Belisarius: War with the Sassanids (5/6)

540 ad hro assassinated King of Persia is invading the Eastern Roman Empire his huge Army marches along the banks of the Euphrates River sura Falls before them arapis is ransomed for 2,000 of silver Berea bones then to the horror of all r rans hos takes Antioch Second City of the Empire the Roman capital of the near East the city Burns soldiers flee civilians are massacred the historian procopius writes I become dizzy as I write about such a great Calamity and transmitted to Future times to remember I cannot understand why it should be God will to exalt The Fortunes of a man or place and then to obliterate them for no cause that is apparent to us after years of Victories Justinian's Empire is rocked by this devastating Onslaught the emperor can send only his cousin germanus and 300 Soldiers with a promise of a great Army to follow but there is no great Army Roman forces are tied down fighting Justinian's wars in the west instead he will dispatch his greatest General belisarius and pray for a miracle little knowing that the Empire is about to be plunged into an even greater catastrophe unlike anything the world has ever seen before trouble had been brewing on Justinian's Eastern Frontier for years the Eastern Roman and sassin Empires the two great powers of the Middle East had signed a treaty of Eternal peace just 8 years before but hro had looked on with growing alarm as Roman forces led by belisarius had reconquered first North Africa then Italy half in chest hro asks Justinian for his share of the tribute since these victories are only possible because he's granted the Romans peace but the joke is wearing thin kro receives envoys from the Goths in Italy and the Armenians who beg him for Aid Justinian they tell him has conceived the desire of seizing the entire Earth he will March against the Persians with those he has already enslaved respecting neither the name of French ship nor any of his sworn promises in 540 kro accuses the Eastern emperor of paying hanss to raid Persian land and trying to bribe his Arab allies to switch sides then he attacks Justinian has stripped the frontier of its best troops to reinforce his army in Italy there is no Roman force that can stand up to hro Invasion Antioch is sacked survivors are enslaved and sent to Persia kro then marches to the coast and symbolically bathes in the waters of the [Music] Mediterranean he moves on to apameia where he Demands a th000 lb of silver but lets the priests keep their piece of the True Cross he then fixes the local Chariot race so that Justinian's favorite team the blues lose Justinian agrees to pay hro £5,000 of gold with 500 more to be paid annually in exchange for a truce satisfied hro sets off for home however he does not let the truce prevent him from extorting several more payments on Route it is the Eastern Roman Empire greatest military humiliation in three centuries everyone was talking about belisarius he was credited with two victories such has never before Fallen to the lot of one man he had brought two kings captive to Constantinople and beyond all expectation had made Roman Spoils of the Nations and wealth of gazer and theodoric in the Eastern Roman capital B larius has been welcomed back from Italy as a hero he and his Entourage draw admiring crowds wherever they go but he does not have long to enjoy his success in early 541 Justinian sends belisarius East to take command of Roman forces in Syria and ensure there is no repeat of the previous year's disaster belisarius his wife antonina has accompanied him on previous campaigns to North Africa and Italy and proved herself a valuable adviser and Deputy but this time she remains in Constantinople to advise her friend and Patron Empress Theodora belisarius gathers all available forces at Dara sight of his great Victory 11 years before he has his own household troops the elite bukari ostrogoths who've joined him in Italy Rome's Hassan Arab allies led by al-harith and several thousand limitan the Empire's Frontier troops procopius does not tell us the size of these forces so we can only make educated guesses based on circumstantial evidence local Roman forces are shaken by the events of the previous year belisarius spent several weeks reorganizing these men re-equipping them and rebuilding their ship shattered morale when belisarius learns that kosro and the main Persian army are far away in the north campaigning in lazika he decides to go on the offensive and targets the Persian city of nibus this fortified Frontier City is too strong to assault directly but belisarius hopes the gison can be lured out and defeated in battle allowing his troops to rush into the city mingled with the retreating enemy belisarius camps 5 miles from nbis close enough to tempt the Persians to attack but far enough that they can't easily Retreat back to the city but one Roman Commander Peter camps far too close worse he ignores bellisario's warning to be on high alert at noon when the Persians are most likely to strike the the Persian Commander naidis spots this isolated Roman force and attacks Peter immediately sends a rider to belisarius calling for aid but belisarius and the rest of the Army have already seen what's happening and are on their way before they can reach Peter his force is hit by the Persian Cavalry after a we fight his troops scatter 50 men are killed a Roman Standard is lost when belisarius arrives with reinforcements he drives off the Persians who Retreat into the city leaving behind more than a 100 dead but the loss of a Roman Standard in such a pointless Skirmish is a bitter blow [Music] belisarius marches on to the Persian Fort at cesarin his first attack is repelled he digs in for a Siege while ordering alh harith's Arabs and 1200 bukari to cross the Tigris River and raid deep into Assyria it has been many years since the Romans have raided this far into Persian territory there is little resistance and much [Applause] plunder Saron runs out of food and surrenders to belisarius but the Roman general has run out of time his troops are exhausted by the extreme summer heat and a third are sick his limitan wish to return to their homes now threatened by the start of the Arab raiding season while harth and his men have gone awal it later emerges they've ridden straight home to avoid sharing their loot with the Romans belisarius having achieved as much as he can with his limited Force withdraws back into Roman territory at the opening of spring kosro son of kavad for the third time began an invasion into the land of the Romans with a large army keeping the Euphrates River on the right the emperor Justinian upon learning of the inroad of the Persians sent belisarius against them once more 542 ad belisarius spends the winter in Constantinople but in early spring news arrives that kosro is preparing to invade again belisarius races back to the Eastern Front using horses of the famous cursus publicus the Roman Postal Service with fresh remounts at every stage a journey that normally takes a month can be completed in around 8 Days local commanders warn that kosro is approaching with the biggest army yet they want to hold up in hierapolis and hide behind its strong walls belisarius has a different plan if hro were attacking any other people but Romans this plan of your would be safe and sensible but as immediately after leaving here this Barbarian plans to fall upon some other territory of the emperor be assured that to die bravely would be better in every way than to be saved without a fight for this would justly be called not salvation but treason so come as quickly as possible to eurus where after collecting the whole Army I hope to deal with the Enemy as God permits kro is counting on another lucrative plundering Expedition this time he plans to raid Palestine and pillage Jerusalem but when he hears belisarius himself has arrived and is gathering a Roman army at europos he hesitates he sends an Envoy aband danis to meet belisarius on the pretext of reopening negotiation ations but really to gauge his strength for almost the first time in 10 years procopius is not at belisarius his side he has remained in Constantinople in fact his days of campaigning with the great Roman general are over nonetheless he provides a detailed description of what follows belisarius meets Coo's Envoy far from the Roman camp surrounded by an imposing number of his most fearsome Warriors including thians yans Goths and vandals they have been handpicked to make an impression all are tall strongly built men armed to the teeth and seem completely unconcerned by the arrival of a Persian Envoy belisarius himself speaks in a Carefree manner this course that hro has chosen is not how men usually behave if other men have a dispute with their neighbor they first try to negotiate with him and only go to war if they do not receive satisfaction but he first comes into the midst of the Romans and then makes suggestions about peace with that belisarius dismisses the envoy the envoy returns to hoso and urges the king to avoid battle at all costs the enemy are not like any men he's seen before they are formidable and disciplined their Commander is wise and imposing the king should withdraw as soon as possible hro takes his advice the Persian army crosses the Euphrates and marches home belisarius appears to have bluffed a stronger enemy into Retreat and saved huge SES of the Empire from plunder and pillage according to procopius the Romans praised belisarius he seemed to have achieved greater glory in their eyes by this feat than when he brought Galler or Vitus captive to Constantinople in truth it was an achievement of great importance and deserving great praise at a time when all the Romans were hiding in Terror Behind their defenses belisarius and his bukari putting on a show that is so intimidating and deceptive that the Persian king abandons his campaign it's a famous and memorable scene but did it ever happen many historians believe that something even more terrifying caused H's rapid withdrawal he discovered the empire was riddled with plague during these times there was a pestilence which came close to wiping out out the whole of mankind now in the case of all other scourges Sent From Heaven some explanation or cause might be given by daring men but for This calamity it is quite impossible either to express in words or to conceive in thought any explanation except indeed to refer it to God the sixth Century world is full of strange and mysterious phenomena sometimes even a highly educated man like procopius can only record his observations and trust in God of the Year 536 he wrote it came about during this year that a most dread portent took place the whole year the sun gave forth its light without brightness like the moon and it seemed much like an eclipse for its beams were not clear nor like those it usually makes from the time when this thing happened men were free neither from war nor pestilence nor any other thing that brings death experts now believe procopius was observing the atmospheric aftermath of a massive volcanic eruption in fact a cluster of volcanic activity around this date would help to trigger what's become known as the late antique little Ice Age its impact is impossible to measure but it may have contributed to food shortages and worsened the famine that procopius witnessed in Italy such shortages made the population weaker and more vulnerable to what came next it originated among the Egyptians who live in pelium from there it branched out in two directions the first moving to Alexandria and then the rest of Egypt the second coming to the Palestinians who lived by the border of Egypt plague is first recorded in the Nile Delta in 541 it spreads across Egypt and into Coastal Palestine in Spring 542 it reaches the imperial capital Constantinople it spreads rapidly across the empire in 543 plague reaches Persian ruled Armenia and the kingdom of the Franks recently plague victim have even been identified in Anglo-Saxon England procopius is in Constantinople when the plague strikes with full terrifying Force they fell ill in the following way suddenly they became feverish some of them when they Rose from sleep others while they walked about or doing any small thing the body did not change color or become warm like a regular fever nor did it burn up Rather mother at first the fever was so mild that it gave no cause for alarm either to victims or the doctors who treated them but then on the same day or the next a bubonic swelling appeared this happened around the groin also inside the armpit sometimes by the ears or the thigh some victims procopius writes fall into a coma likee State unable to feed or care for themselves others are seized by Madness shouting wildly and running into the streets some died immediately others after many days in some cases the body blossomed with dark pastures about the size of a lentil these people did not survive a single day they all died immediately many others suddenly began to vomit blood and perished immediately I must also state that the most eminent doctors predicted that many would die who shortly afterwards were unexpectedly free of all sickness they also claimed that many would survive who were destined to perish almost immediately thus there was no cause behind this disease that any human reason could grasp for in all cases the outcome made little sense DNA analysis of human remains from this and later pandemics has identified the cause of this terrifying disease a deadly bacterium called Yia pesus procopius is at the center of the world's first Bubonic plague pandemic the second 8th centuries later is known as the Black Death the peak of the pandemic lasts 3 months on the very worst days the death toll in Constantinople alone may be as high as 10,000 between a third and half the City's population perish entire households are wiped out the city's graveyards overflow and corpses are crammed into City watchtowers it was not easy in those times to see anyone out and about for all were holed up in their homes if you happened to chance upon someone going out he was carrying one of the Dead all work came to a standstill the plague hits the Empire's great cities hardest but the pestilence also reaches deep into the [Music] countryside then Emperor Justinian himself Falls [Music] sick news soon reaches the Army in Syria there are even rumors that the emperor is already dead belisarius and his generals discuss the situation but we have no reliable information on what is said or by whom Justinian has no children the succession will be an uncertain and Dangerous Time their own role may be decisive they may even discuss who among them is best placed to succeed the emperor unexpectedly Justinian makes a full recovery but Empress Theodora has learned of the General's meeting in Syria her informers tell her that belisarius and another General booes had said they would not support any new emperor proclaimed in Constantinople Theodora regards these words as treason a clear sign they will turn against her if her husband should die belisarius and booes are summoned to Constantinople for questioning Theodora cannot prove their treason but both men experience a sudden dramatic fall from favor procopius claims that booes spends more than 2 years in a secret prison belisarius the emperor's most successful General escapes imprisonment but his disgrace is total he is dismissed from command and loses much of his fortune his famed buari are split up and distributed amongst other Commanders belisarius lives in Constantinople as a private citizen for more than a year while abroad Justinian's Empire slides towards crisis the plague has killed a multitude of Roman citizens and soldiers and severely disrupted government trade and Taxation in Armenia a Roman offensive ends in humiliating defeat in North Africa Berber Rebels defeat the Romans and kill Solomon the governor while in Italy the ostrogoths have rallied under a new king totila retaken most of bellisario's gains and again threaten Rome itself Justinian is desperate for a general who can take command in Italy and turn the tide of War 544 ad belisarius is recalled from disgrace and given back his old command in Italy but the emperor has no troops to spare and belisarius is buari are still in the East this time he will have only 4,000 recruits that he must hire and equip himself to reinforce the demoralized Army in Italy and in totila he faces a far more dangerous adversary than before he is poorly resourced and has been been ungratefully treated by his Emperor but belisarius loyally marches to war again in what will prove his final campaign big thanks to Legend Darian for providing our total war Atilla gameplay footage check out his own YouTube channel for more videos on the military history of late Antiquity thank you also to Professor David Parnell of Indiana University Northwest our serious consultant you can follow David on Twitter @ bantine Prof or via the link in our video description and thank you of course to all the epic history TV patreon supporters who make this channel possible [Music]

Channel: Epic History

Views: 424,695

Keywords: epic history tv, history, epic history, belisarius, justinian, khosrow, roman, roman empire, sassanid, sassanian, persia, goths, sasanid, plague, eastern roman, constantinople, byzantine, bubonic.

Id: crxIVBxfg9Q

Length: 24min 54sec (1494 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 18 2022