The Gothic War: Justinian's Campaign to Reclaim Italy

by Torsten Cumberland Jacobsen

Overview

The War that Reshaped the Political Future of Europe

“Jacobsen brings to the story an intimate knowledge of Italy. The battles took place on terrain Jacobsen knows well. . . Recommended.”—Choice

“Jacobsen provides an operational history of Justinian’s campaign. Throughout he traces the military strategies and tactical intrigues of leaders such as the Roman general Belisarius and the Goth leader Totila.”—Publishers Weekly

“Jacobsen knows the sites he writes about, he has read Procopius diligently . . . and his military reconstruction can be faulted only in attributing to both sides rather better command and control than the ancient armies could generally manage. . . . Jacobsen has offered wargamers a tool they will appreciate.”—The Classical Review

A period of stability in the early sixth century A.D. gave the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian an opportunity to recapture parts of the Western Empire which had been lost to invading barbarians in the preceding centuries. The climactic conflict over Italy between 535 and 554—the Gothic War—decided the political future of Europe, holding in its balance the possibility that the Roman Empire might rise again. While large portions of the original territory of the ancient Roman Empire were recaptured, the Eastern Empire was incapable of retaining much of its hard-won advances, and soon the empire once again retracted. As a result of the Gothic War, Italy was invaded by the Lombards who began their important kingdom, the Franks began transforming Gaul into France, and without any major force remaining in North Africa, that territory was quickly overrun by the first wave of Muslim expansion in the ensuing century. Written as a general overview of this critical period, The Gothic War: Justinian’s Campaign to Reclaim Italy opens with a history of the conflict with Persia and the great Roman general Belisarius’s successful conquest of the Vandals in North Africa. After an account of the Ostrogothic tribe and their history, the campaigns of the long war for Italy are described in detail, including the three sieges of Rome, which turned the great city from a bustling metropolis into a desolate ruin. In addition to Belisarius, the Gothic War featured many of history’s most colorful antagonists, including Rome’s Narses the Eunuch, and the Goths’ ruthless and brilliant tactician, Totila. Two appendices provide information about the armies of the Romans and Ostrogoths, including their organization, weapons, and tactics, all of which changed over the course of the war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594165146
Publisher:	Westholme Publishing
Publication date:	09/30/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	381
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

TORSTEN CUMBERLAND JACOBSEN is a former curator of the Royal Danish Arsenal Museum. He is the author of A History of the Vandals, also available from Westholme Publishing.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Prelude 1

2 The Ostrogoths 24

3 Theodoric in Italy 65

4 The First Stages 75

5 The First Siege of Rome 92

6 Famine and Pestilence 133

7 The Campaign for Ravenna 151

8 The Capture of Ravenna 181

9 Affairs in Africa and the East 192

10 The Rise of Totila 209

11 The Return of Belisarius 227

12 The Second Siege of Rome 235

13 The Third Siege of Rome 261

14 The Return of Narses 275

15 Aftermath and Conclusions 293

Appendix

Men, Equipment and Tactics-The Romans 303

Men, Equipment and Tactics-The Ostrogoths 327

Chronology 345

Sources 349

Index 359

Acknowledgements 371

Maps

1 Europe and North Africa in 535 12-13

2 The Roman Empire in 350 34-35

3 The wars in southeastern Europe, 376-382 49

4 Northern Italy at the time of Theodoric's campaigns 69

5 Italy and Sicily in the sixth century 79

6 Rome during the first siege in 537-538 97

7 Rome and its surroundings 119

8 Battle of Rome, 537: initial deployment 125

9 Battle of Rome, 537 127

10 The operations of John, nephew of Vitalianus 149

11 Ravenna and vicinity 157

12 The battle of Scalae Veteres 195

13 Mesopotamia in the sixth century 205

14 Italy during the campaigns of Totila and Teias 223

15 The battle of Taginae 283

16 The Roman Empire in 565 300-301

Editorial Reviews

By the end of the fifth century A.D., the Ostrogoths had taken Italy, marking the downfall of the Western Roman Empire. In 527, the new emperor, Justinian, swore to restore imperial Rome to its ancient glory. While he fought to maintain the eastern borders of the empire against the Persians, Justinian's strategy was to retake the lands lost to the Goths: Gaul, Spain, Britain, North Africa. In workmanlike fashion, Jacobsen, former curator at the Royal Danish Museum, provides an operational history of Justinian's campaign from the Battle of Callinicum and the Vandal War of 530 to the battles of Ad Decimum and Tricamarum. Throughout, Jacobsen traces the military strategies and tactical intrigues of leaders such as the Roman general Belisarius and the Goth leader Totila, among others. While Justinian succeeded in re-conquering North Africa, Spain and Italy, his campaigns exhausted the empire and by the latter part of the sixth century, many of these lands fell to the Visigoths, Moors and Lombards. Appendixes detail the equipment and tactics of the Romans and the Ostrogoths. 35 illus., 16 maps. (June 1)

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