My feeling is that he probably could have reigned as Western Emperor and had a moderately successful time of it. The unknown is whether his military genius would have translated into genius as an administrator and diplomat.
The short answer is probably his wife Antonina, who was a childhood bestie of the Empress Theodora. Theodora was a, ah, strong personality who was prone to emphatic answers to threats to her reign, which depended on her husband Emperor Justinian. For example, she ordered the imperial guard to intervene in the Nika riots by putting 30,000 unarmed spectators to the sword. You didn’t mess with Theodora...
I can’t remember where I read it, but one account said Justinian was just as loyal, was a humble man and friend of Belisarius, and trusted him completely. The two together were the reason for the success of the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century.
There are no doubt many emperors and rulers throughout history who would fear rivalry from a successful general, and would consider having them killed once their military goals were achieved. Fear of that alone probably contributed to half the revolts in this world....
Long live Mother Russia.
Spam?
FYI, Belisarius is a character in L. Sprague DeCamp’s novel “Lest Darkness Fall,” one of my all time favorite books, read & re-read at least a half dozen times since the early ‘60s.
This is a great post.
Belisarius was the greatest general of the late Roman period - probably even greater than Stilicho a hundred years earlier.
I haven’t read the Robert Graves novel yet - looking forward to it, as I loved the Claudius novels.
Where can yours be found?