Battle of Mons Lactarius
The
Battle of Mons Lactarius (also known as
Battle of the Vesuvius) took place in
553 during the
Gothic War waged on behalf of
Justinian I against the
Ostrogoths in
Italy.
After the
Battle of Taginae, in which the Ostrogoth king
Totila was killed, the
Byzantine general
Narses captured
Rome and besieged
Cumae.
Teia, the new Ostrogoth king, gathered the remnants of the Ostrogoth army and marched to relieve the siege, but in October of 553 Narses ambushed him at
Mons Lactarius (modern Monte Lattaro) in
Campania, near
Mt. Vesuvius. The battle lasted two days, and Teia was killed in the fighting. The Ostrogoth power in Italy was eliminated, but Narses allowed the few survivors to return to their homes as subjects of the empire. The absence of any real authority in Italy immediately after the battle led to an invasion by the
Franks, but they too were defeated and the peninsula was, for a short time, reintegrated into the empire.
The battle can be considered revenge for the Roman defeat at
Adrianople (378), since at Mons Lactarius the imperial infantry annihilated the Ostrogoth cavalry.
*
Procopius, Gothic War, iv 31–32*
History of the Later Roman Empire by J. B. Bury, from Lacus Curtius
