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Gothic War

The Late Antique World

The Gothic War was fought from 535 to 554 CE between the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire under Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom that had ruled Italy since Theodoric the Great's conquest in the late fifth century, as part of Justinian's broader campaign to reconquer the western territories lost to Germanic kingdoms. Byzantine general Belisarius opened the war by capturing Sicily and Naples in 535 and 536 and took Rome itself in 536, but the conflict dragged on for nearly two decades through sieges, betrayals and reversals, with the Ostrogothic king Totila reclaiming much of Italy in the 540s before being decisively defeated and killed at the Battle of Taginae in 552 by the Byzantine general Narses. The prolonged war devastated the Italian peninsula, destroying much of its urban infrastructure and population and leaving it economically and militarily exhausted, conditions that historians widely credit with enabling the Lombard invasion of Italy that began only a few years after the war's end in 568.

Facts
Year
535 1
Location
Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica 1
Classification
Event Type
Military Conflict 1
Connections

In Era

Source Gothic War (535 to 554), Wikipedia
In the Other Atlases

Same As

Also in War and Military Atlas: the same subject.

Source Wikipedia: Gothic Wartier 4

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Took Place In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject took place.

Source Gothic War (535 to 554), WikipediaLead sentence 1
Quote, Lead sentence 1
The Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogoths (Goths) took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica.
Sources
1. Gothic War (535 to 554), Wikipedia
  • Lead, first sentence (start year)
    The Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogoths (Goths) took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica.
  • Lead, first sentence (place)
    The Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogoths (Goths) took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica.
  • Gothic War: Event Type
    The Gothic War was fought from 535 to 554 CE between the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire under Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom that had ruled Italy since Theodoric the Great's conquest in the late fifth century, as part of Justinian's broader campaign to reconquer the western territories lost to Germanic kingdoms.
  • In Era: The Post-Classical and Medieval Period, lead paragraph and infobox, dates
    The Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogoths (Goths) took place from 535 to 554 in the Itali
  • In Group: Events of the Sixth to Eighth Centuries, 500 to 750 CE, Lead
    The Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogoths (Goths) took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica.
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