Review - Belisarius: The Last Roman General

[Viggen]

Ask anyone to name a famous Roman. I suspect Juilus Caesar will be the common answer, with the colourful emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty not far behind. But these are all names from a short period of history. The astonishing longevity of the Romans and their Byzantine successors isn't always appreciated. We so easily forget that the Roman world survived for two thousand years in total. One character, Justinian, has been nicknamed 'The Last Roman' for his attempt to reunite the fractured empire of his day. His story is little known to the public, and even that overshadows the story of the man who fought for Justinian and led his armies to victory. This then is the tale of Belisarius, 'The Last Roman General'...

 

...read the full review of Belisarius: The Last Roman General by Ian Hughes

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Nice review Caldrail,

 

I'm just over half way through this book myself and have to agree with you that it is indeed extremely informative, not just about the Byzantine's but also about their enemies too. The workings of the Goths, Vandals, Persians etc are all very well explained and with the help of the many maps and pictures through out the book it makes following the story much more helpful.

 

I think the problem with getting to know Belisarius is that we only really have Procopius to rely on and as Ian Hughes points out, because he was probably Belisarius' closet advisor and friend at the time of writing his Wars, most of the time his writing was very favourable to his general to say the least and he was clearly overly keen on exaggerating certain events to paint Belisarius in a much more favourable light.

 

The thing I'm liking about the book at the moment is that Hughes doesn't go down the hero worshipping route that some biographers tend to, he makes no bones about pointing out Belisarius' failings in certain matters and makes it clear that although at times his generalship was excellent he did have the odd blip in his career too.

[Ursus]

Congratulations, Sonic, on what seems like a winning book. :-)

 

And thanks to Caldrail for the review.

[sonic]

Congratulations, Sonic, on what seems like a winning book. :-)

 

And thanks to Caldrail for the review.

 

Thanks Ursus.

 

I also would like to express express my thanks to Caldrail for his review, and to GPM for his additions.

 

Any questions, you know where I am.

Edited April 28, 2009 by sonic

[Ursus]

The argument about the "Roman" status of Eastern subjects after Belisarius has been moved to here since it seemed more like a general topic than something directly related to Sonic's book.