After a triumphant victory in Africa, Justinian decided to return Italy and Rome to the bosom of the empire. Thus began a long war that cost enormous efforts and losses. Looking ahead, it must be said that all of Italy was never returned to the fold of the Roman state.
In 535, the hostilities began with the fact that the army under the command of the master of the Illyrian army Munda moved to capture Dalmatia and the city of Salona, and Belisarius with the generals Constantine, Bes, Iber Peranius with an army of soldiers and Isaurians, with the allies of the Huns and Moors, planting them on ships, moved to Sicily. In Dalmatia, the Romans were not successful.
Belisarius. Mosaic. VI century Basilica of San Vitale. Ravenna, Italy
Meanwhile, Belisarius landed in southern Italy. The leader is ready Theodatus did nothing. At the same time, in Dalmatia, the commander Constantinian defeated the Goths and cleared it of them. Belisarius approached Naples and set up a camp near it: the city was taken in battle thanks to the cunning and dexterity of the Isaurians. Upon learning of this, the Goths chose a new king Vitiges, and Theodatus was killed. The new king went to the capital of Italy, the port of Ravenna.
In 536, Belisarius entered the "eternal city". The Senate of Rome went over to his side.
At the same time, Vitiges entered into a military alliance with the Franks, and they decided to send their subordinate tribes to help the Goths, since before that they had entered into an alliance with the empire and preferred not to directly take part in hostilities. Belisarius, realizing that the Goths had an advantage in manpower, began to prepare for the siege, fortifying the walls and bringing bread to Rome.
Battle of Rome. This battle is one of the brightest examples of the military art of the Romans and the commander Belisarius, who, in conditions of limited resources, was able to resist for a long time and, in the end, defeat a superior enemy.
Walls of Rome
In the spring of 537, Vitiges, having collected a huge army, moved to Rome. At the famous Mulvian Bridge, Belisarius himself led an attack against the Goths and stopped their rapid advance. The Goths began a siege of the city, setting up seven camps around it. After the siege towers were built, they went on a general assault. Belisarius successfully repulsed the attackers. Hunger and the hardships of being deprived of the siege did not break the Romans. The active Belisarius reforged the keys to the gate, fearing betrayal; rescuing from hunger, he sent residents south to Naples; even arrested and deposed Pope Silverius, fearing his betrayal. The empire was able to send only 1600 horsemen to help: the Huns and Slavs, led by the army masters Martin and Valerian. At the same time, the Goths were able to take the Port, cutting off Rome's connection with the sea. In everyday skirmishes, success remained on the side of the besieged, and as often happens, the army arrogantly decided that it could defeat the superior forces of the Goths in open battle, forcing the commander to battle. During the battle at the walls, the Romans did not succeed and again moved on to minor conflicts. With the onset of winter in 538, diseases in the city intensified, but the commander was able to ensure the supply of bread from Calabria. Hunger and disease acted equally in the city and in the camp of the Goths, which is why Vitiges decided to agree to a truce: the Goths liberated Port, which was occupied by the Romans, organizing a supply of bread. From the empire arrived with the army the master of the army and the consul John with the generals Bazas, Konon, Paul and Rema. An attempt by the Germans to attack Rome again failed, in response, Belisarius began to capture small cities in the area of Rome. Vitiges was forced to lift the siege, which lasted one year and nine days. John captures the Samnite region.
In the fall of 537, he moved to Ravenna, leaving garrisons in the cities along the way. On the heels were Belisarius' warriors led by his spear-bearer Mundila. They swiftly captured Liguria, taking the cities of Genoa, Titinus (Padua) and Mediolan. So, the victory of the besieged over the superior forces of the enemy, ended the battle for Rome.
In the spring of 538, Belisarius himself moved to the north of Italy. The Goths were surrendering their garrisons. Seven thousand soldiers arrived in Italy with the treasurer Narses and his commanders: the Armenians Narses and Aratius, Justin, the commander of the Illyrians, Vizand, Aluin and Fanifei, the leaders of the Eruls. The commanders met and began to advance north: the fleet under the command of Ildiger walked along the coast, parallel to the fleet was a small unit led by Martin, which had an important task: to divert the attention of the enemy, depicting a huge army. Belisarius with Narses moved through the city of Urbisaly (now the region of Mark). The Romans saved the besieged garrison of the city of Arminia, the Goths, seeing the fleet and infantry, fled to Ravenna.
Justinian's policy, which did not allow one-man command, in order to resist "usurpation", was extremely harmful to the conduct of hostilities: disputes began between the commanders, who, in fact, were the leader-leaders. The Goths and their allies, the Burgundians, took advantage of this, taking Mediolan (Milan) from Mundila at the end of 538 and recapturing Liguria.
At the beginning of 539, Justinian was forced to recall the treasurer of Narses, the Heruls, warriors from the Germanic tribe, who had close contacts with the treasurer, left for themselves through the territory occupied by Vitiges on the condition that they would never fight the Goths. And Belisarius wasted time, besieging Auxim (now Osimo, Piceny).
At the end of 539, a new force enters the battle for Italy. The Franks decided to take part in the plunder of Italy. The countless hordes of Theodeberg, with the support of the allied tribes, crossed the Alps and crossed Liguria across the Po river. Here they performed a human sacrifice, killing the captured Goths, their wives and children. After that, the Franks first attacked the camp of the Goths, and then the Romans, defeating both. Upon learning of their invasion, the Roman troops of Martin and John also fled. Belisarius wrote a letter to Theodeberg, in which he reproached him for treachery. But only dysentery in the Franks' camp was able to stop their stormy invasion of Italy: a third of their army died, and they returned across the Alps. Belisarius, having tried various methods of taking Auxum and spending a lot of time on it, agreed with the garrison to surrender it. Then he hurriedly marched towards Ravenna, at the same time capturing small Gothic fortresses in the Alps. At this time, ambassadors from Constantinople Domnik and Maximinus arrived in Ravenna, with an attempt to conclude a peace treaty, on the terms of the border of the Empire and the Goths pass along the Po river and divide the Gothic treasures in half between Vitiges and Justinian.
At the end of 539, Belisarius, outraged by the peace negotiations, refused to sign the document, which aroused suspicion among the Goths. The Goths tried to win over Belisarius to their side, proclaiming him emperor of Italy, but he refused, insisting on the surrender of Ravenna. The Goths, suffering from hunger, were forced to surrender themselves and surrender their capital. Other garrisons in northern Italy did the same. Justinian recalled Belisarius to the capital, leaving Besa, John and Constantine in Italy. The Goths, seeing that the great commander with prisoners and treasures left Italy, elect a new king Ildibad, the nephew of the Visigoth king Tavdis. The emperor, who decided that Italy had already been conquered, was busy with a new war with the Persians, fighting the invasion of the Slavs and Huns.
In the spring of 541, the victor of the Vandals and the Goths, Belisarius, who convened a council of war at Dar, was also thrown to the east. Justinian, who suspected Belisarius of usurpatory aspirations, did not give him the right to fully command all the troops in the area. But, it should be noted that many generals, being in fact the leaders of their squads, did not really strive for submission, pursuing their own, personal interests.
In the summer of 541, the army moved from Dara to the territory of Persia to Nisibis (Nusaybin, a city in Turkey on the border with Syria). Naved, who led the Persian army, taking advantage of the fact that the Romans had settled in two camps, attacked them: the camp of Belisarius and, who did not want to obey him, the camp of Peter. He killed many of Peter's soldiers and captured his banner, but was repulsed by the Goths of Belisarius. Since it was obvious that it was not realistic to take Nisibis, the Romans decided to besiege the city of Sisavranon, where there were many inhabitants and a garrison of 800 horsemen, headed by Vlisham. At the same time, Arefah, along with the shield-bearers of Belisarius, was sent across the Tigris River to Assyria to ruin it, since this land was rich and had not been exposed to enemy invasions for a long time. This plan was carried out, and the city of Sisavran surrendered, since most of its inhabitants were Greeks.
But Belisarius did not continue offensive actions, as his secretary Procopius writes in the Secret History, personal motives (betrayal of his wife, who was friends with the empress) forced him to abandon the theater of operations and thus expose the territory to Syria to plunder by the enemy. He was recalled to the capital.
In the spring of 542, in revenge for the invasion, Khosrow I with the king of the Arabs Alamunder III crossed the Euphrates. Since he had devastated Syria the previous year, his target was Palestine and Jerusalem. Local commanders, such as Emperor Yust's cousin, Wuza, tried to sit out in the fortifications without opposing the Shah. The emperor again, to save the Romans' cause, sent Belisarius to meet him, who arrived in the town of Europe (not far from modern Kalat-es-Salihia, Syria), located on the Euphrates River, and … began to gather troops. Khosrow sends ambassadors to him to scout the Roman troops. Since the forces of the commander were extremely small, and his glory is known to the Persians, Belisarius prepared a "performance". The ambassador saw a "huge army" consisting of selected warriors: Thracians, Illyrians, Goths, Heruls, Vandals and Maurusians. Especially in front of the ambassador, strong and tall people went about, engaged in everyday affairs, this performance made an impression, and the Sassanids decided that Belisarius had a huge army.
The task of Belisarius was to "push" the army of the Persians from the Roman borders, since there was no strength for the battle. At the same time, a plague broke out in Palestine. This, as well as the "performance", influenced the decision of the Sassanian king. He quickly set up a ferry and crossed the Euphrates: “For the Persians do not have much difficulty in crossing any river, because when they set out on a campaign, they take with them pre-prepared iron hooks, with which they fasten long logs to each other, immediately building a bridge in any a place where they want."
But the suspicions of the basileus about Belisarius were not dispelled. In Byzantium, due to the lack of a mechanism for the transfer of supreme power, the threat of its capture by the military, as before in Rome, was constant. Literally 50 years later, Hecatontarch (centurion) Phoca will seize power from the Basileus warrior of Mauritius, and he himself will be overthrown by the Exarch of Africa Heraclius.
Describing the events associated with Belisarius, Procopius believed that the emperor and his wife really wanted to take possession of the commander's wealth. It was assumed that he captured most of the treasures of the Vandals and the Goths, and gave only a part to the Basileus. The military leader was deprived of his post and "squad", his spearmen and shield bearers were distributed by lot. Belisarius was morally broken.
Meanwhile, in Italy, the new Gothic king Totila inflicts one defeat after another on the Romans, crushing the "chiefs" commanders one by one.
In 543 Naples was surrendered. There were riots in Rome, and plague raged throughout Italy.
In such conditions, in 544, with a small army, Belisarius returned to Ravenna. He led the army on the terms of keeping it at his own expense. But, most likely, he did not want to do this, as Procopius writes, he kept the money collected from Italy for himself.
In 545, Totila began the siege of Rome. An attempt by Belisarius to secure the supply of bread to Rome from Sicily failed: the head of the Roman garrison Besa did not show promptness, and the Goths seized transports with bread. Finally Belisarius waited for reinforcements from Constantinople with John. The old enmity between the generals flared up again. And Belisarius sends John to Constantinople. Famine began in Rome. The commander personally commanded a breakthrough to deliver bread to the "eternal city", but was forced to retreat, became seriously ill and stopped fighting.
In December 546, the Isaurs surrendered Rome to Totila, and the Goths rushed into the city: here they discovered wealth, which earned on speculation, Besa, who was responsible for the defense of the city. The city was plundered, the city walls, many buildings, outstanding architectural monuments that survived the previous sieges and assaults of the barbarians were destroyed, the Roman population and senators were captured.
Map of Rome V-VIII centuries.
Totila, leaving here a part of the army to fight Belisarius, moved south against the master of the army, Patrician John.
In 547, the master of the army John, arriving from the capital, occupied Tarentum. Recovered, Belisarius entered Rome again. He hastily began to build a wall around the city, but did not have time to rebuild the gate. Totila returned to Rome and went to storm. Belisarius lined up his best warriors in the unfinished gates, and the city dwellers on the walls. Two assaults on Rome were repulsed.
The case of the Romans in Italy was complicated by the fact that the problems of Italy did not interest the emperor, who was busy with theological disputes; in these conditions, Belisarius received permission to leave the theater of military operations. Justinian, despite the fact that he was the last true Roman emperor, nevertheless, like most Byzantines (Romans), preferred quick success and profit from the enterprise, investing extremely sparingly in them. Defeats and difficulties in the fight against enemies were partly due to precisely these features of the ruler of the empire. Totila, taking advantage of the situation, transferred the hostilities to the sea, and again took Rome (it was again betrayed by the Isaurs). In such conditions, Belisarius resigned. Since that time, the commander has been living in the capital.
In 559, in winter, huge hordes of Huns-Kuturgurs and Slavs invaded Thrace across the ice of the Danube through the Balkans. The Huns besieged the Thracian Chersonesos and approached the capital. Byzantium was guarded by palace troops, little adapted to war. As Procopius wrote: “Such terrible and great dangers seemed undeniable that on the walls, in Sikka and the so-called Golden Gates, lohags, taxiarchs and many warriors were really placed in order to courageously repel enemies if they attacked. In fact, however, they were incapable of combat and were not even sufficiently trained in military affairs, but were from those military units that were appointed to keep guard day and night, which are called scholarii."
Wealthy citizen in scholarian uniform. VI century Reconstruction of the author
Fortunately, 54-year-old Belisarius ended up in the capital. He opposed Khan Zabergan. Having neither a numerical advantage, nor a trained army, he, using military cunning, armed and equipped both decorative, by this time, scholarians, and ordinary people. The formidable name of the commander did its job, the Huns fled from the walls. The Huns and Slavs could not take Chersonesos. When they retreated across the Danube, Justinian ransomed the prisoners from them, paid a huge "tribute" and ensured their crossing.
So in the end of his life Belisarius once again served the cause of the Romans.
In conclusion, it should be noted that he went from a spearman to a master or stratilate, the highest military position. Nevertheless, while observing in the 6th century, as well as in the 5th century, all the highest military ranks of the previous periods, we observe that the command and control of troops in reality takes place on the basis of "leaderism". The commander recruits himself a "army" - a squad among those groups of the population, barbarians and warriors, where it can be done and with them goes on a campaign. In part, the war becomes the personal enterprise of the military commanders, when they recruit troops at their own expense and "earn" money in the war, sharing the spoils with the supreme power. This system worked successfully throughout the reign of Justinian the Great, but began to fail seriously towards the end of his reign. Because of her, the affairs of the Romans took a completely lamentable turn already in the reign of Foka. This continued until the stabilization that occurred thanks to the femme reform. But these events go beyond the period we are considering.
It should be noted that the system of formation of the army and the system of using it on the battlefield should not be confused; such a confusion often leads to numerous mistakes when studying the army of this period.
As for the management system, if you look from the present, then, of course, we do not observe the harmony that Rome had during the period of the republic and the early empire.
The problem for the Roman empire was that all the brilliant undertakings of this non-period were not brought to an end. The return to the fold of the state of Africa, Italy and even part of Spain was not completed: the wars did not subside here. The codification of Roman law and the novella, which, according to Justinian, should have removed from the court the professional litigants (lawyers) who turned it into a circus, failed. Comments on the Code appeared just a few years later, and the lawyers continued their "circus" activities.
It is difficult to say, and the sources that have come down to us do not allow us to do this, but Basileus Justinian was surrounded, or created an environment, consisting of brilliant commanders, leaders, lawyers and geometers (builders and architects).
One of them, of course, was the hero of our short article.
But, the work that they carried out was not systemic, but project-based, as it strongly depended on the Vasilevs, who was "carried away" by projects, including destructive ideological disputes about faith.
Belisarius showed himself during the restoration of the Roman Empire as an outstanding warrior, who can be ranked among the best generals of the past. Un was one of the few who could "achieve more with less."
Unfortunately, his experience was not taken into account in the subsequent development of the country: scholasticism, which flourished in Byzantium, captured the military sphere, and only the return of power to the Vasilevs-warrior from the 9th century. contributed to changes in this area.
