Belisarius

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Possibly contemporary depiction of Belisarius on a mosaic from San Vitale in Ravenna

Belisar , Flavius Belisarius or Belisarios ( ancient Greek Βελισάριος , * to 500 / 505 , † 565 ) was an East Roman general and commander of the Emperor Justinian . According to his contemporary Prokopios , he came from the Balkans , from the city of Germania (today Saparewa Banja in Bulgaria ), which lay between Thrace and the Illyricum .

Life

As an officer in Justinian's private bodyguard ( Latin bucellarii ), Belisarius found himself in the retinue of the future emperor at an early age and was personally obliged to him. It is likely that they both shared their common mother tongue, Latin. When Justinian became sole Augustus in the summer of 527 , he raised Belisarius first to dux Mesopotamiae and a little later to magister militum per Orientem , i.e. commander in chief in the war against the Persian Sassanids that broke out in 526 (see also Roman-Persian Wars ). As early as 527 Prokopios became Belisar's secretary to Caesarea ; he was to accompany him over the following years and later to write important historical writings, which at the same time represent the most important source on Belisarius.

In 530 Belisarius was able to defeat a large Persian army in the battle of Dara ; this was the first Roman victory over the Sassanids in an open field battle in decades. The success established Belisar's fame, but already a year later he had to accept heavy losses in an avoidable battle at Callinicum . Justinian summoned his magister militum to examine the allegations that Belisarius had failed (Prokopios' claim that the Emperor called Belisarius because he was already secretly planning in 531 to use General 533 against the Vandals is easy as to recognize flimsy cover-up of this fact). The presence of Belisarius near Justinian turned out to be a stroke of luck for the emperor: at the beginning of 532 Belisarius put down the Nika uprising in Constantinople with blood. The circus parties of the blues and greens had united and proclaimed the anti-emperor Hypatius in the hippodrome . After some hesitation, Belisarius decided not to support the usurpation: While Justinian's primicerius Narses was negotiating with the rebels and trying to split the parties, Belisarius penetrated the hippodrome with troops, slaughtered the rebels who had gathered there, triggered a mass panic and thus saved Justinian the imperial throne. This enabled him to regain the ruler's favor. About 30,000 people died.

In terms of foreign policy, after the temporary end of the Persian War, Belisarius played a decisive role in Justinian's military interventions in what was once the west of the Roman Empire . With an army of approx. 15,000 men (although it is unclear whether this number includes the Belisarius “bodyguard”, who now numbered several thousand men), he crossed 533 to Africa and destroyed there with the battles of Ad Decimum and Tricamarum with luck and completely surprising the vandal kingdom . For this brilliant achievement, he was granted a kind of triumphal procession - the first in almost 500 years that was not led by an emperor - but Belisarius, who had sat on the royal throne in Carthage, had to kneel before the imperial couple . Apparently he was supposed to be made aware of his role as a subordinate who had only achieved victory in the name of the ruler. It has recently been suggested that the aim of the ceremony was not only to honor, but also to humiliate the high-spirited general (Börm 2013).

The most important source is Prokopios of Caesarea (Prokop), who accompanied Belisarius on his stations from 527 to the early 540s as an assessor . At first he admired Belisarius, but despised his unfaithful wife Antonina , who was also a friend of the Empress Theodora I , whom Prokop apparently hated with all fervor. Prokop later made serious accusations: Belisarius had not been able to assert himself against his wife and was also often undecided in Italy; apparently Belisarius was less adept in political matters than in military matters. This criticism was massively reflected in Prokop's secret story, but also partly in his war stories. Many scholars assume that Procopius and many senators had hoped that Belisarius would rebel against the unpopular Justinian or at least become emperor of the west; when the general remained loyal to the emperor, the enthusiasm turned into rejection.

From 535 to 540 Belisarius fought in the Gothic War in Italy and also fought against the rebels Stotzas in Africa . Among other things, he was accompanied by his bodyguard Traianus . Belisarius also defended the empire again from 541 against the Sassanids . Justinian, however, did not trust his former friend Belisarius completely since 540 at the latest: the successful general seemed to be too much of a threat to the emperor. There had already been upsets during the African campaign, but then mainly because of Belisarius behavior in Italy, where he took Ravenna in 540 without a fight , but had previously accepted the imperial dignity of the West from the hands of the Ostrogoths (allegedly in appearance), which Justinian deeply angry. Belisarius submitted to his ruler, renounced the Empire of the West and was recalled to Constantinople; He was refused a commendation like after the vandal victory. After all, he was sent back to the Orient in 541 to lead the imperial troops in the war that broke out again against the Persians, who in 540 had broken the Eternal Peace that had been concluded in 532 . Belisarius was able to stabilize the Roman front, but there were no spectacular successes, and a Roman offensive failed before Nisibis . Nevertheless, the general was celebrated by the inhabitants of the Roman Orient and apparently held a victory parade in Antioch (cf. Laniado 2010).

Belisarius as a beggar in a painting by Jacques-Louis David

From 542 Belisarius was no longer magister militum , but remained patricius and was appointed comes sacri stabuli in 544 . During his second Italian campaign (544-548), Belisarius lost luck and talent, and he also lacked a massive number of soldiers, as they were needed in the east against the Sassanids . He was finally recalled (the decisive victory over the Ostrogoths was achieved in 552 by his rival Narses). A few years later, however, Belisarius had the opportunity to demonstrate his military talent one last time: He successfully defended the capital in 559 with a hastily deployed force against Hunnic attackers. In 562 he was accused of being involved in a conspiracy against Justinian. After a few months of house arrest, he was fully rehabilitated in the summer of 563. He died in March 565, probably in Constantinople , a few months before his emperor. Belisarius made this heir, although Antonina was still alive.

Legend and reception

Belisarius stimulated people's imagination early on. The Belisarius epic passes on the (unhistorical) legend that the great general died as a blind beggar under the Porta Pinciana in Rome - probably a reflection of the high treason charge of 562. An anonymous version of the Belisarius legend, the Ἱστορία τοῦ Βελισαρίου , is out the time of the Cretan Renaissance in Greek. The opera Belisario by Gaetano Donizetti premiered on February 4, 1836 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice .

In the historical film Battle for Rome , Belisarius is portrayed by Lang Jeffries .

In the expansion Total War: Attila - The Last Roman for the PC strategy game Total War: Attila , published in June 2015, the campaigns of Belisarius in the West can be replayed, and the title of the game expansion is based on his reputation as the “last Roman”.

Modern novels with Belisarius as the main character

swell

  • Prokopios von Caesarea : Works (Greek-German), translated and edited by Otto Veh , 5th vol. (Tusculum library), Munich 1961–77.
  • Willem F. Bakker , Arnold F. van Gemert (eds.): Ιστορία του Βελισαρίου . Κριτική έκδοση των τεσσάρων διασκευών με εισαγωγή, σχόλια και γλωσσάριο. Morphotiko Idryma Ethnikes Trapezes, Athens 1988 ( Βυζαντινή και Νεοελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη , 6). [Belisarius legend]

literature

Web links

Commons : Belisarius  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Irina Andreescu-Treadgold, Warren Treadgold : Procopius and the Imperial Panels of S. Vitale. In: The Art Bulletin. Volume 79, Issue 4, 1997, pp. 708-723, especially p. 719 ( PDF ).
personal data
SURNAME Belisarius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flavius ​​Belisarius; Belisarios
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine general and general of Emperor Justinian I.
DATE OF BIRTH at 505
DATE OF DEATH 565