Justinian & Belisarius: Roman Reconquest, Vandals, Goths & Complete Guide

Justinian's wars tried to restore Roman rule around the Mediterranean. Belisarius made that ambition look possible.

When Justinian I became emperor in AD 527, the eastern Roman Empire was wealthy, administratively sophisticated and still Roman in its own eyes. The western provinces had fragmented under successor kingdoms. Justinian's government chose to intervene, first against the Vandals in North Africa and then the Ostrogoths in Italy.

Belisarius before the reconquests

Belisarius emerged as one of the empire's most capable generals during war with Sasanian Persia. At Dara in 530 he used field fortifications, cavalry and a carefully arranged defensive plan to defeat a larger Persian army. The battle did not end the eastern war, but it established his reputation.

North Africa, 533

The Vandal kingdom controlled the rich former Roman provinces of North Africa. Justinian sent Belisarius with an expeditionary force in 533. The campaign was remarkably fast.

At Ad Decimum, confused fighting around road junctions near Carthage ended in Vandal defeat. Belisarius entered the city and then won again at Tricamarum. King Gelimer eventually surrendered.

The speed of the conquest created a misleading impression that restoring the west would be easy.

The Gothic War begins

Italy was far harder. Belisarius landed in Sicily in 535, crossed to the mainland and captured Naples. Rome opened its gates to him in 536. The Ostrogoths then besieged the city for more than a year.

The defence of Rome showed Belisarius at his most characteristic: moving small reserves rapidly, using walls and cavalry aggressively, and exploiting the enemy's difficulty in completely sealing a huge city.

Ravenna and the false ending

Belisarius captured Ravenna in 540. Gothic leaders reportedly offered him the western imperial title; he appeared to accept and then handed the city to Justinian. Whether this was calculated deception or later embellishment, the political result was clear: the Ostrogothic kingdom seemed broken.

It was not.

Why Italy became a disaster

Belisarius was recalled, the Goths revived under Totila and war resumed. Cities changed hands repeatedly. Justinian later sent Narses with a larger force, and the Gothic kingdom was finally destroyed after victories at Taginae and Mons Lactarius.

By then, years of warfare had devastated much of Italy. “Reconquest” came at a severe economic and demographic cost.

Plague, Persia and overstretch

The empire was not fighting only in the west. War with Persia continued, Slavic and other groups pressured the Balkans, and the plague that struck from 541 reduced population and revenue. Justinian's military programme therefore operated under growing strain.

Was Belisarius really abandoned and blinded?

The famous story of an old, blinded Belisarius begging in Constantinople is almost certainly legend. He did fall from favour at times, but he remained a prominent imperial figure and was briefly restored before his death.

What did Justinian actually achieve?

North Africa remained Roman for more than a century. Parts of Italy stayed under imperial control even longer. But the restored Mediterranean empire did not recreate the political world of Augustus. The wars revealed both the extraordinary reach and the limits of the eastern Roman state.

Continue the story

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The expeditionary army

Procopius gives unusually useful detail for the Vandal expedition. Belisarius crossed with a relatively compact professional force supported by cavalry, infantry, sailors and a large transport fleet. The army was not large enough to conquer North Africa by weight of numbers. It depended on rapid movement, disciplined logistics and the political weakness of the Vandal kingdom.

That makes the 533 campaign a study in expeditionary warfare. The sea route had to be protected, horses landed in usable condition, food organised and local populations persuaded that imperial restoration would not become uncontrolled plunder.

Ad Decimum: victory from a confused battle

Gelimer's plan at Ad Decimum attempted to trap the Roman column near a road junction south of Carthage using converging Vandal forces. Coordination failed. Individual Vandal detachments initially had success, but they did not strike together. Roman advance elements recovered and Belisarius turned a dangerous situation into victory.

The lesson is not that the Vandals were militarily primitive. It is that synchronising separated columns is difficult even with good intelligence. Once Gelimer lost control of the timetable, Belisarius's concentrated force could defeat the pieces in sequence.

Rome 537–538: defence as active warfare

The siege of Rome is central to Belisarius's reputation because he did not defend passively. Roman cavalry repeatedly operated outside the walls, probing Gothic positions and exploiting superior mounted archery. At the same time, the city's huge circuit created severe manpower problems. Every gate, aqueduct and weak sector had to be watched.

Control of supply routes was decisive. The Goths could pressure roads and aqueducts, but they struggled to seal Rome completely. Imperial access to the sea and to reinforcements helped keep the defence alive.

Belisarius, Narses and command politics

Justinian's generals did not operate in a vacuum. Court politics, rival commands and imperial suspicion affected campaigns. Belisarius was recalled more than once and rarely received unlimited resources. Narses, a eunuch court official who became an effective field commander, later brought a different command structure and stronger resources to the final Gothic campaigns.

The contrast warns against writing the reconquest as one man's biography. Belisarius was exceptional, but the wars were products of an imperial system able to raise fleets, move tax revenue, negotiate with local elites and replace commanders.

The cost of victory in Italy

Italy endured repeated sieges, changes of occupation, requisition and destruction. Rome itself changed hands several times. Agricultural production and urban life suffered unevenly but severely in many regions. The final destruction of Ostrogothic power did not restore the prosperous western heartland Justinian's propaganda imagined.

Within a generation, Lombard invasion further reduced imperial control. Ravenna and parts of southern Italy remained Roman, but the peninsula was politically fragmented.

How reliable is Procopius?

Procopius served on Belisarius's staff and is indispensable for the wars. That closeness is both his strength and his problem. He knew operations, personalities and geography unusually well, yet he also had relationships, grievances and literary aims.

His Wars and the hostile Secret History can sound as if written about different rulers. Reading them together is useful precisely because the contradiction exposes how court politics shaped the record. Where archaeology, law codes and other chronicles can be brought in, they provide an important check.

Military legacy

The reconquests demonstrate the eastern empire's capacity for combined maritime and land operations on a remarkable scale. They also reveal the danger of strategic success outrunning resources. Justinian recovered provinces, but every new frontier had to be garrisoned while Persia, the Balkans and internal crises still demanded attention.

Belisarius therefore belongs not only in lists of great generals but in a wider argument about strategy: winning campaigns is different from building a settlement that the state can afford to hold.

Sources & further reading

• Procopius, Wars.
• Procopius, Secret History, used cautiously because of its hostile purpose.
• Modern scholarship on Justinian's reconquests, plague and the Gothic War.