Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

st sophia and the ‘reconquest’(c. 532,54) 75
have snatched victory in Italy despite the emperor’s readiness to make
terms with the Goths, his success was achieved only at the price of
Justinian’s suspicion. Belisarius was now sent to the east, hostilities having
been renewed by Khusro I, and had some success there, but was again
recalled in winter 541–2 and, despite further success against Khusro in 542,
he came under suspicion at the end of this year and (according to
Procopius) was dismissed and his property seized through the agency of
Theodora. 71 The second Persian war of the 540s coincided with the
onslaught of plague in the Byzantine east, and lack of Byzantine manpower
exposed the cities of Mesopotamia and led them to make ignominious and
expensive treaties of surrender to the Persians, while Byzantine achievements
were inglorious at best. 72 Procopius’ narrative reveals that the
Byzantine presence in the east was dangerously weak. Set battles were
avoided, and Khusro was able to extort treasure from the cities almost at
will. Furthermore, Belisarius’ expedition followed the sack of Antioch in
540, one of the worst disasters that occurred in Justinian’s reign. 73 Similar
conditions prevailed in Italy when Belisarius returned there on his second
expedition in 544; this was made far more difficult than the first through
the lack of necessary troops and resources; it is recounted unsympathetically
by Procopius. 74 Belisarius had a difficult time, and even when he succeeded
in reoccupying Rome (547), which had fallen to Goths under Totila
after a terrible siege, he had to keep writing to Justinian for reinforcements,
and sent Antonina to Constantinople on the same mission in 548.
Procopius did not accompany him on this expedition, and describes it as
ignominious for Belisarius. 75 The latter was recalled again in 549, possibly
through the intervention of his wife, after the death of Theodora in 548,
and was sent neither to the east nor back to Italy when the newly appointed
Germanus died in 550.
It is difficult to gauge the truth about Justinian’s military policies from
the tendentious and personalized account given by Procopius; indeed,
Evagrius’ version has a rather different emphasis. In the event, it was not
Belisarius who ended the long and difficult Italian war but his rival Narses,
with victories at Busta Gallorum and Mons Lactarius in which, respectively,
the Gothic leaders Totila and Teias were killed (552). 76 Nevertheless, the
war in Italy was not yet over, for Narses had still to recover Cumae and the
cities of Etruria, and to face the army of Franks and Alamanni under
Butilinus and Leutharis which had invaded Italy from the north; the siege
of Cumae lasted a year, that of Luca three months. Narses spent the winter
of 553–4 in Ravenna and Rome, and defeated Butilinus and the Franks,
who had a much larger army, near the river Casilinum in the vicinity of
71 Wars ii.19.49;cf.SH 2.21–5; 4.13–17; see PLRE iii.211. 72 See Cameron, Procopius 159–65.
73 Procop. Wars ii.10.4. 74 PLRE iii.212–16, see especially Wars vii.35.1, SH 4.42–5, 5.1–3.
75 See Cameron, Procopius 189. 76 Procop. Wars viii.32.6–21; 35.16–32.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008