It's time for my #ItalianHistory thread! On popular demand, I'll be talking about

THE GOTHIC WAR

aka the war between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines for the control of the Italian peninsula, which lasted from 535 to 553 AD!

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First, a bit of context. The Ostrogoths were a tribe from Central Asia (at the time called Scythia) who invaded what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In 489 AD, their king Theodoric deposed Odoacer (best known for deposing the last Western Emperor) & conquered Italy 2/?

They ruled Italy basically unchallenged until Justinian (yes, that Justinian) became Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian was hell bent on claiming the Empire's lost territories in the west. 3/?

Justinian was in very good relationships with the Ostrogoths ruler, queen regent Amalasuintha, and they both began negotiation to annex the Gothic kingdom to the Empire. The queen, however, had enemies among her people who were not to keen on joining the ERE 4/?

In particular, her cousin Theodahad - with whom she shared the throne - staged a coup against her. He exiled her to the island of Martana, where he had her murdered. Justinian... didn't take too well the killing of his ally. In 535 AD, he declared war on Theodahad's kingdom 5/?

Here's a map showing the forces involved. In green you can see the Ostrogoth kingdom, in blue the kingdom of the Franks, and in brown the Byzantine territories. The arrows of the same colours represent the movement of troops for each player. 6/?

As you can see, the Byzantine troops - led by Justinian's bro Belisarius - first landed in Sicily from the North African coast. They conquered Sicily in little time and, in particular, they pulled a pretty clever stunt to take Palermo! 7/?

They filled their fleet's lifeboats with archers and lifted the boats on the ships' masts. This way, the archers could fire their arrows way above Palermo's walls! Artillery wasn't a thing at the time, to bypass walls you had to get creative, you know. 8/?

From Sicily, Belisarius moved North and easily conquered Southern Italy. The native population was not a fan of Teodahad's government. His generals defected and the population welcomed the Byzantines as liberators. 9/?

In Naples, however, Belisarius encountered quite some resistance. He had to lay siege to the city and was about to quit after sustaining many losses when he was struck by another flash of genius: he could enter Naples by the Roman aqueducts! 10/?

So, 400 Byzantine soldiers crawled in the aqueducts and opened the city doors, allowing the rest of the army to enter the city and conquer Naples with little bloodshed. Then, Belisarius moved to Rome, where he was greeted with a huge feast (the Saturnalia) 11/?

Meanwhile, the Ostrogoths kind of had it enough of Teodahad. They deposed him and put Vitiges, a fearsome warrior and skilled general, on the throne. He didn't waste time and marched toward Rome, to reclaim it from Belisarius. 12/?

Belisarius, however, was not a fool, and was ready for the siege. He even had river mills built in Rome to prevent food shortages! The siege of Rome was an endless agony that lasted for a year and 9 days, but in the end, the Ostrogoths gave up, and left the city to the Byz 13/?

Things, however, started to get sour for the Byzantines with the arrival of new troops led by Narses, who immediately clashed with Belisarius as the two Byzantine commanders had different ideas on how to lead their men. 14/?

In particular, Narses was hell bent on conquering Emilia to get closer to the Ostrogoth capital, Ravenna, while Belisarius wanted to secure the territories in the North - among which Milan. 15/?

And as if this wasn't enough, a third player entered the scene: the Franks decided it was their chance to take bits of Italy for themselves, and started fighting both Byzantines and Ostrogoths in Northern Italy. Luckily, the Franks all died of dysentery soon after. LOL. 16/?

Finally, in 540, Belisarius laid siege to the Ostrogoth capital city, Ravenna. The Gothic population grew tired of Vitiges and made a proposition to Belisarius: they'd welcome him as their ruler, offering him the title of Western Roman Emperor! 17/?

Belisarius, however, was loyal to Justinian (in a very homoerotic way). So, he faked to accept the proposal and had the Ostrogoths open Ravenna's doors for him... only to then capture Vitiges and his wife and send them as prisoners to Costantinople! 18/?

Justinian didn't appreciate Belisarius' stunt tho, and decided to keep him in the East - where he would lead the Byzantine troops against the Persians. Without Belisarius, however, the Byzantine grasp on Italy became weaker. 19/?

A new ruler raised to the power among the Ostrogoths - Baduila, who would later be known as Totila, 'the Immortal'. He learned from Vitiges errors and started conquering cities in the North, destroying their walls so to prevent long sieges. He also built a powerful fleet 20/?

Without Belisarius and with their commanders failing to coordinates, the Byzantine forces lost many of the conquered territories to Totila, who - starting from Treviso - descended to conquer even Naples. 21/?

In 544, the situation was desperate and Belisarius was sent back to Italy, despite his involvement in the ongoing war against the Persians. The forces under his command were meagre, however, because the Eastern Roman Empire was facing a huge crisis: the Plague of Justinian. 22/?

As you can imagine, the epidemic was pretty aggravating for the Empire. Justinian was able to send reinforcement to Belisarius only in 547! They were not enough, tho, and Belisarius ultimately was unable to prevail on Totila. 23/?

Totila was a pretty decent guy, tbh, and didn't want to aggravate the Italic population further. He more than once reached out to Justinian in order to seal a peace - but the Emperor always refused, despite the fact the war was pretty taxing for the Byzantines as well. 24/?

(Justinian wasn't acting that irrationally, though. From his point of view, the peace could have been a ruse, as the Ostrogoths and the Franks had - in the past - already resorted to these tricks. Totila's intent was true, but poor Justinian had no way to know this!) 25/?

Finally, in 551, Narses - remember? the guy who clashed with Belisarius - was deployed in Italy with a decent number of forces (among which Lombard mercenaries!). The armies of Narses and Totila clashed in open field in the battle of Tagina, where Totila was mortally wounded 26/?

With the death of Totila, the Ostrogoths were not able to properly resist the Byzantines, who in the following years focused on vanquishing the remaining pockets of Gothic resistance from the peninsula. 27/?

Finally, in 554, Justinian declared Italy once again under Roman rule! This, however, didn't last for long... as we all know, the Lombards soon descended to conquer the peninsula (browse my threads to learn more about them!) 28/?

So, this would be all for the Gothic War! It's obviously far more complex, but I tried to summarize it and recount the most important events. I hope you found this thread interesting, and if you're curious for more, browse this moment! 29/29 https://twitter.com/i/events/1300196333505179648