Gothic War (535–552)
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See Gothic War (376-382) for the war on the Danube.
| Gothic War | |||||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||||
| Byzantine Empire | Ostrogoths, Franks, Visigoths |
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| Commanders | |||||||||
| Belisarius, Narses, Mundilas, Germanus Justinus, Liberius |
Theodahad, Witigis, Totila |
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| Wars of Justinian I |
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| Iberian War - Gothic War - Lazic War - Ad Decimum – Ticameron - Taginae – Mons Lactarius – Volturnus |
The Gothic War, was a war fought in Italy in 535-552. It was the result of Justinian's decision in 535 to reverse the course of events of the past century in the West and win back for the Byzantine Empire the provinces of Italy that had been lost, first to Odoacer and then to the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great.
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[edit] First campaign
Justinian's cause for war was the exile and assassination in 535 of Amalasuintha, Theodoric's heiress, whose representatives had signed a pact with Justinian that enabled Imperial forces to use Sicilian bases in their campaign against the Vandals in Africa.
Justinian used the assassination as a pretext for an invasion of Italy. The Emperor's most successful general in this enterprise, which would lay southern and central Italy waste, was Belisarius, recently successful against the Vandals, whom he now commissioned to attack the Ostrogoths. Belisarius quickly captured Sicily and then crossed into Italy, where he captured Rhegium and Naples by November and Rome in December 536, forcing the Gothic king Witigis to evacuate. The following year, Belisarius, with too few troops to face the Goths in the open field, successfully defended Rome against a Gothic siege (January 537 to March 538), interrupted by minor sallies from the walled city, such as the "Battle of the Pincian Gate", then, finally reinforced from Constantinople, took the offensive. Narses relieved besieged Ariminum (Rimini) and Belisarius' lieutenant Mundilas moved north to take Mediolanum (Milan).
The following year (540), the Franks intervened; they took Milan and sacked it. Narses was recalled but Belisarius besieged the Ostrogoth capital of Ravenna, where Witiges was captured. The Goths offered to make Belisarius the western emperor, but he refused. The Goths' offer perhaps raised suspicions in Justinian's mind and Belisarius was recalled to the East to fight the Persians in Syria.
[edit] Second campaign
In 541 the Ostrogoths acclaimed Totila as their new leader, having assassinated his predecessor who had opened negotiations with the Empire, and Totila mounted a vigorous and successful campaign against the East Romans, recapturing all of northern Italy and even driving the East Romans out of Rome, after a long, second siege (547–549).
Belisarius returned to Italy in 544, where he found that the situation had changed greatly. He managed to recover Rome briefly, but his Italian campaign proved unsuccessful, thanks in no small part to his being starved of supplies and reinforcements by a jealous Justinian, if we adopt the view of Procopius. In 548, Justinian relieved him in favor of Narses, who was able to bring the campaign to a successful conclusion. For his part, Belisarius went into retirement.
[edit] Third campaign
In the third campaign of the Gothic War, Rome was besieged a third time, and captured by Totila, whose offers of peace were rejected by Justinian. A new Italian campaign was organized under Justinian's nephew Germanus Justinus, while Liberius harassed the Visigoths in Hispania. With the death of Germanus in 551, Narses took on Totila, and at the Battle of Taginae Narses defeated and killed Totila. The Goths holding Rome capitulated, and at the Battle of Mons Lactarius, in October 553, Narses defeated Teias and the last remnants of the Gothic army in Italy.
[edit] Overall outcome
The pyrrhic victory of the Gothic War drained the Byzantine Empire of much-needed resources that might have been employed against more immediate threats in the East. In Italy, the war was devastating to the urbanized society that was supported by a settled hinterland.The great cities of Rome and her allies would be abandoned as Italy would fall into a long period of backwardness. The impoverishment of Italy and the drain on the Empire made it impossible for the East Romans to hold Italy. The economic destruction of Italy was so total that it took several centuries for the communes to recover. Imperial gains were fleeting: only three years after the death of Justinian, the mainland Italian territories fell into the hands of a far more primitive Germanic tribe, the Lombards, leaving the Exarchate of Ravenna a band of territory that stretched across central Italy to the Tyrrhenian Sea and south to Naples, along with southern Italy as the only remaining Imperial holding. Justinian also managed to carve out an Imperial domain in Southern Spain but that too would be conquered by Germanic tribes a few decades later. After the Gothic Wars the Empire would entertain no more serious ambitions in the West. Rome itself would remain under imperial control until the Exarchate of Ravenna was finally abolished by the Lombards in 751. Southern Italy would remain under East Roman (administered directly from Constantinople) rule until the late 11th century.
[edit] References
The primary source for the history of the Gothic War was written by Belisarius' secretary, Procopius, whose History covers the Gothic War in three of its eight books. Procopius was no friend of Justinian, and his assessments require caution. Also important is Jordanes' De origine actibusque Getarum ("Origins and deeds of the Goths").
Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (vol. iv, part V. ch 41), though outdated, is the most famous source in the English language.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapter xli)
- Matteo Cioci, "Belisarius at bay : two battles of the Gothic War"
