The Eastern Empire. R O 
spectator^ were turned on Gelimer, who marched slowly 
along, repeating, Vanity, vanity, all is vanity ! His mis- 
fortunes were alleviated by an ample estate, in the province 
of Galatia, where he retired with his family and friends, to a 
life of peace, of affluence, and probably of content; while 
the services of Belisarius were immediately rewarded with the 
consulship, A. D. 535. 
Belisarius next menaced, in the name of the emperor, the 
recovery of the provinces belonging to the former empire of 
Rome. A nation of two hundred thousand soldiers might 
have derided the haughty threats of Justinian and his lieute¬ 
nant ; but a spirit of discord and insubordination prevailing 
in Italy, it was artfully turned to the subjugation of that 
country once more under the power of the emperor of the 
East. A body of forces, strengthened by the fame'of Beli¬ 
sarius, attacked and carried Palermo and Syracuse in Sicily; 
which being gained, the general, leaving sufficient garrisons 
behind him, embarked his troops at Messina, and landed at 
Rhegium. With little opposition, he advanced to Naples, 
which was strongly fortified, and well supplied with every 
requisite for standing a long siege; but four hundred Ro¬ 
mans entering the city by an aqueduct unperceived, opened 
the gates to their companions, and Naples became the prey 
of the victors. 
The jealousy of Justinian once more recalled Belisarius, 
who immediately obeyed the sutnmons ; but the conquerer 
of Italy was not allowed the well-earned honours of a second 
triumph : yet his virtues, his bravery, and approved loyalty, 
engaged the hearts of his fellow-citizens; and wherever he 
appeared, he attracted all eyes. 
Nevertheless, the fame of the hero was tarnished by the 
degrading tameness of the husband. His wife, Antonina, 
who had risen from the lowest situation to be the favourite of 
Theodora, and had early been remarkable for the irregularity 
of her conduct, still continued to defile the bed, and to dis¬ 
grace the character of Belisarius. At last his friends con¬ 
vinced him of the infamy of his wife’s behaviour, which 
either affection or easiness of disposition had hitherto con¬ 
cealed from him, and he determined to punish her ; but her 
. cause being espoused by the empress, a forced reconciliation 
took place; and the effrontery of Antonina was increased by 
her triumph. 
In the succeeding campaign, Belisarius saved the East; 
but violently offended Theodora and the emperor, by some 
free and independent language, in consequence of which he 
was severely fined ; but the dignity of his character, and the 
influence of his wife, soon after reinstated him in the royal 
favour, and he received the principal command in Italy, 
which was still threatened by new wars, and offered new 
laurels for the hero to pluck. 
After a variety of negociationsand hostilities, Justinian and 
Chosroes, king of Persia, concluded a treaty, which, for fifty 
years, gave repose to their exhausted frontiers. The former 
also entered into an alliance with the Ethiopians, who had oc¬ 
cupied Arabia ; but these being expelled from the continent 
of Asia, hastened tffe fall of the empire of the East; since a 
Christian power in Arabia, must have crushed Mahomet in 
his cradle. 
During this reign, the Lombards established themselves on 
the Danube; and the Sclavonians and other barbarians 
made such frequent and fatal inroads, that it is asserted by 
Procopius, that no fewer than two hundred thousand inhabi- 
tantsof the Roman empire were annually destroyed by them. 
It is impossible to give a regular account of all the import¬ 
ant military services of Belisarius. The conquerer of Africa 
and Italy, on his re-appointment to the command of the 
latter country, found the Gothic monarchy, which he had 
overturned, in some measure restored by the valiant and vir¬ 
tuous Totila. Belisarius landed with a small body of troops 
at the port of Ravenna, but soon discovered that the affec¬ 
tions of the Italians were alienated from the empire, and that 
Ire was sent to remain an impotent, spectator of the glory of 
a young barbarian. The Roman - general repassed the Adri¬ 
atic, and expected at Dyrrachium the arrival of the troops, 
which slowly assembled, and at last were inadequate to the 
Vot. XXII. No. 1504. 
M E. The Eastern Empire. 317 
deliverance of Rome. The Appian-way was covered by 
the barbarians, and the prudence of Belisarius declining a 
a battle, he preferred the safe navigation from the coast of 
Epirus to the mouth of the Tiber. Rome was guarded by 
the valour of Bessas, who defended her walls with three 
thousand soldiers: but the length of the siege had occa¬ 
sioned all the calamities of famine, and hope had almost 
expired, when it w'as reported that Belisarius was landed at 
the port. The intrepid general burst through every obstacle, 
and the city would have been relieved, had not the wisdom 
of Belisarius been defeated by the misconduct of his officers ■ 
he reluctantly sounded a retreat, in order to save the only 
harbour he possessed on the Tuscan coast, and Rome was 
left to the mercy of Totila. Bessas and his soldiers escaped 
by flight, and the principal inhabitants followed their go¬ 
vernors. On the intercession of Pelagius, the archdeacon, 
the lives of the Romans were spared, and the chastity of the 
women preserved from violation ; but the most precious 
spoils were reserved for the Gothic treasury, and the rest was 
abandoned to the free pillage of the soldiers. One third of 
the city walls was thrown down by the stem command of 
Totila; and it was owing to the prudent remonstrances of 
Belisarius, who Earned the Gothic monarch not to sully his 
fame by the destruction of those monuments which were the 
glory of the dead and the delight of the living, that the bar¬ 
barian did not execute his threat of changing Rome into a 
pasture for cattle. 
Totila, leaving an army of observation in the vicinity of 
Rome, proceeded to other conquests ; on which Belisarius, 
sallying from the port at the head of a thousand horse, cut 
his way through the opposing enemy, and erected his stand¬ 
ard on the Capitol. The walls were hastily restored; and 
though Totila made three general assaults, his troops were 
repulsed by the firmness and skill of Belisarius; and the 
fame of the barbarian sunk, as it had risen, with the fortune 
of his arms. 
Belisarius, however, w'as called off to an inglorious warfare, 
intended as a disgrace, and not as an honour to him; and 
the credit of completing the conquest of Italy, by the defeat 
and death of Totila, was reserved for Narses, the eunuch, who 
had long been the minister of the palace. In the procession 
of Narses, Rome for the last time saw the semblance of a 
triumph. It was soon after degraded to the second rank, 
and the exarchs of Ravenna filled the throne of the Gothic 
kings. 
Antonina, who had been faithful to the fame and interests 
of her husband, though not to his bed, procured permission 
from the emperor for the return of Belisarius to Constantinople; 
and the declining years of his life were crowned by a last 
victory, in which he saved the emperor and the capital from 
the Bulgarians, who had passed the frozen Danube, and 
spread terror and consternation to the very recesses of the 
palace. Yet the long-tried fidelity of Belisarius could not 
secure him from the imputation of being implicated in a dark 
conspiracy against the life of his master. The hero, who in 
the vigour of life had rejected the fairest offers of ambition, 
will never be believed, in extreme old age, to have been 
induced to renounce his loyalty. He appeared before the 
council with less fear than indignation; but forty years’ 
faithful service could not screen him from the vindictive 
jealousy of the emperor. His fortune was sequestered, and 
for several months he was ^guarded as a prisoner in his own 
palace. At length his innocence became conspicuous and 
acknowledged; and his death, probably hastened by chagrin, 
about eight months afterwards, delivered him from the in¬ 
gratitude of his master. Such was the fate of Belisarius: that 
he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced to beg his bread, is 
a fiction of the twelfth century. 
A few months after the death of Belisarius, Justinian also 
died, in the eighty-third year of his age; his military fame 
has been completely eclipsed by that of Belisarius but he hJs 
acquired far higher 4 and more enduring glory for his labours in 
the science of legislation. When he ascended the throne, the 
reformation of the Roman jurisprudence was an arduous but 
indispensable task. In the space of ten centuries, the infinite 
4 M variety 
