Count Belisarius

Product Information

Lord Mahon, The Life of Belisarius, 1848. Reprinted 2006 (unabridged with editorial comments) Evolution Publishing, ISBN 1-889758-67-1

In the 20th century Belisarius became featured in a number of works of fiction, including the military science fiction Belisarius series by David Drake and Eric Flint. [50] :280–281 A writer for Tor.com noted that "science fiction and fantasy are obsessed with retelling the story of Belisarius, when the mainstream world isn't particularly interested." [51] Jeffrey Richards (2014). The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. pp.476–752. ISBN 978-1317678175. The life and history of Belisarius, who conquered Africa and Italy, with an account of his disgrace, the ingratitude of the Romans, and a parallel between him and a modern hero: a drama by John Oldmixon (1713)

Joseph von Bülow, Historical Sketches of Europe, Illustrating Important Events and Characteristic Traits of Celebrated Persons, Accompanied, Each of Them, by One of Nep. Geiger's Original Pen Drawings, Volume 2, the University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1860 Finch-Hatton, George James (1851). Abd-el-Kader: A Poem in Six Cantos. Chapman, and Hall. p.60 . Retrieved 2 October 2019.

Before he could advance on Rome, Belisarius first had to take Naples to the south, which he invested in the summer of 536. After failing to persuade the populace to submit peacefully, he subjected the city to a month-long siege. Naples was so stubbornly defended that Belisarius began to despair of taking the place–until a curious foot soldier discovered that a destroyed aqueduct could be used as a tunnel past the city walls. Soldiers made their way along the aqueduct into the heart of the city, climbed down by means of an overhanging olive tree, made their way quietly through the streets to a tower in the wall and, after surprising and killing its defenders, held the position while their comrades roped together their scaling ladders–which their carpenters had made too short–and ascended the wall. David Parnell (20 September 2019). "The Myth of the Blinding of Belisarius (a thread)". Archived from the original on 20 September 2019 . Retrieved 20 January 2022. It is not a masterpiece of characterisation, except as to Belisarius' wife Antonina, but the book holds up as still very readable, with notweworthy asides such as letters about elephants and other such diversions:

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The grain shipment to the city hadn't been able to proceed to the city, so when the Byzantines advanced on Ravenna, the grain was captured. Ravenna was cut off from help on its seaward side by the Byzantine navy patrolling the Adriatic Sea. [41] When Belisarius besieged Ravenna, the Gothic nobles, including Vitiges, had offered the throne of the "western empire" to him. Belisarius feigned acceptance and entered Ravenna via its sole point of entry, a causeway through the marshes, accompanied by a comitatus of bucellarii, his personal household regiment (guards). [41] He also prepared a grain shipment to enter the city when it surrendered. Soon afterward, he proclaimed the capture of Ravenna in the name of the Emperor Justinian. [41] The Goths' offer raised suspicions in Justinian's mind and Belisarius was recalled. [ citation needed] He returned home with the Gothic treasure, king and warriors. On December 9, 536 AD, Byzantine Count Belisarius entered Rome through the Asinarian Gate at the head of 5,000 troops. At the same time, 4,000 Ostrogoths left the city through the Flaminian Gate and headed north to Ravenna, the capital of their Italian kingdom. For the first time since 476, when the Germanic king, Odoacer, had deposed the last Western Roman emperor and crowned himself ‘King of the Romans,’ the city of Rome was once more part of the Roman empire–albeit an empire whose capital had shifted east to Constantinople. One evening, towards the beginning of secondary school, I was standing in front of the desk in an alcove off the living room above which were most of my father's displayed books on long shelves reaching from wall to wall. As he was nearby and I was looking for something interesting to read, I asked his recommendation. I read COUNT BELISARIUS now for two reasons. The first is that I loved Graves' Claudius novels and welcomed the opportunity to read another of his books. Second, seeing another review of this book on GoodReads some months ago caused me to realize that I know almost nothing about the Eastern Roman Empire, even though I have read quite a bit about the Roman Republic and the early decades of the Western Empire. Reading COUNT BELISARIUS seemed an easy way to begin to wade into an unfamiliar epoch in the history of western culture.