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Belisarius, The Last Roman General. By Ian Hughes. Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59416-085-1. Maps. Illustrations. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xv, 272. $26.00.
Flavius Belisarius was the commander of the East Roman (Byzantine) expeditionary forces sent west by the Emperor Justinian with the objective being the recovery of the western provinces lost to the empire during the preceding two centuries. The book being reviewed is a biographical study which investigates the circumstances of the effort from the perspective of the commanding general of the expedition(s).The effort failed in the long run, but did enjoy enough initial success to be regarded as spectacular.
The author, Ian Hughes, has written a concisely comprehensive account of the wars which were part of the attempt, using as the central figure Flavius Belisarius, who by his early thirties had recovered North Africa from the Vandals, as well as having won a brilliant victory over the Sasanid Persians at the Batde of Darà. By the time he reached forty, Belisarius would be on the verge of recovering Italy from the Ostrogoths.
Belisarius was one of a collection of talented commanders in imperial service who carried out the policy of the Emperor of the Romans (Byzantines). Of equal significance, he was a magnetic personality who captured the imagination of his own day and of present day fantasy fiction aficionados. But more to the point, Professor Hughes has chosen Belisarius to serve as the focal point of inquiry into...