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rheren's review against another edition
4.0
One of the greatest generals who ever lived. This book is kind of dry and academic, but not impossibly so. It gives a good, balanced view of the sources we have and who the man Belisarius was. It doesn't fawn over him, but his greatness still shines through, even with an honest acknowledgement of his mistakes and faults. Unfortunately we don't know a lot about his personality, and this book doesn't go much into what we can glean from that. It's mostly focused on his military actions.
goldenassam's review against another edition
3.0
A well-researched book on the Roman general Belisarius that draws on contemporary sources such as Procopius and also skillfully classifies them.
Only three stars for three reasons:
- The book would have benefited from better editing - there are repetitions and sometimes tedious redundancies.
- Hughes concentrates largely on the military historical aspects - battles with the Sassanids in the east, with Vandals and Goths in the west, occasionally enriched by some of the palace intrigues around Belisarius and Justinian. Other topics are almost non-existent - such as the Justinian Plague or the volcanic winter of 536. Also, the thoughts and feelings of the people of the time - from the soldiers to the overwhelming majority of the population - rarely appear. Effectively, it felt like reading one of the Osprey Men-at-Arms books - only without all the illustrations.
- This is probably why I (as a big fan of Eastern Roman history) was absolutely bored in places. If almost tediously accurate battle and campaign descriptions don't interest you burningly, another book might be more exciting.
Only three stars for three reasons:
- The book would have benefited from better editing - there are repetitions and sometimes tedious redundancies.
- Hughes concentrates largely on the military historical aspects - battles with the Sassanids in the east, with Vandals and Goths in the west, occasionally enriched by some of the palace intrigues around Belisarius and Justinian. Other topics are almost non-existent - such as the Justinian Plague or the volcanic winter of 536. Also, the thoughts and feelings of the people of the time - from the soldiers to the overwhelming majority of the population - rarely appear. Effectively, it felt like reading one of the Osprey Men-at-Arms books - only without all the illustrations.
- This is probably why I (as a big fan of Eastern Roman history) was absolutely bored in places. If almost tediously accurate battle and campaign descriptions don't interest you burningly, another book might be more exciting.
monicakessler's review
4.0
A fairly thorough account of the main events of the life of one of my favourite generals, this book could be dry at times but overall benefitted from detailing some very exciting events in history. Unfortunately the routine the author had of describing every army's structure and armour before talking about the conflicts they were involved in was wearisome. The armour descriptions at least benefitted from some apt drawings or diagrams where possible, but I couldn't help feeling that the long winded descriptions about structure and troop distribution would have been better represented by some annotated diagram. But I guess this sort of detail is natural for a military history book. I was just thrown by the downturn in pace this created before each major campaign.
The accounts of the battles and campaigns themselves were a lot more interesting but perhaps not enough for me to be desperate for a re-read. However, I would desperately love for a dramatization of all of this - there's so much material which would be hugely visually interesting. Belisarius had some well known great tactics, such as hiding spare forces behind a hill, or in trees, to surprise an enemy when they advanced, as well as some intriguing and innovative tactics: - hoisting small boats full of archers up the masts of big boats to shoot over the castle wall at Sicily; sending 400-600 men through a creepy excavated ancient aqueduct to be able to capture Naples; tying two boats together and a wheel between them to create a makeshift mill over the Tiber; filling a small boat with tar and other flammables and hoisting this up another mast in order to pour it on wooden Gothic defence towers; the list goes on and it's all so cinematic!!
Intriguingly, this was the most negative portrayal of Justinian I've ever read - but it didn't feel unjust, simply realistic. Much was made of the power of Theodora and Antonina which may have been overplayed, but the truth lurked in the depiction of Justinian as a military opportunist rather than some great dreamer who believed in the reunification of the old Roman Empire.
And these opportunities he had were mainly presented through the complex machinations of a world that was clearly made of more moving parts than we tend to think of when considering ancient history. It was just lucky that Justinian had a fantastic, loyal, generous, trustworthy general like Belisarius to fall back on when the opportunities arose.
Incidentally, in the allegorical story of Belisarius and Justinian that Isaac Asimov presents in the Foundation series, he doesn't do the situation justice and hugely oversimplifies events (in Belisarius' favour, but still).
What we've learnt from Belisarius:
- don't loot and plunder, you'll be attacked and killed even if you just won a battle
- when Belisarius tells you to stay put and guard something, you do just that!! Or you die
- when Belisarius tells you to be kind to the local peasants, be kind! Or they will revolt, and you will die
- when Belisarius tells you (Justinian) to pay the troops, you pay them! Or they revolt, and you lose a war
- when Belisarius tells you freaking anything, you listen because he is generally correct AND miraculously morally decent for a general!!
Memes aside, 3.5* for a good history where facts and speculation were gathered together in a cohesive manner. Not exactly a page-turner though. But it's OK. Belisarius will protect us.
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