BEL 



BEL 



lumc. appeared in 1 750 and 1 753 : 1755. Diflionnairt pnr- 

 tati/ dl t Inginitur : 1 7ti4, posthumous work, (Kuvrtt di- 

 Vfrtet, e., relating to fortification and mining. (Thin is 

 the only work we ever met with which ha a wrong dale in 

 it* own tide-pane. H being there 1754, in which year M. 

 Bclidor was l:\mg.) Tlio work on fortification, which has 

 been sometime* attributed to M. Belidor, in 4 voU. 4to., 

 wat never published, as far as we can find, but was left in- 

 complete among his papers. There are also memoirs of M. 

 Belidor, in the Hillary of tht Academy of Seiencet, from 

 1737 to 1756. 



BELIGRAD (a word signifying, in the Bulgaro-Slavonic 

 dialect, the While Town), an important town of Albania, 

 ow generally known under the name of Her.'it . Mr. Hughes 

 conjectures, though with great diffidence, that it i on the 

 f the antiont Antipatria, a city taken by Apustius, 

 lieutenant of the Consul 1'. Sulpicius, in Uie war Ijetween 

 tile Romans and Philip King of Macedonia ; and he urges, in 

 up port of his conjecture, the description of Antipatriu given 

 by Livy, who says that it was in a narrow pass, and that it 

 inspired confidence into its inhabitants by its size and the 

 ttrength of its walls and site. (Livy, lib. xxxi. -J7.) In 

 the Byzantine writers, Beligrad appears uni!er the name of 

 Balagrada, or Balagrita, and is still sometimes called A rnaout 

 Belgrade (or the Albanian Belgrade), to distinguish it from 

 the town of Belgrade on the Danube. In the latter part of 

 the thirteenth century it was in the hands of the Greek 

 emperors, the dominion of the Albanians not having yet 

 extended to this part of the country. In the fourteenth 

 century it was conquered by the Albanians ; ami it was 

 probably from them that it was taken by Amurath, or Mu- 

 rad II., Emperor of the Turks, who reigned in the early 

 part of the fifteenth century. George Kastrioti (better known 

 by the Turkish name of Iskender Beg, or Scandcrbeg) at- 

 tempted to retake it. He encamped against it with a force 

 of 8UOO horse and 7000 foot, among whom was a strong 

 body of Italians, sent by Alfonso King of Naples, men 

 kili'ul in the assaulting ofwalles and holdes.' Kastrioti 

 was defeated, and lost nearly all his Neapolitan auxiliaries. 

 Beligrad has been ever since in the hands of the Turks. 

 [See Bg*AT.]' (Hughes's Travels in Greece and Albania; 

 Leake's Retearchet in Greece.) 



BELISA'RIUS (Bt\iadpu>c), a general of the lower em- 

 pire, under Justinian I. The precise year and place of his 

 birth arc uncertain, but it is most probable that he was horn 

 near the city of Sardica (a place on the Isker), in the be- 

 ginning of the bixih century. Of Ins parentage nothing is 

 Known. 



He makes his first appearance in history as one of the 

 body guard of Justinian, at that time heir to the throne. 

 The Byzantine empire was then, about A.D. 525, at war with 

 Persia, and Belisarius exercised his first command in an 

 expedition into Persarraenia. On his return he was nomi- 

 nated to the government of Dara, an important fortified 

 town in the northern part of Mesopotamia, near the frontier 

 of Armenia, where he took into his service, as secretary, the 

 historian Procopius, whose writings are our principal autho- 

 rity for the events of his life. In 527 Justinian came to 

 the throne, and by his orders Belisarius proceeded to build a 

 fortress at Mindon, near Dara. The Persians commanded 

 him to desist, and on his refusal marched against him, de- 

 feated his troops, and razed the works. We may conclude, 

 however, that no blame attached to him, as shortly after 

 we find him appointed general of the East, with the conduct 

 of the Persian war. In the year 530 he defeated the 

 enemy in the decisive battle of Dara ; and in the following 

 year he repulsed, by a series of skilful manoeuvres, a consi- 

 derable army, which had invaded Syria on the side of thu 

 desert, and advanced so far as to threaten Antioc.h. Being, 

 however, compelled by his troops to give battle, contrary to 

 bis own inclination, at Callinicum, a town at the junction 

 of the rivers Bilccha and Euphrates, he sustained a defeat, 

 but succeeded in preventing the Persians from deriving any 

 advantage from their victory. 



Shortly afterwards peace was concluded, and Belisarius 

 returned to Constantinople. During his residence there he 

 married An tunina, and succeeded in suppressing the sedition 

 called vita (ink.1), 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, lie landed (1'rocop, iripj Knvparwr) in 

 September at Caput Vada, now Capoudia, about 150 miles 



south of Carthage, and advanced without opposition to 

 Decimum, about eight miles' (seventy stadia) from Car- 

 thage. Having defeated the enemy at IHnnmm. l.e im- 

 mediately entered the capital, while Gelimer, the Vandal 

 king, tied towards the desert* of Nuuiidia, h--. 

 |ne<l himself in assembling an army at liull.i, four 

 journey from Carthage. He also endeavoured t 

 a conspiracy among the Carthaginians anil tin- II 

 the Byzantine service, which was discovered and suppr. 

 by Belisarius. The VandaU having advanced to '1 

 meron, within twenty miles of Carthage, were del- 

 in a decisive battle, and Gclimer lied to thu i 

 mountain of Pappua, near Hippo Regius, where 1 

 blockaded, and some time afterwards obliged to MHI 

 On his return to Carthage Belisarius sent detjclu ; 

 reduced Sardinia and Corsica, and the Balearic 

 likewise recovered the fortress of Lilybomm, in Sicily, which 

 the Vandals had received as the dowry of a Gothic I'm 

 and which, on their downfall, had been resinned 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 dis- 

 arm them by a speedy return. He committed the govern- 

 ment 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 re- 

 served for the emperors alone ; a medal was struck, with 

 the inscription Belisarius, the glory of the Romans,' and 

 in the ensuing year, 535, he was 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 his head- 

 quarters at Syracuse. While at Syracuse he received i:> 

 a rebellion in Africa. He immediately set out thither with 

 only one ship and 100 guards, and had nearly succeeded in 

 restoring subordination, when he was recalled to Sicily )>y a 

 mutiny in the army there. Some negotiations which had 

 been in progress between the Goths and Justinian having 

 been broken off, Belisarius crossed over to Italy ; his ad- 

 vance was only delayed by the resistance of Naples, which 

 he took after a siege of twenty days, and at the end of the 

 "i iti he entered Rome, which was evacuated by the 

 garrison on his approach. Early in 537 he was be- 

 '; there by Vitiges, the Gothic king, who had recently 

 been raised to the throne on the deposition and murder of 

 Thcodatus, and now advanced from Ravenna with an army 

 of 150,000 men. In the course of the siege Bclisarii 

 posed the Pope Sylverius, whom he had detected in a trea- 

 sonable correspondence with the enemy : by some writers 

 he is accused of having himself forged the letters, in com- 

 pliance with the orders of the Empress Theodora, who 

 wished to remove Sylverius from the pontificate, but the 

 charge appears to be unsupported by proof. Before the 

 end of the siege he incurred much obloquy by Ins pre- 

 cipitate execution of Constantino, an ofllcer of rank and 

 reputation, who in an altercation with him respecting the 

 restoration of some plunder, forgot himself so far as to draw 

 in-, sword on his general ; he was immediately put to death 

 by the command of Belisarius, who is supposed to have 

 acted rather in furtherance of the private revenge of Anto- 

 nina, who accompanied him in his expeditions, than from 

 anv seasonable zeal for the vindication of discipline. 



Early in 538 the siege, which had been carried on fur 

 more than a year with gnat vigour, was raised, and Vitiges 

 retired to Ravenna. Belisarius then proceeded in the re- 

 duction 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 539, N. 

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

 treated after a short inroad. At length Ravenna was in- 

 vested, but, when its surrender could no longer have been 

 delayed, an embassy which had been sent by Vitiges to 

 Constantinople returned with a treaty of partition, which 

 left to him the title of king, and the provinces north of the 

 I'o. This treaty Belisarius refused, on his own responsi- 

 bility, to execute, and the Goths, driven to despair, oll'cn ! 

 him their support if he would assume the title of Emperor 

 of the West By affecting compliance he gained possi 

 of Ravenna, and the surrender of that city was followed by 

 the submission of almost the whole of Hah . In the be- 

 ginning of 540 he was recalled to Constantinople, whither 

 he immediately repaired 



