Battle of Busta Gallorum
| date | July 1, 552 |
|---|---|
| place | Taginae in Umbria |
| output | Eastern Roman victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Totila † |
|
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 22,000 | approx. 18,000 |
| losses | |
|
few |
more than 7,000 dead |
Iberian War
Dara - Satala - Callinicum
Vandal
War Ad Decimum - Tricamarum
Gothic War
1. Naples - 1. Rome - Verona - Faventia - Mucellium - 2. Naples - 2. Rome - 3. Rome - Sena Gallica - Busta Gallorum - Mons Lactarius - Casilinus
Moors wars
Mammes and Bourgaon - Babosis and Zerboule - Cillium - Marta - Fields of Cato
In the battle of Busta Gallorum (Latin for "burial mound of the Gauls") in the year 552 , also known as the Battle of Taginae , an Eastern Roman army under Narses defeated the Ostrogoths led by Totila and thus initiated the fall of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy a.
prehistory
Narses, the Emperor Justinian had received the order to retake Italy after a long war finally by the Ostrogoths, and moved to this end with over 30,000 soldiers to Italy marched in summer with a minimum 20,000-strong army of Venice coming to Rome to . The East Gothic king Totila opposed him with his army of around 17,000 men at Tadinae / Taginae (near today's Gualdo Tadino east of Perugia ). Gallic invaders are said to have been destroyed at the site of the battle centuries ago, hence the name "Tombs of the Gauls". The exact strength of the two armies is unknown, but the sources report a numerical superiority of the Eastern Romans .
Lineup
Totila had chosen a position in a narrow valley that Narses could not avoid and that was well suited for the Ostrogoth cavalry . He wanted to decide the battle with a frontal attack by his heavy cavalry; presumably he did not want to expose his troops unnecessarily long to the shots of the Eastern Roman archers. Narses expected this approach and brought his army into a semicircular formation. This tactic was often used by the late Roman troops, especially in the Orient. The Lombard and Herulian horsemen dismantled Narses and formed them together with the Eastern Roman infantry to form a phalanx in the middle of the battle order. On the flanks he positioned his heavy cavalry ( cataphracts ) and reinforced them with archers (contrary to what older research assumed, according to Prokop these were expressly not mounted). In addition, Narses occupied a hill on the left with a division of archers and placed behind these a division of horsemen, which should fall in the back of the Goths.
Totila's army was probably simply arranged in two rows: the heavy lancers in front and the infantry (archers, spear and ax bearers) behind. The frontal attack of the Panzerreiter on the imperial archers had to succeed, the Gothic infantry was not intended to play a decisive role in the battle. Since Totila was waiting for reinforcements at first, he had to delay the start of the battle and performed an impressive spectacle until the additional riders arrived, by repeatedly riding along the front and showing a kind of war dance. Narses, whose strategy was based entirely on a Gothic assault, let the king have it.
Course of the battle
The Goths opened the battle with an attack by their famous lancers who, however, immediately came under arrow fire from the hill occupied by Narses as a precaution and then fell into the crossfire of the advanced eastern Roman flanks - around 4,000 archers each. In connection with Prokop, this was mostly considered to be a serious tactical mistake by the Gothic King, but it was recently convincingly demonstrated (see P. Rance) that he probably did the only sensible thing - but failed: Totila probably gave orders, not the Eastern Roman one Center, but to attack the superior archers and quickly eliminate them, but the hail of arrows forced the Goths to evade and attack the center of the front. That sealed her fate. Now the superiority of the tactics of Narses proved, who deployed his troops in the usual manner on the Persian front .
When the Gothic horsemen tried to retreat with heavy losses, they collided with their own advancing infantry, and the Gothic order of battle got mixed up. Narses now had his cataphracts attacked on both flanks, which caused a bloodbath among the disorganized Goths. Well over 6,000 Goths, the elite of the army, were killed, including Totila; the rest fled. It is not known whether Totila was killed in the battle or seriously injured and then died while trying to escape. Especially with regard to the Romans, who had defected to the Goths earlier, the victors had no mercy; they were slain many times after surrendering.
Aftermath
Italy was now open to Narses, and he continued to advance to Rome, which he conquered after a brief siege. The surviving Goths rallied once more, elected Teja their king and withdrew to the south; they were provided by Narses' army a few months later. There was one last battle south of Vesuvius, the Battle of the Milchberg , in which Teja was also killed.
swell
The late antique historian Prokopios of Caesarea described the battle impressively in the eighth book of his histories . He is likely to have resorted to eyewitness reports. Felix Dahn later processed this event literarily in his novel Ein Kampf um Rom .
literature
- Hans Norbert Roisl: Totila and the Battle of the Busta Gallorum, late June / early July 552 . In: Yearbook of Austrian Byzantine Studies . Volume 30, 1981, pp. 25-50.
- Philip Rance: Narses and the Battle of Taginae (Busta Gallorum) 552: Procopius and sixth century warfare . In: Historia . Volume 54, 2005, pp. 424-472.