Teja
Teja († 552 ) was the last king or rex of the Ostrogoths .
Originally commander of Gothic troops in Verona , he took part in the battle of the Busta Gallorum plain in 552 . There the Eastern Roman general Narses defeated the Gothic king Totila , who fell in battle.
Teja fled to Pavia and was made king there by the remaining Gothic troops. He allied himself with the Franks and was able to hold out against Narses for a few more weeks in central Italy, most recently in the Naples area . In October 552, however, the Ostrogoths were defeated by Narses in the Battle of the Milk Mountain (Mons Lactarius) south of Naples. Teja himself fell when he was fighting in the front row in a rocky ravine of Vesuvius, just as he had to change his shield.
The surviving Goths continued to fight for a few hours, after which they partly submitted to the imperial troops and partly fled to the Franks. In 555 the last Gothic unit north of Salerno capitulated . Various Gothic city commanders resisted Narses for a few more years. The Ostrogoth rule over Italy came to an end - the last Goths were absorbed into the Lombards from 568 onwards .
In literary terms, Teja is one of the main heroes in Felix Dahn's novel A Battle for Rome ; but the contemporary Eastern Roman historian Prokopios already set a monument to Teja and his death in his work.
literature
- Stefan Krautschick: Teja. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 30, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018385-4 , pp. 322–323.
- Herwig Wolfram : The Goths . 4th edition, Munich 2001.
Remarks
- ↑ See also Dahn's biographical article Teja . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, pp. 535-537.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Totila | King of the Ostrogoths | - |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Teja |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | last king of the Ostrogoths |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 5th century or 6th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 552 |