Belisarius (Slav. Beli-tzar, 'white prince'). This heroic and loyal soldier, to whom the Emperor Justinian was principally indebted for the glory of his reign, was born at Germania, in Illyria, about 505 A.D. Appointed to the command of the eastern army of the empire, stationed on the confines of Persia, he gained in 530 a victory over a Persian army nearly twice as large as his own. In the following year, when the Persians had penetrated into Syria, Belisarius was compelled by the impatience of his troops to offer battle at Callinicum on the Euphrates, and his defeat was followed by his recall. He still remained, however, the firm supporter of his sovereign. In Constantinople, the strife of the two parties, styled the 'Green' and the 'Blue,' had endangered the authority and even the life of Justinian; already a new emperor, Hypatius, had been elected, when Belisarius attacked and slew in the hippodrome 30,000 of the Green or anti-loyalist party, and thus restored tranquillity. Prior to this he had married a wealthy but profligate lady, Antonina, whom he loved with blind uxoriousness.
The military career of Belisarius may be divided into two great epochs—the war against the Vandals in Africa, and the war against the Goths in Italy. The first of these epochs was commenced by Justinian sending Belisarius in 533 with an army of 15,000 men into Africa, in order to recover the provinces there held by the Vandal king, Gelimer. After achieving two victories, Belisarius made the king a prisoner, seized his treasures, and conquering Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Isles, 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. Medals were struck in Belisarius's honour; and on the 1st January 535 he was invested with the dignity of 'consul.' The second war was occasioned by Justinian's attempt to wrest Italy from the hands of the barbarians. In 535 Belisarius conquered Sicily; and in the autumn of 536 he occupied Lower Italy. He entered Rome by amicable arrangement with the inhabitants; and finding his forces not strong enough to contend with the Goths in open field, he allowed himself to be besieged for a year, when the siege was raised by the Goths. In 538 Narses had been sent with a reinforcement for the army in Italy; but some misunderstanding occurring between the two generals, they were prevented from relieving Milan, which in 539 was carried and devastated by Braias, nephew of the Gothic king, Vitiges. Consequently, Narses was recalled from Italy; and Belisarius, now placed at the head of both armies, refused to assent to a treaty proposed by Justinian's ambassadors to Vitiges, who had persuaded the Persian king, Chosroes, to invade the eastern Roman territory. Belisarius drove the Goths back to Ravenna, which he captured in 540, along with Vitiges himself. But before he could complete his conquest of the Goths, he was recalled by Justinian to Constantinople. In 541–542 he was engaged in a campaign against the Persians, who had captured Antioch; but was again recalled on account of slanderous representations. His second great struggle with the Ostrogoths now begins. In 544 the barbarians under Totila again invaded and reconquered Italy. Belisarius was sent against them, but with an insufficient army. He, however, maintained his ground for five years, and even succeeded so far as to regain possession of Rome. But in spite of his repeated entreaties, no reinforcements were sent to him; and in 548 he gave up the command, his rival, Narses, being appointed in his place. In 559, after ten years of retirement, Belisarius once more came forward at the head of an army hastily collected, and overthrew the Bulgarians who were threatening Constantinople. Here this faithful servant, who at Ravenna had refused the crown of Italy offered to him by the Goths, was at length accused of a conspiracy against Justinian, and imprisoned (563); but Justinian, becoming convinced of Belisarius's innocence, restored him after six months to all his honours. He died in 565. Tzetzes, in the 12th century, was the first to aver that, during his half-year's imprisonment, Belisarius suspended a bag from the window of his cell, and exclaimed to those who passed by: 'Give an obolus to Belisarius, who rose by merit, and was cast down by envy!' Lord Mahon, in his Life of Belisarius (Lond. 1829), endeavours, but without success, to confirm the tradition of Belisarius being deprived of sight and reduced to mendicancy—a fiction given in Marmontel's romance, which supplied the painter Gérard with the subject for a fine picture.