535-539] Conquest of Italy 15 and African affairs, Theodahad the Gothic king was, like Gelimer, impressionable, changeable, unsteady, unreliable, and, in addition, a coward. After the first military demonstrations he offered to Justinian's ambassador to cede Sicily to the Empire, to acknowledge himself as a vassal of Byzantium, and, soon afterwards, he proposed to abandon the whole of Italy in return for a title and a money settlement. Against such a foe Belisarius had no formidable task, specially as in view of the Ostrogothic war, Byzantine diplomacy had secured the Frankish alliance, just as in the African war it had secured that of the Ostrogoths. From the end of 535, while a Byzantine army was concentrated in Dalmatia, Belisarius landed in Sicily, and occupied it, hardly needing to strike a blow. Theodahad was terrified, and "already feeling the fate of Gelimer about to descend on him" offered any concessions. Then, on hearing that Belisarius had been obliged to return to Africa, he once more plucked up courage, imprisoned the imperial ambassadors, and flung himself desperately into the struggle. Little good it did him. While one of Justinian's generals conquered Dalmatia, Belisarius crossed the Strait of Messina (May 536) and, greeted by the Italian people as a liberator, in turn seized Naples and occupied Rome unopposed (10 December 536). However, the Ostrogoths still possessed more energy than the Vandals. On the news of the first disasters, even before the fall of Rome, they dethroned the incapable Theodahad, and elected as king Witigis, one of the bravest of their warriors. With considerable skill the new king checked the march of the Franks by the cession of Provence; then, having united all his forces, he proceeded with 150,000 men to besiege Belisarius in Rome. For a whole year (March 537-March 538) he exhausted himself in vain efforts to take the Eternal City. Everything miscarried before the splendid energy of Belisarius. Meanwhile, another Roman army, which had landed at the beginning of 538 on the Adriatic coast, was occupying Picenum. Greek troops, at the request of the Archbishop of Milan, had made a descent on Liguria, and seized the great town of northern Italy. Witigis, in despair, decided to abandon Rome. The triumph of the imperialists seemed assured, and to finish it Justinian despatched another army under Narses into Italy. Unfortunately, Narses' instructions were not only to reinforce Belisarius, but also to spy upon him; and the misunderstanding between the two generals soon paralysed all operations. They confined themselves to saving Rimini, which was attacked by Witigis; but allowed the Goths to reconquer Milan, and Theudibert's Franks to pillage the valley of the Po on their own account. At last in 539 Justinian decided to recall Narses, and to leave to Belisarius alone the task of conducting the war. t was brought rapidly to a successful end. Pressed on every side, Witigis threw himself into Ravenna, and the imperialists besieged it (end of 539). For six months the Ostrogoths held out, counting on a diversion to be caused by the Persians in the East, the intervention of the 16 Mirmanagement in Italy [540 Lombards, and the defection of the Franks. When they saw themsel ibandoned by ul. taer tetermined to negotiate with Justinian (May 54 The Emperor eaned towards conciliation and shewed himself inclined allow Vits to keep possession of Italy north of the Po. But for irst me as le Geusarmus refused to obey, and declared that vould never aufy the convention. He wished for complete victo ind toped 3 testroy the Ostrogothie kingdom as completely as Men ccurred & strange episode. The Goths suggested t heyanne nera, vnose our they had proved, and wh tad ist iscertained, should be their king, Wit msen vasenung to doulcate a savour. Belisarius pretended Tana (eir was a rder to obtain the capitulation of Raven Ben e new cử là dsense and declared that he had never worked BUY QUE SUL de Tuperer. "KEPENUENCE the wre is be tau lene n Africa. Justinian in his optimis "UJU - PALNuered de var it in 'nu. Proudly he assumed the title GUAURUS TOLeu ensarts educed the roops in occupation; and The Chupkoda angion, tow ansiormed into a Roman province, Orgutsed a Nyxem or pureg, vi aministration. Once more the is The Goths Indeed soon recovered the wies Sanegi au enamus que, eiore they organised resistance The actressiess of the Byzantine admin (PACU, YOKOL vas vid and ani`exatious, til further aggravated 41, the accession of the young a race equally remarkable for ALLIRO?veness, the work of the imper 220 For eleven years Totila v the Empire, to reconquer e Spulacion i Belisarius. And he dousand men. Central Italy v Rovenes af Faenza and Mugillo. Th while the དྷསྶ ཝཱ ཙ སྶ versus shut themselves up in for without actenpitia seg vil worker Poula &ifully moved towards t Campana und von to itsch, woede ences had suffered less fr the war, at wond MusapanÝVA NU suppites. Naples fell to h (548), and Otraac, weN CYNONNA PVtuailed, was besieg At the same are for a mezaad the Roman population by political skilt, de mace WE VULNÍK the country, and justice was proVOLDIKSL Tacoma of sehat no one except Belisar was canabe 24 25 ordered backs to Nag eve dade fe. Therefore he w wing there were just then Danube, and from a the peninsula was money, and alm 344-552] Totila 17 without an army, was practically powerless. Content with having thrown supplies into Otranto, he fortified himself in Ravenna and stayed there (545). Totila seized the posts by which communications were maintained between Ravenna and Rome, and finally invested the Eternal City, which Belisarius was unable to save when he finally roused himself from his inaction (17 December 546). Totila then tried to make peace with the Emperor, but Justinian obstinately refused to negotiate with a sovereign whom he held to be nothing but an usurper. Therefore the war went on. Belisarius did manage to recover Rome, evacuated by the Gothic king and emptied of its inhabitants, and clung to it successfully in spite of all Totila's hostile attacks (547). But the imperial army was scattered over the whole of Italy, and quite powerless; and reinforcements, when they did arrive from the East, could not prevent Totila from taking Perusia in the north and Rossano in the south. Belisarius, badly supported by his lieutenants, and driven to desperation, demanded to be recalled (548). When his request was granted he left Italy, where his glory had been so sadly tarnished. "God himself," wrote a contemporary, "fought for Totila and the Goths." In fact, no resistance to them remained. Belisarius had been gone for less than a year when the imperialists were left with only four towns in the peninsula: Ravenna, Ancona, Otranto, and Crotona. Soon afterwards the fleet which Totila had created conquered Sicily (550), Corsica, Sardinia (551), and ravaged Dalmatia, Corfu, and Epirus (551). Meanwhile the fast ageing Justinian was absorbed in useless theological discussions, and forgot his province of Italy. "The whole West was in the hands of the barbarians," wrote Procopius. However, moved by the entreaties of the emigrant Italians who flocked to Byzantium, the Emperor recovered himself. He despatched a fleet to the West which forced Totila to evacuate Sicily, while a great army was mobilised under the direction of Germanus to reconquer Italy (550). The sudden death of the general hindered the operations, but Narses, appointed as his successor, carried them on with a long forgotten energy and decision. He boldly stated his conditions to the Emperor, and succeeded in wringing from him those supplies that had been doled out so meagrely to his predecessors. He obtained money, arms, and soldiers, and soon commanded the largest army ever entrusted by Justinian to any of his generals, numbering probably from thirty to thirty-five thousand men. In the spring of 552 he attacked Italy from the north, moved on Ravenna, and from there made a bold push for the south in order to force Totila to a decisive engagement. He encountered the Goths in the Apennines at Taginae (May or June 552), not far from the site of Busta Gallorum where, Procopius tells us, Camillus repulsed the Gauls in ancient days. The Ostrogothic army was stricken with panic, and broke and fled as soon as the battle was joined; Totila was borne C. MED. H. VOL. II. CH. I. 2 18 End of the Gothic Kingdom [552-563 away in the rout, and perished in it. The Gothic State had received its death-blow. The Byzantines could hardly believe that their formidable enemy was really overcome. They wanted to disinter his body to assure themselves of their good fortune; "and having gazed at it for a long time," wrote Procopius, "they felt satisfied that Italy was really conquered." It was in vain that the unhappy remnant of the Gothic people rallied under a new king, Teias, for a last desperate struggle. By degrees the whole of central Italy, including Rome itself, again passed into the hands of the Greeks. Finally Narses fought the last barbarian muster in Campania near the foot of Mt Vesuvius on the slopes of Monte Lettere (Mons Lactarius) early in 553. The battle lasted for two whole days, a giants' combat" according to Procopius, desperate, implacable, epic. The flower of the Gothic army fell round their king, the remainder received honourable treatment from Narses, and permission to seek land amongst the other barbarians, where they would no longer be subjects of Justinian. 66 Italy had still to be cleared of the Franks. They had profited by what was happening, and had occupied part of Liguria, and almost the whole of the Venetian territory, had repulsed the imperialists of Verona after Taginae, and now claimed to inherit all the possessions of the Goths. In the middle of the year 553 two Alemannic chieftains, Leutharis and Bucelin, rushed on Italy, with seventy-five thousand barbarians, marking a trail from the north to the centre with blood and fire. Fortunately for Narses the remnant of the Ostrogoths thought submission to the Emperor better than submission to the Franks. Thanks to their help, the Greek general was able to crush the hordes of Bucelin near Capua (autumn of 554), while those of Leutharis, decimated by sickness, perished miserably on their retreat. In the following year peace was restored to Italy by the capitulation of Compsae, which had been the centre of Ostrogothic resistance in the south (555). Thus, after twenty years of warfare, Italy was once more drawn into the Roman Empire. Like Africa, her extent was not so great as it had been formerly, as the Italian praefecture. Without mentioning places like Brescia and Verona, where a handful of Goths held out till 563, neither Pannonia nor Rhaetia nor Noricum ever came under Justinian's rule again. The imperial province of Italy did not extend beyond the line of the Alps, but Justinian was none the less proud of having rescued it from "tyranny," and flattered himself on having restored to it "perfect peace," likely to prove durable. It might easily be imagined that Spain, conquered by the Visigoths, would be added to the Empire, after the reconquest of Africa and Italy. Here also, just at the right moment, circumstances arose which gave a pretext for Greek intervention. King Agila was a persecutor of 539-554] Imperial Position of Justinian 19 Catholics, and against him uprose an usurper Athanagild, who naturally sought help from the greatest orthodox ruler of the time. A Byzantine army and fleet were despatched to Spain, Agila was defeated, and in a few weeks the imperialists were in possession of the chief towns in the south-east of the peninsula, Carthagena, Malaga, and Corduba. As soon as the Visigoths realised the danger in which they stood, they put an end to their domestic disagreements, and all parties joined in offering the crown to Athanagild (554). The new prince soon returned to face his former allies, and managed to prevent them from making much progress. However, the Byzantines were able to keep what they had already won, and the Empire congratulated itself on the acquisition of a Spanish province. The imperial diplomacy was able to add successes of its own to the triumphs won by force of arms. The Frankish kings of Gaul had gladly received subsidies from Justinian, and had entered into an alliance with him, calling him Lord and Father, in token of their position as vassals. They proved themselves fickle and treacherous allies, and after Theudibert, King of Austrasia, had in 539 worked for himself in Italy, he formed the plan of overwhelming the Eastern Empire by a concerted attack of all the barbarian peoples. In spite of such occasional lapses, the prestige of Rome was undiminished in Gaul: Constantinople was regarded as the capital of the whole world, and in the distant Frankish churches, by the Pope's request, prayers were said by the clergy for the safety of the Roman Emperor. To his titles of Vandalicus and Gothicus Justinian now added those of Francicus, Alemannicus, and Germanicus. He treated Theudibert as though he were the most submissive of lieutenants, and confided to him the work of converting the pagans ruled by him in Germany. It was the same with the Lombards. In 547 the Emperor gave them permission to settle in Pannonia and Noricum, and furnished them with subsidies in return for recruits. They were rewarded by receiving imperial support against their enemies the Gepidae; and Greek diplomacy was successful in keeping them faithful. On the whole, in spite of certain sacrifices which had been wrung from the pride of the basileus, Justinian had realised his dream. It was thanks to his splendid and persistent ambition that the Empire could now boast the acquisition of Dalmatia, Italy, the whole of eastern Africa, south-east Spain, the islands of the western basin of the Mediterranean, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles, which almost doubled its extent. The occupation of Septem carried the Emperor's authority to the Pillars of Hercules, and with the exception of those parts of the coast held by the Visigoths in Spain and Septimania and the Franks in Provence, the Mediterranean was once more a Roman lake. We have seen by what efforts these triumphs were bought, we shall see at what cost of suffering they were held. We must however |