Key Facts
- Date
- 5–6 September 394 AD
- Duration of battle
- 2 days
- Location
- Vipava Valley, near the Julian Alps
- Outcome
- Theodosian victory; Eugenius executed, Arbogast suicided
- Civil war sequence
- Third civil war of Theodosius's reign
Strategic Narrative Overview
Theodosius marched westward through the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum, crossing the Julian Alps into northeastern Italy. His army, commanded by Timasius and Stilicho and reinforced by Gothic federates under Alaric and Gainas and by Bacurius the Iberian, engaged Eugenius's forces under Arbogast in the Vipava Valley on 5–6 September 394. After hard fighting over two days, the Theodosian forces broke through and overwhelmed the western army.
01 / The Origins
After the mysterious death of western co-emperor Valentinian II in 392, his powerful magister militum Arbogast engineered the proclamation of the rhetorician Eugenius as augustus in the western empire. Theodosius I, ruling from the east and committed to Nicene Christianity as state religion, refused to recognise Eugenius and resolved to crush the usurpation by force, as he had previously done against Magnus Maximus in 388.
03 / The Outcome
Eugenius was captured and executed immediately after the battle. Arbogast, unable to flee, killed himself days later. The victory left Theodosius as sole ruler of the entire Roman Empire, a unity that lasted only until his death in January 395. The battle was subsequently celebrated in church histories as a triumph of Christianity over paganism, though Eugenius was not himself a pagan.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Theodosius I, Timasius, Stilicho, Alaric.
Side B
1 belligerent
Eugenius, Arbogast.
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.