The Rome is under the control of the empire, but the war is not over.
The Ostrogothic kingdom is still strong, and it have found an ally in the Frankish Kingdom.
To the East the Sasanian Shah is eager to change the balance.
The ties between emperor Justinian and his best general – Belisarius are strained.
The last chapter in the Restoration of Justinian is about to begin.
As the Byzantine general John and his 2000 cavalry occupied Ariminum in March, the Goths
under Vitiges had to abandon the Siege of Rome.
Belisarius sent a 1000 infantry and new commanders to replace John.
The latter refused to obey Belisarius.
Using this, the Goths besieged Ariminum.
However, their failure at Rome made many Italian cities, among them Milan more recipient to
return under the imperial control.
Unfortunately for Belisarius, he had to divide his forces even more in order to garrison
then.
Many of these small garrisons were besieged by the Goths and their allies- Burgundians
and Franks.
At the same time, 5 thousand strong Byzantine reinforcements led by Narses arrived at Picenum.
Belisarius and Narses argued on the next moves, but a letter from John stating that their
supplies are low, eventually made Belisarius to Ariminum.
The Romans managed to defeat a smaller Gothic force closer to Ariminum.
When their fleet moved towards the city, the Goths lifted the siege.
John supported Narses, so the unified command in Italy was in tatters.
Despite their infighting, the Romans took several forts and towns between Ariminum and
Rome between the of Winter 538 and Spring and 539.
The Byzantine garrison in Milan asked for urgent assistance.
Belisarius ordered John to move there, but the latter refused yet again, stating that
he only took his orders from Narses.
The order was repeated by Narses, but the illness prevented John from helping in time.
Milan surrendered and of the most prosperous cities of Italy was sacked.
Belisarius requested Justinian to recall Narses citing this incident, and the emperor obliged.
With troops firmly under his control Belisarius began to tighten the noose around the Gothic
capital - Ravenna.
In the Spring of 539, Belisarius and his 11000, besieged Auximum, while a smaller detachment
was sent to besiege Fisula.
The Franks, led by Theudibert, invaded Italy, breaking their nominal alliances with the
Goths and the Romans.
After attacking the Goths, a local Roman force presumed they were coming as allies but the
Franks showed their true colours attacking the Romans too.
Soon after, this Frankish army caught a severe outbreak of dysentery and returned home.
With no help, both Fisula and Auximum fell by the Fall of 539.
In late 539, Belisarius besieged Ravenna.
Luckily for him a fire destroyed the grain stores of the city, and the supplies sent
to Ravenna were captured by his troops.
As the Roman soldiers started capturing the settlements around Ravenna, the Gothic soldiers
fearing for their families began to surrender all over northern Italy.
Justinian needed troops in the East, so he offered the Goths generous terms of surrender,
which Belisarius refused to ratify, as he knew that Ravenna would fall soon.
To protect themselves from the Roman persecution the Gothic nobility, among them king Witiges,
offered Belisarius to become “the Emperor of the West”.
Belisarius feigned the acceptance and promised to not harm the Goths.
However, on the entry to the city the Goths were taken hostage.
Belisarius began packing the gothic treasury into ships, stating that he remained loyal
to Justinian and then headed back to Constantinople in the summer of 540.
Italy may have been effectively conquered but the gothic soldiery had not been defeated,
and the treachery of Belisarius sparked two decades of war.
The Sassanian Shah Khosrau was aware of the lack of the Roman troops in the East, so in
the Spring of 540 he broke the Eternal Peace and sacked the city of Sura.
Many cities in Anatolia and Syria were either sacked or forced to pay tribute.
The most important city of the region – Antioch had a significant garrison, but incredibly
poor planning led to its almost immediate fall.
This was a disaster for Justinian, he sued for peace and sent 5000 pounds of gold, promising
500 pounds more annually.
However, Khosrau continued sacking Byzantine cities and in 541 Belisarius was sent to the
area.
He won a minor battle outside of Nisibis and as Khosrau was occupying the Caucausus, Belisarius
managed to successfully raid into Persian lands.
The garrisons in Colchis were not getting pay, so they defected to the Persians and
Khosrau took Colchis with ease.
The situation was getting worse for the Romans, as an epidemy known to us Justinian’s Plague
started in Egypt and killed between 20% and 50% of the population of the empire.
In 542, Khosrau returned to Anatolia to continue raiding, but Belisarius managed to convince
the Persians that he has a much bigger army.
That forced Khosrau to start his retreat.
Belisarius shadowed the Sasanian forces, but they still managed to sack Callinicum.
The plague has reached the area and neither general wished his army to catch it, so the
campaign of 542 was short.
Back in Constantinople, the plague killed tens of thousands.
Justinian himself fell into a coma but, miraculously for the empire, recovered soon after and prevented
a succession crisis.
While Justinian was comatose, Belisarius and his generals refused to explicitly support
Theodora and for that he was stripped of his command, and his wealth was confiscated, while
his household guard was divided among other generals.
The Roman Empire was near the breaking point: it was financially bankrupt and surrounded
by the enemies on all fronts.
The plague raged on and even the re-acquired lands in Italy were in bad shape, suffering
from famine and crop failures.
The war in Italy continued, as the Roman armies split between five generals faced the newest
Gothic King Totila.
Neither side risked a major battle, as the lack of troops made them unsure of the victory.
The Byzantines initially held the strong locations, such as Rome, Ravenna, Perusia, Florentia
and Spoletium.
However, the five distinct Roman commanders all stayed in these cities and refused to
move out of them.
Totila was able to quickly occupy most of the countryside and subsequently took important
cities, such as Naples in 543AD.
Belisarius was allowed to return in Italy in 544 and his presence began to stabilise
the situation, however, several of his commanders, including John refused his orders which lead
to several failures.
The city of Rome was exchanged several times between Totila and Belisarius.
With no extensive change to the war due to a severe lack of troops and the money, Belisarius
left in 548AD, a tired man.
Rome’s garrison soon gave up the city to Totila in 549AD, due to their lack of pay,
while the Franks occupied Venetia in the North.
The departure of Belisarius worsened the Roman position but, soon, the empire flexed its
muscles.
In late 550-early 551 Justinian sent a large force of 20000 with 6000 Lombard and 4000
Heruli and Gepids commanded by his nephew Germanus.
However, on his way to Italy Germanus died of an illness in Salona and Justinian replaced
him with the seventy-three-year-old commander Narses.
The plan of the new commander was simple: he marched into Gothic territory and occupied
a strong defensive position on an important route in the valley of the River Bonom, waiting
for the Gothic attack.
Totila and his 15 thousand were camped to the South.
Despite having a larger force, Narses offered negotiations, but Totila declined, claiming
that they would meet in battle in eight days.
Narses saw through this ruse and lined up for battle at Taginae on the next day.
He placed a small group on the gully on the left side, to prevent being outflanked.
Narses dismounted his allies and had them hold the central slope.
Each wing had 4000 Roman archers with cavalry behind them.
Narses controlled the left wing of cavalry and placed 1500 more cavalry in reserve in
the centre-left.
The Goths generally mirrored the Romans with infantry in the centre and cavalry on the
wings.
Totila sent cavalry to dislodge the Romans from the ravine but its narrowness and the
terrain prevented any Gothic success.
He then further played for time by personally posturing and performing cavalry drills in
front of his army, as well as sending forth a Goth to participate in single combat, which
the Romans won.
Totila then withdrew his armies at midday when 2000 reinforcements of his arrived.
Narses could have followed but chose to remain in his defensive position and stayed in formation.
Seeing that, Totila reformed his entire army with cavalry in the first line the centre
with a line of infantry behind them.
Narses, seeing this massing of the Gothic forces, moved his archers further back to
the wings.
Totila ordered his cavalry to fight only with the lance and to charge across the entire
front.
The Roman archers on the wings shot a massive volley targeting the Gothic while the disciplined
spearmen in the centre braced for charge.
As the Gothic cavalry began to fall back, the entire Roman line moved forwards against
the cavalry.
Soon the Goths were forced to retreat, and then were routed.
It seems that Gothic infantry left the field.
6000 Goths were killed, including Totila himself.
Narses then moved south, claiming Rome once more and achieved another decisive victory
at Mons Lactarius in the late 552 or early 553.
The last Ostrogothic king Teia was killed in this battle and their rule ended.
Italy had been subdued but was not yet secure.
Teia called the Franks to aid against the Romans, and their king Theudibald two Alamanni
chieftains, Leutharis and Butilin, to attack the Romans.
And while Narses was busy consolidating the South in the summer of 553 Luetharis and Butilin
entered the Po Valley.
Narses decided to winter without engaging the Frankish-Alamanni forces.
Fortunately, for him the enemy divided their forces and Butilin headed for Campania whilst
Leutharis headed for Calabria.
Leutharis’ army was ambushed and and then was also hit by disease, killing many including
Leutharis, so it had effectively ceased to be an army by the time they reached the Frank-controlled
Venetia.
Narses proceeded to engage Butilin’s 20 thousand army near Capua on the Volturnus
river.
Butilin had built up defences for his camp with the river on one side and dug in wagons
on the other, facing the Romans.
A Roman cavalry force took a portion of the wagon defences and then set fire to a defensive
watch tower by the river before retreating.
This was the start of the battle, as the Franks sallied from their camp and took their positions
on the field.
Narses and his 18000 formed up in a traditional setup with archer-lancer cavalry on the wings
and infantry in the centre, with archers in front and spearmen behind.
The Heruli had squabbled with Narses and failed to arrive in the centre in time.
A few Heruli deserters incorrectly informed the Franks that their compatriots had all
deserted.
The Franks formed up all of their troops into a Boar’s head formation, which is a type
of hollow wedge.
The Boar’s head charge punched almost entirely through the Roman centre, however, the Roman
cavalry moved back and pivoted their formations to begin firing into the flanks the wedge,
this caused confusion in the Frankish ranks.
Now, the Heruli arrived to the battle in an orderly fashion, and engaged the Boar’s
head directly, causing the formation to lose its cohesion; the front portions spilled past
the Heruli and routed across the river to attempt an escape with many drowning or being
caught.
The Heruls pushed forward into the centre and the cavalry moved back around the side,
folding inwards.
The Franks were caught on three sides and a portion of the rear and were now on the
back foot, were more outnumbered and were without the impetus of the charge to assist
them.
Under this pressure, the entire Frankish force routed and the historian Agathias claims that
only five from the initial 20000 Franks managed to escape!
Narses victory was total and with it the Gothic War was brought to an end, except for a few
limited clean-up operations going into 555AD.
The War had lasted nineteen years and the prosperous urbanised Italian peninsula was
now a depopulated and ruinous place.
But Justinian had reclaimed Rome for the Roman Empire, so it was surely worth the price…
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