On this day in history: Belisarius smashes the retreating Goths: End of the siege of Rome, AD 538

Gloria Romanorum ^ | 3/12/18 | Florentius

[Antoninus]

On this day in history, 1.481 years ago.

[Da Coyote]

“Rommel, you magnificent SOB, I read your d*mned book.”

[treetopsandroofs]

Belisarius’s loss to Mark Harmon disappointed me more, after which Harmon’s gelding Dinozzo and McGee, killing off the Jews, and the ultra-incompetent Bishop drove me away from NCIS.

[z3n]

And Longinus the Isaurian and Mudilas, the guards of Belisarius, made themselves conspicuous for their valor in the battle.

~~~

Did he have the spear of destiny?

So you have a hasty retreat that wasn’t even necessarily to safety, and you weren’t controlling your flanks and choke points. Ouch

[Da Coyote]

Heh, good one!

[Pining_4_TX]

Thanks, that was quite interesting.

[dangus]

Not only that, he created Airwolf. (And JAG, And NCIS, And Quantum Leap...)

[Antoninus]

So you have a hasty retreat that wasn’t even necessarily to safety, and you weren’t controlling your flanks and choke points. Ouch

I'm not sure the retreat was hasty, but it was necessary. Based on my reading of the history, Vittiges didn't think for a second that the small force of defenders remaining in Rome would dare to attack his full army on the march.

[Spok]

Why do they make movies about comic book characters when there’s so much real history that tell more fantastic but true stories?

[Fiji Hill]

The Milvian Bridge today

[Antoninus]

Why do they make movies about comic book characters when there’s so much real history that tell more fantastic but true stories?

That is so true. The South Koreans do both. They make comic books about their heroes (such as Admiral Yi Soon Shin of turtle-ship fame) and then make incredible TV series about them.

I would encourage western entertainment media to follow suit, but our entertainment mavens can't make historical works without saturating it with SJW cr@p and/or porn. They suck.

[Reily]

An excellent read though somewhat questionable in its historical accuracy is the Robert Grave’s novel “Count Belisarius”.

Perhaps the greatest and least known general of late antiquity.

[PGR88]

Belisarius was a great general who achieved a lot for Justinian - but didn’t his public life eventually end in disgrace and disfavor of the crown?

[Reily]

I saw that TV series! It’s unbelievably good!
You can get it off Amazon.

I have never understood why a movie have never been done on Justinian & Theodora! It would be a great story on the screen. High ranking Roman falls in love with a prostitute\actress later become Emperor & Empress. The Byzantines if anything were colorful, had the Roman sense of pageantry.

In fact you could do multiple movies! One with them as heroes & one with them as villains! Their actual lives were that multisided! (What would you expect they were late Antiquity/dark Age Emperor & Empress and successful rules! They have to be both!)

[Antoninus]

I have never understood why a movie have never been done on Justinian & Theodora! It would be a great story on the screen. High ranking Roman falls in love with a prostitute\actress later become Emperor & Empress. The Byzantines if anything were colorful, had the Roman sense of pageantry.

Agree. Justinian is also a rags-to-riches story with plenty of intrigue to go around. I think our Hollyweird friends can't tolerate the fact that he was also a very devout Orthodox Catholic. That makes him not particularly useful as a hero for them.

Constantine's life would also make outstanding fodder for a TV series -- if told correctly.

[Verginius Rufus]

Supposedly he ended as a beggar outside Constantinople. A political cartoon from 1767 mocking Britain's mistreatment of its North American colonies shows Belisarius with limbs chopped off seated on the ground. There is a sash reading Date obolum Bellisario ("Give a penny to Belisarius").

[Verginius Rufus]

Read Procopius' Secret History. Theodora was the Hillary Clinton of her day.

But that may be unfair to Theodora.

[Antoninus]

Read Procopius' Secret History. Theodora was the Hillary Clinton of her day.

I've read it several times. I consider it the equivalent of the Weekly World News of Constantinople. It accuses Justinian of, among other things, being a demon in human form, walking around the palace at night without a head, of being able to transform his face into a shapeless mass of flesh, and being responsible for the death of a trillion people.

Honestly, I don't think Procopius actually wrote it but it was an expertly done ancient forgery by Justinian's enemies that used his name to add credibility.

[morphing libertarian]

Thanx

[Antoninus]

Belisarius was a great general who achieved a lot for Justinian - but didn’t his public life eventually end in disgrace and disfavor of the crown?

Well, Belisarius was disgraced for a period of time toward the end of his career according to the contemporary sources. It's doubtful that he was blinded, as the story goes. The sources are unclear. But it seems he ended his life in Justinian's good graces.

This aspect of Belisarius's life was turned into something of an historical fantasy by the pre-Revolutionary French author Marmontel who used it as an anti-royalist allegory for his own time.