Dagisthaeus (, ''Dagisthaîos'') was a 6th-century

Eastern Roman The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

military commander, probably of

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

origin, in the service of the emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

. Dagisthaeus was possibly a descendant of the Ostrogothic chieftain

Dagistheus Dagistheus ( 479) was an Ostrogothic chieftain. The name is Germanic. Theodoric the Great (r. 474–526) sent Dagistheus and Soas as hostages to Adamantius in Epirus in 479. He was presumably a leading Ostrogothic chieftain under Theodoric. The Ro ...

.* In 548, Dagisthaeus, still a young officer, was ''

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers", plural ) was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, ...

per Armeniam'' and commanded a force of 7,000 Romans and 1,000

Tzani The Macrones ( ka, მაკრონები) ( grc, Μάκρωνες, ''Makrōnes'') were an ancient Colchian tribe in the east of Pontus, about the Moschici Mountains (modern Yalnizçam Dağlari, Turkey). The name is allegedly derived fro ...

sent to recapture the

Euxine The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

fortress of

Petra Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...

, in Lazica, from a Sassanid Persian force during the Lazic War. Dagisthaeus put Petra under siege, but, according to the contemporary historian Procopius, acted in an incompetent manner. He was so confident in victory that he wrote to Justinian, indicating what rewards he thought he and his brother deserved. Dagisthaeus failed in his task, however, and had to flee before a relieving Sassanid army towards the Phasis river, without giving orders to his men. After that, Dagisthaeus, joined by the Lazi under King Gubazes, was able to defeat two Persian field armies in Lazica, one under the command of

Phabrizus Fariburz, known in Byzantine sources as Phabrizus ( el, Φάβριζος), was a 6th-century Iranian military officer from the Mihran family, who served under the Sasanian king Khosrau I (r. 531–579). Biography He was the brother of the diplo ...

on the Phasis and the other under Chorianes near the river Hippis. Nevertheless, the Lazi held Dagisthaeus responsible for his failure at Petra and denounced him before Justinian, who had him placed in detention and replaced with Bessas in 549. Around 551, Dagisthaeus was released from custody and sent to fight against the Goths to Italy under the command of

Narses , image=Narses.jpg , image_size=250 , caption=Man traditionally identified as Narses, from the mosaic depicting Justinian and his entourage in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna , birth_date=478 or 480 , death_date=566 or 573 (aged 86/95) , allegi ...

. He was one of the commanders of the right flank of the Roman army at the

battle of Busta Gallorum At the Battle of Taginae (also known as the Battle of Busta Gallorum) in June/July 552, the forces of the Byzantine Empire under Narses broke the power of the Ostrogoths in Italy, and paved the way for the temporary Byzantine reconquest of the It ...

against the

Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths ( la, Ostrogothi, Austrogothi) were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the larg ...

of Totila and later played a decisive role in the reconquest of Rome. Procopius remarked that while Bessas had lost Rome and recovered Petra, Dagisthaeus had failed at Petra but reconquered Rome.

References

{{reflist 6th-century Byzantine people of Gothic descent Magistri militum Generals of Justinian I Gothic warriors People of the Roman–Sasanian Wars People of the Gothic War (535–554) Lazic War