Belisarius: The Last Roman General (27 page)

When the news reached Justinian he took immediate action. Peter and a fellow envoy by the name of Athanasius were instructed to reach a formal agreement, giving Theodahad the royal estates known as the
patrimonium
in return for a signature granting Italy to Justinian. Once they had the agreement in writing, the envoys were to send a message to Belisarius in Sicily requesting his presence in Italy. Accordingly, Justinian sent a message to Belisarius ordering him to prepare his troops and be ready to march to Ravenna at top speed upon receiving word from the envoys.

Developments in Africa

As was seen earlier, when Belisarius chose to return to Constantinople, the Moors had rebelled against imperial rule. Belisarius had left Solomon to put down the revolt and given him the greatest part of his
comitatus
to help deal with the situation. Upon hearing of the news of the rebellion, Justinian dispatched reinforcements under the command of Theodorus the Cappadocian and Ildiger, the son–in–law of Antonina, wife of Belisarius. These troops were desperately needed elsewhere, not least with Belisarius in Sicily, but Justinian could not afford the damage to his prestige of the loss of a province that had only recently been retaken.

The Moors were ravaging areas of Numidia and Byzacium, killing isolated troops as they went. Aigan, the leader of the Huns, and Rufinus the Thracian, the army’s standard bearer, together with their detachments of cavalry, ambushed and destroyed some marauding Moors, but were in turn ambushed and killed. Morale in the Byzantine ranks fell.

Solomon now led the army against the largest group of Moors, marched to Mammes on the borders of Mauretania and very near to some mountains, built a stockaded camp opposite the Moors and prepared for battle. In preparation for the battle, the Moors adopted a tactic that had worked well against the Vandals. They formed a circle of camels around themselves that was twelve ranks deep. The women and children were placed in the centre, and most of the men were deployed on foot amongst the camels. They were armed with shields, swords, and javelins. The remainder of the men remained on horseback but deployed in hiding in the nearby foothills.

Solomon, realising that the Moors would have troops hidden towards the mountains, concentrated his forces upon the side of the circle facing away from the mountains, in order to avoid being attacked from his rear. Both he and his men were wary following the defeat of Aigan and Rufinus the Thracian. When the battle began the Moorish tactics seemed to be working: the Byzantine horses were frightened by the camels and panicked, resulting in the archers being unable to aim their bows. Sallying from their positions within the line of camels, the Moors began to cause casualties amongst the Byzantine cavalry.

Comprehending the danger, Solomon dismounted and ordered the troops to do likewise. With the majority of the troops protecting themselves with their shields, Solomon led 500 men around the circle of camels and attacked from the side nearest the mountains. Although this risked being attacked from the rear, he counted upon the defence here being weaker and his attack being able to make rapid headway. His assessment was correct. The few Moors stationed there quickly fled at his approach and the Byzantines killed around 200 camels. The rest of the army now moved around and entered through the gap that had been created. The Moors abandoned the defence and ran. The women and children caught in the middle of the camels were enslaved, the men were cut down as they ran. Procopius gives the figure of 10,000 Moors killed (Proc,
Wars,
IV.xi.55–6). Along with the slaves, camels and booty, the Byzantines now returned to Carthage.

Solomon now turned his attention to the Moors plundering Byzacium. As he advanced, the Moors retreated, taking refuge upon Mount Bourgaon, which had a gentle slope to the west and a very steep face on the east. It was a perfect place for defence.

After inspecting the site, Solomon ordered Theodoras, the
comes excubitorum,
to take 1,000 men and secretly scale the mountain from the east. At dawn, Solomon advanced the army to the foot of the mountain and waited. The Moors awoke to a Byzantine army below them and a large Byzantine force above them. Theodorus attacked from the top, Solomon from the bottom of the mountain. The Moors instantly broke and fled, allegedly losing 50,000 men in the pursuit whilst the Byzantines did not lose even a single man wounded. Victorious, Solomon again returned to Carthage.

With the year getting late, and the Moors plundering Numidia in small bands, Solomon established garrisons to help restrict Moorish attacks and waited for the passing of winter. Furthermore, at the same time news reached him of a rebellion in Sardinia. He also began to prepare the fleet for a campaign to the island in spring.

The campaigns did not materialise; when spring arrived, the Byzantine troops in Africa mutinied.

The African Mutiny

The reasons behind the mutiny are easy to understand. After the collapse of Vandal Africa, the Byzantine troops had captured most of the Vandal women and children. Shortly afterwards, many of the men had married the wives and daughters of the Vandals that had either been killed or transported to Constantinople. They now expected to inherit the land previously owned by the husbands or fathers of their new wives.

The marriages and expectations of the troops give us one clear insight into the policies of Justinian regarding the nature of the army sent to Africa. They clearly expected to remain in Africa as the garrison, and were quickly establishing themselves within the existing framework. With the arrival of Tryphon and Eustratius as tax assessors the situation changed. Along with their task of carrying out a census for taxation purposes, they also suggested that these lands should revert to the control of the emperor. Solomon agreed to this and when approached by the troops with their claim he refused to support them.

Furthermore, again following the arrival of Tryphon and Eustratius, Arian worship had been stopped and only Catholicism was now allowed. This was at odds with the needs of a large section of the Byzantine army, such as the Heruls, who were themselves Arians. As an additional blow, Justinian also forbade the baptism of any Arians. Understandably, the Arian troops were now extremely unhappy and were prepared to listen to Vandal bishops, who began to urge them to mutiny. To make matters worse, the entire army was very unhappy as they still had not been paid for their services in Africa. Although blame for this is hard to apportion, this bureaucratic mistake alienated a much larger proportion of the army.

Finally, the Vandal men who had been taken to Constantinople had been organised into five cavalry units and shipped to the eastern front. The majority ended up fighting against the Persians, but about 400 managed to overpower the sailors and had forced them to sail the ships back to Africa, where the Vandals now landed.

All of the above factors helped to provoke the troops to the mutiny that began at Easter. When the Arians in the army were barred from taking part in the religious rites surrounding the festival, they decided to act. The mutineers determined to kill Solomon on the first day of the feast, but when faced with the actual deed could not bring themselves to do it. On the second day the conspirators also failed to act. Realising that they could not kill him, possibly due to their respect for him as a general, they understood that every day that they failed to act increased their danger of discovery. Therefore, the majority of the mutineers left the city and began to plunder the countryside. The remainder stayed in the city and hid their thoughts.

Solomon attempted to keep the troops in the city loyal, but when the men saw that the mutineers outside the city were going unpunished and unrestrained, they gathered in the hippodrome and the revolt grew. Solomon sent Theodorus the Cappadocian to restrain them, but he was hostile towards Solomon and the mutineers now elected him as their leader. Taking full control, the mutineers ran amok in the city.

Realising that they were in danger, Solomon, Martinus and Procopius – who had not returned to Constantinople with Belisarius – took sanctuary in the palace. Entering the house of Theodorus after dark, they were captured and forced to dine with him. Theodorus appears to have convinced them that he was a pawn in the hand of the mutineers. After the meal, they were placed on board a ship and left the city. Solomon now sent a letter to Theodorus, commanding him to take control of the situation in Carthage at the soonest opportunity, so validating his actions. He then sent Martinus to Numidia with orders to join Valerian, the commander in the area, and attempt to regain the troops’ loyalty with promises and bribes. Solomon himself now set sail for Syracuse, along with Procopius, to seek help from Belisarius.

Belisarius’ return to Africa

Accepting that Theodorus was still going to follow Solomon’s orders, and anyway had only been elected by the troops in the city, the mutineers outside the city had gathered on the plain of Boulla and elected Stotzas, one of Martinus’ guards, as leader. Their purpose was to drive the remainder of the loyal troops out of Africa and take the country for themselves.

Stotzas armed all of the available men, a force of roughly 8,000 soldiers, ready to march on Carthage. He assumed that Carthage would easily fall to his attack. He further sent messages to the Vandals who had escaped in the Byzantine ships and returned to Africa, and also summoned those Vandals who had avoided capture after Belisarius’ victories and had not yet been caught. When these were all gathered, they mustered an extra 1,000 men to fight for Stotzas. Finally, he was joined by a large number of slaves, which would have significantly added to the number of men he commanded.

Arriving at Carthage, he sent messengers to the city, ordering them to surrender. Both the people and Theodorus refused the demand, and announced that they were guarding the city for the emperor. They also sent Joseph, one of the household of Belisarius, to demand that Stotzas halt his attacks. Joseph was killed and the city besieged.

It was at dusk, the besiegers were in their camp and expecting the city to fall on the following day, when Belisarius arrived in the city with 100 men from his
comitatus.
On the following morning when they learned of his arrival, Stotzas and his troops packed their camps and quickly retired into the interior.

Belisarius gathered 2,000 of the loyal troops in the city, gave them promises and money, then set off in pursuit. He overtook the mutineers at the city of Membresa, 350
stades
(around 40 miles) from Carthage. Both armies made camp outside the city, since it had no walls and was indefensible. On the following day there was fought the Battle of the River Bagradas.

Before the battle started, a high wind arose, blowing from Belisarius’ lines into the faces of the mutineers. Since the wind would hinder their own missiles, whilst greatly helping those of Belisarius and his men, the mutineers decided to march to the flank, so turning the battlefield by ninety degrees and allowing the wind to blow lengthways between the armies. Belisarius, seeing that the enemy were moving across his front in disorder, immediately seized his opportunity; he gave the order to attack. Faced with being charged whilst unformed and from the flank, the rebels fled. Procopius claims that their flight was so precipitous that few of them were actually killed, and of those that were slain, most were Vandals (Proc,
Wars,
IV, xv. 40-46). As he had only 2,000 men, Belisarius did not pursue the enemy, instead allowing the troops to plunder the enemy camp. There the troops found a lot of money and the very women who were in part responsible for the mutiny in the first place.

The defeat was a catastrophe for the rebels, brought about by their having no clear leader with a clear objective. A competent general would either have compensated for the wind direction or kept a force in reserve to cover the main body of troops as they attempted to change their position. The lack of an effective general cost the mutineers the battle.

On the other hand, the battle shows the value of Belisarius as a general. He was lucky in that the enemy decided that they could not remain with the wind in their faces and so decided to attempt to change the axis of the battle. Yet there is more to his victory than good fortune. It needed good observation, quick reactions, and decisiveness when, seeing the enemy unformed and weakened by their manoeuvres, he ordered the assault. Any delay might have allowed the mutineers to reform and overpower his men by sheer weight of numbers. It was a stroke of genius by Belisarius.