Siege of Florence (405)

Siege of Florence
Part of the Germanic Wars
Date 405 or 406 AD Location Florence,  Italy Result Roman victory Florence is nearly destroyed.[1]
Belligerents
Goths	Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Radagaisus	Stilicho Uldin the Hun Sarus the Goth
Strength
20,000 (100,000 including their families and other noncombatants)[2]	30,000-40,000 (20,000 Comitatenses reinforced by Alans, Huns, and Goths[3][1]
Casualties and losses
After Radagaisus is defeated, 12,000 of his men are drafted into the Roman army.[2]

The Siege of Florence was a battle that occurred in either 405 or 406 AD, between the Goths and the Roman Empire at Florence.

In 405 AD the Germanic hordes invade the Roman Empire by crossing the Danube into Pannonia and reached northern Italy by the end of the year. At this point the Barbarians divided into three armies, of which the one under Radagaisus attacked Florence.^[3]

Stilicho gathered his force at Ticinum, and withdrew to Fiesole just before the battle. The Romans were able to cut off the Ostrogoth supply lines and massacre the invaders.^[3] Radagaisus was executed on 13 August 406 AD.

References

1. Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 2 p.227
2. Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, 2nd ed. 2006:198;
3. J. B. Bury: History of the Later Roman Empire 1923