The Lament of Belisarius: How Rome’s Greatest General Watched an Empire Fall

Flavius Belisarius was one of the Byzantine Empire’s greatest generals – a man who reconquered lost Roman lands and fought across three continents for Emperor Justinian. Yet by the end of his life, this brilliant commander had little to show for his victories. In legend he is remembered as a blind beggar, abandoned by an ungrateful emperor. While the blinding-and-begging story is apocryphal, its poignancy reflects a deeper truth. Belisarius gave everything to resurrect a dying empire, only to watch it crumble despite his loyalty. This is the lament of Belisarius – a tale of passion, frustration, and fidelity in the face of imperial decline.

Triumphs Won Through Unwavering Loyalty

Belisarius earned fame as “The Last Roman General” by achieving the impossible. Rising from humble Thracian origins around 500 CE, he became Justinian’s most trusted commander. With limited men and money at his disposal, he scored spectacular victories: defeating the Persians at Dara, crushing the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa, and recapturing Rome and Italy from the Goths. Each campaign stretched the empire’s resources, yet Belisarius pressed on out of duty. He slept on battlefield dirt and rode at the front lines, chasing enemies across deserts and mountains for the glory of Constantinople.

His passionate loyalty was unquestioned – when offered the crown of the West by a defeated Gothic nobility, Belisarius feigned acceptance only to hand Ravenna and Italy back to Emperor Justinian in a supreme act of fidelity. By 540 CE, thanks to Belisarius, the Eastern Roman Empire had doubled in size and seemingly restored Rome’s ancient domains.

Yet vainest of all things is the gratitude of kings. Belisarius’s very success sowed the seeds of his frustration. Justinian, though visionary, was an emperor prone to suspicion. The general’s string of victories and popularity made the imperial court uneasy. History had many times seen celebrated generals turn into usurpers, and Justinian was determined not to let another rise at his expense.

Thus, at the height of Belisarius’s triumph, after he reclaimed Italy, he was not awarded a hero’s laurels – he was recalled to Constantinople in disgrace. Justinian publicly humiliated his great general by claiming credit for victories and sidelining Belisarius at court. Despite his decades of selfless service, Belisarius now faced the bitter reality that the plaudits of the crowd are but clatter, and imperial favor can vanish overnight.

Frustration in a Fading Empire

Belisarius’s frustrations grew as he watched the empire falter despite all his efforts. He had loyally saved Justinian’s throne during the Nika riots of 532, slaughtering tens of thousands of rebels to keep the emperor in power. He rebuilt an empire, only to see others mismanage and lose his conquests. When Belisarius was sent east to fight Persia in 540, Justinian left a cabal of lesser generals in charge of Italy. Those commanders quarreled and ruled harshly, alienating the locals with heavy taxes. In Belisarius’s absence, Gothic resistance flared anew. The empire that Belisarius had expanded began shrinking almost immediately – the Ostrogoths retook most of Italy within a few years.

Time and again, Justinian would recall and redeploy Belisarius in a desperate attempt to salvage the situation he himself had undermined. In 544, after Italy was nearly lost, the emperor dispatched Belisarius back to the Gothic War, but with only 4,000 men – far too few to reverse the tide. Belisarius arrived to find an Italy ravaged by war and plague. The once-bustling city of Rome was a depopulated shell of its former self, having changed hands repeatedly in brutal sieges. One can imagine the old general’s despair as he walked through the ruined streets of Rome, a city he had saved and lost and saved again, now reduced to rubble and ghosts. His meager forces were plagued by disease and poor morale. Many of his weary soldiers even deserted to the enemy.

Belisarius fought on regardless – recapturing Rome yet again from the Goths – but he must have wondered how many times the Eternal City could be saved from the fire.

His passion and tenacity were not enough to arrest the empire’s decline. In 549, after years of inconclusive fighting, a jealous Justinian once more recalled Belisarius from Italy. The pattern had become painfully clear: no matter how brilliant his victories, they could not secure a lasting peace. The Byzantine Empire simply lacked the strength to hold the far-flung territories Belisarius won back. Belisarius had given the empire a brief second golden age, only to witness it wither on the vine in his lifetime. After nearly two decades of war, Italy was devastated and barely clung to the empire; much of Spain would soon slip away to the Visigoths; and new barbarians loomed on the horizon. Belisarius, ever the loyal soldier, responded when duty called yet again in 559 – defeating an invasion of Huns with a handful of veterans in one last blaze of glory. But this too was a temporary reprieve for a faltering realm.

Reflections of a Tragic Hero

In his final years, Belisarius had cause for soul-searching. After all the battles won, he faced court intrigues and personal humiliation. In 562, false charges of corruption were brought against him, and the great general was briefly imprisoned by the very emperor he had served so faithfully. Although Justinian pardoned Belisarius soon after, the damage was done. A man who had stood at the pinnacle of imperial service was left to contemplate the fragility of fortune and favor.

It is easy to picture Belisarius, gray and tired, looking back on his life’s work with a heavy heart. He had given his all to the Roman Empire – chasing Persians in the East, scattering Vandals in Africa, and restoring Rome’s light in the West – yet the empire’s old glory was slipping away before his eyes.

Belisarius never betrayed his emperor, but he understood betrayal. Poets and historians later imagined his voice, lending words to his silent grief. In Longfellow’s haunting poem Belisarius, the old general laments that he won kingdoms for Justinian only to be left “infirm and blind and old… beneath the very arch of my triumphal march, to stand and beg my bread!” Exaggeration or not, the pathos rings true. Belisarius had upheld a tottering empire through sheer genius and courage, and in return found ingratitude and decay.

Yet, despite all the disappointments, Belisarius’s story is not one of bitterness alone, but of undying loyalty. Contemporary accounts and modern historians alike stress that he remained faithful to Justinian and the empire to the very end. Even suspicion and jealousy at court could not shake his commitment. This steadfastness is precisely what makes his lamentation so poignant. Belisarius saw clearly that one man’s brilliance could not single-handedly halt the decline of an empire. He must have felt, as he laid down his sword in retirement, a mix of pride and sorrow – proud of what he had achieved, sorrowful that it had not been enough to revive Rome’s fading glory.

In March 565 CE, Belisarius died quietly on his estate, just a few weeks before Emperor Justinian also passed away. In a way, it was the end of an era – the last great Roman general and his emperor departing almost together, leaving a vastly expanded yet precariously overstretched empire to their successors.

Belisarius’s legacy lives on as a model of military genius and loyal service, but also as a cautionary tale. His life asks us to consider the cost of ambition and war: Was it all worth it? Were his tireless campaigns a mere exercise in futility? The lament of Belisarius lies in that very question. He did all he could for a dream – the resurrection of Rome’s empire – only to learn that even the greatest generals cannot alone alter the tides of history.

In the end, Belisarius’s life is a reflection on duty and fate. It reminds history enthusiasts and all who listen that sometimes even heroes must watch the world they fought for slip away – and that the true measure of greatness is not only in victory, but in dignity and honor amid disappointment. Belisarius’s lament echoes through the ages, a somber tribute to loyalty unrewarded, yet honor undimmed.

Belisarius the Last Roman General

• Byzantine Empire

• Justinian’s reign

• Gothic War summary

• Fall of Rome

• Byzantine military history

Sources

• War on the Rocks – essays on Belisarius, Justinian, and imperial decline

• HistoryNet – analyses of the Gothic War and Belisarius’s campaigns

• TheCollector – multiple scholarly articles by Vedran Bileta, PhD

• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth – Belisarius (1875)

• Procopius – Wars and Secret History (context for loyalty, suspicion, and court politics)

• Gibbon and Lord Mahon – reflections on Belisarius upholding a collapsing empire