BEL 



187 



BEL 



In the spring of 541 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 command 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 had prevailed of the death of Justinian, 

 and Belisarius had used language unfavourable to the suc- 

 cession of Theodora. His treasures were attached, and he 

 remained in momentary expectation of an order for his exe- 

 cution. A heavy fine was levied on his effects, but his life 

 was spared, the pardon being accompanied by the injunction 

 to be reconciled to his wife Antonina, against whom he was 

 incensed for her infidelity. 



In 544 Belisarius was again named to command in Italy, 

 where, through the incapacity of his successors, the slight 

 remains of resistance which he had left behind were become 

 formidable. Having- set out from Constantinople with a 

 few veteran troops, ne succeeded in his progress through 

 Thrace in collecting an inconsiderable force, with which he 

 proceeded to meet the fleet at Salona in Illyricum, whence 

 he despatched some ships to the relief of Otranto, which 

 was besieged by the Goths. This squadron having raised 

 the siege, rejoined him at Salona, ana the whole armament 

 proceeded by sea to Pola, also in Illyricum, where he spent 

 some time in reviewing and exercising his troops. From 

 this place he sailed along the coast of the Adriatic to Ra- 

 venna. For some time he was prevented by the insufficiency 

 of his force from effecting anything considerable, and at 

 last, leaving merely the necessary garrison in Ravenna, he 

 sailed with the rest of his troops to Dyrrachium in Epirus, 

 where he awaited the succours which fie expected. Having 

 with much delay obtained a scanty reinforcement, he pro- 

 ceeded by sea to the relief of Rome, which had, since the 

 beginning of 546, been blockaded by Totilas, the Gothic 

 fcinir, and was now reduced to the extremity of famine. 

 After a vigorous attack on the Gothic lines by Belisarius, 

 which only failed through the disobedience of one of his 

 oflicers, Rome was taken by treachery in the end of the same 

 yi'.ir ; but Totilas 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 Tot ila, 

 who retraced his steps and endeavoured to retake it. But, 

 though successful in the neighbourhood of Rome, he 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 5J 8 he requested that 

 either the force at his disposal might be augmented, or he 

 might be recalled ; and the latter alternative was granted. 



Belisarius, having escaped assassination by the discovery 

 of a conspiracy, the chiefs of which dreaded his inllexible 

 fidelity, lived for some time at Constantinople in the enjoy- 

 ment of wealth and dignity. In 559 the Bulgarians in- 

 raded the empire, and he received the command of the 

 army destined to oppose them. After checking their pro- 

 gress, he was removed from the command by the jealousy 

 of Justinian, and was never after employed in the field. 



In 563 a conspiracy against the emperor was discovered, 

 in which he was accused of participatfng. Of his subsequent 

 rate 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 libera- 

 tion ; he died in the early part of the year 565. A tradition 

 relates that he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced to beg 

 his bread, exclaiming to the passers-by, ' Give a penny to 

 Belisarius the General !' but this is not countenanced by 

 any authority older than the eleventh century, and can be 

 traced no further back than to an anonymous writer in Ban- 

 duri's Imperium Orientate (quoted by Lord Mahon, p. 467), 

 and to Tzetzes, who wrote in the twelfth century. Though 

 the last writer on the subject (Lord Mahon) labours hard to 

 establish the truth of the tradition, his arguments do not 

 appear sufficiently strong to induce us to receive it. The 

 story of the blindness of Belisarius was adopted by painters, 

 as we might naturally expect ; and various modem writers 

 also, such as Marmontel in his romance of Belisarius, have 

 ributed to give it a popular character: but for these 

 circumstances, a fact fur which there Is no reasonable evi- 

 dence would hardly require even this brief notice. 



Belisarius had one daughter, Joannina, by his wife An- 

 tonina. 



He is described as being of a majestic presence, brave 

 generous, and affable, and a strict lover of justice. His un- 

 haken fidelity is sufficiently manifest from the whole course 

 of his life. His talents for war appear to have been of the 

 lighest order, and we have few examples of such great 

 ;ffects produced with such small means. His character is 

 stained by base subserviency to his wife, who appears to 

 aave been mainly concerned in the most objectionable pas- 

 sages of his career, and his ignorance or endurance of her 

 'nfidelity rendered him ridiculous. The latter part of his 

 ife appears to have been liable to the charge of rapacity, 

 jut, when we consider his superiority to the age in which 

 le lived, we shall be inclined, if not to pardon his defects, 

 at least to excuse them in consideration of the corruption of 

 .he times. 



(See Procopius; Jornandes, De Reb. Get.; Lord Mahon's 

 Life of Belisarius ; the sketch in Schlosser's Universal- 

 historische Uebersicht, th. 3, abth. 4 ; and Gibbon, chaps, xli. 

 xlii. and xliii.) 



BELIZE. [See BALIZE.] 



BELKNAP, JEREMY, was born in 1744. He took his 

 degree at Harvard College, near Boston in North America, 

 and was afterwards ordained minister of Dover church, in 

 New Hampshire, in 1767. He remained here till 1787, 

 when he entered upon the charge of a church in Boston, at 

 which he officiated until his death in 1798. He is the au- 

 thor of a ' History of New HampshirtC and commenced an 

 American biography, only two volumes of which were pub- 

 ished. He wrote also a number of religious, political, and 

 iterary tracts, and was one of the founders of the Massachu- 

 setts Historical Society. The biographical writers of the 

 United States represent him as distinguished by industry, 

 research, and extent of knowledge, rather than by the pos- 

 session of remarkable intellectual qualities. 



BELKNAP, SIR ROBERT, was bred to the study of 

 the law, and became chief justice of the Court of Common 

 Pleas, in the 4Sth of Edward III. (1374.) He continued 

 to hold this office until the 1 1th of Richard II. (1 388), when 

 liis removal from it took place under the following circum- 

 stances, which are given at length in Fuller's Wurthiet of 

 England, p. 567. ' The king had a mind to make away 

 certain lords : viz. his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, the 

 Earls of Arundel, Warwick, Derby, Nottingham, &c., who 

 in the former parliament had been appointed governors of 

 the kingdom. For this purpose he called all the judges 

 before him at Nottingham, where the king's many questions 

 in fine resolved themselves into this, " Whether he might 

 by his regal power revoke what was acted in parliament?" 

 To this all the judges, Sir William Skipwith alone excepted, 

 answered affirmatively, and subscribed if. This, Belknap 

 underwrote unwillingly, as foreseeing the danger, and 

 putting to his seal, said these words : " There wants no- 

 thing but a hurdle, a horse, and a halter to carry me where 

 I may suffer the death I deserve ; for if I had not done this, 

 I should have died for it ; and because I have done it I de 1 

 serve death for betraying the lords." ' By thus acting 

 against his conscience lie lost the opportunity of transmit- 

 ting an honourable fame to posterity ; but big submission 

 saved him only for a short time. In the succeeding parlia- 

 ment all the judges were arrested in Westminster Hall, on 

 a charge of high treason. The lord chief justice of the 

 Court of King's Bench was executed, and the other judges, 

 with Belknap, barely escaped with' their lives through the 

 intercession of the queen ; but their property was confiscated 

 to the king's use. Fuller does not mention the birthplace 

 of Sir Robert Belknap. but places him amongst the re- 

 markable personages which the county of Leicester has 

 produced, on the ground that a family of that name existed 

 in the county when he collected the materials for his work, 

 about the year 1660. 



BELL, a vessel, or hollow body of cast-metal, formed to 

 make a noise by some instrument striking against it. Bells 

 of a small size are undoubtedly very antient. As pots and 

 other vessels, more immediately necessary in the service of 

 life, were doubtless made before bells, it seems probable 

 that these vessels being observed to have a sound when 

 struck, gave occasion to making bells in that form. 



Small gold bells, intermixed with pomegranates, are 

 mentioned as ornaments worn upon the hem of the high- 

 priest's robe in Exod. chap, xxviii. v. 3, 4 ; and Calmet (Diet. 

 4to. Lond. 1797, vol. i. in voce) says that both were worn in 



2B9 



