A fight for Rome
A Battle for Rome is a historical novel by Felix Dahn that was very popular at the time and was published in 1876.
General
The plot takes place in the late late antiquity , spans the second quarter of the 6th century AD and is about the struggle of the Ostrogoths in Italy against the East and their fall in the year 552. The leitmotif becomes clear in the final poem, which is also included in the anthologies : Give space, you peoples, to our step. | We are the last of the Goths. | We don't wear a crown, | We are carrying a dead man. [...] This dead man, the Gothic king Teja , left the stamp of the tragic decline of a people from promising beginnings on the entire voluminous novel ( cf. Theodoric the Great ). Already in Wilhelminism - quite in the spirit of the author - it was received as a warning against overestimating current successes and as a criticism of decadence , and after the First World War it was read as a prediction for the German Reich . For both the Goths and the Western Romans are disappointed in their hopes, and at the end of the fighting for Rome there is a catastrophe for both sides.
The colorful and intriguing plot focuses on the struggle for Rome and above all on heroism and heroic death, so that the work soon became an outspoken “young novel” in the newly founded Reich in 1871 .
Dahn was a historian and took care to write the novel - according to the state of knowledge at the time - as historically correct as possible, which puts it in the category of the professorial novels of that time. Other parts of the content, e.g. B. the person of Cethegus, but are fictitious. Dahn writes in his memoirs that he actually wanted to hand the novel over to the fire. Only the energetic intervention of his wife Therese Dahn saved him from that. The novel was by far his greatest public success and remained popular until the second half of the 20th century.
Dahn, who published the first scientific monograph on the late antique historian Prokopios of Caesarea in 1865 , orientated himself strongly on his representation of the events (Prokopios also appears as a minor character in the novel). From the point of view of today's research, even where Dahn tried to adhere to the historical facts, the novel often reproduces a distorted picture of the events owed to the folkish thinking of the 19th century, for example in Dahn's an ahistorical view of the Goths “Germans” denotes and describes how in the southern climate of Italy they soften, alienated from their Nordic origins, thereby losing their fighting power and thus causing their own downfall, always feeling like strangers. The sharp contrast between “Romans” and “Germanic peoples”, which Dahn assumed in accordance with the state of knowledge at the time, is now viewed in a much more differentiated manner (see also ethnogenesis ).
Main characters and conflicts
Dahn's main characters are complex and often marked by internal contradictions.
Goths
The story here revolves around the Queen Amalaswintha , who considers a connection to Ostrom to be appropriate and is therefore viewed by many Ostrogoths as a traitor . There are also five sworn brothers who want to maintain the Goths independently and three of whom will later succeed her as kings: Witichis as a soldier who combines loyalty and bravery with a lack of acumen, and Totila as a charismatic heroic youth who seems to turn the tide for a short time , but falls in the equestrian battle, and gloomy Teja, who symbolizes the heroic downfall and dies in a gorge of Vesuvius in a duel with Cethegus, whom he also kills.
Western Romans
The most interesting character is the (unhistorical) devious and sinister Senator Cethegus, who plays off the ruling Goths and the Eastern Romans against each other in order to restore Rome (ie Western Rome ) to its old independence. He comes from the old Julier family . It should be noted that Cethegus is also a remarkable man physically, so in no way corresponds to the caricature of the feeble Roman . Cethegus often shows exactly the qualities that his respective Gothic opponents lack: foresight, discretion, cleverness. Of lesser importance are the scheming Pope Silverius and his followers, who descended from the ancient Roman nobility and accordingly bear names like Scaevola and Albinus. Dahn describes these characters as rather decadent.
Eastern Romans (Byzantines)
In the novel (as in Prokopios), it is not so much the emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora that dominate, but the military Belisarius , a figure of light who, however, cannot prepare the fate of the vandals he has already defeated for the Goths , and the devious Narses who does them finally defeated as the wiser strategist. With this the freedom of Italy, for which both the Western Romans and the Goths fought, is lost.
content
First book: Theodoric
The novel begins during the last days of Theodoric the Great's rule over Italy . At this time, five leading Ostrogoths meet around the old armorer of the Gothic King, Hildebrand , not far from Ravenna , to talk about the grievances in the Ostrogoth realm. The brothers Totila and Hildebad as well as the generals Witichis and Teja take an oath to always serve the people of the Goths faithfully. Because they are opponents of the reconciliation policy of the Romans and Goths initiated by the Roman Cassiodorus , the chancellor of the empire, and Amalaswintha , the daughter of Theodoric, which in their opinion is harmful for the Goths.
A few days later, members of the Italo-Roman aristocracy and the clergy around the ambitious priest Silverius, whose goal is to become pope, meet with Cethegus to strengthen the Western Roman resistance against the rule of the Goths. At the request of the Chancellor and Amalaswinthas, when the king was dying, Cethegus took over the office of city prefect of Rome, which he used by raising his own troops and renovating the walls to strengthen the city's independence from the Goths.
Second book: Athalaric
However, after Theodoric's death, his young grandson Athalaric , who suffers from his physical weakness, becomes king. The Goths succeeded in winning him over. Although his mother Amalaswintha takes over the rule due to his young age, Athalaric soon turns against his mother and wants to rule the Gothic kingdom himself. Thus Cethegus is increasingly confronted with the resistance of the king. In order to get this out of the way, Cethegus threads a love affair with a Roman woman, whose mother he hands over a supposed love potion, which is actually poisonous. When she uses it on Athalaric, the young king dies. The king's mother and prince regent Amalaswintha becomes queen, which means a serious setback for the Goths and a strengthening of the position of Cethegus.
Third book: Amalaswintha
In order to strengthen his power over the queen, Cethegus wants to pull her from Ravenna to Rome. Only a few days later, however, the Gothic dukes Thulun, Ibba and Pitza arrive, whom the young king had called to Ravenna before his death and who wrest the queen a treaty that weakens her own position and which she only because of her already at this point plans to flee to Constantinople soon. But the escape is prevented prematurely by Totila's intervention. Cethegus now convinces the queen to murder the Goths, who, strengthened by the treaty, travel back to the borders in order to defend them with reinforced troops. But he leaves the Queen at this difficult hour.
At the same time, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian, in whom Amalaswintha had placed her hopes after the death of his predecessor Justinus , discussed the new situation in Italy with his generals Narses and Belisarius and some legal scholars. He decides to send Belisarius with troops to Italy , despite Narses' concerns about the unsecured eastern border against the Sassanids , and entrusts Cethegus and Petros to win the Gothic queen for him and to sow discord in her kingdom in order to facilitate a conquest . He is supported in his decision by his wife Theodora, who also secretly orders the envoy Petros to kill Amalaswintha, as she could become a competitor.
Fourth book: Theodahad
When Petros arrives in Ravenna with Cethegus, he advises the Gothic queen to step down in favor of her cousin Theodahad , who is the last male offspring of the Amaler family , but who is also selfish and cowardly. She followed the advice, but warned her cousin when he sold the Goths to the East Romans not to commit the same mistake as her. Since Theodahad could not be dissuaded, she flees on the advice of Cassiodorus in order to be able to report the betrayal to the Gothic popular assembly near Rome.
The Queen flees to the former Chancellor's villa, but is surprised and killed by Gothelindis, the wife of Theodahad, who had previously bought the Chancellor's estate. When the death became known, Petros, who was an accomplice of the crime and who therefore later had Theodora banished, terminated the agreements concluded with Theodahad on behalf of the emperor and declared war on the Goths in the name of Justinian.
Shortly before the beginning of the popular assembly of the Goths, Belisarius lands with the imperial troops in Sicily , but the king lets him have his own way and instead sends the Gothic forces north. But succeeds in Gotenpartei to Hildebrand, Gothelindis to death for murder to condemn and depose the king for treason to the people and for outlaws to explain. They choose Witichis as the new king because he has shown a sense of justice and common sense.
Fifth book: Witichis
A few days later, Belisarius stands in front of Naples . The city falls by betrayal after 15 days. Totila narrowly escapes. Since Naples has fallen, Witichis decides to surrender Rome as well, whose inhabitants, as he suspects, like those of the other cities in southern Italy will be defected to Belisarius, in order to be able to hold at least northern Italy and to return later and conquer the city again .
The reason for this is on the one hand that the majority of the Gothic troops are on the borders in the north and the king has only 20,000 men at his disposal against an almost 80,000 strong imperial army, and on the other hand that the family of the Wölsungen, as Mataswintha, the granddaughter Theodoric, held captive, lays claim to the throne. The Goths are now retreating to Ravenna, but first let the city Romans swear allegiance without believing in their reliability. As soon as the Goths have left the city, the newly elected Pope Silverius actually urges the citizens of Rome to break their oath. He announced that he would be traveling to Belisarius with an embassy to give him the keys to the city.
But Cethegus, whom he wants to accuse, gets ahead of him and proves his intention to establish a priestly kingdom, whereupon Belisarius sends the bishop of Rome to the court of Byzantium, who is to judge him and his embassy. But the city prefect of Rome succeeds in persuading the general to move into Rome only on his terms. This gives Cethegus a significant strategic advantage. At the same time both the Wölsungen and Witichis are in front of Ravenna to gain entry and thus hold the most important festivals of the Goths and thus the title of king in their hands. But the Ravennates refuse to allow them entry, because they only recognize Mataswintha as their queen, since they have sworn allegiance to the Amals. That is why Hildebrand demands of the king that he should give up his wife Rauthgundis and marry Theodoric's granddaughter in return . Only after long discussions and his wife's encouragement, Witichi's reluctance to agree. By marrying the king with the Amelung daughter, who adored and loved him from childhood, the Goths succeed in reuniting.
But since the king declares Mataswintha on their wedding night that he could never love her, the deeply wounded woman vows to bring ruin to him and the kingdom of the Goths. Shortly afterwards the Goths prepare to leave for Rome. Belisarius faces them in front of Rome for battle, which they defeat with superiority. Belisarius has to flee to the city, which the Goths have long besieged, since any attempts to storm it are doomed from the start by the queen's betrayal. She meets with Cethegus every evening to reveal the Gothic plans for the next day. When Witichis tries to take the city in a major attack, he almost succeeds, but fails when Cethegus stands in his way. After more than a year of siege, the Goths have a sad record, because three quarters of the fighters perished from starvation, fighting or epidemics. In addition, Witichis is forced to retreat to Ravenna, as the bloody Johannes , an opposing general, marches to Ravenna after a failure with eight thousands.
The king succeeds in reaching the city before John, but is now trapped there by Belisarius and Cethegus. Now all the Gothic bastions outside Ravenna are falling, and the Frankish ally is also abandoning him. Plagued by self-doubt, Witichis now offers Belisarius to wear the crown in his place. On the advice of Cethegus, the latter also pretended to do so. But when Witichis, as requested by the general, leads the majority of his troops out of the city and opens the city to the Eastern Romans, he is captured and thrown into dungeon. Belisarius has Justinian's banner hoisted over the palace. Witichis' (former) wife Rauthgundis tries to save him, but the two are murdered after they have managed to escape from the city.
Sixth book: Totila
After this news and that of the devious murder of Hildebad, Totila's brother, have reached Tarvisium , the remaining leaders of the Goths elect Totila to be their king. In the months that followed, the young king succeeded in enclosing Ravenna and Rome and peacefully reclaiming almost all of northern Italy. In addition, the cities of southern Italy, which were disappointed by the tough tax policy in Eastern Rome, and the important sea fortress of Naples open their doors to him. When Belisarius tries again to invade Italy, Totila gives him a heavy defeat, as the general only financed his campaign from his own resources. After several weeks of siege, Totila succeeds in persuading the starved population of Rome to open the city's gates. He promises them that the gentleness for which he is known will also prevail in Rome. Only Cethegus refuses to give up his Rome and occupies the Capitol with the mercenaries he paid and the Romans who are still loyal to him. However, the Goths manage to take the parts of the city that have not yet been conquered.
Cethegus has to flee badly injured, and Totila is celebrated in Rome as a liberator. The king immediately sends an embassy, which is attended by the former chancellor Cassiodorus and Totila's Roman best friend, Julius, to Constantinople to plead for peace. But at the instigation of the city prefect and the empress Theodora, Justinian declines the offer with the intention of attacking the Goths again as soon as enough funds are available for a campaign. The reaction of the Goths, however, is a sea attack on Byzantium.
When the Gothic troops are already close to Constantinople, Totila offers peace again. However, the emperor asks for a reflection period in the form of a six month long armistice. However, the government in Byzantium is secretly planning a new war against the Goths. This begins shortly after Totila's engagement to Valeria, when old allies from the north offer their weapons aid against Byzantium, when Cethegus, as the new magister militum per Italiam, destroys the unmanned Gothic fleet in the port of Ancona . But shortly after the start of the campaign, Theodora kills himself, and Narses, who is supposed to send all Goths that fall into his clutches to Byzantium as slaves or to kill them, is appointed commander-in-chief of the campaign. He is leading an army of 120,000 soldiers. Lombards are among them .
Totila presents himself to the Emperor's army before Taginae and Caprae and hopes to enclose the enemy's cavalry by a trick between the two cities. But if the ruse is to succeed, he has to rely on his Corsican comrade Furius Ahalla, whose loyalty he is not sure of. And indeed, when he lures the Longobard cavalry (approx. 20,000 men) between the cities, the Persian mercenaries of his comrade-in-arms do not attack the enemy's Longobards, but the Goths. In this fight with the Busta Gallorum , the king is injured and has to flee. But Ahalla, who seeks revenge for his disappointed love for Valeria, succeeds in catching up with the seriously wounded Totila. They rush towards each other and both die.
Seventh book: Teja
The Goths now choose Teja as king. He decides to retreat in order to offer resistance as long as possible to the enemy who is aiming to destroy them. He leads his people to Naples on Vesuvius. At a bottleneck, the Goths hope to fend off the Eastern Roman enemies for as long as possible. They finally enclose them and lay siege to the bottleneck for several months.
In the camp, Cethegus, who had hoped to rule Rome after a victory over the Goths, is outwitted by Narses, who is now prefect of Rome, and Justinian. As the final battle is imminent, the betrayed ex-prefect of Rome chooses to commit suicide in this situation. He falls when, after fighting Teja for over eight hours, he storms and both of them kill each other.
But at this hour the fleet of the "northern people" approaches, which takes the surviving Goths on board and brings them to their home in Thule .
Adaptations
The novel was filmed in 1968 by the Berlin film producer Artur Brauner under the direction of Robert Siodmak as a two-part, English-language monumental film and the title Battle for Rome with Laurence Harvey as Cethegus and Orson Welles as Emperor Justinian.
Medienverlag Kohfeldt published an unabridged reading on 5 mp3 CDs in 2017. The speaker is Karlheinz Gabor . ISBN 978-3-86352-101-1