Belisarius
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Flavius Belisarius (505-565 CE) was one of the greatest generals of the Eastern Roman Empire and one of the greatest generals in history. He is usually linked historically with the Emperor Justinian, under whom he served, and together they came close to reconquering the entire "old" Roman Empire.
Although comparatively less well-known than other famed military leaders such as Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, this probably reflects a lack of attention to this era in Roman (Byzantine) history rather (and the fact Byzantine Rule over these areas proved very temporary) than a proportionate view of his skill and accomplishments, which were matched by few, if any, military commanders.
While there were occasions that Justinian gave him the troops and logistical support he needed, many times he did not, and Belisarius won anyway.
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Early life and career
Belisarius was probably born in Germane or Germania, a city that once stood on the site of present day Sapareva Banya in south-west Bulgaria. Some suggest that he was of Romanized Slavic ancestry, on the grounds that his name is somewhat similar to the Slavic "Beli Tsar" ("White Prince"), but most contemporary historians disregard this theory as the word tsar was first used in the 10th century, well after Belisarius' death. Most likely in any case to be a romanized Greek because the first Slavs came in the region later from the birth of Belisarius. He became a Roman soldier as a young man, serving in the bodyguard of the Emperor Justin I. Following Justin's death in 527, the new Emperor, Justinian I, appointed Belisarius to command the Byzantine army in the east to deal with incursions from Persia. He quickly proved himself an able and effective commander, defeating the larger Persian army through superior generalship. In June 530 he led the Byzantines to a victory over the Persians in the Battle of Dara, followed by a close defeat at the Battle of Callinicum on the Euphrates in 531. This led to the negotiation of an "Endless Peace" with the Persians and heavy tributes for years in exchange for a peace treaty.
In 532, he was the highest ranking military officer in the Imperial capital of Constantinople when the Nika riots (among factions of chariot racing fans) broke out in the city and nearly resulted in the overthrow of Justinian. Belisarius, with the help of the magister militum of Illyria, Mundus, suppressed the rebellion with a bloodbath that is said to have claimed the lives of 30,000 people.
Military campaigns
Against the Vandals
For his efforts, Belisarius was rewarded by Justinian with the command of a great land and sea expedition against the kingdom of the Vandals, mounted in 533-534. The Byzantines had both political, religious, and strategic reasons for mounting such a campaign. The pro-Byzantine Vandal king Hilderic had been deposed and murdered by the usurper Gelimer, giving Justinian a legal pretext for mounting an expedition. Furthermore, the Arian Vandals had periodically persecuted the Nicene Christians within their kingdom, many of whom made their way to Constantinople seeking redress. Justinian wanted control of the Vandals' territory in North Africa, which was vital for guaranteeing Byzantine access to the western Mediterranean. In the late summer of 533, Belisarius sailed to Africa and landed near the city of Leptis Magna, from which he marched along the coastal highway toward the Vandal capital of Carthage.
Ten miles from Carthage, the forces of Gelimer (who had just executed Hilderic) and Belisarius finally met at the Battle of Ad Decimum (Tenth Milestone; September 13, 533). It nearly turned into a defeat for the Byzantines; Gelimer had chosen his position well and had some success against the opposing forces along the main road. The Byzantines, however, seemed dominant on both the right and left sides of the main road to Carthage. However, at the height of the battle, Gelimer became distraught upon learning of the death of his nephew in battle. This gave Belisarius a chance to regroup, and he went on to win the battle and capture Carthage. A second victory at the Battle of Ticameron later in the year (December 15) resulted in Gelimer's surrender early in 534 at Mount Papua, permitting the lost Roman provinces of north Africa to be restored to the empire. For this achievement Belisarius was granted a Roman triumph (the last one ever given) when he returned to Constantinople. In the procession were paraded the spoils of the Temple of Jerusalem which had been recovered from the Vandal capital. Medals were stamped in his honor with the inscription "Gloria Romanorum", though none seem to have come down to us. Belisarius was also made sole consul in 534, being one of the last individuals ever to hold this office which was, by this time, merely a ceremonial relic of the ancient Roman Republic.
Against the Ostrogoths
Justinian now resolved to restore as much of the Western Roman Empire as he could. In 535, he commissioned Belisarius to attack the Ostrogoths. Again, he chose well, as Belisarius quickly captured Sicily and then crossed into Italy proper, where he captured Naples and Rome in 536. The following year, he successfully defended Rome against the Goths and moved north to take Mediolanum (Milan) and the Ostrogoth capital of Ravenna in 540, where the Goth king Witiges was captured. Shortly prior to the taking of Ravenna, the Ostrogoths offered to make Belisarius the western emperor. Belisarius feigned acceptance and entered Ravenna via its sole point of entry, a causeway through the marshes, accompanied by his comitatus (veterans). Once inside the city, Belisarius quickly seized Witiges and then capitalized on the resulting lack of leadership to secure the city. Thereupon, he proclaimed the capture of Ravenna in the name of the Emperor Justinian.
The Goths' offer perhaps raised suspicions in Justinian's mind and Belisarius was recalled to the East to deal with a Persian conquest of Syria, a crucial province of the empire. Belisarius took the field and waged a brief, inconclusive campaign against them in 541-542. He eventually managed to negotiate a truce (aided with the payment of a large sum of money, 5,000 pounds of gold), in which the Persians agreed not to attack Byzantine territory for the next five years.
Belisarius returned to Italy in 544, where he found that the situation had changed greatly. In 541 the Ostrogoths had elected Totila as their new leader and had mounted a vigorous campaign against the Byzantines, recapturing all of northern Italy and even driving the Byzantines out of Rome. Belisarius managed to recover Rome briefly but his Italian campaign proved unsuccessful, thanks in no small part to his being starved of supplies and reinforcements by a jealous Justinian. In 548, Justinian relieved him in favor of the eunuch Narses, who was able to bring the campaign to a successful conclusion. For his part, Belisarius went into retirement.
Later life and campaigns
The retirement of Belisarius came to an end in 559, when an army of Slavs and Bulgars crossed the Danube River to invade Byzantine territory for the first time and threatened Constantinople itself. Justinian recalled Belisarius to command the Byzantine army against the Bulgar invasion. In his last campaign, Belisarius defeated the Bulgars and drove them back across the river.
In 562, Belisarius stood trial in Constantinople on a charge of corruption. The charge was likely trumped-up, and modern research suggests that his bitter enemy, his former secretary Procopius of Caesarea, the author of the Secret History, [1] may have judged his case. Belisarius was found guilty and imprisoned. However, not long after the conviction, Justinian pardoned him, ordered his release, and restored him to favour at the imperial court.
Fittingly, Belisarius and Justinian, whose sometimes strained partnership increased the size of the empire by 45%, died within a few weeks of one another in 565.
The legend of Belisarius as a blind beggar
Image:Belisarius by Francois-Andre Vincent.jpg
According to a story that gained popularity during the Middle Ages, Justinian is said to have ordered Belisarius' eyes to be put out, and reduced him to the status of homeless beggar condemned to asking passers-by to "give an obolus to Belisarius" (date obolum Belisario), before pardoning him. Most modern scholars believe the story to be apocryphal, though Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl of Stanhope, a 19th century British philologist who wrote Life of Belisarius--the only exhaustive biography of the great general--believed the story to be true. Based on a thorough parsing of the available primary sources, Stanhope created a noteworthy, if not wholly convincing argument for the legend's authenticity.
Though the legend remains of dubious provenence, after the publication of Jean-François Marmontel's novel Bélisaire (1767), this account became a popular subject for progressive painters and their patrons in the later 18th century, who saw parallels between the actions of Justinian and the repression imposed by contemporary rulers. For such subtexts Marmontel's novel received a public censure by Louis Legrand of the Sorbonne, which contemporary divines regarded as model expositions of theological knowledge and clear thinking (Catholic Encyclopedia: "Louis Legrand"). Marmontel and the painters and sculptors (a bust of Belisarius by the French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Stouf is at the J. Paul Getty Museum) depicted Belisarius as a kind of secular saint, sharing the suffering of the downtrodden poor. The most famous of these paintings, by Jacques-Louis David, combines the themes of charity (the alms giver), injustice (Belisarius), and the radical reversal of power (the soldier who recognises his old commander). Others portray him being helped by the poor after his rejection by the powerful.
Belisarius in fiction
Image:Belisarius by Peyron.jpg
Belisarius was featured in several works of art before the 20th century. The oldest of them is the historical treatise by his very own secretary, Procopius, the Anecdota, commonly referred to as the Arcana Historia or Secret History, it is an extended attack on Belisarius and Antonia, indicting him as a love-blind fool and his wife as unfaithful and duplicitous. Later works include the 17th century poem by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, Beliar, the John Oldmixon drama The life and history of Belisarius, who conquer'd Africa and Italy, with an account of his disgrace, the ingratitude of the Romans, and a parallel between him and a modern hero, the 18th century drama by William Philips Belasarius (1724), the novel Belisarius by John Downman (1742), the novel Bélisaire by Jean-François Marmontel (1767), and the 19th century opera, Belisario, by Gaetano Donizetti.
The life of Belisarius was the subject of the historical novel Count Belisarius (1938) by noted classical scholar Robert Graves. This book, ostensibly written from the viewpoint of the eunuch Eugenius, servant to Belisarius' wife (but actually based on the history by Belisarius' former secretary Procopius), portrays Belisarius as a solitary honorable man in a corrupt world, and paints a vivid picture of not only his startling military feats but also the colorful characters and events of his day (such as the savage Hippodrome politics of the Constantinople chariot races, which regularly escalated to open street battles between fans of opposing factions, or the intrigue between the emperor Justinian and the empress Theodora).
Belisarius appears in the alternate history novel Lest Darkness Fall (1939) by L. Sprague de Camp. There he was first the Byzantine opponent of the time traveler Martin Padway who tried to spread modern science and inventions in Gothic Italy. Eventually Belisarius became general in Padway's army and secured Italy for him.
Belisarius is also the main character of the Belisarius series in a series of six science fiction novels by Eric Flint and David Drake, an alternate history exploring what might have happened if Belisarius (and a rival) were granted knowledge of future events and technologies. The first three books of this series are available as free ebooks from the Baen Free Library.
In the General series of military science fiction novels by S.M. Stirling and David Drake, the plot draws much from the life and campaigns of Belisarius; the main character, Raj Whitehall, sets out to reunite the planet of Bellevue after the fall of galactic civilization.
Isaac Asimov, who was very familiar with Roman history, seems to have loosely based the character and name of General Bel Riose, "The Last Great General" of the late Galactic Empire in the Foundation Series, on Belisarius.
Herman Melville playfully assigns the moniker "my Belisarius" to the Samoan Islander first encountered aboard the abandoned vessel "Parki," in his 1849 novel Mardi.
Named after him
References
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- R. Boss, R. Chapman, P. Garriock, Justinian's War: Belisarius, Narses and the Reconquest of the West, Montvert Publications, 1993, ISBN 1874101019.
- Teddy Brunius, The letter of Belisarius, Ekdosis Ellēnikēs Etaireias Aisthētikēs, 1971.
- Glanville Downey, Belisarius,: Young general of Byzantium, Dutton, 1960.
- Percy Stickney Grant, The search of Belisarius;: A Byzantine legend, Brentano's, 1907.
- Edward Gibbon has much to say on Belisarius in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 41 online.
- Lord Mahon Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, The Life of Belisarius, J. Murray, 1829. (1848 Second Edition, No Changes) With a new critical introduction by Jon Coulston. 2005 Westholme Publishing, ISBN 1594160198 [2]
- Lord Mahon Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, The Life of Belisarius, 1848. Reprinted 2006 (with editorial comments) Evolution Publishing, ISBN 1889758671. [3]
- Robert Graves, Count Belisarius: AND "Lawrence of the Arabs", Carcanet Press 2004, ISBN 1857546458.
- Procopius, Procopius, Belisarius and Narses, Academic Fellowship, 1964.
- Procopious, The Secret History of the Court of Justinian, online at Gutenberg Project.
External links
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