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The Battle of Strasbourg, also known as the Battle of Argentoratum, was fought in AD 357 between the Western Roman army under the ''Caesar'' (deputy emperor) Julian and the Alamanni tribal confederation led by the joint paramount king Chnodomar. The battle took place near Strasbourg (Alsace, France), called ''Argentoratum'' in Ammianus Marcellinus' account, ''Argentorate'' in the Tabula Peutingeriana (Section 2). Although probably outnumbered by a substantial margin, Julian's army won a complete victory after a hard-fought struggle. With negligible casualties of their own, the Romans drove the Alamanni beyond the river Rhine, inflicting heavy losses. Julian's force, the imperial escort army of Gaul, was small but of high quality. The battle was won by the skill of the Roman infantry, with the cavalry initially performing poorly. The battle was the climax of Julian's campaigns in 355–57 to evict barbarian marauders from Gaul and to restore the Roman defensive line of fortifications along the Rhine, which had been largely destroyed during the Roman civil war of 350–53. In the years following his victory at Strasbourg, Julian was able to repair and garrison the Rhine forts and impose tributary status on the Germanic tribes beyond the border. == Sources == By far the most detailed and reliable source for the battle, and Julian's Gallic campaign (355–60) generally, is the ''Res Gestae'' (Histories) of Ammianus Marcellinus, a contemporary historian. Ammianus was a Greek career soldier who joined the army before 350 and served until at least 363.〔Ammianus XXXI.16.9〕 Enlisted as a ''protector'' (cadet senior officer), he served as a staff officer under ''magister equitum'' Ursicinus and then under Julian himself in the latter's Persian campaign. Although he was not present at Strasbourg, he had experience of the Gallic front as he was involved in the suppression of the revolt of Claudius Silvanus, the ''magister equitum'' (commander-in-chief) in Gaul (355).〔Ammianus XV.5.22〕 However, his narrative reveals a passionate admiration of Julian and occasionally descends to the level of eulogy. Furthermore, as he was writing some 40 years after the event, it is likely that Ammianus relied heavily, if not exclusively, on Julian's own memoir of the Strasbourg campaign (which we know he published, but has been lost).〔Penguin Classics ''Amm'' Notes p450〕 Thus Ammianus' account probably reflects Julian's own propaganda. In addition, Ammianus' account is of uneven quality, with many gaps and some contradictory elements. The late 5th-century Byzantine chronicler Zosimus's ''Nova Historia'' deals with the battle, and Julian's Gallic campaign in a summary fashion and adds little to Ammianus' account. But Zosimus is useful because his account of the revolt of Magnentius (350-3) survives, unlike Ammianus', which was contained in the 13 lost books of his history. The contemporary rhetorician Libanius delivered Julian's funeral oration in 363, whose text survives. This contains some details about the battle which are missing in Ammianus, which he presumably learnt from members of Julian's entourage. But because his oration was intended as a eulogy, not a historical narrative, his account of Julian's campaign is unreliable, and Ammianus' version is to be preferred where there is a contradiction. The emperor Julian himself published a memoir of his campaigns on the Rhine, now lost. His ''Letter to the Athenians'', an attempt to justify his rebellion against his cousin and senior emperor Constantius II, contains some details of the Rhine campaigns. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Strasbourg」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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