(505-565)
[Footnote 8: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
Few men have performed greater achievements than this general, to whom
it was given to be conqueror again and again over nations hitherto
invincible, and to arrest, during his own lifetime, the disintegration
of the Roman Empire. He lived in the early part of the sixth century
of the Christian era, though the date of his birth is not certainly
known, and he was in the prime of life about 530. He is believed to
have been the son of a peasant of Thrace, probably of Slavonian
descent, as his name, stripped of its classical form, would belong to
that language and would be Beli-than, or the White Prince. Apparently
he began life as a common soldier, and gradually rose by courage and
ability. His master, the Emperor Justinian, was an equally remarkable
personage, capable of conceiving and accomplishing magnificent
designs, yet withal of a mean, ungenerous, ungrateful character. The
codification under Christian conditions of the old Roman law, so as to
serve as the foundation of jurisprudence to all the European nations
except the English; the building of the church of St. Sophia, and the
rolling back for a time the flood that on all sides was overwhelming
the ancient Empire of Rome were all due to this prince.
For the last two centuries the East and the West had been separated,
though sometimes coalescing under one head, but in 476, the last
titular Emperor of the West had been deposed. Italy had been the prey
of successive swarms of Teutonic nations. Vandals and Ostro-or Eastern
Goths had burst upon Rome, and while the Vandals proceeded to
devastate the great Roman province of Northern Africa and set up a
kingdom there, the Goths had established another in Italy.
Constantinople still held its ground as the magnificent capital of the
Eastern Empire, maintaining the old civilization, but her dominions
were threatened by the vigorous Persians on the east, and on the north
by the Bulgarians, a nation chiefly Slavonic and very savage and
formidable.
[Illustration: Man carrying a child. [TN]]
This was the inheritance to which Justinian succeeded, in right of his
uncle Justin, a successful soldier. He was forty-five years old at the
time, 527, having had an entirely civil and literary training, and
though warfare continued through the thirty-eight years of his reign,
he never once appeared at the head of his armies. Yet his foresight
and ambition were great, and he had not long been on the throne before
he decided on an endeavor to recover the African provinces. The
Vandals were Arian heretics, denying the Godhead and Eternity of our
Blessed Lord, and they had cruelly persecuted and constantly oppressed
the Catholics, who entreated the Eastern Empire to deliver them, so
that religious zeal added strength to Justinian's ambition. The
luxuries of Carthage and the other African cities had in a couple of
generations done much to destroy the vigor of the Vandals, so that the
conjuncture was favorable.
Belisarius had proved his abilities in a dangerous retreat in the
Persian war, but he probably owed his appointment to the African
expedition to his wife Antonina. She was the daughter of a charioteer
in the exhibitions of the hippodrome, which were loved to a
passionate, almost incredible degree, by the people of the Eastern
cities; and Theodora, the wife of the emperor was likewise the child
of one of these competitors in the races. Both ladies were devotedly
loved by their husbands, though scarcely worthy of their affection,
and it was thus that Belisarius obtained the opportunity for his
career, a curious parallel in this, as in other respects, to the great
Duke of Marlborough.
Belisarius only took on this expedition 10,000 foot and 6,000 horse,
picked men, with carefully selected officers, bred in the old Roman
discipline, for he much preferred a small army whom he could trust,
to a large and unwieldy host; and his fleet amounted to 500 vessels of
different sizes.
The expedition sailed from Heraclea in June, 533, and one of the first
acts of the general showed his sternness of discipline. A murder was
committed in a drunken fit by two Huns, and he immediately hung them
both, and silenced the murmurs of the rest by a speech in which he
declared that Roman arms must be carried in pure hands, and that no
courage would obtain pardon for violence or insubordination.
He landed in September at Caput Vadas, five days' distance from
Carthage, without opposition and with an eager welcome from the
natives, who rejoiced to be delivered from the Vandal oppression, and
Belisarius preserved their goodwill by hindering his soldiers from
committing any act of plunder or violence. Indeed Gelimer, king of the
Vandal horde, was only like an enemy occupying the place; there had
been no amalgamation, and persecution had sown seeds of bitter hatred.
Gelimer, however, marched out to meet the invaders, and at ten miles
from Carthage was totally defeated, and his brother and nephew killed.
He fled into the deserts of Numidia, recalling his brother who was
putting down a revolt in Sardinia, and leaving the city to Belisarius,
who entered on the feast of the great Carthaginian martyr, St.
Cyprian, amid the extreme joy of the populace. When the brother of
Gelimer returned from Sardinia there was still another battle to
fight, but as usual Belisarius conquered. Gelimer submitted and
received an estate in Galatia, and lived there in honor and prosperity
for the rest of his days. The bravest of his warriors took service in
the Roman army under their victor! Gelimer had, however, first to
march in the triumph of Belisarius, the only one ever held at
Constantinople! Justinian had recalled the general, though it would
have been far wiser to have left him to consolidate his conquest; but
no Roman emperor could be free from the suspicion that a victorious
general might become his rival, nor could the scrupulous loyalty of
Belisarius disarm him. It is said that Gelimer marched along,
repeating, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
The next scheme of Justinian was the recovery of Italy from the Goths.
This people had never shown the same savage cruelty as the Vandals,
but had settled amicably among the Italians, and adopted much of their
civilization and learning. They had recently had a truly great
monarch, Theodoric, who deserves to rank with Alfred or Charlemagne,
but he had left only a daughter, Amalasanta, a noble woman, and an
ally of Justinian. She was stifled in her bath by Theodatus, the
husband whom she had raised to the throne. The Gothic kingdom was
convulsed by the crime, and Justinian saw both motive and opportunity
for conquest. Yet he only gave Belisarius 4,500 horse and 3,000
infantry when this great enterprise was begun in 535, besides some
choice troops of the imperial guard.
Sailing to Sicily he met no resistance except at Panormis (Palermo),
but observing that his masts overtopped the walls, he hung up small
rafts full of archers, whose arrows disconcerted the inhabitants so
that they surrendered, and the whole island was restored to the Roman
power. Theodatus tried to treat with Justinian, and while the
negotiations were going on, Belisarius crossed over to the African
province, which was threatened by the Moors of Mount Atlas. Strong
measures were needed, but for the time the incursions were repressed,
and by the time the bad faith of Theodatus had disgusted the Greeks,
Belisarius was ready to cross into Italy and besiege Naples. As usual,
the native inhabitants were his friends, but were in terror of the
Gothic garrison, and these, on their side, were afraid of treating
with the Greek general because Theodatus had their wives and children
as hostages.
Theodatus, however, shut himself up in Rome and gave no aid to Naples,
and Belisarius had made up his mind to raise the siege and attack Rome
itself, when one of his soldiers came to tell him that in exploring an
aqueduct which had been stopped, he had found that the passage for the
water could easily be enlarged so as to admit armed men. Once more he
summoned the native magistrates, but the inhabitants would not submit,
and he sent on the bravest of his men, with two trumpets and with
lanterns, while he made an attack to divert the attention of the
Goths. The way was long, and the soldiers found themselves in the very
heart of Naples, in a basin with very steep sides, impossible, as it
seemed, to climb. One man however, scrambled up and found himself in a
hovel, where he obtained a rope and pulled up his companions. The
Goths who were resisting the escalade, threw down their arms when they
were attacked from behind. Belisarius did his utmost to stop slaughter
and plunder, but could not entirely succeed, for many of his soldiers
were savage Huns, barely kept under restraint at any time.
Theodatus remained in Rome, and appointed a brave general called
Vetiges by the Greeks, but whose name was probably Wittich, to the
command. The army suspected treachery, raised Wittich on their shields
and proclaimed him king. Theodatus fled, and was murdered on his way,
in 536. Wittich thought it better to draw off to Ravenna to reorganize
his army, so the way to Rome was left open to Belisarius, who had only
to summon a small garrison to submit. He gained it in the March of
537, and immediately repaired the defences; and indeed there was need,
for Wittich besieged him there for a whole year, and he had terrible
difficulties to contend with. The Roman populace had lost all their
spirit of patriotism, and murmured from the first that with a mere
handful of soldiers, he should bring down the Goths upon them, and
when the distresses of a protracted siege came on them, they loudly
complained, though all the useless mouths were safely sent off by sea
to the fertile fields about Naples.
It is impossible to dwell at length on the events of the siege and the
gallant deeds on either side. The Goths, under Wittich, were gallant
enemies, but the diseases of the Campagna reduced their numbers, and
finally, late in the March of 538, Wittich broke up his camp and
retreated to Ravenna. There he called the Franks to his assistance,
but they were mere barbarians, who plundered Goths as well as Italians
and added to the general misery of the country. At last, in 539,
Wittich yielded Ravenna to Belisarius who sent him to Constantinople,
where he lived in honor and prosperity.
Justinian recalled his general, always fearing the result of his
success. The city of Pavia was still left to the Goths, and here they
chose as king, a kinsman of Wittich, called Totila, young, gallant,
and generous. The utter incapacity and greed of Justinian's governors
left the country open to him, and he traversed the whole peninsula
collecting Goths again to his standard, till their kingdom was
restored. Indeed the whole of the land was so desolate that hardly any
opposition was offered. In 544 Justinian was obliged to send
Belisarius back to Italy, but most insufficiently supplied with men
and money. He had in the meantime been fighting on the Persian
frontier, with the great King Chosroes, and with more success than
could have been hoped for with such means as were at his disposal. He
came to Ravenna, but his forces were too scanty to enable him to
undertake any enterprise, and where he did not command in person, the
so-called Roman captains were uniformly beaten. Totila occupied Rome
in 546, and tried to destroy it, overthrowing the walls and beginning
to ruin the ancient buildings. Belisarius wrote to him a remonstrance,
telling him how after-ages would regard such destruction, and he
actually thanked the great general for his advice and spared the
churches and monuments, but carried off all the inhabitants, so that
when, forty days later, Belisarius re-entered the city not a man was
found there. He tried to rebuild the defences, but Justinian would not
send him money or men, and when Totila again advanced, he was forced
to abandon the beloved and honored city. Justinian then recalled him,
preferring to leave Italy to its fate rather than trust to his
unswerving loyalty. An unwarlike despot, who knew that the will of an
army might at any time raise a popular captain in his stead, could
hardly fail to dread the one man who was beloved by his soldiers and
always successful. The Empress Theodora was dead, and no honors
awaited Belisarius, only undeserved suspicion.
Once again, however, the great man was called for. The Bulgarians were
desolating Thrace. There was an outcry that none but Belisarius could
save the Empire. He was placed at the head of only 300 old soldiers,
and found the peasants helpless and incapable, yet he succeeded in
repulsing the enemy and driving them beyond the Danube. The outcries
of admiration alarmed the emperor, now in his eightieth year, and the
notion that Belisarius, almost as old, must be a traitor, haunted him.
There was a real conspiracy, and the enemies of the general accused
him of sharing in it. The acts of accusation were read to the old man,
but he stood, listening and not answering a single word, no doubt in
his disdain. The emperor caused the brave old man's eyes to be put
out, and he was stripped of all his possessions. It is said that he
stood in front of his former palace with a wooden dish for alms.
"_Date obolum Belisario_," give a penny to Belisarius, has become a
proverb. However, Justinian seems to have repented, and he restored to
Belisarius his wealth and his palace, in which, shortly after, the old
man died on the 13th of March, 565, only eight months before his
ungrateful sovereign.
[Signature of the author.]
[Illustration: Belisarius receiving alms.]