TAGINAE - v1.0
late June-early July 552
by Chris Jackson
Symbol set required: Master 1

approximate man-to-man scale - 1:33

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The battle of Taginae marks the climax of almost 20 years of see-saw fighting
up and down the Italian penninsula, as Justinian was determined to destroy the
Arian, barbarian Ostrogoths and re-unite the home country of the old Roman 
Empire with its surviving eastern half.

In 535, using the conquered Vandal Kingdom in North Africa as a launching base,
Justinian sent Belisarius to lead the invasion of Italy, taking advantage of
internal problems within the Ostrogoth court since the death of Theodoric in 
526. The first phase of the Gothic War lasted five years, including a very 
destructive Ostrogoth siege of Rome in 537-38 that caused a mass population 
exodus and the cutting of its aqueducts, beginning the age of the dirty, under-
populated Rome normally associated with medieval times. Despite being allotted
an inadequate number of troops by Justinian, Belisarius was able to adapt a 
strategy of manouvering that avoided pitched battles to take major cities and 
capture their king, entering Ravenna triumphantly in May 540. It would appear 
the Ostrogoth Kingdom was on its last legs, and not a moment too soon as the 
Huns invaded Illyricum and the Persians started yet another war at this time
(so much for the Eternal Peace). 

As Belisarius went to fight again on the Persian front in spring 541, it became 
clear that the Ostrogoths were still very much alive. There was no supreme commander
now in charge in Italy, and the ensemble of eleven generals left there did not
do enough to keep the Ostrogoths from regrouping north of the Po, where they were
still recognized. By the time one of them, Vitalius, moved it was too late. In a 
battle near Treviso the Byzantines were beaten very badly. Then a young new Ostrogoth
king, Totila, swept down upon Italy and severely beat the panicking, demoralized 
Byzantines again at headlong routs at Faenza and Mugello in 542. By 544 the Goths had
taken virtually all of Italy back, and Belisarius was forced to return to try to take
Italy a second time, again with an inadequate number of men. He endured a second 
terrible siege of Rome, which the Goths won this time, before Belisarius won it back
a third time. But since he was so badly outnumbered, he could not make any lasting
successes, and was recalled to Constantinople in early 549. It is a classic story of
a loyal general who was never trusted by his jealous master enough to risk being 
given too much power. Totila spent 550 ravaging Sicily in revenge for their being 
receptive to the Byzantines.

Germanus was the next general chosen to fight the Goths, but he died before he could
accomplish anything. In 551, the old Armenian eunuch general Narses was the next to take 
command. If his traditional birthdate of 478 is correct, he would have been 73 at this
time, but he was still very healthy and bright, and had shown strategic skill while 
commanding in Italy in 538-39. A trusted confidant and servant of Justinian, he was given
a large army to command, the size Belisarius should have had in the first place. Justinian
was determined to destroy the Ostrogoths once and for all.

Coinciding with this event, Gothic fortunes began to reverse. The Byzantines won a naval 
battle at Sena Gallica, relieving the Gothic siege of Ancona, and the able general Artabanes
the Armenian took control of Sicily back. Beginning in June 551 Narses made the great march
through Thrace and Dalmatia and had reached Ravenna by early June 552, and then outflanked 
the fortified Gothic position of Porta Pertusa to bypass it. It is unclear exactly where 
Totila and Narses converged for their pre-arranged battle on a small plain near Busta
Gallorum, a commerative name for the site near present-day Sassoferato and Fabriano where
the Romans defeated the Gauls in 295 BC.

The size of the armies are not known exactly, but Totila was outnumbered by a ratio of
approximately 3 to 5, possibly around 15,000 to 25,000. Narses employed a very unusual 
strategy by dismounting his Gepid, Herulian and Lombard auxilaries and putting them in the 
centre with lances on foot. Foot archers flanked either side of this line, with cavalry 
bodies in behind, including behind a hill on his left to surprise the enemy with a flank 
charge. 

This was Totila's first pitched battle (his opponents at Faenza and Mugello were too
disorganized) and he proved to be no match for Narses' generalship skills. In addition
to being outnumbered, he unwisely allowed his men to go into battle with inadequate
weapons, with only the spear and javelin, no bows. In mid-afternoon after stalling for a
while, and allowing for the standard pre-battle clash of single champions (which the 
Byzantines won) Totila launched a cavalry attack on the Byzantine center which allowed 
their archer wings to tear into the Gothic flanks. The battle was decided before Totila's
foot soldiers, who formed the second line behind, could join. As nightfall fell, the Goths
turned and fled in panic. Sometime in the battle Totila himself, inconspicuous in ordinary
soldier's dress, was killed, along with a total of 6,000 other Goths.

At the battle of Taginae, Narses won without a heavy cavalry element, a very rare thing to
see in medieval warfare. Knowing the Goths' instinctive preference for hand-to-hand combat,
he was able to lure their own cavalry into a trap with the illusion of a soft-looking 
infantry center. Several months later, the Ostrogoths would be destroyed forever in a 
disorganized, two-day brawl at Mons Lactarius near Naples, where Teias, the last Ostrogoth 
king, was slain. All that was left to be done was the recapture of a few garrisons and the 
siege of Cumae in 553-54 before the small number of Goths still alive dispersed into the mists
of time, Narses with his numbers accomplishing in two years what could not be done in the 
previous seventeen. Justinian had finally annihilated them, but the war of almost twenty 
years had left a country in ruins and a severely drained imperial treasury. And still, this
unified Byzantine Italy was not to last long.


SOURCES

Fauber, Laurence. "Narses: Hammer of the Goths". New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.

Hodgkin, Thomas. "Italy and Her Invaders, Volume 4". London: Russell and Russell, 
     (1880-89), 1967.

Oman, Charles. "A History of the Art of War In the Middle Ages". 2nd Edition. New York: 
     Burt Franklin, 1924.



BATTLE NOTES

Well, Totila doesn't have much of a chance here. Narses' foot soldiers are using ordinary 
spears  because lances or pikes seemed too powerful, killing Ostrogoth units with one 
stroke. Even now they're still twice as powerful as the best Ostrogoth units due to numbers.
It is unknown if the cavalry behind the hill were Huns, but I made them that way.
As the Goth player, the computer tends to attack the upper archery flank first, so the 
Byzantine foot infantry can just move forward and then hook to their right to roll them up 
easily. I didn't playtest this one all that hard because I don't think Totila had any hope
going into this one with numbers and equipment this bad. It's more of an exercise to look 
at Narses' unconventional strategy, and show that he was a good general who didn't just win
because of numbers alone.


- Chris Jackson
March 25, 2000











 