Julian II (the Apostate) and his policies

[Robert Vermaat]

Rome had seen enough disasters worse than Adrianopel before and she was able to manage.

The last disaster to be seen on such a scale was the Battle of the Teutoberg Forest, 360 years earlier. That was a different time and a different world. Even Augustus didn't have the kind of manpower reserves available to him that the Republic enjoyed during the Punic Wars. He had to resort to conscription and suffered a backlash for doing so. Later Emperors in the fourth century had even more trouble pressing civilians into the army.
Consequently, after Adrianople, the Visigoths were seen as a new pool of warriors to be tapped by the Emperors to be recruited into Roman service. They became indispensable despite the debilitating effects of their de facto independent status.

Pardon... and what about Abrittus... The emperor Decius who was killed by the Goths. Maybe almost as dramatic as Adrianople but because not much in known about this battle you simply ingore it?

Ah, I would say that the battle of the battle of Mursa (Ossijek) on September 28, 351? Magnentius and Constantius managed to get half the Roman army killed there! Adrianople was not half as disastrous as Mursa...