Belisarius: The Last Roman General (47 page)

During this period many of the Roman citizens returned to the city, partly because of the relative safety the rebuilt walls afforded, but mainly due to Belisarius having brought a large amount of supplies with him by river. The area had yet to recover agriculturally from the previous battles and sieges, and there was a distinct shortage of food around Rome.

Totila, who was advancing north towards Ravenna, was informed of Belisarius’ retaking of Rome and arrived in front of the city before Belisarius was able to install new gates in the walls. Camping overnight on the banks of the Tiber, the Goths launched a furious attack upon the empty gateways at sunrise. Belisarius had stationed his best men in the gateways and ordered the rest to man the walls and give supporting fire as the Goths attacked. The fighting was fierce, but as the entrances to the gateways were narrow the Goths were unable to make their superior numbers count. Furthermore, they lost many men due to the heavy volume of missiles being fired from the walls. With both sides exhausted, the fighting stopped at sunset and the Goths withdrew to their camp. Whilst the Goths rested overnight, the Byzantines kept guard and took the time to spread large numbers of caltrops around the gateways to help them in their defence.

On the second day the Goths again launched an assault, but the Byzantines gained the upper hand and a number of troops launched a sortie against the Goths. The Goths withdrew for a considerable distance and the Byzantine forces leading the pursuit were in danger of being surrounded. Fortunately, Belisarius observed the danger in time and ordered a large force to rescue them from their perilous situation. After the second day of battle, the Goths had lost many men killed and wounded and the Byzantines were exhausted, so both sides rested for many days.

Once rested, the Goths prepared another assault, but this time Belisarius led the army out to meet them. In the ensuing battle Totila’s standard bearer was killed and his standard fell to the ground. After a fierce fight, the Goths retained the standard but were routed with heavy loss. Retiring to their camp, dissension now arose amongst the nobles. Many of them complained that when he had chance Totila had neither razed the walls of Rome to the ground, nor left a garrison in the city. Due to Totila’s mistakes, the Goths were now faced with the need to lay siege to the city all over again. Totila decided that another siege of Rome would be unprofitable, so the Goths destroyed most of the bridges across the Tiber to restrict Byzantine movements and, lifting the siege, moved to Tibur. Here they rebuilt the fortress that they had previously dismantled and settled in for the winter. In Rome, Belisarius had the time needed to remake the city gates. Once completed, he sent the keys to Justinian and also settled down for the winter.

Yet the Goths were stirred to activity by events in Perusia. The Goths besieging the city became aware that the defenders were low on rations, so sent to Totila to bring the army north in order to take the city. Despite resistance, the Gothic nobles were persuaded to make the attempt and the army moved to Perusia.

Whilst Belisarius had been retaking Rome, John nephew of Vitalianus had begun the siege of Acherontis. Learning that Totila was busy assaulting the walls of Rome, John chose a picked force of cavalry and force-marched to Campania in an attempt to rescue the Roman Senators being held there by the Goths. Aware that John might make such an attempt, Totila had sent a force of cavalry to Campania to stop him. The majority had made camp at Minturnae and had rested there to care for their horses. Some 400 men were sent on to Capua and the adjoining towns to act as scouts and locate the Byzantine forces.

Undetected, the Byzantine forces reached Capua at the same time as the 400 Goths and a fierce battle began. John won a decisive victory and the surviving Goths retired to Minturnae. However, once they reached Minturnae the combined Gothic forces retired to rejoin Totila, who by this time had moved to attack Perusia. In order to retain their reputation, the Goths informed Totila that a large Byzantine force was now at large in Campania.

John found seventy Byzantine deserters in the Gothic camp who elected to rejoin the Byzantine army, but he only released a few Roman senators, since the majority had escaped to Portus during the Gothic sack of the city. He did find many of the wives of the senators and these were released. The result was that many senators who would otherwise have been constrained in their actions due to the threat to their wives were now free to choose their own destinies.

There was another consequence to John’s actions. Totila now believed that he had lost face to John and decided that John needed to be punished in order for Totila to regain his standing. Leaving a small force at Perusia to maintain the siege, Totila headed towards Lucania. John had set up camp with 1,000 men and posted scouts along the roads in order to guard against just such an attack. Totila was expecting this, so he marched off-road through the nearby mountains, which were considered to be impassable. John’s scouts realised that there was a Gothic army in the region, but were unable to pin down its location. Therefore, they returned to John’s camp, arriving after night had fallen. By a coincidence, Totila arrived there at the same time.

Totila now made a major mistake. Although he had the larger force, he decided to attack at night. Furthermore, he did not use the element of surprise to his best advantage by surrounding the camp. Instead he launched an immediate attack with predictable results. In panic, the Byzantine troops fled away from the attacking Goths. However, since Totila had only attacked on a narrow front, the majority of the Byzantine troops escaped. In this they were helped both by the lack of opposition around the perimeter of the camp and by the covering darkness. Only about 100 Byzantines were killed by the Gothic assault. John, together with Arufus the leader of the Heruls, escaped to Dryus and the Goths plundered the Byzantine camp before returning to Perusia.

Finally having troops spare, Justinian at last felt able to respond to Belisarius’ repeated requests and send reinforcements to Italy. Firstly, Pacurius and Sergius with a few men arrived in Italy and joined forces with Belisarius. These men were followed by two more groups, one of 300 Heruls led by Verus and the other of 800 Armenians led by Varazes. Verus landed at Dryus but refused to join with John the nephew of Vitalianus, instead advancing to the neighbourhood of Brundisium and making camp. Totila marched to meet him, but the Goths were seen by the Heruls, who hid in some nearby woods. Surrounded by the Goths, the Heruls lost 200 of their men before the fleet carrying the Armenians approached the coast. Totila, assuming that the fleet was carrying a large force of reinforcements, retired, and Verus and the Heruls joined the Armenians and sailed to Tarentum. There they were joined by John and his troops.

The final reinforcements were under the command of Valerian,
magister militum per Armeniam.
Justinian recalled him from the east and ordered him, along with his
comiitatus
of over 1,000 men, to go to Italy. Valerian arrived at the Adriatic coast, but, as it was near to the winter solstice, he decided to remain there for winter to help ease the problems of supply in Italy. Valerian sent 300 men to join John and inform him of the decision.

In the meantime, Justinian sent a message to Belisarius informing him of the imminent arrival of reinforcements and ordering him to unite with them in Calabria and then take the war to the Goths. Belisarius received the emperor’s orders and, leaving Conon in charge of the Byzantine garrison, took 700 cavalry and 200 infantry and sailed to Sicily before going on to Tarentum. However, a storm arose and he was forced to halt at Croton, which had no walls and no supplies. He decided to remain in place with the infantry, sending the cavalry under Phazas the Iberian and Barbation, one of his guards, to guard the passes into the area, since there were only two of them and they were narrow and easy to defend. In this manner he hoped not only to guard against attack but also by dispersing the troops to help ease the difficulty of supply.

The two passes over the mountains were the Petra Sanguinis (Rock of Blood) and the one known as Lavula to the locals. The only other entrances to the area were at the two ends of the mountains, but one was covered by the garrison at Rusciane, the naval base of Thurii, whilst the other was controlled by a fortress – possibly Rossano – which had earlier been garrisoned by John.

The cavalry sent by Belisarius towards the fortress encountered by chance a force sent by Totila to take the fortress. Although they were outnumbered, the Byzantines immediately attacked the Goths, killing over 200 of them and forcing the rest to flee. The survivors returned to Totila and reported the presence of Byzantine forces in the area. Due to the ease of their victory, the Byzantine cavalry became complacent and failed to maintain a proper guard on the pass, wandering the area in small groups.

Totila investigated and, when he had learned of the Byzantine deployment, selected 3,000 cavalry to attack the Byzantines. When they struck, Phazas happened to be camped nearby and he and his men fought back bravely. Although they were all killed, their resistance allowed many Byzantine troops to escape.

The troops that had been destroyed were classed by the Byzantines as an ‘unusually efficient fighting force’ (Proc,
Wars,
VII.xxviii.16–7), so when Barbation reached Belisarius with the news of the defeat, as well as giving his opinion that the Goths would soon be arriving, Belisarius ordered all of the men to board ship and immediately sailed to Messana in Sicily. In the meantime. Totila learned that the fortress at Rusciane was low on supplies, so he advanced and laid siege to the place. It was here that he spent the next winter (548).

In the New Year, Justinian sent 2,000 men by sea to Italy and ordered Valerian to cross the Adriatic and join Belisarius. Valerian set sail and landed at Dryus, where he found Belisarius, along with Antonina. At this point Belisarius sent Antonina on a mission to Constantinople to intervene with the Empress Theodora to gain the troops and provisions he needed to prosecute an aggressive war against the Goths. He also sent orders to John to join him at Dryus.

Two events now helped to shape the nature of the war. At Rusciane, the garrison, commanded by Chalazar the Hun and Gudilas the Thracian (one of John’s guardsmen) comprised 300 Illyrian cavalry and 100 infantry that had been sent by Belisarius. These men opened negotiations with Totila and agreed that if by midsummer no help had arrived, they would surrender to him.

Simultaneously, the garrison in Rome killed their commander, Conon, and then sent priests as envoys to Justinian. They accused Conon of trafficking in grain and other goods at their expense, demanded pardons for his death and requested the arrears of pay that they were owed. They stated that if their demands were unfulfilled, they would hand the city to Totila. Justinian immediately granted their requests and the city was retained in Byzantine hands.

When John arrived at Dryus, Belisarius, Valerian and the other commanders joined him aboard ship and their combined forces sailed to relieve Rusciane. The troops in the fortress saw the ships approaching and determined not to surrender to Totila, even though the date for their surrender had arrived. Unfortunately, a storm blew up and scattered the ships before they could land. Gathering again at Croton, the fleet made a second attempt to relieve the garrison. On this occasion, the Goths saw the fleet and determined to resist them as they landed. Mounting their horses they rode down to the beach and formed up opposite the fleet. In the face of such determined opposition the army refused to land, instead returning to Croton.

Once back in Croton, the commanders held a conference in which it was decided that Belisarius should proceed to Rome and that John and Valerian would march overland to Picenum, relieving any strongholds in the region that were still under siege by the Goths. It was hoped that this move would force Totila to raise the siege of Rusciane and force him to follow the troops as they moved north. As planned, John began the march to Picenum with 1,000 men. However, being worried about journeying over land, Valerian and his troops sailed to Ancon (Proc,
Wars,
VH.xxx.17).

The plan did not work. Totila selected 2,000 men and sent them to Picenum, remaining with the other 1,000 to finish the siege of Rusciane. Recognising that their position was hopeless, the garrison again entered negotiations. Totila agreed to free the garrison as long as Chalazar was handed to him, as Chalazar was the one who had encouraged resistance when the Byzantine fleet had been sighted. The garrison agreed and Chalazar was executed by Totila. The other terms of the agreement were the ones that can now be seen as standard for Totila: the remainder of the garrison could either keep their arms and equipment and join his forces as equals of the Goths, or they could leave their belongings behind and go where they wished. Only eighty of the 400-strong garrison opted to make the long march to join Belisarius. The rest joined the Goths. Totila further ordered the confiscation of all of the property of the local Italians. They were, however, allowed to go free and unharmed wherever they desired.

After Belisarius had reached Rome, word finally came from his wife in Constantinople. When she had reached the capital, she had found that the plan to solicit the aid of the empress was a failure, since she had died on 28 June 548. Instead, Justinian had agreed to recall Belisarius to the capital, so ending his exploits in Italy.

Belisarius recalled

Procopius’ gives three reasons as the cause of Belisarius’ recall from Italy. The first of these is that Antonina, upon finding that the empress was dead and her mission impossible, instead urged Justinian to recall Belisarius (
Wars,
VII.xxx.25). The second is that Belisarius himself asked to be recalled from his hopeless war in Italy (
Anekdota,
5.16-7). The third is that Justinian needed to recall Belisarius due to the renewed threat of war with Persia, and the possible need to send him to command operations in the east (
Wars,
111.30.25; 36.4).