Count Belisarius

Belisarius, Count (correctly Belisarios) (c.500-65), one of the most successful generals produced by the Byzantine army, who played a leading part in the Emperor Justinian's reconstitution of the empire. Born in Illyria, he began his military career in the emperor's bodyguard. His first known command involved a raid on Persian-occupied Armenia in 527, and although a similar venture the following year ended in defeat, Belisarius was given command in Mesopotamia. He became supreme eastern commander in about 530, fought the Persians with much success, and was recalled to Constantinople while a 50-year truce was negotiated. He was in the capital during the Nika riots of 532, when Justinian was howled down by the mob at the Hippodrome and was then hemmed in within his palace, whose guards proved unreliable. Belisarius intervened with his bucellarii (private troops) who marched on the Hippodrome and slaughtered possibly 30, 000 citizens.

A grateful emperor gave him command of the Vandal expedition, the start of the western reconquest. In 533 Belisarius sailed for Africa, where the Vandal King Gelimer had subjugated the Moorish population. Landing with 15, 000 regular troops and his own bucellarii, Belisarius surprised the Vandals, beat them at Ad Decimum, and entered Carthage, where he is reported to have eaten the feast prepared for his defeated opponent. Having refortified the city, he crushed Gelimer at Tricamerum in December. He returned to Constantinople to reply to accusations of disloyalty, but was awarded a triumph—which ended with Belisarius prostrate before the imperial box in the Hippodrome, with the captive Gelimer beside him—and the consulate for 535.

Justinian now turned his attention to Ostrogothic Italy. Belisarius arrived in Sicily in 535 with just 7, 500 regulars and his indispensable bucellarii: only Panormus (now Palermo) resisted him. He brought his fleet close in to the walls, and had ship's boats hoisted high into the rigging, packing them with soldiers who could shoot arrows into the defenders and then jump onto the battlements. After making a brief detour to subdue a military revolt in Africa in 536 he landed on the Italian mainland and enjoyed an easy advance up to Naples, which he besieged. He was about to raise the siege and march north to winter in Rome, but discovered a water conduit through which he managed to slip some troops into the city: Naples fell, and he entered Rome on 9 December.

Although he now nominally controlled southern Italy, Belisarius had not actually beaten Vitigis's Goths, and the war now became a prolonged struggle for the control of cities, complicated by the fact that neither side had sufficient men to garrison fully the ones they held. Rome endured a long siege, during which Belisarius deposed Pope Silverius for treason. Although its harbour was left undefended, often causing shortages, the Goths could not capture Rome. They raised the siege on hearing that the Byzantines had taken Ariminum (now Rimini) and were threatening their capital, Ravenna. Belisarius followed them north, receiving reinforcements under Narses. Together they forced Vitigis to raise the siege of Ariminum, but co-operation ceased when Narses refused to accept Belisarius' authority. Despite this, Belisarius blockaded Vitigis in Ravenna. He secretly accepted the western emperorship, offered him by disgruntled Goths, though Procopius, his secretary and historian, insists that it was only for military expediency. In May 540 the Goths surrendered Ravenna and Vitigis himself to him in return for guarantees of their own safety.

In the meantime, the Persians had broken the truce concluded in 532 and invaded Syria, sacking Antioch. Belisarius was sent east to meet them, and 541 saw him back on the Persian frontier, with the eastern command now divided between him and Buzes. He seemed to have lost his old touch: although he took Sisaurnon, an outbreak of dysentery amongst his troops forced him to fall back. Briefly recalled to Constantinople, in 542 he returned to face down another Persian invasion, partly, suggests Procopius, by putting on a display of nonchalant efficiency that so amazed the Persian king's ambassador that he reported that ‘he had met a general who in manliness and wisdom surpassed all other men, and soldiers such as he had never seen’.

After a brief period in disfavour, largely owing to Justinian's fears that he might become the focus for a military coup, he was given the Italian command again in 544, and spent the next five years struggling against the new Gothic leader, Totila. Justinian gave him too few troops and too little authority, and although he recaptured Rome and saved Italy for the empire he was unable to complete its reconquest, a task subsequently carried out by Narses. Belisarius was recalled in 549, possibly in readiness to meet another Persian offensive, but he did not serve in supreme command again and retired in 551. He enjoyed his last moment of glory in 559 when some 2, 000 Cotigur Huns raided as far as Constantinople. With only 300 trained soldiers and a local levy he ambushed and turned back the raiders. Later he was accused of plotting against Justinian and stripped of his dignities. This episode is probably the origin of the story that Justinian had him blinded, and that he ended his days a beggar. In fact he returned to favour, and lived out his days in comfort.

Belisarius combined personal courage with tactical flair and a broader vision that was rare for his age: he was that most unusual phenomenon, a general for all seasons. The historian Edward Gibbon, paraphrasing Procopius, summed him up as ‘daring without rashness, prudent without fear, slow or rapid according to the exigencies of the moment; … in the deepest distress he was animated by real or apparent hope, but… he was modest and humble in the most prosperous fortune’. His judgement failed him, however, in his choice of a wife. Antonina was older than her husband: she came, like her friend the Empress Theodora, from a theatrical background and had a murky past. At least one of her liaisons drew Belisarius ever more deeply into the (literally) cut-throat world of court politics. Ironically, she outlived him.

Bibliography

• Browning, R., Justinian and Theodora (London, 1987)

— Stephen McCotter/Richard Holmes