Batail of Faventy — Wikipedia

The FAVENTIA Battle Tops in the summer of 542 when an ostrogothe army led by Totila tackles the Byzantine forces, however, numerically superior of Constantine Alexandre, during the resurgence of the Goth resistance to the reconquest of Italy by the Byzantines.

Since 535, Byzantines have embarked on the conquest of the Ostrogoth kingdom which has occupied Italy for several decades. The first phase of the war is to their advantage since they manage to resume Rome under the leadership of Bélisaire. Furthermore, the latter victoriously defended the city in 537-538. Continuing his offensive, he seized Ravenna, the capital of the Ostrogoths and took prisoner their king Vitigès. However, it is recalled with part of the army to fight in the East against the Sassanids. The remaining, less numerous Byzantine forces have no more unified command while the ostrogoths take up the offensive with Totila at their head. In 542, he resumed Verona and is about to cross the Po to tackle southern Italy ^{[ first ]} .

The Italian river was then defended by a large Byzantine army, higher than that of the Goths. Totila motivates his troops by reminding them of the strategic importance of the battle. For them, it is a question of defeating or being destroyed. On the contrary, the Byzantine generals procrastinate. Artavasde advises to let part of the opposing army cross the Pô and then attack it while it is in a delicate situation but it is not listened to. At the same time, Totila discreetly crossed the river with three hundred horsemen, responsible for attacking the enemy from the rear. When the two armies meet, a duel takes place between Artavasde and Valaris, a famous Ostrogoth soldier, during which the first is killed. Subsequently, the Byzantines are surprised by the attack of the three hundred horsemen behind their backs. Panic, they run away en masse and undergo a heavy rout ^{[ 2 ]} .

The retired Byzantine forces and their generals take refuge in the various cities of the region while the Ostrogoths can invade central Italy. This confrontation demonstrates the weaknesses of the Byzantine command in Italy, dispersed between several generals who do not manage to get along in front of ostrogoths which united behind Totila. On the other hand, for the latter, the victory opens the doors of the south of the Italian peninsula conquered by the Byzantines to him, which confirms the renewed force of the ostrogoths. After the battle, they receive reinforcements and their army includes up to 20,000 men. However, rather than heading towards Rome, Totila prefers to take up the different regions of the Italian peninsula (Apulie, Lucanie, Calabria, Bruttium). Faced with this rout, Justinian tries to react by appointing a chief general but he maintains the prefect’s prefect post, entrusted to Maximin, which makes Dyarchy persist at the head of Byzantine Italy until the arrival of Narsès in 550, which definitively eliminates all resistance of the ostrogoths ^{[ 3 ]} .

Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

• Caesarea procope ( trad. Denis Roques and Janick Auberger), History of Goths , Paris, the beautiful letters, coll. “The book wheel”, 2015 , 417 p. (ISBN  978-2-251-33976-4 )
• Georges Tate , Justinian. The epic of the Eastern Empire (527-565) , Paris, Fayard, 2004 , 918 p. (ISBN  2-213-61516-0 )

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