Time and again, the Ostrogoth had the better of Justinian’s generals, and repeated surges of tens of thousands of troops into Italy were required to stop it from being overrun. Only in 552 was Totila finally defeated. In 554 Justinian issued a decree known as the Pragmatic Sanction, which declared Italy a province of the empire with its capital at Ravenna. (Separate government systems were established for the island states of Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica.) But even then, Italy remained unstable. For while the Ostrogoths had been destroyed, so had much of the Italian countryside.
