January 16: The Ostrogoths Conquer Rome

2015-01-16On 16 January 545 CE, the Ostrogoths conquered Rome.

In 545, Rome was in decline, the empire was divided, and it was losing power in all of the old territories that were once prosperous and mighty. Various factions that came from all directions threatened the empire. Many bloody and drawn out wars were fought to regain some of the territory that was lost, but this was to no avail.

City after city was lost to outsiders seeking refuge from the terror in the East, the Huns. One of these groups of people were the Ostrogoths. They were fleeing from their homelands after numerous incursions at the hands of the Huns. These people needed new lands to call home. Seeing the crumbling empire in the West, they set their sites on it and sought to grab as much as they could.

The Romans initially won many victories over the Ostrogoths, but Rome’s resources were stretched very thin. They no longer had the manpower or supplies to carry on all the wars that they were fighting. The crumbling of imperial power allowed the Ostrogoths to eventually be able to capture more and more territory in Italy.
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Finally, Rome was at its breaking point. The city was besieged by King Totila. A relief force and supplies may have allowed the city to be able to push back the invaders, but relief came too late. Some of the city’s starving defenders opened the gates to the Goths who proceeded to plunder all of the wealth found inside. This ended the rule of the mighty empire in the west and set the stage for a new kingdom of Germanic peoples.

–Charles Joyce

Photo Credit: Thomas Cole’s The Fall of Rome

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