Gothic War (535–554)
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The Gothic War between the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy took place from 535 until 554 in Italy, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica. Historians commonly divide the war into two phases:
- The first phase lasted from 535 to 540 and ended with the fall of the Ostrogothic capital (Ravenna) and the apparent reconquest of Italy by the Byzantines.
- During the second phase (540/541–553), the Goths' resistance revived under Totila and suffered defeat only after a long struggle by the Byzantine general Narses, who also repelled the 554 invasion by the Franks and Alamanni. In the same year, Justinian promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction which prescribed Italy's new government. Several cities in northern Italy continued to hold out until 562.
The war had its roots in the ambition of the East Roman Emperor Justinian I to recover the provinces of the former Western Roman Empire, which the Romans had lost to invading barbarian tribes in the previous century (the Migration Period). The end of the conflict saw Italy devastated and considerably depopulated. As a consequence, the victorious Byzantines found themselves unable to resist the invasion of the Lombards in 568, which resulted in Constantinople permanently losing control over large parts of the Italian peninsula.
