The summer of AD 378 was a turbulent time in the Roman east. Rumblings in Thrace –a historic region in the south-east Balkans – threatened to erupt into war as the Goths, hungry for imperial territory to settle, crossed the Danube and headed south towards Constantinople.
The Roman emperor Valens, struggling to stem the rising tide of Germanic invasion from the north, began preparing for war. The ranks of his army were bolstered by an unexpected source: Saracen cavalry from distant Arabia, dispatched by Queen Mavia of Tanukh. This was an unlikely turn of events, because Mavia had defeated Valens in battle just months earlier. But the Arabs and Romans had a common enemy now: the Goths, whose multitudes advanced upon the very doorstep of the Roman empire.
On 9 August, the emperor's legions and allies faced the Germanic warriors at the battle
