From 535 to 554, imperial forces under Belisarius and later Narses fought the Ostrogoths for Italy. Rome and Ravenna changed hands; by the mid‑550s, Italy lay back in imperial ledgers, though bled and brittle [1][10].
What Happened
Africa’s quick success tempted a harder prize. In 535, Belisarius sailed for Sicily, the stepping-stone to Italy. He moved up the boot, took Naples, and entered Rome. The city—the name and the prize—changed hands repeatedly as sieges and counter-sieges ground down Gothic and Roman forces. Procopius’s Wars recounts the bitterness: starvation within walls, skirmishes at gates, and negotiations in basilicas echoing with the scrape of armor on mosaics [1][10].
Ravenna, the imperial capital of the West, fell in 540. The city’s mint began striking gold solidi in Justinian’s name; British Museum pieces from Ravenna gleam proof that Italy’s monetary voice had been retuned [14]. For a moment, the conquest looked tidy. It wasn’t. The Ostrogothic counterattack under Totila reversed gains, retook cities, and deepened the war’s attrition.
Narses, a eunuch court official turned general, took command later. He assembled a mixed army—federates and Romans—and fought at Taginae (552) and the Mons Lactarius (553), dealing decisive blows. By 554, much of Italy again answered to Constantinople, on paper and in coin. On the ground, aqueducts lay broken, farms abandoned, and cities thin of people. The clang of victory mixed with the hollow echo of emptied forums [10].
Throughout, administration shadowed arms. Governors were appointed, taxes assessed, and courts reconvened wherever security allowed. The legal apparatus Justinian had built whirred to life: rights restored, properties surveyed, privileges confirmed. The coin system—gold for salaries, bronze for markets—resumed, if irregularly. Rome’s churches, aligned with Chalcedonian orthodoxy, became both sanctuaries and instruments of reintegration [4][12][15].
The war stretched the imperial machine. Persian pressure in the East, the first wave of plague, and the sheer cost of Italian campaigning forced hard budget lines. Yet the pursuit continued, animated by a vision of Roman unity under a Christian emperor. It succeeded—formally—while leaving a ledger of costs that future decades would pay down under duress [10][11].
Why This Matters
The reconquest reunited the old heartland with the new capital’s commands, restoring prestige and gaining strategic ports and cities. It also diverted resources for two decades, leaving garrisons thin elsewhere and urban Italy damaged. The immediate gain in coins and titles came with long-term vulnerabilities [1][10][14].
The campaign is a case study in “Ambition, Strain, and Resilience.” Money kept armies in the field; law restarted administration in recaptured towns; church networks stabilized communities. But strain showed: plague thinned ranks; revenues lagged repairs. The same systems that made the war possible had to compensate for its costs [11][12][15].
In the arc of the sixth century, Italy’s reconquest led to a fragile high-water mark. Admirable in reach, it left the empire exposed when the 602 coup and the later Persian war arrived. Still, institutions proven here—codified law, disciplined coinage, adaptable command—would underpin survival into the next century [17][19].
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People Involved
Key figures who played a role in Gothic War and the Reconquest of Italy
Belisarius
Belisarius (c. 500–565) was Justinian’s sword-arm: a strategist who did more with fewer troops than any commander of his age. He suppressed the Nika Riots, destroyed the Vandal kingdom at Ad Decimum and Tricamarum (533–534), and drove into Italy—holding Rome through a year-long siege and taking Ravenna in 540. His campaigns tested the empire’s thesis that law and gold could be converted into conquest, even as plague and politics blunted his edge.
Narses
Narses (c. 478–573) rose from the palace bedchamber to the apex of command, proving that money, logistics, and diplomacy could win campaigns as surely as steel. In his seventies he took over the Gothic War, assembling a composite army that killed Totila at Taginae (552) and Teia at Mons Lactarius (553), restoring imperial control over Italy. His career shows the empire’s ability to turn the machinery of the court—gold, alliances, and administration—into victories far from the Bosporus.
Justinian I
Justinian I (r. 527–565) sought to weld faith, law, and empire into a single will. Born in the Balkans and raised in the capital by his uncle Justin, he married Theodora and launched a reign of relentless ambition: codifying law into the Corpus Iuris Civilis, crushing the Nika Riots, rebuilding Hagia Sophia, and sending Belisarius and Narses to retake Africa and Italy. His reforms and reconquests tested whether a Christian Constantinople could rule the Roman world by statute, gold, and sword—even as plague and overextension strained the project.
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