BELISA'RIUS (in Slavonic, Prince "). This heroic and loyal A., cher, to whom the emperor Justinian was principally indebted for the glory of his reign, was born at Germania, in Illyria, rigout 505 A.D. He first assumed a conspicuous posi tion when he was appointed to the command of the eastern army of the empire, stationed on the confines of Persia, where, in 530 A.D., he gained a victory over a Per sian army nearly twice as large as his own. The historian Procopius was at this time secretary to Belisarius. In the following year, when the Persians had penetrated into Syria, intending to attack Antioch, B. being compelled by the impatience of his troops to offer battle at Callinicum, a town at the junction of the rivers I3ilecha and Euphrates, was defeated, and in consequence recalled. This petulant injustice, however, did not weaken that principle of duty which ever controlled and inspired the great soldier. He still remained the firm supporter of his sovereign. In Constantinople, the strife of the two parties, styled respectively "the green " and "the .blue," had endangered the authority and even the life of Justinian; already a new emperor, Hypatius, had been elected, when B., at the head of the life-guards, attacked and slew, in the race-course, 30,000 of the green or anti-loyalist party, and thus restored tra'iquillity. Previous to this, he had married a wealthy but profligate lady, Antonia, whom he loved with the same blind uxoriousness that Marcus Aurelius exhibited towards Faustina. The only points in his history which arc not edifying, are those in which he yielded to her noxious solicitations. The military career of If may be divided into two great epochs; the war against the Vandals in Africa, and the war against the Goths in Italy, which again subdivides itself into two campaigns, with an interval of four between them. The first of these epochs was commenced by Justinian sending B. in 553 A.D., with an army of 15,000 men into Africa, in order to recover the provinces there held by the Van dal king, Gelimer. After achieving two victories, B. made the king a prisoner, seized his treasures, and after conquerineSardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Isles, he brought him to Constantinople, where he appeared in a triumphal procession of the conqueror— the first that a subject had enjoyed since the days of Tiberius. The African Vandals never recovered from this overthrow. 3ledals were struck in B.'s honor; and on the 1st Jan., 535, he was invested with the dignity of "consul," and granted a second triumph, according to the old republican style. The second war was occasioned by the divisions in the royal family of the Ostrogoths, which induced Justinian to attempt to wrest Italy from the hands of the barbarians. In 535, B. conquered Sicily; and in the autumn of 536, he crossed over to lower Italy, where all the cities submitted to hiin except Naples, which he carried by storm. On the 10th of Dec. he entered Rome, having made an amicable arrangement with the inhabitants. As he found his forces not strongenough to contend with the Goths in open field, he allowed himself to be inclosed and besiegedin Rome: after the defense had lasted a year, the Goths raised the siege. In 538, Narscs had been sent with a reinforcement for the army in Italy; but
some misunderstanding occurring between the two generals, they were from relidving Milan, which in 539 was carried and devastated by Braias, nephew of the Gothic king, Vitiges. Consequently, )arses was recalled from Italy; and B., now placed at the head of both armies, refused to assent to a treaty proposed to king Vitiges by Justinian's ambassadors. Vitiges had persuaded the Persian king, Chosroes, invade the eastern Roman territory. B. now drove the Goths back to Ravenna, which .be captured in 540, along with Vitiges himself. But before he could complete his con quest of the Goths, he was recalled by Justinian to Constantinople, where he soon appeared, bringing with him the king Vitiges, several Gothic chieftains, and the royal treasures. In 541-42, he was engaged in a campaign against the Persians, who had cap. turgid Antioch; but was again recalled, on account ofslanderous representations made to the emperor,and the enterprise necessarily proved indecisive. His second great struggle with the Ostogotlis now begins. In 544, the barbarians, under Totila, again invaded and reconqueied Italy. 13. was sent against them, but with an insufficient artny. He, however, maintained his ground for five years, harassing the enemy by his skillful movements, and even succeeded so far as to regain possession of llome.. But, in spite of his repeated entreaties, no reinforcements were sent to him; and in Sept., 548, he gave up the commaud, his rival, Narses, being appointed in his place. After ten rears of retirement, B. once more came forward at the bead of an army hastily col lected, and overthrew the Bulgarians, who had threatened Constantinople. Here this faithful servant, who at Ravenna had, in a spirit of noble loyalty unknown to the warriors in those selfish and ambitious times, refused the crown of Italy offered to him by the Goths, was at length accused of a conspiracy against Justinian, and imprisoned, Dec.. 563; but according to Malala and Theophanes, Justinian became convinced of 13.'s innocence, and restored him, after six months, to all his honors. He died Mar., 564.
The biography of B. has beeu treated with great license by writers of fiction, especially by Marmontel, who has represented the hero as cruelly deprived of sight, and reduced to beg for his bread in the streets of Constantinople. Tzetzes, a of the 12th c., states that, during his half-year's imprisonment, B. suspended a bag from the window of his cell, and exclaimed to those who passed by• " Give an obolus to 13., who rose by merit, and was cast down by envy!" but no writer contem porary with B. mentions this circumstance. Lord Mahon, in fits Life of Belisarius (Loud. 1829), endeavors, but without success, to confirm the tradition, or rather the Se tie, of B. being deprived of sight and reduced to mendicancy. This fiction sup plies the subject of a fine picture by the French painter Gerard.
• In figure, B. was tall and majestic; in disposition, humane and generous; pure in his morals, temperate in his habits, a valiant soldier, a skillful general, and above all, possessed by a sublime spirit of loyalty to his sovereign.