BELISARIUS. 



BELL, ANDREW. 



622 



Bilccha and Euphrates, he sustained a defeat, but succeeded in pre- 

 venting the Persians from deriving any advantage from their victory. 



Shortly afterwards peace was concluded, and Belisarius returned to 

 Constantinople. During hia residence there he married Antonina, an 

 actress by profession, and a woman of the most dissolute character. 

 By his energy he succeeded in suppressing a sedition which had 

 nearly subverted the throne of Justinian. In June 533 he sailed as 

 commander of an expedition for the recovery of those provinces of 

 Africa which had anciently belonged to the empire, but were now 

 possessed by the Vandals. He landed in September at Caput Vada, 

 now Capoudia, about 150 miles south of Carthage, and advanced with- 

 out opposition to Decimum, about eight miles (seventy stadia) from 

 Carthage. Having defeated the enemy at Decimum, he immediately 

 entered the capital, while Gelimer, the Vandal king, fled towards the 

 deserts of Numidia, where he occupied himself in assembling an 

 army at Bulla, four days' journey from Carthage. Belisarius suppressed 

 a conspiracy which Oelimer had tried to organise among the Cartha- 

 ginians and Huns in the Byzantine service, and he afterwards defeated 

 the Vandal army which had advanced to Tricameron, within twenty 

 miles of Carthage. Gelimer fled to the inaccessible mountain of 

 Pappua, near Hippo Regius, where he was blockaded, and some time 

 afterwards obliged to surrender. On his return to Carthage, Belisarius 

 sent detachments which reduced Sardinia and Corsica, and the Bale- 

 aric Isles ; he likewise recovered the fortress of LilybjEum, in Sicily, 

 which the Vandals had received as the dowry of a Gothic princess, 

 and which, on their downfall, had been resumed by the Goths. He 

 proceeded for some time in the settlement of the province, but finding 

 that suspicions of his fidelity had been excited in the mind of Justinian, 

 he determined to disarm them by a speedy return. He committed 

 the government to the eunuch Solomon, and set sail for Constan- 

 tinople. On, his arrival he was honoured with a triumph, an honour 

 which, since the reign of Tiberius, had been reserved for the emperors 

 alone ; a medal was struck, with the in cription " Belisarius, the glory 

 of the Romans," and in the ensuing year (535) he wag invested with 

 the dignity of sole consul. 



In that year he sailed with a very insufficient force for the conquest 

 of Italy from the Goths : he landed at Catania in Sicily, and having 

 rapidly reduced that island, fixed liis head-quarters at Syracuse. 

 While at Syracuse he received news of a rebellion in Africa. He 

 immediately set out thither with only one ship and a hundred guards, 

 and had nearly succeeded in restoring subordination, when he was 

 recalled to Sicily by a mutiny in the army there. Some negociationa 

 which had been in progress between the Goths and Justinian having 

 been broken off, Belisarius crossed over to Italy ; took Naples after a 

 siege of twenty days ; and at the end of the year 536 entered Rome, 

 which was evacuated by the Gothic garrison on his approach. Early 

 in 537 he was besieged there by Vitiges, the Gothic king, who had 

 recently been raised to\the throne on the deposition and murder of 

 Theodatus, and now advanced from Ravenna with an army of 150,000 

 men. In the course of the siege Belisarius deposed the Pope Sylverius, 

 whom he had detected in a treasonable correspondence with the enemy. 

 Before the end of the siege he incurred much obloquy by his pre- 

 cipitate execution of Constantino, an officer of rank and reputation, 

 who in an altercation with him respecting the restoration of some 

 plunder, forgot himself BO far as to draw his sword on his general; in 

 this affair BeUsarius is supposed to have acted rather in furtherance of 

 the private revenge of Antonina, who accompanied him in his expe- 

 ditions, than from any seasonable zeal for the vindication of discipline. 

 Early in 53S the siege, which had lx en carried on for more than a 

 year with great vigour, was raised, and Vitiges retired to Ravenna. 

 Belisarius then proceeded in the reduction of the provinces of Italy, 

 though much impeded by the factious opposition of his officers and by 

 an invasion of the Franks ; but in the beginning of the year 529, 

 Narses, the leader of the faction, was recalled, and the Franks re- 

 treated after a chort inroad. At length Ravenna was invested, but, 

 when its surrender could no longer have been delayed, an embassy 

 which bad been sent by Vitiges to Constantinople returned with a 

 treaty of partition, which left to him the title of king, and the pro- 

 vinces north of the Po. This treaty Beliearius refused, on his own 

 responsibility, to execute, and the Goths, driven to despair, offered him 

 their rapport if he would assume the title of Emperor of the West. 

 By affecting compliance he gained possession of Ravenna, and the sur- 

 render of that city was followed by the submission of almost the 

 whole of Italy. In the beginning of 540 ho was recalled to Con- 

 stantinople, whither he immediately repaired. 



In the spring of 641 he was sent to conduct the war which had 

 broken out with Persia, and after an indecisive campaign returned to 

 Constantinople. In 542 he was again appointed to the supreme com- 

 mand in the Persian war, and at the close of the campaign again 

 recalled, and on his arrival degraded from all his employments. 

 During the campaign a rumour hail prevailed of the death of Justinian, 

 and Belisarius had used language unfavourable to the succession of 

 Theodora. His treasures were attached, and he, remained in momen- 

 tary expectation of an order for his execution. A heavy fine was 

 levied on his effects, but his life waa spared, the pardon being accom- 

 panied by the injunction to be reconciled to hia wife Antonina, against 

 whom he was incensed for her infidelity. 

 In 544 Belisarius was again named to command in Italy, but with 



the insufficient force intrusted to him he was unable to raise the siege 

 of Rome, which had, since the beginning of 546, been blockaded by 

 Totila*, the Gothic kintr, and was now reduced to the extremity of 

 famine. In the end of 546 Rome was taken by treachery, but Totilaa 

 was diverted from his design of razing the city with the ground by 

 the remonstrances of Belisarius. In the beginning of 547 Totilas 

 advanced against Ravenna, and immediately on his departure Rome 

 was re-occupied by Belisarius, and successfully defended by him against 

 Totilas, who retraced hia steps and endeavoured to retake it. But, 

 though successful in the neighbourhood of Rome, Belisarins was 

 unable, from the smallness of his means, to put an end to the war ; 

 and from the same cause he afterwards suffered so many reverses, that 

 in the year 548 he requested that either the force at Ms disposal might 

 be augmented, or he might be recalled ; and the latter alternative was 

 ;ranted. 



Belisarius, having escaped assassination by the discovery of a conspi- 

 racy, the chiefs of which dreaded his inflexible fidelity, lived for some 

 time at Constantinople in the enjoyment of wealth and dignity. In 

 559 the Bulgarians invaded the empire, and he received the command 

 of the army destined to oppose them. After checking their progress, 

 he was removed from the command by the jealousy of Justinian, and 

 wae never after employed in the field. 



In 563 a conspiracy against the emperor was discovered, in which 

 he was accused of participating. Of his subsequent fate there are two 

 accounts. The more probable is that given by Gibbon, that his life 

 was spared, but his fortune sequestrated, and that he was confined to 

 his own palace. His innocence was soon acknowledged, and his property 

 and freedom restored, but he did not long survive his liberation ; he 

 died in the early part of the year 565. A tradition relates that ho 

 was deprived of his eyes, and reduced to beg hia bread, but this is not 

 countenanced by any authority older than the llth century, and can 

 be traced no further back than to an anonymous writer in Banduri'a 

 'Imperium Orientale" (quoted by Lord Mahon, p. 467), and to Tzetzes, 

 who wrote in the 12th century. Lord Mahon has sought to establish 

 the truth of the tradition, but his arguments do not appear sufficiently 

 strong to induce us to receive it. The story of the blindness of Belisariua 

 was adopted by painters, aa we might naturally expect; and Marmoutel 

 in his romance of Belisarius, and various other modern writers have 

 contributed to give it a popular character. Belisarius had one daughter, 

 Joannina, by his wife Antonina. 



Belisariua is described as being of a majestic presence, brave, gene- 

 rous, and affable, and a strict lover of justice, His unshaken fidelity 

 is sufficiently manifest from the whole course of his life. His talents 

 for war appear to have been of the highest order, and we have few 

 examples of such great effects produced with such small means. Hia 

 character ia degraded by base subserviency to hia infamous wife, who 

 appears to have been mainly concerned in the moat objectionable 

 passages of his career, and by the rapacity which marked the latter part 

 of his life. 



(Procopius; Jornandea, Dt Reb. Get.; Lord Mahon, Life of Bdi- 

 tarius ; Schloaaer, Universal-hulorische Ueberticht, th. 3, abth. 4 ; 

 Gibbon, chaps, xli., xlii., and xliii.) 



BELKNAP, JEREMY, was born in 1744. He took hia degree at 

 Harvard College, and from 1767 to 1787 waa minister of Dover church 

 in New Hampshire. He then removed to Boston, where he officia'ad 

 until his death in 1798. He is the author of a ' History of New 

 Hampshire,' and commenced an American biography, only two volumes 

 of which were published. He wrote also a number of religious, politi- 

 cal, and literary tracts, and was ono of the founders of the Massachu- 

 setts Historical Society. He appears to have been distinguished by 

 industry, research, aud extent of knowledge, rather than by the 

 possession of remarkable intellectual qualities. 



BELL, ANDREW, was born at St. Andrews, Fifeshire, in 1752, and 

 received his education in the university of that town. He was brought 

 up for the episcopal church, and took orders. He paased some years 

 in the British West Indies, and was then appointed chaplain at Fort 

 St. George, and minister of St. Mary'a church at Madras. Here he 

 commenced instructing gratuitously the orphan children of the military 

 asylum, and made the first attempt at the system of mutual instruction. 

 So well was he satisfied with ita succeas, that on hia return to England 

 he published in London, in 1797, 'An Experiment made at the Male 

 Aaylum at Madras, suggesting a System by which a School or Family 

 may teach itself under the superintendence of the Master or Parent.' 

 The pamphlet attracted but little attention, until in the following year 

 Joseph Lancaster opened a school in Southwark for poor children, 

 supported by subscription, and conducted upon this system. It waa 

 so successful that similar schools were established elsewhere. The 

 education of the poor being undertaken on so large a scale by a secta- 

 rian, tlie subscribers being also in the main dissidents from the Church 

 of England, caused some alarm in tlie leading members of that Church. 

 Bell waa opposed to Lancaster, and in 1807 waa employed to establiah 

 schools where the Church doctrines would be taught, and to prepare 

 books for them. Funds were provided, and the rivalry, by stimulating 

 both parties to exertion, resulted in nothing but good ; though the 

 particular feature, that of mutual instruction with the help of a master 

 only, has been found to require very material modifications. Dr. Bell, 

 as a reward for his labours, was made a prebendary of Westminster. 

 He died at Cheltenham, January 28, 1832, aged 80, and was buried 



