Lost Roman Heroes - Episode 85: Belisarius (Part 4)

The day is March 12th of 538AD, and General Belisarius has just accomplished the impossible. Not only did he survive a year long siege behind Rome’s Aurelian Walls, hopelessly outnumbered 20-1 by a Goth horde, but he sent that Goth horde scurrying north, shamed and afraid. Now Belisarius runs the table, sweep north with his small, elite cavalry, reestablishing Roman control of Italy, landing at the gates of Ravenna! This is the stuff that legends are made of, and as pleased as Justinian was, dark rumors swirl in the capital. What is Belisarius’ true intent?

Rome is under siege! With a force of some five thousand Roman soldiers, Belisarius is put under siege by a >100k man Goth force under King Vitiges. But despite overwhelming odds, Belisarius finds opportunities to keep his enemy uncomfortable. And as the winter sets in, with the audacious sallies from the Aurelian Walls that he leads in person, Belisarius begins to turn the tide.

Belisarius has accomplished the heretofore impossible, with a small force of his handpicked and trained elite troops he has defeated the Vandals and returned Africa to the Romans after a hundred years. After receiving the greatest honor in the ancient Roman world, a proper triumph, the first in five hundred years, the Emperor Justinian sends his favorite general back to the West with the most audacious objective of all, bringing Italy itself back into the Empire. But instead of endless legions, Belisarius hits the road with 7,000 troops - what could possibly go wrong?

Belisarius. Just one name required, in the realm of other one-named immortals, like 'Jordan', 'Ali', 'Caesar', and so on. But this guy is a one-named mystery, worshipped in the ancient world, forgotten today. When we meet him in this episode, he is not let legend, simply a Thracian boy that makes his way to Constantinople, enters Justinian's bodyguard and in a heartbeat is a 28 year old Magister Militum Per Orientem, leading an invasion fleet to Carthage, to punish the Vandals for their mortal insult to Roman honor.

The Emperor Justinian had the grandest of grand dreams, but he could not achieve them alone. The resurrection of the Western Empire was such an exceptionally ambitious objective, it would not just take a great emperor, it would take the most extraordinary team that Rome had ever assembled to pull it off. It just so happens that Justinian had built such a team, filled with some of Rome's all time greats, including: John the Cappadocian, Peter the Patrician, Anthemius of Tralles, Procopius of Caesaria, Narses, Theodora the Augusta, and Belisarius! With peace on the Persia front concluded at the end of 531, Justinian called his team of superheroes to the capital to plan the next step of his grand vision, just in time for the horrific Nika Riot that would tear Rome asunder in five ferocious, bloody days...

A fresh faced boy from war torn Tauresium finds himself in Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire, adopted son of a swineherd, making his way in the world, powered by what might just be the most audacious of all dreams. RESTORATION!

How can you begin to describe one of the most remarkable women in history, let alone one of the most remarkable Roman women? Raised by two empresses, mom and grandma, descended from multiple emperors, last in line of one of republican Rome's greatest families, you could take away all of these things and still Juliana would have been a force of nature worthy of remembrance, a woman who stood toe to toe with Popes and Emperors and spoke to them as an equal.

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was a polymath philosopher and scion of one of Rome's most ancient families. Along with his father in law Symmachus, he was one of the Senate's last lions, and one of the last keepers of the flame that was Rome in the West! Seeking higher purpose, he served in Theodoric's court, and would finish his life a prisoner in a lonely tower, in which he wrote a gift to the world, the Consolation of Philosophy.

A Goth prince raised in the Imperial Palace in Constantinople, Theodoric the Amal consolidated control of the Ostrogoths, and then journeyed west at the behest of the Emperor Zeno to punish Odoacer, and to rule Italy in the Emperor's name. Ruling from the palace in Ravenna, he would rule well, and audaciously, attempting to resurrect the Empire of the West.

A LOST ROMAN CITIES special episode on Roman Thessalonica. Founded by Cassander, named after the younger sister of Alexander the Great, this city would go on to become the second city of the Roman Empire, and just perhaps, after the city of Rome herself, the longest held of Rome's possessions. What we can say for certain, is that without Roman Thessalonica (Greek Thessaloniki), Rome's history would look very different indeed.