A Struggle For Rome by Felix Dahn
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Overview: After the death of Theodoric the Great his successors try to maintain his legacy: an independent Ostrogothic Kingdom. They are opposed by the Byzantine Empire, ruled by emperor Justinian I. It is he who tries to restore the Roman Empire to its state before the Migration Period from his residence in Constantinople, which requires the capture of the Italian Peninsula and specifically Rome. The Ostrogoths Witiges, Totila and Teia succeed Theodoric the Great as king of the Ostrogoths, in that order and theirs is the task to defend their empire. They are assisted by Theodoric’s faithful armourer Hildebrand. The names of the chapters in the book follow the chronology of the Gothic kings. Meanwhile, a (fictional) Roman prefect of the Cethegus clan, has his own agenda to rebuild the empire. He represents the majority of the population as a former citizen of the Western Roman Empire. He too tries to get rid of the Goths but is at the same time determined to keep the Byzantines out of "his Italy". In the end, the Byzantines outlast both the Ostrogoths and Cethegus and reclaim Italy. Cethegus dies in a duel with the (at that time) king Teia. The struggle for Rome ends in the battle of Mons Lactarius near Mount Vesuvius, where the Ostrogoths make their last stand defending a narrow pass (a scene reminiscent of the battle of Thermopylae) and, once defeated, are lead back north to the island of Thule where their roots lie by a kindred Northern European people.
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As far as I know this book has never existed in this form in the english language, but was split into three parts. The german original is a big fat book of over a thousand pages. Although the story in this book is epic and almost wagnerian in its mood Felix Dahn has been overlooked because his unashamedly germanic outlook made him somewhat suspect in these politically correct times. But that doesn’t make the story less interesting for historical fiction buffs. The book was released first in 1876.
