Ostrogothic Provinces 93
strategy. He offered the same terms as Theodahad, adding the Alpine reaches
of Raetia to sweeten the deal, and the Franks gladly accepted. The troops in
Gaul were then recalled to Italy, along with their general Marcias, while the
Gauls of Provence and the inhabitants of Raetia, including the Alamanni,
became subjects of the Franks, effectively ending Ostrogothic rule in these
regions by 536/7.107
By this time, other provinces had also been lost or perhaps abandoned
owing to the same defensive rationale. Justinian’s invasion of Dalmatia in
535, for instance, seems to have led to a Gothic withdrawal from Pannonia
Sirmiensis, which fell almost immediately to the Gepids.108 Meanwhile, the
war for Dalmatia proved tenacious, with heavy casualties on both sides and vic-
tories that were only temporary and followed by hasty retreats. By 536, Salona
had exchanged hands three times, and in the following year Witigis dispatched
a fleet and sizeable army in what would prove to be the Goths’ final attempt at
recovering Dalmatia. These forces were led by Uligisalus and Asinarius, whose
failure to take Salona marks the end of an Ostrogothic claim to the region.
Subsequently, Dalmatia became a Byzantine staging ground for the greater
struggle unfolding in Italy.109
Asinarius’ efforts to raise additional troops in Savia prior to the attack on
Salona is also the last notice of an Ostrogothic presence in this province.
Following the loss of Dalmatia, most of neighbouring Savia fell to the Lombards,
who also expanded into portions of eastern Noricum.110 The rest of Noricum
fell to the Franks, who disregarded their alliances and attempted to conquer
Italy for themselves. By the mid 540s, the Frankish king Theudebert was claim-
ing an empire that stretched from the ocean to the borders of Pannonia,
included much of northern Italy, and threatened to expand further east.111 He
was likewise minting gold coinage with his own portrait and the word “victor”,
much like Theoderic had done decades earlier.112 The Roman Empire of the
107 Procopius, Wars 5.13.14–29, and Agathias, Histories 1.6, with Wolfram, Goths, pp. 343–4.
108 Procopius, Wars 7.33.8 and 7.34.15–18, with Wolfram, Goths, p. 323; Wozniak, “Illyricum”,
pp. 381–2; and Sarantis, “War and Diplomacy”, p. 25.
109 Procopius, Wars 5.5.11, 5.7.1–10, 5.7.26–37, and 5.16.7–18, with Wilkes, Dalmatia, pp. 425–7,
and Wozniak, “Illyricum”, p. 382. For Totila’s later raid on Dalmatia, which was not an
attempt at conquest: Procopius, Wars 7.35.23–9.
110 Procopius, Wars 5.16.8–16 and 7.33.10–12, with Wolfram, Goths, p. 323, and Sarantis, “War
and Diplomacy”, pp. 26–7.
111 Epistolae Austrasicae 20, ed. Gundlach. p. 133; Procopius, Wars 8.24.6–10; and Agathias,
Histories 1.4.
112 Grierson/Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage 1, pp. 115–16.