Byzantine Military: Battle of Taginae

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Battle of Taginae - 552 AD

Battle of Taginae - The battle to the death between the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy and
the Eastern Roman Empire.

General Narses vs. King Totila and the death of the Ostrogothic Kingdom

The Battle of Taginae brought an end to the long struggle between Byzantium and the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy.

During 550-51 Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I started gathering a large expeditionary force totaling 20,000 or possibly 25,000 men. The Byzantine army was mostly cavalry, with some 8000 Byzantine foot archers. It was assembled at Salona on the Adriatic, comprising regular Byzantine units and a large contingent of foreign allies, notably Lombards, Heruls and Bulgars.

The imperial chamberlain (cubicularius) Narses was appointed to command in mid 551.

Narses moved down the Via Flaminia, heading for Rome. The Ostrogothic king, Totila, advanced with a smaller force of perhaps 13,000 men to intercept him at Taginae (the modern Gualdo Tadino). He arrived in time to force Narses to fight, or else make a perilous retreat back over the Apennines.

Roman Emperor Justinian I

Totila, aware that he was outnumbered, and awaiting reinforcement of 2,000 addition troops on the way. At first the king negotiated with Narses, then advanced on the Byzantines, hoping to take them by surprise.

Narses enjoyed superiority in numbers, but deployed his army in a strong defensive position.

Narses ordered his 10,000 barbarian foederati to dismount, and form a deep phalanx in the center. The archers were divided into two sections, which were placed on either wing of the infantry. Then, the Byzantine cavalry was divided into two main wings, placed to the rear of the archers. Finally, a further 1500 horsemen were placed at the far left wing of the army; these men would be used to outflank the Gothic army, if the opportunity presented itself.

The Ostrogothic cavalry was drawn up into a long line, which probably accounted for over half of the entire army. Totila probably thought he could break the Byzantine center with a single cavalry charge. The Gothic foot soldiers, originally archers, were positioned in a single block behind the cavalry. The historian Procopius noted that Totila gave the unusual order that he entire army could only fight with their spears. Why he gave this command is one of history's mysteries.

Video of the Battle of Taginae

The Battle

On one flank was a small hill that offered the prospect of turning the Byzantine left, but Narses got to it first, occupying it with just fifty men, who held a defile there. Totila sent cavalry against them but the Byzantine infantry succeeded in holding off multiple attacks by Ostrogothic cavalry.

Again, King Totila played for time. There was even an individual challenge between warriors from both side out in no man's land between the armies.

Finally Totila's reinforcements arrives. Now Totila had his troops break for lunch.

Byzantine Infantry

Narses fearing a trick permitted his troops to refresh themselves without leaving their positions. Totila, apparently hoping to take his enemy by surprise, launched a sudden large-scale mounted assault upon the Byzantine center. Ancient and modern authors have accused him of folly, but Totila probably sought to close with the enemy as fast as possible in order to avoid the effects of the formidable Byzantine archery.

Narses was prepared for such a move, however, and ordered the archers massed on his flanks to incline their front towards the center so that his battle-line became crescent-shaped. Caught in the enfilading fire from both sides, the Ostrogothic cavalry sustained high casualties and their attack faltered.

The Goths who reached the infantry block were repelled with heavy losses. Totila sent wave after wave of troops that became so disorganized by the raining arrow storm, by the time they met the dismounted infantrymen they were completely broken. This folly continued through the afternoon.

The Gothic infantry never even engaged in actual combat as they hesitated to advance far enough to actually become effective. They were kept in the rear of the advance, fearing that Narses' horsemen would outflank them.

The Byzantine center began to push Totila's cavalry backwards onto their own line of infantry, At that critical moment, sometime in the early evening, Narses charged with his own cavalry – nearly all of them Byzantine heavy cavalry – that had been held in reserve. The retreat quickly turned into a rout, as the Gothic cavalry in their haste ran right over their own infantry, who joined them in the withdrawal.

The only casualty figures given for this battle were by Procopius, who said that 6,000 Ostrogothic cavalry were slain in the battle. The majority of the Byzantine casualties were sustained by their foederati, who bore the brunt of the initial fighting.

King Totila was either killed on the battlefield or killed shortly afterward after fleeing with several followers.

6th Century Eastern Roman Cavalry

The Roman Empire at the end of the Gothic Wars.

Gothic warriors that could have faced Narses in Italy.

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Justinian The Great and Theodora

Emperor 527 to 565. Justinian was the last Roman Emperor to speak Latin as a first language. Justinian's reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". His general Belisarius conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa, extending Roman control to the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic Kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome to the Empire after more than half a century of barbarian control. The prefect Liberius reclaimed most of southern Iberia, establishing the province of Spania. Under his rule there was a uniform rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, which is still the basis of civil law in many modern states. His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture, and his building program yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia.

Maurice

Emperor from 582 to 602. A prominent general in his youth, Maurice fought with success against the Sassanid Persians. Once he became Emperor, he brought the war with Persia to a victorious conclusion: the Empire's eastern border in the Caucasus was vastly expanded and for the first time in nearly two centuries the Romans were no longer obliged to pay the Persians thousands of pounds of gold annually for peace. Maurice campaigned extensively in the Balkans against the Avars – pushing them back across the Danube by 599. He also conducted campaigns across the Danube, the first Emperor to do so in over two hundred years. In the West, he established two large semi-autonomous provinces called exarchates, ruled by exarchs, or viceroys, of the Emperor. Maurice established the Exarchate of Ravenna, Italy in 584, the first real effort by the Empire to halt the advance of the Lombards. With the creation of the Exarchate of Africa in 590, he further solidified the empire's hold on the western Mediterranean.

Heraclius

Emperor 610 to 641. Heraclius' reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius came to power the Empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius immediately took charge of the ongoing war against the Sassanid Persians. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines; the Persian army fought their way to the Bosphorus. However, because Constantinople was protected by impenetrable walls and a strong navy, Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh. Soon after his victory he faced a new threat of the Muslim invasions. In 634 the Muslims invaded Roman Syria, defeating Heraclius' brother Theodore. Within a short period of time the Arabs would also conquer Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Egypt.

Irene of Athens

Irene of Athens Byzantine Empress Regnant from 797 to 802. Prior to becoming Empress regnant, Irene was empress consort from 775 to 780, and empress dowager and regent from 780 to 797. It is often claimed she called herself basileus 'emperor'. In fact, she normally referred to herself as basilissa, 'empress', although there are three instances of the title basileus being used by her. Irene was born to the noble Greek Sarantapechos family of Athens. She married Leo IV in 769. Upon Leo's death she became regent for the future Constantine VI. Irene was almost immediately confronted with a conspiracy against her close to home and in Sicily. Irene withstood an invasion by a large Arab army. She subdued the Slavs of the Balkans and laid the foundations of Byzantine expansion and re-Hellenization in the area. Irene's most notable act was the restoration of the Orthodox veneration of icons (images of Christ or the saints). Pope Leo III, who needed help against enemies in Rome and who saw the throne of the Byzantine Emperor as vacant (lacking a male occupant), crowned Charlemagne as Roman Emperor in 800.

Nikephoros II Phokas

Emperor from 963 to 969. His brilliant military exploits resulted in the conquest of Cilicia and the re-conquest of the island of Cyprus from the Muslims. He conducted raids into Upper Mesopotamia and Syria. In the West he lost Sicily completely to the Muslims and faced Magyar raids deep into the Balkans. He was assassinated in his apartment on December 11, 969. On the night of the assassination the Empress Theophano suspiciously left the Imperial bedchamber, leaving the doors unbolted. General John Tzimiskes entered, killed the Emperor, and then declared himself Emperor. It was thought the General and the Empress had been lovers.

Basil II - The Bulgar Slayer

Emperor 976 to 1025. Basil oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontier, and above all, the final and complete subjugation of Bulgaria, the Empire's foremost European foe, after a prolonged struggle. For this he was nicknamed by later authors as "the Bulgar-slayer" by which he is popularly known. At his death, the Empire stretched from Southern Italy to the Caucasus and from the Danube to the borders of Palestine, its greatest territorial extent since the Muslim conquests four centuries earlier.

John II Komnenos and Irene of Hungary

Emperor from 1118 to 1143. The greatest of the Komnenian emperors. In the course of his twenty-five year reign, John made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the west, decisively defeated the Pechenegs in the Balkans, and personally led numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. John's campaigns fundamentally changed the balance of power in the east, forcing the Turks onto the defensive and restoring to the Byzantines many towns, fortresses and cities right across the peninsula. In the southeast, John extended Byzantine control from the Maeander in the west all the way to Cilicia and Tarsus in the east. In an effort to demonstrate the Byzantine emperor's role as the leader of the Christian world, John marched into Muslim Syria at the head of the combined forces of Byzantium and the Crusader states.

Constantine XI Palaiologos

The Last Emperor of the Romans 1449 to 1453. Constantine faced the siege of Constantinople defending his city of 60,000 people with an army only numbering 7,000 men against an Ottoman army of over 80,000. He personally led the defense of the city and took an active part in the fighting alongside his troops in the land walls. At the same time, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain the necessary unity between the Genovese, Venetian and the Greek troops. When the city fell to the Turks he tore off his imperial ornaments so there would be nothing to distinguish him from any other soldier and led his remaining soldiers into a last charge where he was killed.