Battle of Rome (537-538 AD)

After a thousand years untouched by enemy hands, Rome fell to Alaric the Goth in 410. Having fallen once, it seemed that Rome could never defend itself again. Successive invaders from across the Alps pillaged the Italian peninsula and Rome. The Ostrogothic conquest in 455 put that population in control for the next seven decades. None of this had any real effect on the Roman Empire, however, for the Emperor Constantine had recentered it in Constantinople in 330. Even in what passed for an "empire" in Italy was controlled no longer from Rome, but from Ravenna. Thus, by the sixth century, "the glory that was Rome" had long since faded into fable.

Still, the name had power, and in Constantinople the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian longed to reestablish single control over the old empire that had stretched from the Middle East to Spain. He possessed the necessary military power and ambition to accomplish this feat, but for some reason was determined to do it on the cheap. Luckily for Justinian, he had the services of one of the most talented generals of all time, Belisarius. Rising from the ranks, the young man had defeated successive enemies in Parthia and North Africa, and Justinian assigned him the task of reconquering Italy. Unfortunately, the emperor allowed him only 5,000 soldiers with which to accomplish this task. Units in the Byzantine military, inheriting a tradition begun by Marius in the old Roman Republic, were raised and maintained by generals rather than directly by the state. Loyalty was personal rather than national, and private armies were often the path to the throne. Although Belisarius never gave his emperor the slightest impression of ambition to rule, history made Justinian overly cautious. This can be the only reason he gave his top general so few men with which to accomplish so much.

Belisarius landed in Italy with Naples as his first target. He needed a good harbor to maintain his supply lines and Naples was the best in the neighborhood. After a month's siege he captured the city, and his men were none too restrained in their pillaging. Although Belisarius had hoped to keep damage and local hostility to a minimum, the news of Naples' fate convinced other Italian cities to surrender without a fight. In Rome, Pope Silverius invited the Byzantine army to occupy his city. Unfortunately, he did not first consult the Ostrogoths, whose army held it at the time. Still, the city fell without a fight, for the Ostrogothic King Theodatus was a weak leader too intent on personal pleasure. For his decision to flee rather than fight, Theodatus was killed by his own people and replaced by the more aggressive Vittigis.

Upon assuming the throne, Vittigis did not countermand the order, but instead consolidated his forces in the northern part of Italy around Ravenna. Before dealing with the Byzantines, he concluded a peace with the Franks (of modern France) to secure his rear. Then he aimed toward Rome. Although criticized for allowing the city to fall without a fight, Vittigis reminded his followers that Rome had never withstood a siege and Belisarius' tiny army could not possibly do so now.

Although Vittigis arrived at Rome on 2 March 537 with perhaps 50,000 men, that was still too few to invest the city completely. He therefore built a series of six camps around the eastern perimeter, facing various gates in the city walls. Most of Rome lies on the eastern bank of the Tiber River, with the Milvian Bridge being the primary span across the river to the west. Belisarius needed to hold that bridge to keep himself from being completely surrounded and to maintain an avenue of approach for the reinforcements he begged from Justinian, for after leaving garrisons at other cities Belisarius' army was reduced to some 3,000. He built a tower there to hold the bridge, but his garrison of mercenaries occupying the tower decided to turn coat.

When Belisarius led a thousand cavalry on a reconnaissance the next day, only then did he discover the tower was no longer his. A major battle ensued in which the Byzantines killed 1,000 Ostrogoths and drove them back to their camp. Reinforced there, however, the Ostrogoths assumed the attack. Belisarius fought his way back to the city only to find the gates closed. The population, so quick to give him control of the city, now seemed equally eager to give him up in order to avoid Gothic retribution. Hard-pressed by an ever-increasing number of Gothic attackers, Belisarius could do nothing but order an attack. Stunned by this sudden turn of events and convinced the Byzantines must have assistance coming from another direction, the Ostrogoths withdrew and Belisarius got the gate opened. The Ostrogoths, however, now held the bridge and by building a seventh camp in the area of the Vatican had the city surrounded.

While Vittigis prepared to launch an assault, Belisarius strengthened the city's defenses. He drafted local workers to dig a trench at the base of the wall to slow any attackers and keep siege towers at bay. He strengthened walls of Hadrian's tomb, later to be named the Castel Sant' Angelo, which stood on the northwestern corner of the city walls. Catapults were placed on the walls as well. He also organized some of the city's population into fighting units, interspersing his own troops to stiffen morale and offer training and guidance.

The Ostrogothic attack began on 21 March. Vittigis had constructed siege towers with battering rams to be hauled by oxen up to the walls. Belisarius heartened the defense by killing key Ostrogothic officers with astounding shots from his bow. He then ordered his archers to ignore the attacking troops and target the oxen. The siege engines halted well short of their goal. Two Ostrogothic attacks ensued. The main one was directed against Hadrian's tomb and the defenders, once out of arrows, broke up statues and pelted the attackers with stone until the assault failed. Meanwhile, a small force had found a weakness at a corner of the eastern walls, an old stable where animals had been kept prior to taking them to the Coliseum. Belisarius relieved the pressure of the attacks by launching sorties from other gates that attacked the Ostrogoth army. The attackers withdrew after sustaining 30,000 dead.

In the wake of that disaster, Vittigis decided to starve the city. The monotony was interrupted by occasional Byzantine cavalry sallies that inflicted serious damage on Gothic units. Indeed, the attacks were so successful that the Roman populace became more interested in military service. They pressed Belisarius to allow them to launch a major sally, to which he reluctantly agreed. After initial success, the citizens became too interested in looting the Gothic camp than looking out for a counterattack. They found themselves chased back into the city after suffering more casualties than they inflicted. Other than those incidents, it was a matter of waiting. Vittigis had the aqueducts that served the city destroyed, hoping to halt production in the mills. Belisarius simply began using the Tiber to keep the mill wheels turning. What little supply of food that was trickling in from outside dried up when the Goths seized the port serving Rome, controlling the mouth of the Tiber. That disheartened the citizenry, and Belisarius began rotating guards so no one became too friendly with the besiegers. He intercepted a note from the pope offering to aid Vittigis and immediately deposed him and installed a replacement.

Finally, in early 538 the Goths asked to negotiate. A truce was declared as they sent representatives to Constantinople to speak with Justinian. During the truce, some long-awaited reinforcements arrived: another 3,000 infantry and 800 cavalry along with some food supplies. With extra manpower, Belisarius dispatched much of his cavalry to ride through northern Italy. They threatened Ravenna and raided areas where the Ostrogoths had violated the truce. That action, along with the dwindling amount of food available around Rome, provoked Vittigis to launch a final attempt on the city. He tried to sneak troops into the city via the aqueducts but alert guards blunted that approach. Attempts to get the guards drunk also failed. A last assault with ladders could not scale the walls.

On 12 March the Ostrogoths broke camp and withdrew after a siege lasting a year and nine days. The war between Ostrogoths and Byzantines continued, however, when another army arrived from Constantinople commanded by Narses, one of Justinian's closest advisers and a man jealous of Belisarius. Successive campaigns took the Byzantines to Ravenna, where they bottled up Vittigis and his army. The Goths offered to make Belisarius emperor of a western empire. He went along with the offer until Ravenna opened its gates, then seized the city and sent Vittigis in chains to Justinian. Although the ruse proved successful, Justinian's paranoia turned Belisarius' action into a threat and the emperor ordered his general home in 541.

Narses was not the general Belisarius was. The Ostrogoths soon regained most of what they had lost. Justinian sent him back in 544, again with too few troops-4,000. The Byzantines not only took back the lost territory but Belisarius withstood another siege in Rome. Yet again Justinian could not stand his general's success. War raged across the Italian peninsula for the next few centuries, devastating the countryside so completely that some regions still have not recovered. The Byzantines maintained a presence in Italy through the ninth century, when Italy finally came under the control of the Franks under Charlemagne.