Introduction:
In 535 AD, the Gothic War broke out, a battle that was later described as "one of the most tragic wars of Justinian's time", and played a significant role in the Roman Empire and even the entire Western world.
Totila
For this war, most scholars like to study this aspect of Rome in depth; However, the Gothic king Totila, who led the Gothic army and people against the Roman army at that time, also played a large role in this war.
Edward Gibbon, known as the "father of literary history in the Age of European Enlightenment", described him as "visionary"; But Jordanes, a writer from Byzantium, considered him "the maker of the Italian disaster."
What kind of person is Totila, is he a glory or a disaster maker?
First, the background of the outbreak of war
Totila was the penultimate king of the Ostrogothic kingdom, and little is known about his life other than Jordanes' History of the Gothic.
Theodoric I
Totila has been closely associated with the Gothic Wars all his life, as if he was born for this war. As the leader of the Ostrogoths, he led the remnants of the defeated Jedi to regenerate, once defeated the Roman army known as "the strongest in Europe", and regained the lost territory, although he still could not escape the defeat and killing, but his existence dragged down the entire Byzantine Empire and rewrote the history of the empire.
Therefore, in order to understand Totila, you must first understand the Gothic Wars.
The Ostrogoths were originally a group of Germans, but with the attack of Theodoric the Great on the kingdom of Odoac, the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Great Migration of the Germans, Theodoric established the Ostrogothic kingdom nominally belonging to Eastern Rome. Due to its repeated use of foreign troops, Ostrogoth's territory expanded from central and northern Italy at the beginning to Sicily, Dalmatia, Provence and other places.
Justinian
It is worth mentioning that during the period when the Ostrogothic Kingdom flourished, the Roman Empire fell into a long "era of silence", and it was not until the emergence of Justinian the Great that Rome shone brightly again.
However, when Rome began to come to life, the Ostrogothic nightmare arrived at the same time.
It should be noted here that in addition to the Goths living in the Ostrogothic kingdom, there were remnants of Western Rome, and there were great differences between the two peoples, especially religious differences.
During Theodoric's reign, he did not force the two peoples to mingle together, for which he gave a great deal of tolerance, but his successors clearly did not have his skills. With the end of the first split between the Eastern and Western Christian churches, more and more Italian senators began to secretly contact the Byzantine Empire, after all, for these senators from Western Rome, Eastern Rome seemed to be a more desirable place than Ostrogoth.
Amara Sansa
On the other hand, although Western Rome had perished, its regime still existed and also possessed the eastern territories; After Justinian came to power, he wanted to reclaim this part of the territory; But during Theodoric's reign, Ostrogoths had always maintained good relations with Eastern Rome, and Justinian had no excuse to reclaim this part of the land.
It coincided with the death of Theodoric and his successor Atalarik shortly after his accession to the throne, leaving only one regent, Amarashansa, in Ostrogoth.
The anti-Roman nobles saw that the new king was dead, so they planned an assassination, and after this operation, the Ostrogoths fell into a lot of chaos, and the nobles who planned all this thought that they could take the opportunity to seize power, but they did not expect that the mantis catcher yellow finch was behind.
Beliselieu
Justinian took this opportunity to "revive the Roman Empire to its former glory" while advocating the "restoration of the Roman Empire to its former glory", and under the banner of avenging Theodoric, with Beliselius as the main general, ordered the army to attack the Ostrogothic kingdom, and this defeated war began.
2. The king in the midst of war
Totila ascended the throne in the midst of chaos, and the Roman Empire, which straddled three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, was now only one Eastern Rome, and it was not something that Ostrogoths without a king could resist. At the beginning of the war, the Roman army occupied Sicily, and then advanced all the way, taking the important city of Naples and marching to Ravenna.
In 540, Beliselieuus captured Ravenna, and after six years of resistance, Virgitis threw in the towel, surrendered to Beliselius, and was escorted to Constantinople.
Roman legions
It is worth mentioning that the reason why Virgitis gave up resistance was not entirely because the capital was besieged, but more because the Eastern Rome had promised to keep the Ostrogothic as it was, including some political and religious policies. However, the Romans not only failed to fulfill these promises, but caused great harm to the Gothic kingdom and the Goths.
It is recorded in the Gothic History: "They [Roman officials] ... Abuse of power, cleverness... aroused the dissatisfaction of the Italian population..."It can be seen that after the surrender, the Ostrogoths not only did not retain their due rights, but gradually became the "trophies" of the Romans, but by this time it was too late to regret, after all, their king Virgitis had been imprisoned in Constantinople.
In order to be able to rebel against the rule of the Romans, Vegetis' nephew Ureas approached the Visigothic kingdom, and in order to strengthen the alliance, he also elected Ildebad as the Ostrogothic king, who was the nephew of the Visigothic king at that time.
Gothic soldiers
Ildebad was a qualified monarch who was deeply loved by the people and "expected to be the next 'Theodoric the Great'", but unfortunately, such a good king died in an assassination. There is no way, you can only choose another one, but this time the chosen Ellaric is far less good than Ildebad, and in the end Ellaric was murdered by the Goths, and out of the psychology of Aiya and U, the Goths finally chose Ildebad's nephew Totila.
Jordanes said of Totila as "wise and decisive", although he once described Totila as "the maker of disaster" and had to admit that he was "the last guardian of the freedom and independence of the Ostrogoths".
Indeed, Totila's talent is not inferior to that of his uncle Ildebad, and besides, he was originally a soldier and had a high prestige in the army.
Apollo statue
In addition, in order to gain the approval of the Goths and unite more Goths, he ordered the confiscation of the lands of the nobility who had switched to the Byzantine side and exempted the commoners from taxes; In order to expand the army, he encouraged slaves and subordinate peasants to join the army, declared their emancipation, and gave them civilian status.
This series of measures really won him a lot of repercussions, expanding the army and reuniting the Goths.
III. The Ostrogoths "Apollo", the Roman "Devil"
Many later historians called Totila the "last guiding light" of the Ostrogoths, which is actually true, even they themselves regarded Totila as "Apollo" - on the one hand, he praised Totila as invincible on the battlefield like the sun god, and on the other hand, it also confirmed his importance to the Ostrogoths.
Indeed, since Totila led the Ostrogoths to fight the Romans, it is not an exaggeration to say "Jedi Reborn".
Attacking Goths
In order to reoccupy Naples, while showing his good image to the Romans, paralyzing their nerves, and winning their support, he sent troops to besiege the towns around Naples, collecting money and collecting national taxes, resulting in the surrounding Roman army not receiving salaries and disturbing their military morale.
In fact, Justinian was not unaware of the situation in Naples, and also sent reinforcements to Naples, but unfortunately was intercepted by Totila on the way, which caused the people in the city to panic more and more. At this time Totila proposed that if the Neapolitans did not surrender the city within 3 months, his army would be leveled here, and the Gothic army would become their new protector.
In the end, Totila won the trust of the inhabitants and soldiers with his "sincerity", and took the city without bloodshed, just as Beliselieu had done when he captured Naples.
The city of Rome
From here we can see that Totila had courage and resourcefulness, and he used the "mind attack" most handily, and with this ability, in the battle with Byzantium, Totila was indomitable and won many battles; But such Totila made a fatal mistake - he abandoned the city of Rome.
Originally, after taking Naples, he did make the city of Rome the next target to attack, originally he had demolished the walls of the city of Rome, and the nobles in the city were in his hands, only one step away from taking the city into his pocket. Unfortunately, Beliselieu took advantage of his vanity and induced him to abandon the city of Rome - the greatest failure of Totilla's life, which laid the groundwork for his subsequent failure.
In 552 AD, the Gothic army and the Roman army faced off at Taguinay, and a decisive battle was fought at the end of June.
Gothic army
Due to a strategic mistake, Totila was defeated by the Roman army and eventually defeated Taginai. However, a defeat did not actually lead to the demise of the Gothic army, but during the Battle of Taginay, Totila was stabbed, and in the era of medical development, small stabbing wounds could become fatal wounds.
Thus, after fleeing to Caprae, Totila sadly passed away.
Fourth, the result of both defeats
As soon as Totila died, the Gothic War was basically over, but although the war was over, the effects of the war were far from over.
On the one hand, in order to resist Roman rule, the Ostrogothic kingdom almost devoted its strength to this war, and when Totila died, the vitality and hope of the entire kingdom seemed to be buried under six feet with him, and slowly disappeared into the long river of history.
A town in ruins after the war
On the other hand, as the victor, Eastern Rome was actually no better, and during the war against Totila, the Balkans and Asian provinces were attacked by peoples such as the Franks, who also took the opportunity to develop their own power and one day in the future, devouring the behemoth of Eastern Rome.
In addition, because of this battle, the originally prosperous cities of Milan, Naples, Rome and other cities were devastated, and the originally prosperous city was left with only dead silence, as later scholars commented that "the losses caused by this war are immeasurable".
epilogue
Karl Marx once commented that if Totila had succeeded to the throne immediately after Theodoric 's death, perhaps he would have been able to surpass Theodoric and lead Italy on a path to greater prosperity – but unfortunately, "if" would never have come true.
Once the Ostrogothic territory
After several generations of kings, the originally wealthy Ostrogoths were left with only a mess, and Virgitis wanted to save the country, but he raised the white flag to Rome; Ildebad died too early, and his successor Ellaric not only failed to "clean up the old mountains and rivers", but destroyed all previous efforts of Ildebad - by this time, the kingdom was actually crumbling.
There are only two paths before Totila: either lead the kingdom in search of a new hope; Either he becomes a "martyr" of the kingdom, he has no choice but these two paths. So the Gothic War was not so much "Totila led the people against Eastern Rome" as "Totila led the Gothic nation to Rome for its final revenge".
Totila is the last redemption of the Ostrogoth, after him, no one can save the lost Ostrogoth, and after his death, the once prosperous country can only be lost forever in the long river of history with this "last guardian".
Bibliography:
"Gothic History"
History of Rome
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire