Goths, who moved south across the Danube into Thrace and west into Dacia. As the Goths moved south, they picked up Hun and Alan cavalry as allies in just one of many occasions when allegiances swapped amongst the various barbarian tribes. The Hun and Alan cavalry proved decisive when they appeared late in the day at the battle of Adrianople.

Battle of Adrianople

The Roman army was convincingly beaten on a number of occasions: The battle of Cannai in 218 BCE, against Hannibal; the battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE, against the Pathians; the battle of the Teutoborg forest in CE 09, against Arminius, to name the most well known. But only once, on August 9th, 378 CE, at Adrianople against a Goth army led by Fritigern, was an Emperor killed as his army was butchered around him.

Having been pushed south into Thrace by Huns and Alans, Fritigen's Goths found a fertile country, rich in plunder. So when the Roman army of Valens, the Eastern Emperor, threatened them they sent messages to the north for help. "Come quick, weather good, treasure for everyone, just needs a quick overthrow of a Roman Emperor." A band of Alans, experienced greedy mercenaries, along with some Huns, trekked south to join the Goths.

The Eastern Roman emperor Valens lost sixteen Roman divisions, two thirds of his army, and his own life at Adrianople.

Crossing the Rhine

On 31st December, 406 (or maybe 405, there is some dispute), barbarians, including Vandals, Alans and Suebi, crossed the Rhine at Mainz and moved into northern Gaul. Before the crossing they had to fend off an attack from Franks, during which the Vandal king Godigisel was killed, but a charge from Alan horsemen scattered the Franks and saved the day.

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