Characters

"Having reformed the law, we have thought it right to restore the empire itself."

A peasant's son from the Balkans who rose through the patronage of his uncle Justin, Justinian became the most ambitious of all late Roman emperors, driven by the dream of restoring the empire to its ancient Mediterranean glory — 'renovatio imperii.' From Constantinople he codified Roman law into the monumental Corpus Juris Civilis, built the great domed church of Hagia Sophia, and launched the wars to reconquer the lost West. He never left his capital, directing the reconquest through his generals Belisarius and Narses and financing it by taxing his eastern subjects to exhaustion. His reign saw Africa and Italy restored, but also the catastrophe of the Plague of Justinian, which killed perhaps a quarter of the empire's people, and the ruinous cost of endless war. He achieved a fleeting restoration of Roman power that his exhausted successors could not hold — but his law and his church shaped Europe for a thousand years.

"Those who have worn the crown should never survive its loss. Purple makes a fine shroud."

Reputedly the daughter of a circus bear-keeper and a former actress and courtesan, Theodora rose from the lowest ranks of Constantinople to become Justinian's wife, co-ruler, and the most powerful woman in Roman history. He changed the law so he could marry her and treated her as a genuine partner in government. Her defining moment came during the Nika Riots of 532, when the mob nearly overthrew Justinian and his advisers urged flight. Theodora reportedly shamed them into standing firm with a ringing speech — that royalty was a fine burial shroud, and she would not flee — steeling Justinian to crush the revolt and save his throne, and with it the whole project of reconquest. A shrewd champion of women's rights and religious minorities, she shaped policy until her death from cancer in 548.

"It is the part of a general to win by planning rather than by the sword."

The greatest general of his age and the sword of Justinian's reconquest, Belisarius rose from the imperial bodyguard to reconquer half the lost Roman West with tiny armies. He first made his name defeating the Persians at Dara, then helped crush the Nika Riots. Sent to Africa in 533, he destroyed the Vandal kingdom in a single lightning campaign, and then crossed to Italy, where he took Naples and Rome and held the ancient city through a legendary year-long siege. He finished the Gothic War by tricking his way into Ravenna and capturing the Gothic king — then, when the Goths offered to make him emperor of the West, refused and remained loyal, only to be recalled by a jealous Justinian. Repeatedly starved of men and money by a suspicious emperor, he nonetheless never lost his loyalty. The later legend that he ended his days blind and begging is almost certainly false, but it captured a real truth: the empire's finest servant was never fully trusted or rewarded.

"Let the archers decide the day."

One of the most improbable great commanders in history — a court eunuch and treasurer who took the field in his seventies and proved himself a master tactician. An Armenian by origin, Narses spent his career in the palace as Justinian's trusted chamberlain before being sent to finish the Gothic War that had bogged down for years. Arriving with a large, well-supplied army — the resources Belisarius had always lacked — he crushed the Goths at Taginae in 552 with a brilliant use of massed archery against Totila's cavalry, killing the Gothic king. He destroyed the last Gothic army at Mons Lactarius and then annihilated a huge Frankish-Alemannic invasion at the Volturnus in 554. He governed the reconquered Italy for over a decade before dying, according to tradition, at nearly a hundred.

"This history I have written that the deeds of these wars should not be forgotten."

The greatest historian of late antiquity, Procopius served as legal secretary and adviser to Belisarius and accompanied him on the Persian, Vandal, and Gothic campaigns, giving him a front-row seat at the reconquest. His 'History of the Wars' is the essential eyewitness account of Justinian's age and one of the finest works of ancient historiography. He also wrote the 'Buildings,' a panegyric to Justinian's construction projects — and, most notoriously, the 'Secret History,' a venomous private tract that portrayed Justinian and Theodora as literally demonic, cruel, and corrupt, published only after his death. Together his works give us a uniquely complete and complex picture of the empire, its wars, its plague, and its rulers, seen from the inside by a brilliant and disillusioned observer.

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

The last king of the Vandals, Gelimer had seized the throne of the rich African kingdom in a coup shortly before Belisarius landed. A capable but unlucky commander, he came close to victory at Ad Decimum, where his ambush might have destroyed Belisarius's small army — but the plan fell apart, and when his brother was killed Gelimer stopped to grieve at the fatal moment, letting the Byzantines recover and win. Beaten again at Tricamarum, he fled to a mountain fortress and endured a miserable siege before surrendering. Paraded through Constantinople in Belisarius's triumph — the last such triumph in Roman history — he is said to have murmured the words of Ecclesiastes, 'vanity of vanities,' as he beheld the pomp. Justinian treated him kindly, granting him estates in the empire, where he lived out his days: the last of a people who vanished from history within a generation.

"The walls of Rome shall be your grave."

Raised to the Gothic throne by the soldiers after the murder of the weak Theodahad, Vitiges was a brave and experienced warrior but an unlucky king. He marched on Rome with a great army to crush Belisarius's small garrison, and besieged the city for over a year — cutting its aqueducts and storming its walls again and again — but could never break the Byzantine defence. Worn down and outmanoeuvred, he fell back on the marsh-girt capital of Ravenna, where Belisarius trapped him. When the Goths, in desperation, offered Belisarius the western throne, the general feigned agreement, entered the city, and took Vitiges prisoner. Carried off to Constantinople, the captured king was treated honourably and given estates, dying there a couple of years later — while the war he had lost roared back to life under Totila.

"I will make Rome a pasture, or hold it as a king."

The last great king of the Ostrogoths, Totila rallied a shattered, seemingly defeated people and nearly won back all of Italy. Charismatic, energetic, and a shrewd politician, he exploited the disarray of the neglected, unpaid Byzantine garrisons after Belisarius's recall, retaking city after city and winning support by treating Roman prisoners and peasants with unusual leniency, even freeing slaves who joined him. He twice took Rome, once driving out its entire population and threatening to raze it — before relenting — reducing the ancient city to a near-ghost town. For a decade he held most of Italy against the empire. But when Justinian finally sent Narses with an overwhelming, well-funded army, Totila's luck ran out: his reckless cavalry charge was destroyed by massed archers at Taginae in 552, and he was cut down in the rout. His death effectively ended the Gothic cause.

"We shall die as free men, sword in hand."

The last king of the Ostrogoths, Teias took up the doomed cause after Totila's death at Taginae, gathering the remnants of his people for a final stand. With the reconquest all but complete, he led the surviving Goths to the slopes of Mons Lactarius near Vesuvius, where Narses blockaded them until hunger forced a desperate battle. In the two-day fight Teias reportedly fought in the front rank until, as he paused to exchange his shield heavy with spears, he was struck down and killed — his severed head raised on a pole to break the Goths' will. The survivors negotiated safe passage out of Italy, and with them the Ostrogothic kingdom, and the Gothic people themselves, passed out of history. Teias became a tragic hero of later Germanic legend.