Belisarius: The Last Roman General (44 page)

Totila waited outside Naples, but, realising that no troops were going to be sent out against him, he dispatched small contingents throughout Apulia and Calabria. With the towns having no walls and so putting up little resistance, he soon controlled both of these territories and was able to collect their taxes for his own uses.

The loss of this revenue, coupled with the strict budgetary measures of Alexander ‘Snips’, soon resulted in the soldiers’ pay being in arrears. The troops became increasingly unwilling to leave the cities and risk their lives for the emperor. Furthermore, the Italian landlords from Apulia and Calabria also lost their incomes, since they had moved to the towns to protect themselves and so could do nothing to stop Totila claiming their rents. As a result, the Italians became increasingly restless.

Justinian’s response

Since the Battle of Mucellis, the Byzantine commanders had refused to leave the towns to which they had fled. Constantianus was in Ravenna, John nephew of Vitalianus in Rome, Bessas in Spoletium, Justinus in Florentia, and Cyprian in Perusia. The other, lesser commanders were in whichever town they had sought refuge with their troops. Realising that these commanders were unable to make decisions together, Justinian appointed Maximinus as
praetorian prefect
and gave him supreme authority in Italy. Unfortunately, according to Procopius, he was ‘inexperienced, timid, and prone to delay’
{Wars,
VH.vi.12). Sent from Constantinople with a fleet and army (consisting of Thracians under Herodian and Armenians under Phazas the Iberian, plus a few Huns) Maximinus reached Epirus in Greece and halted.

After a long delay, Maximinus sent Demetrius, who had previously served under Belisarius, to Sicily. Learning that Conon in Naples was hard pressed to resist the Goths, Demetrius decided to act, although he had only a few men with him. Accordingly, he gathered a large fleet and stocked it with grain for the city. Assuming, correctly as it turned out, that the Goths would believe this to be a large army, he set sail. The Goths were fearful for their safety, but the fleet sailed past and proceeded to Portus, where Demetrius hoped to spend a little time in gathering extra troops from the area. However, the Byzantines in the area had only recently been defeated by the Goths and refused to join him.

During this time, the Neapolitans had become ever more desperate and finally sent another Demetrius, known as the Cephalonian, who was governor of the city, to Rome to ask for help. Frustrated in his attempts to raise an army, Demetrius agreed to help the Neapolitans and sailed for Naples. It was too late. By this time, Totila had learnt of the composition of the Byzantine fleet. As they neared Naples, the Gothic fleet attacked the Byzantines, defeating them and capturing all of their ships and cargoes. The Byzantine Demetrius escaped in a small boat, as did a few others, but most were captured or killed, including Demetrius the Cephalonian. He was taken alive before Totila. During the siege, he had been accustomed to stand upon the walls and hurl insults at the Goths and their king. As a punishment, Totila cut out his tongue and chopped off his hands. He was then allowed to return to the city.

After a very long delay in Epirus, Maximinus, the new commander of the Italian armies, reached Syracuse. Learning of his arrival, messengers from all over Italy arrived to ask him for help. Finally, he sent Herodian, Demetrius – who had returned to Sicily – and Phazes to Naples by sea. As it was now close to winter, the fleet was caught in a storm and blown aground near to the Gothic camp. Most of the troops were killed or captured, including Demetrius. Herodian and Phazes and a few others managed to escape, but it was now clear that there was to be no relieving army for the city of Naples.

Demetrius was paraded before the walls and forced to tell the Neapolitans that they could no longer expect any help from the Byzantine army. After negotiations, the citizens agreed to surrender in 30 days if no army arrived to help them. As a sign of his confidence, Totila extended the deadline to three months, in order to emphasise the hopelessness of their cause. The strategy worked. Shortly after the negotiations, and long before the deadline, the city surrendered.

Totila now worked upon improving his image. He collected food for the city, and himself organised its distribution so as to minimise the number of deaths caused by people eating too much food after reaching the edge of starvation. He also allowed the Byzantine troops to go free, but when they decided to sail to Rome a strong wind kept them in the harbour. Finally, Totila gave them horses and pack animals and they headed for Rome by the land route. When a Neapolitan complained to Totila that his daughter had been raped by one of his men, Totila had the man imprisoned and then executed. In this way he began to gain the loyalty of the native Italians. In direct contrast, the Byzantine troops who were not immediately threatened by the Goths plundered the territories around their cities and so alienated the natives from their cause. Slowly, army discipline began to collapse.

A further repercussion of the capture of Naples was that the Goths now occupied a large port on the western coast of Italy. As a consequence, Totila gathered a fleet in the port with which to control the Tyrrenhian Sea (Proc. VII. xiii. 6).

Totila’s next move was to send messengers to the senators of Rome asking them to revert to their original allegiance. John, nephew of Vitalianus, prevented the senators from sending a reply, but Totila sent a second letter stating that the Byzantines would be unharmed if they supported him. Suspecting the Arian bishops in the city of colluding with Totila, the Byzantines evicted them from the city. After sending the letters, Totila dispatched an army to Dryus (Otranto) with orders to ask the city to surrender. If it refused, it was to be laid under siege. With the rest of the army, Totila himself moved to lay siege to Rome.

As their control of Italy slipped away, Constantianus sent a letter to Justinian, signed by all of the other commanders, stating that they were unable to fight the Goths.

Belisarius reappointed to a command

In Constantinople, Belisarius had been living simply as a private citizen, and although allowed access to the palace, he was not allowed into the presence of Justinian and Theodora. According to Procopius, he only retained a few attendants, which was very different from his recent exploits accompanied by thousands of
bucellarii
and a large household. Procopius also alleges that Belisarius was poorly treated by the emperor and empress, who allowed their lackeys to treat him with contempt, and that he lived in fear of assassination – possibly on imperial orders (
Anekdota,
4.20–22).

It is possible that this treatment had two distinct causes. The first is that the empress wanted to punish Belisarius for his alleged inclusion in the plot to replace her husband on his death. This would have stripped Theodora of her power and rendered her vulnerable to attack from her enemies. It is not hard to see why Theodora would want to punish him for his actions.

The second revolves around Antonina. Procopius claims that Antonina and Belisarius had quarrelled after her services for the empress. It is likely that Theodora wanted to impress upon Belisarius the importance of Antonina in maintaining his position at court. Without her, he would not have the same level of influence in political and military affairs. Furthermore, the reliance went both ways. By having Belisarius, the empire’s leading general, tied to her close friend and confidante, Antonina, Theodora ensured that the likelihood of Belisarius leading a successful revolt against Justinian was slim; even if he did and won, Antonina would be in a position to intercede on her behalf with the new emperor.

Shortly afterwards, Theodora agreed to allow the restoration of Belisarius to the imperial grace. Again according to Procopius, Theodora emphasised that Belisarius was being restored to favour due to the intercession of Antonina, to whom the empress owed a favour thanks to her recent service. She also pointed out that Belisarius’ attitude to the emperor and empress would be judged by his treatment of Antonina (
Anekdota,
4. 27–30). The circumstances surrounding his restoration to favour reinforces the idea that the whole episode was contrived in order to reduce Belisarius from his lofty position as conqueror of the west and remind him that he was subordinate to both Justinian and Theodora. It further suggests that it was at least in part engineered to ensure that he remained loyal to Antonina, and was thus kept subordinate to Theodora.

The majority of Belisarius’ wealth was restored, except for a portion that was given as a present by Theodora to her husband. To further secure his loyalty to the imperial family, his daughter Joannina was betrothed to Anastasius, one of Theodora’s grandsons, although Procopius suggests that this was also a way for Theodora or her descendants to acquire his personal wealth after he had died
(Anekdota,
5. 20).

Once restored to imperial favour, Belisarius asked to be reinstalled as
magister militum per Orientem,
and to be sent to the east to fight the Persians. His request was declined, possibly at the request of Antonina, who declared that she did not want to go back to the place where she had been insulted in front of everybody
(Anekdota,
4.38). However, a further reason for the refusal presents itself. There was an urgent need for a commander in Italy and Justinian may have already decided to send Belisarius back to the scene of his earlier triumphs. Instead of being reinstated as
magister militum per Orientem
he was given the lower rank of
comes sacri stabuli
(count of the sacred stables). Whilst still a senior post, the appointment must be seen as evidence that Belisarius had not been fully restored to imperial favour. Moreover, the post of
magister militum per Orientem
was still held by Martinus and it may have been impolitic to have removed him from office after such a short tenure.

The Return to Italy

For his new campaign Belisarius was not given the troops that had recently served under him. They were needed in the east to face the Persians. Furthermore, his
comitatus
had been distributed by lot amongst his fellow generals and he does not appear to have been able to recruit a substantial number of
bucellarii
to form his household. Instead, he travelled throughout Thrace, his home province, offering a bounty to volunteers willing to join him. He was joined in this exercise by Vitalius,
magister militum per Illyricum,
who had recently returned from Italy.

After collecting around 4,000 men, Belisarius decided to make for Salona and from there, following Vitalius’ advice, proposed to take the land route to Ravenna (Proc,
Wars,
VILxiii. 14). With the Goths controlling the Italian peninsula outside the towns, Belisarius decided not to travel straight to Rome. He did not yet have enough troops to face the Goths in open battle and he was certain to be seen and his presence reported to Totila; there was no chance of taking the Goths by surprise.

Meantime, at Dryus the Byzantines were in such dire straits as their food supplies ran low that they agreed to surrender the city on a specific date should no outside help arrive. Belisarius loaded provisions on to ships and sent Valentinus to save the city. Arriving unannounced, the ships entered the harbour unmolested, and when the Goths besieging the city saw the fleet, they abandoned the siege and retired to join forces with Totila. Valentinus stocked the city with provisions and replaced the sick and malnourished garrison with fresh troops that he had brought from Belisarius. However, the new troops set out to plunder the countryside around the city and, in an accidental encounter with a Gothic force, were routed and forced to retreat to the city, having lost 170 men. Leaving the city with provisions to last them for a full year, Valentinus returned to Belisarius, who was still at Salona.

Once Valentinus had arrived back at Salona, Belisarius sailed to Pola. Totila quickly learned that he had landed and attempted to discover the composition of his army by sending a fake message from the Byzantine commander at Genoa. The messengers had instructions to spy on the Byzantine army, taking note of the numbers and types of troops present. Belisarius was completely fooled by the ploy and Totila now knew the nature of the army he had brought to Italy.

Whilst Totila had been spying upon Belisarius, the citizens of the besieged town of Tibur betrayed the town to the Goths. The garrison escaped but the Goths put the town to the sack, taking a large amount of spoils and captives.