Belisarius Reclaims Rome for Byzantine Empire

Context

By the early sixth century the Western Roman Empire had long since fragmented, with the last emperor in Italy deposed in 476 by the Germanic leader Odoacer. The Ostrogoths who succeeded him, first under Theodoric the Great and then his successors, governed the peninsula while maintaining a nominal allegiance to the Eastern emperor in Constantinople. After Theodoric’s death in 526, internal divisions weakened their hold, creating an opening for renewed imperial intervention from the east.

What Happened

Emperor Justinian had already dispatched Belisarius to restore Roman authority in the west, following the rapid conquest of Vandal-held North Africa. In 535 Belisarius secured Sicily with minimal resistance, then crossed to mainland Italy the following year. After a prolonged siege he captured Naples in early November 536, an event that prompted the Ostrogoths to depose their ineffective king Theodahad and elect the warrior Vitiges in his place. Vitiges withdrew most of his forces northward to Ravenna, leaving a garrison of roughly four thousand men in Rome.

Aftermath

The citizens of Rome, fearing another sack like the one that had befallen Naples, had already signaled their preference for Belisarius through a delegation that included Pope Silverius. When the Gothic garrison recognized that the local population would not support a defense, its commanders chose to evacuate rather than fight. Belisarius took possession of the city unopposed while the Goths departed through the northern Flaminian Gate.

Legacy

The peaceful reoccupation placed Rome once more under Eastern Roman administration and symbolized the reach of Justinian’s reconquest campaigns. Yet the city soon faced a year-long Gothic siege beginning in March 537, and the wider war dragged on for nearly two decades, ultimately leaving Italy exhausted and vulnerable to later Lombard incursions that erased most of the Byzantine gains.