Roman Legion in late Antiquity

[Flavivs Aetivs]

My fault. I should have said that attitudes were changing during the fourth - as witnessed by Julian's desire not to waste men in 'trivial' battles- and by the fifth it needed a strong leader to fight a major battle. In fact, the fifth century is dominated by sieges and ambushes/'ruses'.

Well Sonic is right. After the campaign of Julian for the most part the Attitude changed completely. You still had a handful though that liked offensive tactics, notably Stilicho and Aetius. The 5th century under Aetius experienced more than one set piece battle, all of which were won except for Rimini, just many of them started with an ambush.

Litorious surprised the goths when he had marched his army to Arles (or Narbonne, off the top of my head I don't remember) in 436 and had them arrive in Battle Formation. The goths were surprised, being in the middle of the siege, and were unable to draw up their line properly to engage the Romans, and were routed.

Surprise was an element in such a set piece battle, but engaging a Gothic Army in a set-piece battle would have been considered absurd by most 5th century commanders, especially eastern ones.

Two Set-Piece Battles took place in Africa between Gaiseric and Bonifacius/Aspar, and you have Chalons, you've also got Radagasius' invasion of Italy which was decided by a set-piece battle.