Rome

Abstract

Abstract After a thousand years untouched by enemy hands, Rome fell to Alaric the Goth in 410. Having fallen once, it seemed that Rome could never defend itself again. Successive invaders from across the Alps pillaged the Italian peninsula and Rome. The Ostrogothic conquest in 455 put that population in control for the next seven decades. None of this had any real effect on the Roman Empire, however, for the Emperor Constantine had recentered it in Constantinople in 330. Even in what passed for an “empire” in Italy was controlled no longer from Rome, but from Ravenna. Thus, by the sixth century, “the glory that was Rome” had long since faded into fable. Still, the name had power, and in Constantinople the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian longed to re establish single control over the old empire that had stretched from the Middle East to Spain. He possessed the necessary military power and ambition to accomplish this feat, but for some reason was determined to do it on the cheap. Luckily for Justinian, he had the services of one of the most talented generals of all time, Belisarius. Rising from the ranks, the young man had defeated successive enemies in Parthia and North Africa, and Justinian assigned him the task of reconquering Italy. Unfortunately, the emperor allowed him only 5,000 soldiers with which to accomplish this task. Units in the Byzantine military, inheriting a tradition begun by Marius in the old Roman Republic, were raised and maintained by generals rather than directly by the state. Loyalty was personal rather than national, and private armies were often the path to the throne. Although Belisarius never gave his emperor the slightest impression of ambition to rule, history made Justinian overly cautious. This can be the only reason he gave his top general so few men with which to accomplish so much.