The Battle for Rome: Belisarius vs. the Goths

So with all that said, let's set the stage for today's story.

General Belisarius lives in the sixth century.

He's born in the year 500, and a lot of the events of his life are gonna be happening in the first half of the 500s.

And at this point, the Roman Empire looks very different.

The western half of the empire, which was governed out of the city of Rome, has fallen.

Rome itself fell to a guy called Odoacer in 476, and shortly afterwards it was ruled by the Goths.

So it's no longer under imperial control.

But that wasn't the end of the Roman Empire because the Roman Empire also had an eastern capital, the city of Constantinople, and the Roman emperors in that city continued to wear the purple, to dispense Roman law, and to hold Roman triumphs.

And we saw one of those happen in our last episode.

That happened because General Belisarius had been dispatched on a mission to reclaim a lost Roman province in North Africa.

Now, North Africa today seems like a very hot, almost desert-like environment, but during this period in the sixth century, it was much more fertile, much more agriculturally productive.

So Roman territories in North Africa had been part of the breadbasket of the empire for quite some time.

So during the time of Belisarius, the emperors in Constantinople still control Egypt, but they've lost control of what is now Tunisia.

And that's because a Germanic tribe called the Vandals rolled in there, and they've been ruling it for the last 60 years.

So in our last episode, we saw Belisarius go into North Africa and retake it from the Vandals, and his reward was a classic Roman imperial triumph through the streets of Constantinople, which ended with the Vandal King Gelimer being forced to prostrate himself in public before Emperor Justinian.

As a result of this amazing military conquest, Belisarius is the most celebrated man in Rome, and he and his wife Antonina receive promotions, they become incredibly wealthy, and in fact, they are the most prominent couple in the empire next to Emperor Justinian and his wife, Empress Theodora.

But Belisarius' next mission will be even more significant.

Emperor Justinian is about to dispatch him to Italy to reconquer the lost city of Rome itself.

The obvious question to ask here is why is Emperor Justinian about to begin a war with the Goths in Italy? Why now? After all, the Goths have been in control of Italy and the city of Rome for the last 60 years or so.

So why is it at this particular moment that Justinian decides it's a good time to make war? Well, there are a number of factors, as you would expect, that influence this decision.

So Emperor Justinian is negotiating with this Gothic queen, and he's trying to get her to concede returns of some of the land in Italy back to Justinian's control, back to the Roman Empire.

This queen herself is not necessarily supported by all the Goths, and she's doing her own maneuvers to try to keep her position and to minimize the many threats that the Goths are currently facing.

However, all these negotiations were suddenly overturned when the Queen of the Goths was murdered.

The Goths are now led by a new guy called Theodahad, and any negotiations that Justinian had hoped to conclude suddenly had to go back to the beginning.

But Emperor Justinian recognizes that these internal divisions amongst the Goths that have led to the murder of one queen and the sudden promotion of another man to wear the crown make them vulnerable.