In 526 the death of Theodoric ended with peace, inheriting Italy his grandson, Athalaricus, who died without sons, which caused a crisis that caused the kingdom to disappear.
Under Justinian I, the Byzantine Empire started a series of campanias in order to rebuild the Mediterranean unity.
The weakness of the Ostrogoth kingdom and the byzantine desire of recognising the city of Rome turned Italy into a goal.
In 535, General Belisarius commanded Sicily and marched across the peninsula, taking Neapole and arriving in Rome in 536.
It came up to the north and took Mediolanum (Milan) and Ravenna in 540, and in 561 the area was pacified.
Among the different Germanic people who had forsaken their purple antiques to live in the best land, the Lombards were told, to whom Justinian had left to settle in Pannonia, at the condition of defending the border.
The pressure of the cities on the Pope caused the king of the French, Pippin the Breve, to take place between 756 and 758 reprieves in the north of Italy.
The situation deteriorated with the death of Pipino, but the reunification of the French under Carol Magne led to a new intervention in Italy in 774.
After a brief battle, Carolo Magne conquered the kingdom of Lombardy, which held its autonomy, became a member of the Carolingian Empire.
