Johannes (magister militum)

Johannes († after 553) was a late antique army master ( magister militum ) and a successful general in the 6th century.

Life

Johannes was a nephew of Vitalian , the consul of 520 and magister militum praesentalis of the emperor Justin I. Vitalian was probably murdered at the behest of Justinian , the nephew of Justin and later emperor.

In 537, John set out for Italy with 800 Thracian horsemen to strengthen the army of Belisarius who fought against the Ostrogoth king Witichis in the Gothic War. After Johannes landed in Taranto , he marched in December 537 to Rome, which was besieged by the Goths, to help the besieged with food and additional troops. In the winter of 537/538 Belisarius John, who had his winter quarters in Picenum , ordered to attack the Gothic territory in order to distract Witichis from the siege of Rome. In a short time John reached Ariminum , which is only a day away from the Gothic capital Ravenna . This forced Witichis to break off the siege of Rome in order to defend the capital. John should have left Ariminum, but stayed in the city. The Goths who had marched in from the south now besieged Ariminum. Belisarius did not come to the aid of Johannes. It was the arrival of Narses , Justinian's praepositus sacri cubiculi and personal friend of John, who saved the besieged in 538.

When the disagreement about the conduct of the war broke up between Belisarius and Narses, John took Narses's side and followed him into Aemilia, which he wanted to conquer without Belisarius's orders. John shared with other generals of the eunuch in the conquest of Aemilia, but the division of the army resulting from the rivalry between Belisarius and Narses contributed significantly to the fall of Milan to the Ostrogoths. This convinced Justinian of the need to recall Narses in 539 and give Belisarius sole command.

After the conquest of Ravenna and the recall of Belisarius to Constantinople (540), John stayed in Italy. After Belisarius was brought home, the Goths were able to regroup under their new King Totila . When he was besieging Florence, the commander of the garrison Justinus asked the imperial commanders in Ravenna for help. Byzantine troops advanced, forcing Totila to retreat towards the Mugello . There he put the Byzantine army to flight because the false rumor about the death of John caused the Byzantine army to flee in panic. John escaped to Rome, where he stayed until 544 and was replaced by Bessas on the orders of Belisarius, who had since returned to Italy . During his stay in Rome, John drove out the Arian priests for fear of a possible conspiracy with the Goths.

In 545 he was invited by Belisarius to Constantinople to request supplies, but Johannes was very late because he married Justina, the daughter of Germanus. The Secret History of Procopius of Caesarea According wanted Theodora not think Justina married and John retired as the hatred of the Empress. He is said to have feared that Empress Theodora would order Antonia, Belisarius's wife, to kill his wife if he refused to join Belisarius and his wife in Rome. To compensate for this, John undertook to regain Lucania and Grossium for the empire.

In 550, when Narses was given supreme command of all Byzantine troops in Italy, John was placed at his side to make up for his military inexperience. Narses went to Ravenna in the summer of 552 and was able to defeat the last Gothic king Teja and to end the war within a year .

Remarks

1. ↑ Prokopios of Caesarea attributes the convenient coming murder of Vitalian, Justinian's greatest competitor for the imperial throne, to an order of Justinian (Prokopios, Secret Story , 6, pp. 26-28).
2. ↑ Prokopios, Historien , 6,5,1.
3. ^ Prokopios, Secret History , 5.

literature

• Ioannes 46. In: Arnold HM Jones , John R. Martindale, John Morris : The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Volume 3: John R. Martindale: AD 527-641. Volume A: Abandanes - 'Iyād ibn Ghanm. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1992, ISBN 0-521-20160-8 , pp. 652-661.