Authors: Jack Ludlow
The fortresses so carefully restored by Flavius could not be supplied and were, when besieged a second time, forced to surrender, Flavius lacking the manpower to intervene. These losses were closely followed by two more with only Perusia holding out and that despite the death of the man in command; yet there was even worse news to follow: Totila was marching on Rome.
Aware he did not have the means to counter this, Flavius recrossed the Adriatic in order to both recruit and seek his requested reinforcements from Constantinople. There he was informed that Vitalianus, too long about the task set for him, had taken time to marry the daughter of one of Justinian’s nephews, his anger only assuaged when it became plain that with trouble on every border the men just did not exist to aid his cause.
When the time came to return to Italy, with most of the campaigning season already gone, that had eased enough to bring him soldiers, if not enough. Flavius knew he must somehow succour Rome and keep it in imperial control, yet the same applied to Apulia and Calabria.
Much as he did not want to split his limited forces he had no choice but to send a substantial body under John Vitalianus, who was at least an enterprising and active officer, to secure the southern provinces.
The tactics used by Witigis, Totila had replicated. Camps were built opposite the eastern gates of Rome, the Milvian Bridge was strongly held and once more there was a Goth presence on the Plains of Nero. Like his predecessor, but with more alacrity, he took control of the route to Portus, as well as taking other steps to cut Rome off from any chance of supply, which would eventually mean starvation for the densely populated city.
Before long, within the walls, the citizenry were pleading with Bessas to release the massive amount of food he had stockpiled for his troops. This he declined to do but he did nothing to stop his soldiers selling part of their rations at inflated prices to those in dire need, creating an atmosphere of distrust that could only have one outcome, a crisis made worse by the approach, once more, of winter.
Flavius had possession of Portus itself, but there was that bar across the route, known to be lightly held and needing to be broken. He despatched a body of men, five hundred in number, led by Phocas, another member of his bodyguard, to join troops already holding the town. Word was sent to Bessas of their intention to attack the Goth camp and when, with a request that he sally out to combine with them.
The assault was set in motion before any reply was forthcoming, Phocas and his men making deep inroads into the Goth position, but in time resistance hardened as it became plain they were not supported: Bessas had declined to move, even if the commotion caused by the fighting must have been audible in the city. This left no option but to withdraw.
Word was once more sent: a second attempt would be made and again Bessas was begged to provide the aid that would be needed. It never got going; Totila had been informed of the intention and ambushed the whole force, killing the leaders along with most of those they led.
The only other route by which food could be brought into the city was by rowing barges up the Tiber and here Totila had built two wooden forts at a point, not far from the walls and hard by the road to Portus, where the river narrowed, with a bridge of joined timbers stretched between them. The plan formulated by Flavius to counter this showed he had lost none of his flair for innovation.
Lashing a pair of barges together and planking their decks he had a wooden structure constructed that in height would overreach the Totila forts. On the very top of the flimsy-looking edifice he had placed a boat filled with pitch-treated timber and brimstone. This floating surprise was to be followed upriver by every barge and boat that could be mustered in a convoy containing enough food to keep Rome going for a year, each one given built-up sides with slits that could protect his archers while giving them the ability to discharge their weapons.
At the same time a commander called Isaac the Armenian was given care of Antonina and took charge in Portus but it was made plain he must remain static and on no account risk losing the quays; his task was diversion, this as an unequivocal command was sent to Bessas; he in turn must now sally forth and attack the Goths to keep them occupied.
Flavius took the lead barge with his bodyguards and set in motion the troops he had ordered to march up the inland riverbank. The discovery of a metal chain downriver of the Totila forts imposed a check, but not for long as the men guarding it fled and it was quickly
dislodged. The guards who ran alerted those holding the forts and given there was little distance between them and the Goth encampment masking Portus, and a signalling system in place to warn of trouble, the soldiers there began to rush to aid in the defence.
Still too far off to intervene they could nevertheless see the wily ploy of their enemy. Forcing the vessel that held his flimsy structure against the bridge, Flavius had the boat atop it set alight and the whole tipped over to crash into the base of one of the Goth forts, the dry timber immediately catching fire. To the screams of those hundreds of men trapped inside, condemned to burn to death, his men attacked and overcame the second fort and could then begin the task of destroying the bridge.
If only Isaac the Armenian had obeyed his orders all would have been well. But he had seen many of the Goths departing to confront Flavius and the temptation of engaging with a weakened enemy proved too much. Essaying forth at the head of a mere hundred fighters he immediately launched his own attack, and by severely wounding the camp commander, which broke the morale of his followers, was able to drive the Goths right out of their camp.
Isaac was not of the stamp needed to take advantage of this minor success; his men lacked the discipline required and he the commanding presence to stop them resorting to the plunder of a camp full of the possessions of an army that had enjoyed several years of success, men unaware that what had driven the Goths back was a degree of panic. Those busy ransacking for spoils were in a serious minority and as soon as the Goths re-formed they took back their camp with ease and great slaughter, Isaac being taken prisoner, a fact relayed to Flavius without any detail as to how it had come about.
Fearful that Totila had taken Portus and fearing for the consequences for Rome and the whole campaign – there would be the need to pay
ransom for Antonina too – Flavius immediately set out to confront them, hoping to come on them while they would be in a state of some disorder. This meant, partly also due to the fact that Bessas had not obeyed his orders, abandoning the attempt at resupply.
That it was a mistake only became apparent when he knew Portus was still in Byzantine hands, though that provided small compensation for what had been a highly unsuccessful manoeuvre on the Tiber. When he heard that Totila, in retribution for the death of the leader wounded in Isaac’s attack, had the Armenian beheaded, he could not summon up even a pinch of sympathy. He was even heard to say that if the Goth King wanted to remove the head of Bessas, then he would be happy to hand him over.
Rarely cast down for long by reverses, Flavius was now, and a health that had always been robust failed him too, rendering him unable to initiate further actions. All he knew was that if Rome had been at risk before, it was doubly so now.
I
f the behaviour of Bessas had been well short of that required up till now, the failure of the attempt to resupply Rome did nothing to improve it. From denying food to the citizens he extended that to his soldiers, who now found they were required to acquire their rations from rich senators who had bought them from their commanding general. Needless to say the prices Bessas charged his middlemen was high – he was having new coffers made to hold his burgeoning fortune – and so ever higher was that paid by the desperate.
Badly fed soldiers no longer bothered to carry out their responsibilities and it was a brave officer, himself forced to barter for his supplies, who even hinted at any punishment for a dereliction of duty. The mass of the citizens of Rome, becoming skeletal, cared nothing for who ruled the city only for who might feed them. Only the corpses that began to fill the streets were indifferent.
The Isaurians had ever been a bane to Flavius Belisarius: numerous and usually infantry, rarely cavalry, they were badly led and with leaders averse to doing any training to alter such deficiencies, only ever effective when he had taken a personal hand in how they were led. The story emerged, as so many did in this troubled campaign, long after the events themselves. Four junior Isaurian officers had lowered
themselves from the walls and gone to Totila to offer him a way into the city by the Asinarian Gate, for which they were responsible.
The Goth King had seen the hand of wily Flavius in this – a trap that would cost lives, diminish his standing and dent the morale of his army – so he declined to accept. Undeterred, those same Isaurians had returned to him twice more to renew their offer until he finally accepted they might be telling the truth. Even then he took the precaution of sending two of his own trusted bodyguards to ensure the traitors were telling the truth. They reported back that the walls were barely manned.
In darkness and silence Totila deployed his army, but it fell to no more than a handful of his axe-bearing Goths to climb the ropes let down by the Isaurians and be the first to breach the defences. The axes were employed to smash the bars holding shut the great gate, and that opened, allowed Totila to lead his men into a city where there was no will to mount an internal defence.
Those who did not seek sanctuary in one of the dozens of churches fled out of every gate the city possessed that provided a chance of escape. Bessas was to the fore of that, leaving so hurriedly that his dozens of bulging coffers were left behind for Totila, who was to reward the Isaurian defectors not only with much of the gold but with offices rich in spoils to run the city of Rome.
Totila punished the wealthy and powerful who had traded with Bessas by giving his men a free hand to plunder their villas and warehouses, but he showed a better appreciation of his priorities by feeding the needy citizens. The Goths were afforded another advantage: Rome fell to Totila in December and he would thus winter within its walls and not in the camps surrounding the city, rapidly becoming fetid. His next act was to despatch a body of Roman divines to offer Justinian peace.
Bessas, at present nowhere to be seen, was not the only insubordinate inferior Flavius had to deal with. All his attempts to oblige John Vitalianus to march north and combine with him failed. John could claim that he faced his own threats – Totila had sent a token force south to contain him – but it was insufficient in number to justify the excuse.
Now holding the capital, Totila could release more men to take back control of the fertile south of the peninsula. That they failed brought on an unexpected response: he decided to raze the walls of Rome and render it indefensible. In addition he set out a plan to fire all the important buildings, including structures that dated from the time of Augustus Caesar, an act that would diminish Rome’s importance.
The desperate appeal from Flavius Belisarius to desist bore fruit; the sender pleaded for preservation of ancient glories and also pointed out that Totila, holding the city, would be fouling the value of his own possessions. Added to that Justinian would be unlikely to grant peace to such a despoiler. The Goth relented but with a good third of the defences torn down he felt he could leave Rome without even a token garrison for, even if the Byzantines retook the city, they would be unable to hold it.
Sending a strong force south to contest Apulia, Calabria and Lucania with John Vitalianus, and that included many senatorial hostages from Rome, he left a robust force camped at Tibur five leagues to the east of the city – a day’s forced march – this to deter the Byzantines holding Portus, while personally retiring on Ravenna.
Betrayal was not confined to the likes of Bessas; the loyalties of the Italian Peninsula had become so fractured that treachery had become a commonplace and Totila was as subject to that as Flavius. Spoletum and Perusia were brought back to Byzantium by treachery but it was really the capital city that mattered, both for its size and emotional appeal.
Sure Totila was gone, Flavius set forth at the head of a much diminished
comitatus
, men he had recruited on his being given the Italian command and now numbering no more than a thousand effectives, to reconnoitre what had been left behind. Betrayed by an informer they rode straight into an ambush by the Tibur Goths, who had marched from the east to confront him. The Byzantines were outnumbered and it was only the generalship of Flavius added to the discipline of his personal troops that saved what should have been a rout.
The Goths attacked expecting panic but as had happened before they found their enemies quick to form up for battle, with a speed that reversed the prospects of an easy victory. Flavius led his fighters into the melee with no care for his person, slashing to left and right at mounted opponents and ignoring the blows that got past his shield and were landed on his armour. As had also happened in previous engagements, he needed to be rescued by his bodyguards but not before he was the victim of several minor wounds.
The Goths lost more than Flavius, yet he was forced to retire to Portus once more, to bathe and have such gashes and abrasions treated, to be made aware – and not for the first time, as he examined old scars and recalled other areas of his body rendered black and blue by combat – of how lucky he had been in so many years of battle to still be whole.
‘You are a fool to risk yourself. You’re a general, you should behave like one.’
This was the constant lament from Antonina, who could not be barred from observance of his latest lacerations and bruises. It would have seemed like sympathy if he had not wondered, instead, if her concern was prompted by fear for her own needs should he expire. Only Flavius alive made her of use to Theodora.
Justinian responded to the peace offer from Totila by advising the Goth to treat with his representative in Italy. Flavius knew as much as the Goth that he was in receipt of a refusal. The war had to go on, but with little faith from the general in command that he could repeat his previous success; he had neither the men to do so nor, in the likes of Bessas and John Vitalianus, inferior commanders who would unquestioningly obey his orders, the former because of his greed, John through the connection he had to Theodora through his marriage.
Not a man to rest, even with odds so heavily stacked against him, and sure he had both luck and God with him, Flavius left Portus with nothing but token protection and marched with all the men he could muster on Rome, which he entered into unopposed to find much destruction. Time was not on his side and he needed new gates made, added to which there was a huge stretch of wall to be repaired.
Bluff was needed; ramparts were erected that would not withstand much in the way of assault or mining but he made sure that was hidden on the outer face by adding a smooth coating of lime. Employing the ditch he had dug prior to the previous siege Flavius had stakes placed in the base to make it more of an obstacle. Most important of all were the supplies he brought in to the city, which could not rely as it usually did on the ravaged countryside that surrounded it.
Totila did not make it to Ravenna; the news of the Belisarius move obliged him to reverse his course and make for Rome, where he expected a quick return to the status in which he had left it. Yet the Goth army moved at no great pace, giving Flavius over three weeks to effect repairs, so what the enemy was faced with, a lack of gates notwithstanding, looked formidable; it was not, but show was as good as strength when that was the only choice.
Totila did not hesitate to attack, he threw his men forward with no
preparation at the open spaces where the gates once stood, these now filled with the best troops Flavius could deploy. They held because the Goths, in such a constrained killing zone, could not deploy sufficient numbers to overpower the defence and, pressing forward, they were at the mercy of murderous archery and rocks thrown from the parapets to either side.
Exhaustion and the approach of nightfall brought the fighting to an end but it was renewed at first light, only this time Flavius had decided not to stay on the defensive and that threw the Goths into such confusion that, when assaulted, they fell back. The danger for Flavius now was a too eager pursuit and it was only by riding out at the head of his fastest cavalry that he could get ahead of his own fighting men and, having ordered a withdrawal, could cover their retreat.
On the third day he again varied his tactics, leading his whole force out of Rome to confront Totila on open ground. That it was luck that carried the day rather than better soldiering was later accepted. The man bearing the standard of his king fell and the banner with him, which indicated to the Goths their leader had perished and that caused a degree of panic. In some disarray they did recover the standard but the heart had gone from their purpose and, since he held the ground, Flavius could claim to have been victorious.
Whatever decided Totila to abandon his attempt to take Rome – it was suspected to be arguments amongst his nobles – the Goth King withdrew to the east to winter, this while Flavius set about the task of once more making the city the formidable obstacle it had been on his first campaign. When the next season arrived, Rome had warehouses bulging with food, a strong garrison, solid walls and new gates.
Copies of the keys to the city had been sent to Justinian.
What drew Totila off were the activities of John Vitalianus. The Goth decided he was a thorn he had to excise and he marched south with a large part of his army to effect this. By avoiding the roads and using mountain tracks he avoided John’s scouts and managed to surprise him in his encampment, which he attacked after the sun went down. While that was a success in the sense that the Byzantines fled, it failed, due to the darkness, in his main aim, which was destruction.
Unbeknown to the Goths, reinforcements were beginning to arrive from Justinian, the largest contingent from Armenia, but they were immediately reduced in number by being caught in an ambush by Totila, the price paid for their commander refusing to put himself under the orders of John Vitalianus and thus caught unprepared and exposed.
An even larger contingent was coming with Valerian,
magister militum per Armeniam
, but he took the view that it was too late in the year to begin campaigning and settled down to winter in Illyricum. It took a direct order from Justinian and the arrival of spring to get Valerian to move across the Adriatic.
There he combined with John Vitalianus and Flavius, who had left Rome under the command of a general called Conon. Totila was not idle; he knew where his enemies were and brought all the forces he could muster south to fight them in what became a to and fro set of engagements that were far from decisive for either side.
Rome came close to being lost again due to the behaviour of Conon; he had, no doubt, heard of the kind of monies Bessas had made when he held the city and he set out to copy his behaviour, selling food at inflated prices and controlling what came into the city. This time the citizens rebelled and the soldiers, unpaid for a year, declined to intervene.
Conon was murdered in the Senate House and, realising how far
that put them beyond the approval of Constantinople, they sent a message to Justinian threatening to hand the city over to Totila if their crimes were not pardoned and the troops supposed to protect them paid, both demands rapidly acceded to.
Flavius calculated that he did not have the men to beat the Goths, and thanks to his subordinates the mood of the natives was no longer one of welcoming the men from the east as liberators. With a war seemingly endless, in which their homes and crops were either destroyed or seized and their wealth expropriated by both sides, the circumstances did not exist for a repeat of the previous conquest without the deployment of overwhelming force.
Sending piecemeal packets would not serve, the fighting would go on but to no conclusion. That message required to be sent back to the capital, and since he assumed that all his previous pleas for more men had to bypass the suspicions of Theodora, he decided that the appeal should be made to the Empress, and there was only one envoy he could think of who might persuade her.
‘My place is here by you.’
‘Your place is like mine, Antonina, where the empire needs you. I require you to go to Theodora—’
‘Require!’ was the huffy response.
‘I need more soldiers and a lot of them. I need you to persuade the Empress to cease to worry about what ambitions I might have and think of the good of the empire as well. I can write to her, I can send someone else, but I have no one in my entourage or among my officers who can do that which you will find easy. Not only to get to see her immediately but to have her listen.’
She was far from convinced and there was also the possibility of Antonina seeing the disadvantage of giving up the role Theodora had allotted to her.
‘Do you too think I hanker after the diadem?’ That got no answer. ‘What can I do to convince you? I could have had the title of Western Emperor and I said no. That would have made you Theodora’s equal.’