Siege of Rome 537-538 – Roman – Gothic War DOCUMENTARY | bc vs 534 | 网站提供最新歌词

Hey guys, one of the writers/historians for this video here. Much had to be cut out so I thought I'd post some of the bits that couldn't make it into this video!

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Procopius, History of the Wars IV, XIV: “For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed.” 536AD heralded an extreme climactic event at the peak of several centuries of cooling, leading to severe crop failures and famine. It is likely that an enormous volcanic eruption in the Tropics caused global cooling through the emissions of ash and sulphur dioxide, however, possibly a meteorite impact could also have been the cause. This year was the coldest on record in the last three thousand years with teperatures being 2.5C below average. The people of the time took it as a dread portent and certainly the next twenty years on the Italian peninsula would live up to such a portent.

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A Roman soldier found a hole into the city’s aqueduct, which was subsequently widened, and 600 soldiers stormed the city leading to an end to the siege after twenty days. Interestingly, 906 years later, Alfonso V of Aragon, clearly a man to have read his Procopius, used a hole in the very same aqueduct to end another Siege of Naples. In a pleasant turn of history, despite the sacking, Belisarius freed all the captured citizens of Naples to curry good favour.

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Rome belonged to the Roman Empire once more, which makes for a good speech, however, Justinian’s recklessness cannot be overstated here. The decision to abandon Rome so easily by the Goths would surely come to haunt them, during the long and gruelling siege to follow.

A Gothic soldier was more irreplaceable than the Republican soldier of Italy during the Punic Wars. To be a Goth was to be a soldier and the Goths comprised only a small percentage of the population and were forcefully occupying the land, similarly to the Vandals. This goes part of the way to explaining why the numbers involved in these wars seem peculiarly small compared to, for instance, the battle of Cannae.

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The Goths cut the aqueducts of Rome. These were being built as early as 312BC by Appius Claudius and as late as 109AD by Trajan. The aqueducts would never be repaired and it’s worth highlighting that Justinian’s attempt to rekindle the glory of Rome snuffed the final light out of the city itself and some would argue the Empire.

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A siege is sort of a game of wits. In a stable state, each side has men, food and water and the idea is to reduce the food or water supply until one of them hits zero and then the besiegers win. The defenders’ job is to expend men to loosen the siege as much as possible so that the reduction of food and water can be slowed until external events drive away the besiegers. All the while, each side is trying to bribe the other to achieve some objective, such as opening a gate, and each side is looking for some overlooked secret way into the city. Belisarius knew this and fearing treachery bricked up the Flaminian Gate, which was the closest gate to several Gothic camps. The Goths spoke Latin too and so they would try to talk their way in during the night.

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Belisarius religiously attended to their rolls calls and rotas to ensure that every man kept to his post and neither left the city nor conspired with the Goths. Each night, the men were stationed at different locations on the wall to reduce the threat of bribery from the Goths and he sent out patrols of Moors with dogs to patrol the moat, as the Moors were not capable of speaking Latin and so couldn’t be bribed. Belisarius deposed the Pope Silverius, who was suspected of collaboration with the Goths, and further kept changing the locks of the city gates every two weeks.

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Vitigis seized the port of Rome, Portus, on March 24th. Procopius is critical of Belisarius here, as he’d left Portus wholly undefended and claims that three hundred men could have held the strong walls there. By doing this, Belisarius gave up the ability to resupply Rome from the sea, however, the twenty kilometres of the River Tiber between Rome and Portus were treacherous and the towing path was on the North-Western side of the river, which was held by the Goths.

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Hope you enjoy! Happy New Year everyone!

amazing video

This looks like Mongol hit-run tactic especially when the Byzantines went to the hill and baiting the Goths by shooting arrows on their camp then proceed to hit & run on the Gothic cavalry killing most of them. Then the Byzantines hit & run the gothic camps.

6:55 – wow so they did actually incorporate tactics similar to the steppe raiders. Why did later generals around the time of Manzikert seem so ignorant and inept? I thought the Eastern Roman empire kept many books on strategy as well?

Siege battle frustration

pls italians bring back the roman empire and start using swords instead of the stupid tanks and guns

This was really cool. I never seen such videos about time trying to recapture the ok’d empire

7:30
Mongols :eyes:

Did I understand it? The romans conquered Rome …defending it? What the heck

“The Goths built _siege towers_…” — 500 years ago, this would’ve been unimaginable. The barbarians have come a long way since. No wonder the Empire has lost its advantage over them.

The price of ego and the amazing what ifs. What if all of those resources had been used in something, perhaps less nonsensical? I am reminded of how many generals over time have decided to brave the steppes of the Rus, despite mounting evidence. Weakened the Byzantine, spread pestilence….. winning?

Fuck Zuck

no such thing as reclaim or winx or not