Gothic War

The Gothic War was fought from 535 to 554 between the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire under Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy, part of Justinian's broader campaign to reconquer the western territories lost to Germanic kingdoms in the fifth century. Byzantine forces under the general Belisarius initially achieved rapid success, capturing Naples, Rome and the Ostrogothic capital Ravenna by 540, but a Gothic revival under King Totila reversed much of the Byzantine advance in the following decade, and Rome itself changed hands repeatedly amid prolonged and destructive fighting across the Italian peninsula. Byzantine victory was finally secured under the general Narses, who defeated and killed Totila at the Battle of Taginae in 552 and crushed the last organized Gothic resistance by 554. The nearly two-decade war left Italy devastated and depopulated, ended the Ostrogothic Kingdom, and restored Byzantine rule over Italy, though that rule proved short-lived once the Lombards invaded the peninsula only a few years later.