The Battle of Adrianople, 378 A.D. The End of the Western Roman Empire. The End of Infantry Dominance for 1,000 Years. Ascendance of Cavalry.

The Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD was the combat event that shattered the illusion of Rome’s invincibility and declared the Goths as more than a wandering horde. Adrianople was their grim debut as architects of a new power dynamic in western European history, where the balance of civilization itself seemed to tremble. On that blood-soaked field, the disciplined ranks of Roman infantry, long the cornerstone of imperial might, were swept aside by the devastating ferocity and mobility of Gothic...