AHC:An early End to the Gothic War by Partition of Italy

frustrated progressive

Is there a plausible way to end the Gothic war in Italy relatively early (i.e, before the sackings of Rome, during Belisarius' blitzkrieg) by partitioning the peninsula, perhaps with the south and Rome going to Byzantium, and the Goths retaining the north, the main area of their settlement, in tighter vassalage to the Bosphorus? I realize that it would be hard to get Justinian to compromise when allis seemingly going great, but is there a way?
 

frustrated progressive

Perhaps a truly massive new Persian attack (although Justinian had a pretty bad record of responding to those) soon after the essentially bloodless conquest of southern Italy forces a long term de facto peace based on the lines of occupation?
 

ByzantineLover

Actually, IOTL, Justinian was more than willing to compromise and let the Ostrogoths keep Italy north of the Po river, but Belisarius decided to take matters into his own hands and take Ravenna by deception. So, if you want something like this, the best thing to do would be to remove Belisarius from Italy earlier than IOTL. Preferably without killing him.
 

frustrated progressive

ByzantineLover said:
Actually, IOTL, Justinian was more than willing to compromise and let the Ostrogoths keep Italy north of the Po river, but Belisarius decided to take matters into his own hands and take Ravenna by deception. So, if you want something like this, the best thing to do would be to remove Belisarius from Italy earlier than IOTL. Preferably without killing him.
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Sounds promising. Unfortunately my main source, which admittedly is only incidentally about the Gothic Wars, makes no mention of such a willingness. Would you mind telling me where you found that claim?
 
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