The Battle of Adrianople (378 CE) is most vividly recorded in the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus’ Res Gestae, one of the most important primary sources for late Roman history. Writing as a former Roman soldier and historian, Ammianus Marcellinus provides a detailed narrative of how the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens confronted the Gothic forces led by Fritigern near Adrianople in Thrace. His account describes the disastrous Roman military defeat, the collapse of disciplined formations under relentless Gothic cavalry attacks, and the death of Emperor Valens, an event that shocked the Late Roman Empire. Ammianus portrays the battle as the result of Roman strategic miscalculations, poor intelligence, and the failure to wait for reinforcements from Emperor Gratian. Because of its vivid descriptions and critical analysis of leadership and tactics, Ammianus’ history of the Battle of Adrianople remains a foundational historical source for the Gothic War (376–382) and a key text for understanding the transformation of Roman military power in Late Antiquity.

The Battle of Adrianople (378 CE) is vividly described in the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus, a fifth-century church historian who preserved important details about the catastrophic defeat of the Eastern Roman Empire by the Goths. Writing about the reign of Emperor Valens, Socrates portrays the battle as both a political and religious turning point, emphasizing the tensions between Arian Christianity and Nicene Christianity within the late Roman world. According to Socrates Scholasticus, the disaster occurred when Valens rashly attacked the Gothic forces near Adrianople (modern Edirne) without waiting for reinforcements from Emperor Gratian, resulting in the destruction of much of the Roman field army and the death of Valens himself. In his narrative, the battle becomes a moral and theological lesson about imperial hubris, divine judgment, and the instability of the late Roman frontier, making the Ecclesiastical History an important primary source for understanding the religious interpretation of the Battle of Adrianople in late antiquity.

In his Ecclesiastical History, the fifth-century historian Sozomen provides an important Christian perspective on the Battle of Adrianople (378 CE), one of the most decisive defeats in Roman military history. Writing within the context of late Roman Christianity, Sozomen interprets the catastrophe—where the Roman Emperor Valens was killed by the Goths—through the lens of religious conflict and divine judgment. He emphasizes Valens’s support for Arian Christianity and suggests that theological divisions within the Eastern Roman Empire contributed to the emperor’s downfall. By linking the military disaster to disputes between Arianism and Nicene Christianity, Sozomen frames the Battle of Adrianople not merely as a political or military event but as a moment shaped by imperial religious policy, church controversy, and the broader struggle for orthodox Christian authority in the late fourth century.

In Zosimus’ New History, the Battle of Adrianople (378 CE) is portrayed as a catastrophic turning point in the late Roman Empire, illustrating the consequences of imperial mismanagement and internal decline. Writing in the early 6th century, Zosimus, a Byzantine historian, describes how Emperor Valens marched against the Goths near Adrianople without waiting for reinforcements from Emperor Gratian, leading to a disastrous confrontation. According to Zosimus’ account, poor leadership, exhaustion among Roman troops, and the sudden arrival of Gothic cavalry under Fritigern shattered the Roman army, resulting in the death of Valens and the destruction of a major imperial field force. In the New History, this defeat symbolizes the weakening of Roman military power and serves as part of Zosimus’ broader argument that the decline of traditional Roman institutions and the abandonment of pagan traditions contributed to the empire’s instability during the late fourth century.