Ongoing Gothic and Allied Raids in the 270s Contained

Aurelian’s reconquests did not end northern pressure. Raids still sprang from the Danube’s far bank and from the Black Sea’s rim into the Aegean. Dexippus’ fragments, with their Greek immediacy, remind us how local these crises felt: a city’s wall, a strait’s narrows, the reach from Thessalonica to Athens [7][9].

Yet the pattern changed. After Naissus, Roman field forces could move to meet threats rather than merely react. Thessalonica, scarred from earlier assaults, coordinated with marine patrols along the Aegean. Thermopylae remained a standby. The clangor of armor in narrow passes, the shout of orders bouncing between rocks, contrasted with the measured thud of oars where coastal raiders tried their luck.

Aurelian and his generals applied elastic defense: strongpoints, mobile columns, and punitive strikes across rivers when weather and logistics allowed. The construction of the Aurelian Walls tied Rome’s survival to these outer maneuvers—if a raid slipped through, the capital would still be safe [11][14]. Provincial councils in Macedonia and Achaea organized grain and pay to keep garrisons ready; the empire’s granaries at Thessalonica and along the Via Egnatia kept columns fed.

By 275, the raids had not ceased, but they no longer dictated Roman strategy. The center chose when to fight east and west; the north responded. That inversion—who responds to whom—was the essence of containment.