[gothic-l] Re: Ostrogoths in Italy, Britain or China (or on the moon?)

[andreas.schwarcz at UNIVIE.AC.AT]

Hello Tim,
I quite agree. Apart from Ludwig Schmidt´s essays on the last   
Ostrogoths, which may not be understandable to everybody, 
because they were written in German, I would advise at least to 
read the English translation of Agathias, The Histories (Corpus 
Fontium Historiae Byzantinae Series Berolinensis vol.IIA. Berlin, 
New York 1975) before continuing a senseless discussion. 
Agathias continued the relation of Procopius about Justinian's wars 
and he described in the first two books the invasion of the Alamans 
and Franks into Italy at the instigation of the rebellious Goths. 
Book 1 starts with the terms of peace to the Goths granted by 
Narses after king Teja´s death: the survivors of the battle at mons 
Lactarius were granted the undisturbed possession of their 
properties and became subjects of the emperor. They went home 
to Tuscany, Liguria and other regions in Italy.  After that a party 
among them instigated a rebellion and sought the help of the 
Merovingian kings, who sent an army under the Alamannic dukes 
Butilinus and Liutharis to Italy. Most of the Goths in Italy joined this 
rebellion. The most prominent of those Goths was Aligern, the 
younger brother of king Teja, who took hold of the fortress of 
Cumae and the royal treasure of the Ostrogoths (thereby claiming 
the throne as successor to his dead brother). The byzantine 
general Narses quickly managed to stamp out the rebellion in 
Tuscany and allowed those who capitulated to remain undisturbed 
in their possessions. In the spring of the next year Aligern began 
negotiatians with Narses and came to terms with him, handing over 
Cumae and the royal treasure for a command in the Roman army 
and joining forces with Narses, who eventually managed to defeat 
Butilinus and Liutaris. The last Gothic rebels fought on under a 
leader called Ragnaris, but surrendered, too, after their 
commander's death. Only those were sent off to Constantinople by 
Narses (Agathias, Histories, II 7), all the others, who did not rebel 
or who had surrendered earlier like Aligern, were allowed to keep 
their possessions in Italy and to stay. No one went to Britain (or to 
China or the moon, all equally improbable), because there was no 
need to emigrate.
Regards
          Andreas Schwarcz  
Ao.Univ.Prof.Dr.Andreas Schwarcz
Institut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung
Universität Wien
Dr.Karl Lueger-Ring 1
A-1010 Wien
Österreich
Tel.0043/1/42-77/272-16
Fax 0043/142-77/92-72

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