Tufa (? - 492/493) was a Germanic warrior active in 5th century

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Life

The name Tufa is

East Germanic East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the ...

, and it is possible that he was Rugian. He was a follower of the Germanic warrior Odoacer, who in 476 proclaimed himself

King of Italy King of Italy ( it, links=no, Re d'Italia; la, links=no, Rex Italiae) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a barbarian military leader ...

. Tufa was the commander-in-chief of the army of Odoacer's

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

when the

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

king

Theodoric the Great Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal ( got, , *Þiudareiks; Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ), was king of the Ostrogoths (471–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy ...

invaded the country in 489. Tufa quickly deserted to Theodoric, along with large numbers of Odoacer's army. Tufa acquired Theodoric's confidence, and was dispatched to

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the ca ...

with a band of elite troops in the hope that the city would surrender to Theodoric without battle. Upon arrival in Ravenna however, Tufa again changed sides, and the elite Gothic soldiers entrusted to him were killed. This was considered Theodoric's first defeat in

. In 490, after Odoacer had been defeated in battle by Theodoric and retreated to Ravenna, Tufa held his ground in the strategically important valley of

Adige The Adige (; german: Etsch ; vec, Àdexe ; rm, Adisch ; lld, Adesc; la, Athesis; grc, Ἄθεσις, Áthesis, or , ''Átagis'') is the second-longest river in Italy, after the Po. It rises near the Reschen Pass in the Vinschgau in the pro ...

near

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ce ...

. In the fall of 491,

Frideric Frideric ( la, Fredericus; ? - 492/493) was the leader of the Germanic Rugians from 487 to 492/493. Life Frideric was a son of the Rugian king Feletheus. In late 487, Odoacer, the King of Italy, invaded the Rugian kingdom and destroyed it. Fr ...

leader of the Rugii and an ally of Theodoric, defected to Tufa, after being criticized by Theodoric for his treatment of Roman civilians. Tufa and Frideric however quickly fell out with each other, and in 492, or perhaps 493, battled each other somewhere between Trento and

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

. Tufa, and probably also Frideric, died in this battle, after which the Rugii again joined Theodoric.

Sources

* 5th-century Germanic people Germanic warriors Military personnel killed in action Rugian people {{mil-bio-stub