Teia
Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Infobox monarch
Teia (died 552 or 553 AD), also known as Teja, Theia, Thila, Thela, and Teias, was the last Ostrogothic King of Italy. He led troops during the Battle of Busta Gallorum and had noncombatant Romans slaughtered in its aftermath. In late 552/early 553, he was killed during the Battle of Mons Lactarius. Archaeological records attesting to his rule show up in coinage found in former Transalpine Gaul.
LifeEdit
Teia (Teja) was a military officer serving under Totila, who was chosen as his successor by being raised over a shield after Totila was killed in the Battle of Taginae (also known as the Battle of Busta Gallorum) in July 552.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Teia vainly attempted to continue the battle by rallying the remaining troops, but these forces were ultimately vanquished.Template:Sfn Byzantine historian Procopius regarded Teia's bravery during this otherwise futile event as equal to that of all the "heroes of legend."Template:SfnTemplate:Efn
After this major Gothic defeat Teia gathered together the remaining Goths.Template:Sfn In an act of revenge for the losses at Busta Gallorum, Teia ordered the death of all the Roman senators in Campania including Flavius Maximus, who had been exiled by Belisarius. He also had some 300 Roman children slaughtered, whom Totila had held hostage.Template:Sfn Teia then made his way to Pavia, where he took possession of the available treasures and as the new king, made a pact with the Franks.Template:Sfn Teia encouraged his erstwhile Frankish neighbors to mobilize themselves against the Romans, which they did by remaining a menace to Justinian for the remainder of his reign.Template:Sfn
On his way fleeing to southern Italy, he gathered support from prominent figures within Totila's armies, including Scipuar, Gundulf (Indulf), Gibal and Ragnaris, to make his last stand against the Byzantine eunuch general Narses at the Battle of Mons Lactarius—south of present-day Naples near Nuceria Alfaterna—in late 552/early 553.Template:Sfn Historian Guy Halsall called this battle, which occurred in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, a "cataclysmic showdown."Template:Sfn The Ostrogothic army was defeated there and Teia fell during the fighting.Template:Sfn His head was paraded around the battlefield by the Romans, but as Peter Heather relates, "the Goths kept on fighting until dusk on that day and all through the next."Template:Sfn Other prominent Goths like Scipuar and Gibal were probably also killed during the fighting. Those Goths who survived the battle and remained, negotiated an armistice.Template:Sfn Gundulf and Ragnaris escaped from the field. Ragnaris later met Narses to discuss peace terms; they could not agree. As they parted, Ragnaris shot at Narses with an arrow; Narses' bodyguards mortally wounded Ragnaris, who died two days later.Template:Sfn With that defeat, organized Ostrogothic resistance ended and along with it the Gothic war, which is also where the eighth and final book of Procopius' Wars concluded.Template:Sfn By 554, after twenty years of protracted war, the Ostrogothic Kingdom had faded into obscurity, and the Gothic people who remained began assimilating into the broader Italian population.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, Justinian reasserted power across Italy by imposing his tax system and his Corpus along with other Byzantine legislation, with central power resting in Constantinople.Template:Sfn
Although his reign was brief, silver coins in Teia's name circulated all the way from his capital at Pavia along the Alpine trade routes into Gaul.Template:Sfn
ReferencesEdit
NotesEdit
CitationsEdit
BibliographyEdit
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
Template:S-start Template:S-reg Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-end