View source for Teia

{{Short description|Last Ostrogothic King of Italy}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox monarch
| name        = Teia
| image       = Quarter Siliqua of Theia, 552 AD.jpg
| caption     = Quarter [[siliqua]] of Teia. Obverse text in [[Late Latin]]: {{sqc|D[OMINUS] N[OSTER] THEIA RIX}}{{sic}} ("Our lord Teia the King").
| title       = King of the Ostrogoths
| spouse      = 
| reign       = 552{{snd}}552/553
| issue       = 
| father      = 
| mother      = 
| predecessor = [[Totila]]
| successor   = [[Narses]] (as Byzantine governor)
| birth_date  = 
| death_date  = 552/553
}}
[[File:Regno dei goti, teia, emissione bronzea, 552-553.JPG|thumb|Coin of Teia, merely inscribing: {{sqc|T REX}} ("Teia the King").]]
'''Teia''' (died 552 or 553), also known as '''Teja''', '''Theia''', '''Thila''', '''Thela''', and '''Teias''', was the last [[Ostrogoth]]ic [[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 [[Gallia_Narbonensis|Transalpine Gaul]].

==Life==
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.{{sfn|Norwich|2001|pp=91–92}}{{efn|From what is known, Totila was trying to organize an escape from the battlefield before suffering a fatal wound.{{sfn|Kaldellis|2024|p=306}} }} Teia vainly attempted to continue the battle by rallying the remaining troops, but these forces were ultimately vanquished.{{sfn|Sarris|2023|p=375}} Byzantine historian [[Procopius]] regarded Teia's bravery during this otherwise futile event as equal to that of all the "heroes of legend."{{sfn|Sarris|2023|p=375}}{{efn|Procopius wrote of Teia (using an alternate spelling) during this conflagration: "Here shall be described a battle of great note and the heroism of one man inferior, I think, to that of none of the heroes of legend, that, namely, which Teïas displayed in the present battle." Procopius, ''Wars'' 8.35.20. See at: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Procopius/Wars/8J*.html}}   

After this major Gothic defeat Teia gathered together  the remaining Goths.{{sfn|Heather|2018|p=267}} 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.{{sfn|Geary|2002|p=113}} 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]].{{sfn|Wolfram|1997|p=238}} 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.{{sfn|Sarris|2023|p=376}}  

On his way fleeing to southern Italy, he gathered support from prominent figures within Totila's armies, including [[Scipuar]], [[Indulf_(6th_century)|Gundulf (Indulf)]], [[Gibal]] and [[Ragnaris]], to make his [[last stand]] against the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] eunuch general [[Narses]] at the [[Battle of Mons Lactarius]]—south of present-day [[Naples]] near [[Nuceria Alfaterna]]—in late 552/early 553.{{sfn|Wolfram|1997|p=238}} Historian Guy Halsall called this battle, which occurred in the shadow of [[Mount Vesuvius]], a "cataclysmic showdown."{{sfn|Halsall|2007|p=505}} The Ostrogothic army was defeated there and Teia fell during the fighting.{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=247}} 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."{{sfn|Heather|2018|p=268}} 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.{{sfn|Heather|2013|p=165}} 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.{{sfn|Martindale|1992|p=1076}} 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.{{sfn|Stephenson|2022|p=212}} 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.{{sfn|Burns|1991|p=215}} 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.{{sfn|Kaldellis|2024|p=307}}    

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.{{sfn|Burns|1991|p=214}}

==References==
===Notes===
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book | last=Burns | first=Thomas | year=1991 | title=A History of the Ostrogoths | place= Bloomington; Indianapolis | publisher=Indiana University Press | isbn=978-0-25320-600-8}}
* {{cite book | last=Geary | first=Patrick J. | year=2002 | title=The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe | location=Princeton, NJ | publisher=Princeton University Press | isbn=978-0-69109-054-2 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/mythofnationsmed0000gear }}
* {{cite book| last=Halsall | first=Guy | year=2007 | title= Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568 | place= Cambridge and New York | publisher= Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-0-52143-543-7}}
* {{cite book| last=Heather | first=Peter | year=2013 | title=The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders | place=Oxford and New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19936-851-8}}
* {{cite book| last=Heather | first=Peter | year=2018 | title=Rome Resurgent: War and Empire in the Age of Justinian | place=Oxford and New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19936-274-5}}
* {{Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire|volume=3}}
* {{cite book | last=Kaldellis | first=Anthony | year=2024 | title=The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium | location=Oxford and New York | publisher= Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19754-932-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Norwich|first=John J.| year=2001 | authorlink=John Julius Norwich | title=Bisanzio: Splendore e decadenza di un Impero, 330–1453 | language=Italian | location=Milano | publisher=Mondadori | isbn=978-8-80449-922-0}}
* {{cite book | last=Sarris | first=Peter | year=2023 | title=Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint | location=New York | publisher=Basic Books | isbn=978-0-213-76478-4}}
* {{cite book | last=Stephenson | first=Paul | title=New Rome: The Empire in the East | location=Cambridge, MA | publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press | year=2022| isbn=978-0-67465-962-9}}
* {{cite book| last=Wolfram | first=Herwig | year=1988 | title=History of the Goths | place=Berkeley and Los Angeles| publisher=University of California Press | isbn=0-520-05259-5}}
* {{cite book| last=Wolfram | first=Herwig | year=1997 | title=The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples | place=Berkeley and Los Angeles| publisher=University of California Press | isbn= 0-520-08511-6}}
{{refend}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Totila]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Ostrogoths|King of the Ostrogoths]]|years=c. 552–553}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Narses]]|as=Byzantine governor}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Antique Kings of Italy}}

[[Category:550s deaths]]
[[Category:Ostrogothic kings]]
[[Category:6th-century kings of Italy]]
[[Category:6th-century monarchs in Europe]]
[[Category:Gothic warriors]]
[[Category:People of the Gothic War (535–554)]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:6th-century Ostrogothic people]]
[[Category:Monarchs killed in action]]