Justinian's Restoration: Battles of Taginae (552) and Volturnus (554) DOCUMENTARY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- The Restoration of Justinian led by Justinian and his general Belisarius began in the early 530s and was very successful early on: Eternal Peace with the Sassanid shah Khosrow was signed after the battle of Dara and the conclusion of the Iberian War, the Vandals were defeated at Ad Decimum and Tricamarum in 533, and then Belisarius landed in Italy and took Rome. The Ostrogoths besieged the city in 537, but Belisarius survived a year-long siege. With new forces in the area, the things were looking bright for the Roman Empire, but soon Belisarius lost the confidence of Justinian and entered into a conflict with another commander - Narses. All that, the Sassanid attack in the East, the start of the Justinian's Plague and invasion of Italy by the Franks prolonged the Gothic War. The conflict would culminate at the battles of Taginae and Volturnus.
Previous videos within this series -
Battle of Dara 530: • Battle of Dara 530 Rom...
Battle of Ad Decimum 533: • Battle of Ad Decimum 5...
Siege of Rome 537-538
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You know what perplexes me? Sometimes I read 5 or 6 books on the topic and think to myself "well, that is complicated, no matter how many books I am going to read on that, I will never be able to confidently say that I know what and how happened". And then I see someone in the comment section firmly taking one side of the argument with no hesitation whatsoever. Perplexing.
Speaking of the books, you can support us reading them and still knowing nothing via patreon: www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals :-)
Kings and Generals I always get an email about early access videos.
Well people take sides it is to be expected
Same. No matter how many books I read I am always thinking:”Well, maybe that’s just author’ bias. I should read more books to see another perspective.” And repeat.
4th
Correction: Both the Romans and the Sassanids suffered from the Plague of Justinian.
Belisarius is one of those superstar generals in history who did his job well and never seemed to get the recognition he deserved - poor guy.
Love your stuff. The Byzantine-Roman distinction has, it seems, removed most interest in the later Roman Empire for the common citizen.
Like Admiral Yi and/or Georgy Zhukov
Flash and Hamza, I disagree, especially regarding yi, he is already known on the internet as top 5 admirals of all time, and everybody knows the turtle ships.
Nusantara I think the wane of interest comes when Roman Legions lost their fancy style and began fighting more like eastern armies.
nomooon Yes he is recognized now but their Superiors during their careers didn't. Korea was almost lost whenever Yi was imprisoned or demoted because of Jealous officers. Zhukov was dismissed thrice during Stalin's reign and permanently during khuruschev's yet he single handedly won the Eastern front
They are recognized now but they were not during their careers
"Did you reclaim the West?"
"Yes"
"What did it Cost?"
"Everything"
Loktar o gar!
there should be a "Did you do it?" in there for extra dramatical reasons before your first written question
@@dosran5786 But it was really expensive none the less.
It still brought in a 40% increase in revenue, even after a plague and 20 year war. I call that a profit!
@@histguy101 It certainly led to massively increased costs far beyond that revenue, and it did so much damage to Italy that it weakened the country for centuries, and the ERE didn't have the manpower to fully stop the Lombard invasion. That said, the reconquest of North Africa, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and the very temporary reconquest of parts of Spain from the Visigoths went well.
The moment when you stop making your own video to watch Kings and Generals :D
Knowledgia heh
Can't wait for it, you and Kings & Generals are among my top 5 favourite channels.
I also do that with many creators. Glad to hear that. :-)
Fraz Kings and Generals is my favourite channel of all not only TH-cam
This is one of the channels that inspired me to have my one channel! I spend hours watching this videos!!! I hope one day my videos get as good and epic as this!!!
Poor Belisarius, never understood, never appreciated, distrusted and all mostly based on bad advise! Glory to one of the greatest generals, who unfortunately thanks to Justinian, is all but forgotten!
Hopefully, our viewers will remember him. :-)
I will always appreciate Belisarius, he will always be one of the greatest generals of Rome.
Sad that was constantly set up for failure with very few troops given to him and distrusted constantly when, even after the title of Roman Emperor was offered to him by the Ostragoths, he didn't take the title and instead returned to Constantinople
He got an AoE II campaing, It's something, I guess.
@@Korksbebig I would go further - he was the greatest general of the ancient world,even,dare I say,of any period.
The only other general with comparable ability was his great predecessor Stilicho.
I think it's important to note that Narses' success was due in large part to Justinian finally being able to send a large army and a full budgetary support for the final phase of the Ostrogothic War. Belisarius had almost non-existent support due to the economic strain dealt by the Plague (or due to the withholding of necessary support by a jealous Justinian, according to Procopius). That does not detract from Narses' victory of course, but does help explain why Belisarius failed in that final phase.
Well done, guys! Great video. And yeah, I was unaware of this vid until you mentioned it in a comment.
I don't know why you guys are not getting the notifications. Talking to the TH-cam support, hopefully they will fix it.
this is some 6d chess right here lol
Gone - > YT sponsor
Kings and Generals sweet! I hope they fix this problem soon.
Belisarius was defiantly a better general than narces, the first campagin in Italy may have succeed if not for narces and john
Blame John for everything.
John is depicted poorly, he was blamed a lot while Belisarius was praised. John was also concerned with securing Italy, but he was more worried of what would happen after he followed orders. Belisarius had conquered Africa, but poor management led to mutiny and the commaders were killed, he has more than enough reason to fear following Belisarius's orders to his death. Even if he went to Milan, there was no stopping a Frankish army much larger than his. The wiser decision would have been to evacuate Milan as it was too far north of Byzantine control, he must have been well respected enough to openly question Belisarius and get away with it.
Napoleon I Bonaparte why me
@@dariusgreysun If he was truly a coward then why wasn't he removed? Maybe what they tell in the books is only a biased account.
@@ZaKRo-bx7lp john was an ally of narses and his family connections possibly put him in relation to the emperor prior to justin. he was a very well connected man and one that justinian had no intention of executing.
not that he wasn't a talented commander, he probably thought he was above belisarius. but that's not how an affective army works.
@@TheChuckfuc True, the army was also too extended and poorly supplied to firmly secure the land. Not to mention how Italy became a waste land due to the war and the plague.
“The empire flexed its muscles” my new favorite line I’ve heard on this equal only to “they broke the golden rule, don’t kill the emissaries”
Need to use it more then. :-)
luis rebellon "war became inevitable" is still my favourite
@Kings and Generals
We do anthropomorphise things quite a bit. I can say that I'm so far in that formations losing their coherency is just another stock phrase :)
Lol yes
I love how the "characters" all have names like Belisarius, Vitiges, and Justinian, and then there's just some guy named John.
Also, Belisarius was a savage. He might be the most underrated tactical genius ever.
John the dumb and foolish.
Well, in Latin, it would be "Ionnes", not John.....
@@alexclement7221 To be precise, the Latin form would be something like "Ioannes" or "Iohannes".
@Donag If anything he's overrated.
Totila clearly hasn't played total war... Charging into spearmen..
It is important to see the perspective. At that point, Gothic and Vandalic horsemen dominated the Romans for a few centuries.
theodosis kantas καλα ρε συ αστους. πολυ παινεμα πεφτει
Kings and Generals: Ah yes, I understand. But still, I don't think he played total war... :)
All the other commenters: lol
@@KingsandGenerals kinda remind me of the french knights who charged recklessly for glory
Totila War you mean?
Ill see myself out....
The more i learn about the Eastern Roman Empire the sadder i get... They really fought on all front, facing many deadly ennemies throughout their existence (Persians, Goths, Bulgars, Arabs, Turks...) and often managed to won all against the odds. It's one of those Empires in History that has nothing more to prove. Through they're courage, tenacity, strategic capabilities and adaptability even in their darkest moments, those warriors that tried to keep alive the memory of the eternal city are worthy to be remembered !
By the way i would love to see a Realistic Open World RPG set in this Empire :D
Just play crusader kings III as the Byzantines or play the 395 ad mod fallen eagle
Ironic that Justinian's obsession and determination to take Italy caused so much destruction in the peninsula that the campaign became more than worthless as the peninsula was in ruins and the armies that took it had to be payed alot.
James Tang
It was in fact, a prologue to the dark ages, for all of the infrastructure needed for a new and strong empire got destroyed!
That´s why Rome was known prior to it´s restoration in the rennesaince as an a rubbish heap inside the Dustbin of history.
I only see a Gothic obsession on my end. Justinian only did a crusade against heathen barbarians.
Well, at least they won back their real homeland in Italy
“Justinian only did a crusade against the heathen barbarians.”
The Ostrogoths were Christian, and unlike Justinian, didn’t devastate Italy when they conquered it.
I can only imagine the reaction of the Roman troops upon marching into Rome for the first time since the collapse of the West. It must have been strange fighting with such a relatively small army in such a colossal city.
Yeah, I guess. It lost most of its population by that time and regions of the city were basically abandoned.
The Rome they would have witnessed was a shadow of its former self. The barbarian tribes that preceded them made darn sure of that.
@@stevenleslie8557this seems tot be based on a misconception of who these barbarians were. The goths for instance werd thoroughly romaized and let the Italiaans live their lives how they choSe. They werd in fact more of a contiNuation of the western roman Empire than the byzantines, who effectively destroyed italy. IT had been posed that the South of italy never really recovered from the damage inflicted in the sixth century.
@@leendertvanderent5078
Not true Palermo was one of the top 3 biggest cities in Europe between the Muslim Conquest up until the war of the war of the vespers along with cordoba and Constinople.
Catania and Messina were two of the biggest cities in Europe between 1500-1700
Naples was a top 3 city in Europe between 1550 till being sacked by Northern Italians in the Italian Unification.
Bari was a major hub of trade and one of the biggest cities in Italy for several hundred years under the Byzantine Empire
Big misconception. South Italy was perfectly fine well after this. Northern Italy actually took the big blows. The entire population of the city of Milan was wiped out by these wars and wouldn't recover for Centuries.
«Beware of an old man in a profession were men usually die young.»
The goths didn't get the memo about Narses in 551.
Truly epic. I'm now arranging a meeting with friends from my old reenactment group. We are planning to have a couple beers and watch a marathon of all your documentaries.
Very inspiring, my friend, thank you!
Lol im in
I consider @Kings and Generals as my friends so you can kiss my lower-back area :P
Kamil Szadkowski the Royal posthumous posterior
Wish i had friends like yours to make a history club with beer :D
Justian, standing in the smolderring ruins of Italy: "We did it, Belisarius! We saved the Roman Empire!"
Some things you really love to hate
Theodorich and the Ostrogoths would have probably been a very good option after the west Roman empire fall for italy, stability and cooperation between germanic and Romans. The war of Justinian was catastrophic for Italy
All history lovers owe you thanks gentlemen. To focus on times and battles that have been so little treated. Personally I have always admired General Narses, this Armenian ennuch who at almost 80 years old was still commanding gigantic armies and winning decisive battles. What a destiny!
He was a nutless wonder.
omg this John guy is getting me so salty hahaha
DO AS YOUR TOLD DAMNIT!!
lol
I will forever remember Magister militum Belisarius as the greatest Eastern Roman General in history.
5 Goths disliked this video
There is always someone. :-)
Now there're 17~
And propably also some Italians/Romans. I mean come on. You are minding your own buisness and the eastern romans and the ostrogoths start a war on your farmland, burning everything down, plundering it and then have the nerves to say that you were freed.
No, it's those 5 franks that got away from the 2nd battle.
@Manny Belgrano STFU crying goth bitch , You Goths were pain in the ass , but u got all fucked
A nice little tidbit is that not only was Narses a bureaucrat with no military experience, but also a eunuch. While It wasn't unusual for eunuchs to hold important positions in the empire during this time, it was unusual for a 75 year-old castrate to be put charge of the most important military campaign at that point. And what do you know, he won.
Somehow, beaurocrats tend to do well as commanders. There's Germanicus (he become a soldier). And Eumenes.
Ah yes, Eumenes of Cardia. That guy didn't fuckup the empire after Alexander's death.
@@tylerdurden3722 Remember reading about how Socrates argued about something like that. Some experienced veteran soldier was unhappy that the director of local orchestra (or whatever they called it) was put in charge of Athenian army. Socrates argued that managing army is not so different from managing orchestra - gota keep people lined up, have the right people do the right job, have them train, have them perform successfully under pressure etc.
@Hooch Smeeth bro chill wtf is this toxicity, it's obviously somewhere from plato's work and it's not like he's trying to disprove something lmao why are you so salty
You know what? I'm sad because this series ended. Same kind of sadness when your favorite tv serie ends :/. Thanks so much for the documentaries.
There are always new, exciting series in the works. :-)
Replace "Khosrow" with "The AI" and that tends to be how my campaigns play out
Well, Khosrow was better than your usual AI. :-)
RandomBalo Right? I started a New Prussian campaign in Empire and everyone surrounding me is attacking and sacking. I haven’t lost a battle, but I’m losing the war.
Justinian was one of the most greatest imperors for me, with the little bit of luck, he could reestablish old roman empire :/ thanks for this awesome video guys
@Robert Asaturyan It's spelled emperor.
The Ostrogoths themselves sent a messenger to Khosrau to convince him to break the "Eternal Peace", which he was probably extremely tempted to do anyway. That is why Belisarius was forced to leave Italy before the Ostrogoths were fully subjugated (much to his chagrin), and hence why they were able to revive their kingdom under Totila. It was an incredibly clever move on the Ostrogoths' part.
I really hope you understand how important your work is to your subs. I can't get enough of this! Thanks!
And you feedback is important to us, keep it coming. :-)
"this is the Kings & Generals channel and we will catch you on the next one" - anyone else love this part?
Last True Romans
nah, the last true romans were the last roman emperors.
Constantine XI
And Pope Stephen is the last Roman Pope. Search Frankish Papacy.
Flavius Aëtius
Not Justinian you mean
Fun fact: Narses actually reached a ripe old age of 90
Also the ancient name of Calabria was Apulia
Yep, misplaced Calabria.
i'm a simple man
i see "justinian"
i press like
Also press share. :-)
I see justinian, i get angry at this stupid little shit pseudo-emperor who could just conquer farmland and concentrate on making his empire prosper by commerce.
You missed your chance with "I'm a simple roMAN".
Such a shame.
I see a bunch of butthurt haters eh?
This channel and extra credits are two favorite history channels to date. I love both Justinian series’ so much
Thank you!
Justinian was a man of ungodly ambition!
Maybe even too much, his determination to retake Italy left it in ruins after the campaigns. He was lucky to die before the empire really started crumbling.
James Tang worth it
Ethan Barkworth, semi worth it cause Africa and Sicily proved to be prosperous provinces.
Manny Belgrano, yes after the war Sicily and Africa provided 40% of the empire's food after the war and were vital to byzantiums survival after losing Egypt.
@@jamestang1227 I think Italy was already something like a ghost town by then.
All hail the Patreons. Thank you because I can't do what you do.
Indeed, all the glory to them. :-) You can still help by sharing the video. :-)
Never was so much owed by so many to so few
Nice.
Heck yeah, huehue
Thanks for the awesome video! Been waiting for this one for a while. Belisarius is my all time favourite Roman.
Thanks for watching!
As a five star military expert I will be first to point out that having your army split into smaller pieces that refuse to work together, generally doesnt work out too well. Additionally, I would never put a John in charge of any of my forces. Johns are too stubborn.
Some of the Johns are better than the other Johns, I guess. :-)
Yeah unless it's like John I Tzimiskes
How about King John of Polish-Lithuania that led the winged hussars to rout the Ottoman force in the Siege of Vienna?
@@juanthegreat3954 And then got screwed by russians and germans LOL
glad to see so many videos coming out so regularly
Working hard. :-)
The Komnenian Restoration would be awesome.
Will consider!
Besides the Komnenian Restoration Manaikes is a really interesting topic. If you already did'nt I strongly recommend John Julius Norwich's trilogy about the Byzantine Empire. It is very informative while being a VERY fun read. Another good read i can recommend is Strategikon as it is one of the best books on Byzantine military. Love your channel as you can stay immensly entertaining while not losing accuracy.
As much as I love Alexios, the man didn't achieve enough glory.
@@jeto9625 He tried everything to get the empire back to its knees, after manzikert. He was a master of diplomacy. He ll always be a hero for me
I've been a subscriber and the series on Justinian was magnificent! Belisarius was a remarkable man and general. I've used your series on this, as well as others, to help educate my pupils about the often understudied periods between the fall of the Western Empire and the final capitulation of the Roman Empire at the Fall of Constantinople.
While the Eastern Empire was remarkably a Greek State, it was still THE Roman Empire. Thanks for Constantinople, and ultimately its sacking, the pillaging of the manuscripts and artwork led directly to the Renaissance.
imagine what it would do to your armies reputation if it was forced to retreat because it was literally shitting itself
Beats dying, I guess. :-)
john smitty 😭😭 underrated comment right there
I don't really like the term restoration in this context. Many times, historians call the reconquest of Italy and Africa during the Justinian's rule as a restoration. But the term implies that something (in this case, a state) had fallen. Which, in this case, wasn't true. From the contemporaries' point of view, they were Roman and Rome had never fell. Only the western half of it. Charlemagne and his descendants WERE restoring Rome, because they sought to revive the western half of the empire, but Eastern Romans had no desire to restore something that was still alive. Thus, reconquests of Justinian would be a better term, IMHO.
Of course, I'm not a native speaker, so I may be wrong about this. Feel free to correct me.
No, you're correct. Good call out.
Well, the Peninsula was brought back under imperial rule, tho fragile. In that sense restoration seems correct.
"Brought back under imperial rule" - It sounds like a reconquest to me. :P
Restoration is still an applicable term.. But its more correct to say reconquest, its not as if Imperial Rule was restored through charity.
the roman empire, at its core essense was simply the city of rome. The moment the city of rome permanantly fell into foreign hands the traditional roman empire ended. Sure there was still a Roman empire, but it had one huge difference to all other Roman empires before it: No Rome. Therefore, from a roman standpoint it was a restoration of the rightfull roman empire. A roman empire is never a true roman empire without Rome itself, even if rome is simply a burning ruin.
This is good enough to be on the History Channel! God DAMN I love this!
Thanks!
Well, the matches today have finished, popcorn almost run out (I side with Italy, so now I just watch the matches for fun and entertainment as a neutral) but the popcorn is not totally out, just enough for more entertainment!!!! Yay. As always, a very big well done to all you guys, keep it up!
Yeah, it was a shock when Italy failed to qualify. We will, thank you! :-)
I highly recommend Extra History’s series on Justinian, Theodora and Belisarius.
Do you recommend this series over there, too? :-)
Kings and Generals Of course! Always happy to recommend quality channels. I’m glad to see how far you guys have grown. Keep up the great work!
Thank you! :-)
That's a great series I watched it a little while ago and it was really good.
Kings and generals is my favorite channel at the moment love your content!
I watched it
Thanks for the great documentary. It always makes me feel excited and dive into deep thoughts to live in a city where conquerors like Constantine the Great, Justinianus and Sultan Mehmet II had once lived and ruled the world.
Aw common john wtf man?
Just doing the John things. :-)
It seems like every ruler or commander named John sucks.
Paul Bartel Yeah like John Lackland
Paul Bartel also john tyler
HiddenHistory it's annoying because John the Armenian on Total War Attila The Last Roman dlc was my second best General , so it's painful seeing him being a dick
best channel on youtube, one ask. some way to easily watch whole series. watch everyday day!
Thank you! The best way to watch the whole series are the playlists. In this case - this one: th-cam.com/play/PLaBYW76inbX6F5PwEOmYUBCg5iX3OZTIj.html
Justinian should have just left the Ostrogoths alone. They worked fine as "patricians of Italy". This war destroyed Italy so such an extent that the Rome for example did not recover until the 19th Century. Rome was entirely depopulated twice and besieged 5 times during this war. It just wasn't worth it at all, the previous setup was manageable.
I kinda go back and forth on this matter. Obviously, we have the hindsight. But look at that from the Byzantine perspective: Rome was the home. One can argue that these wars strengthened the Byzantine rule and helped them create a tradition that allowed the Empire to survive for so long.
+Kings and Generals
It's funny you mention hindsight, because you're speaking with hindsight here too. The idea that Rome had "fallen" and was no longer a part of the Empire is a modern historiographical conception, most people in the early 6th Century did not see it that way. It has infact been argued by some scholars that the idea that Italy had "fallen" was something manufactured by Justinian's court to justify the invasion.
Think about it, the Ostrogothic King was de jure the Patrician of Italy, he wasn't ruling in his own name, he was ruling on behalf of the Emperor in Constantinople. The vast majority of the coins minted in Italy during this time did not contain the face of the Ostrogothic ruler, but rather the Emperor. The years were dated after the reign of the Emperor, not the Ostrogothic King etc.
As far as how many people at the time saw it, Rome was still a part of the Empire, they just had a Germanic patrician ruling the province of Italy at the moment. The invasion not only ruined this frankly quite flexible and workable situation, but destroyed Italy in the process. The newly gained territories gave the Empire almost nothing in return as it only resulted in a longer border, which they needed more men to defend. Due to the violent nature of the war aswell as the plague, the Empire did not have the manpower to guard these new borders and the new provinces did not give them much revenue in return.
That is true. :-) Then again, you know one of the main principles of the Macchiavelism - find an external enemy to unite your realm. Maybe, Vandals and Goths seemed an easier target than the Sassanids. Also, do we know if the Ostrogoths paid any kind of tribute or tax?
I think Ostrogothic kingdoms being vassals/stewards of Italy on behalf of the empire was just an illusion made to keep up appearances and avoid the shame of the collapse of the west. Had the Byzantines drawn revenues and troops from Italy then that might not have been the case but it was a sham. I can totally understand why Justinian wanted to invade and bring Italy back under direct control.
And with hindsight, it probably wasn't a good move, but I can totally understand the reasoning behind it.
+
Kings and Generals
There's not really any government records that survive from the Ostrogothic Kingdom, and the sources like Boethius generally don't get bogged down on taxation. So this is pure conjecture, but if I were to guess I'd assume they did not pay any taxes to the Empire, they did pay formal tribute but not in cash.
Always nice to come back and hear your narrator. It's much more soothing than some others and makes the content easier to process. Great video, thank you!
Rome’s population declined to about 40,000 as a result of this war. The greatest metropolis became mostly an abandoned place like Pripyat for more than a thousand years...
I think the Roman Reconquest could make a great TV drama series, with Justinian and Belisarius as the central characters.
...and then they rode off into the sunset. Happily ever after...
*The End*
yah!
For the next few decades, I guess. :-)
excellent vid....it seems I will have to look back into your earlier videos to see one's of this series :P
Thanks! Yes, they are quite interesting. :-)
The 134 dislikes are from the goths who managed to escape the onslaught by belisarius in battle
this was jam packed with so much awesome info
Thanks :-)
Great video.Would have loved to see the ''restoration'' of the emperor Maurice, and his wars against sassanids,avars,slavs and lombards.
Thanks, it is all on the list. :-)
Firefox Lani, agreed people never give Maurice the respect he deserved had he survived the Roman Persian wars could have came to an end.
Tyler Ellis, had he survived the Roman Persian wars wouldn't had started in the first place.Also the Balkan frontier could had been kept, which means more quality soldiers for the empire.He could also had subdued the lombards in Italy and muslims could only dream about conquering the Levant.
Firefox Lani, exactly the guy honestly was a genius he just trusted his men too much and should have stoped at the empire's Danube border.
Tyler Ellis, his mistake was that he underestimated the reaction of the balkan army.He shouldn't had let the situation gone so far, which resulted in his coup. Also the Thracian army that mutinied was shortsighted, as it should had ended the war with the avars first and then go deal with the emperor.
Belesarius is best commander. İn medieval The Conquest of Justinian(527-565) is honorary history and this history is Golden Age in Bizantium. This video is very good. Thanks!!
Thank you for watching! :-)
Rasul Hamidov, psh the rule of basil ii is the golden age of Byzantium.
Golden age of Byzantium was during the reign of the Macedonian dynasty in the 10-11st century.
Kuno, exactly isn't called the byzantine renaissance for nothing.
Can anyone help me figure out why battles of this era had much fewer troops than the Republic era or even the early Imperial age? When I think of the 80000 at Cannae or the 100000 of the Dacian campaign it is hard to imagine how the later empire under Justinian struggled to scrap up 10-20 thousand troops.
Constant invasions from the north. Goths, Huns etc.
Climate change reducing food production
Nobles that didnt want to pay taxes for the common good anymore.
Plagues helped by climate change.
Its important to consider this was during the transition of the Classical age to the Medival age where armys shrunk. As the comment above me said many natural causes as well as man caused. Also considering half the roman empire was gone they couldnt get as many men. With the plauge to and new enemys it became alot harder to assemble large armys.
TLDR: Bad infastructure and decentralized authority.
What you're wondering is why the available levy system was smaller. Populations have grown over time but Rome from 300 BCE to 300 CE had the best levy system the planet has ever seen under a central beauracracy. The infastructure started in central Italy and expanded to cover the Mediterranean. Once that started to decline around the time of Constantine and onward, there was no easy way to raise troops. Money wasnt worth what it was and most people had experienced civil war and invasion by 400 CE so one leader is the same as the next. I can't imagine anyone living on subsistence level noticed mmuch difference between 425-525 other than some increase in german language. Soldiers were paid really really well during the early/middle empire too so once the economy started failing thr incentive to fight wasn't there. Caesar and Pompey could afford to arm and supply thousands on their own dime. And that money was good for a few more centuries.
the later roman empire and its eastern based continuation for most of its early history were very manpower thin.
reasons upon other reasons include
- depopulated traditional recruitment areas (i.e illyria, moesia, armenia, asia minor)
- diocletions proto-serfdom made movement between occupations extremely difficult
- imperial expenditures only grew while imperial income ever dwindled
- rampant noble corruption (i.e people would sell themselves into indentured servitude in exchange for benefactors bribing recruiters)
- distrust of the military by the imperial family (the crisis of the third century onwards is a treasure trove of generals and governors with military command attempting usurpation)
- the stakes werent at Cannae levels until it was far to late for the ERE limiting things (i.e italy =/= anatolia or greece in the minds of the byzantine nobility)
One of the only channels I've hit the bell for. 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻keep it up
Appreciate that, will do! :-)
Justinian's dreams in all honors, but maybe all that effort and money would have served Rome better had it gone into fortifications, wars against the Persians, and economic development...
Narses was Armenian btw)
True. :-)
Kings and Generals like John?
Yuwan like me :D
John from the Ad Decimum video was Armenian, this one wasn't.
Personally, I think Justinian wanted to reclaim Roman territory without really understanding how Rome did it in the first place. Rome was very adept in diplomacy, more often then not fighting with allies in the area or playing them against one another, whereas Justinian tried forcing his way into Italy where he had little to no allies.
Not all battles were won through force
I only recently got in contact with your channel, after seemingly have seen all worthwhile content on TH-cam, you make great videos, especially this series about late antiquity is especially interesting to me, but all videos are great!
I would love to see a continuation of this, especially how the Lombards managed to just take the majority of Italy with little combat, which make it a great subject for a shorter video.
While the migration and the destruction it brought are not particularly contributing to this channel, i would at least wish to see the skirmishes between the (Eastern-) Romans and the Lombards.
Amazing video guys ! Really love your documentaries about the Justinian restoration. Out of curiosity, do you know why Belisarius (and his generals) refused to support Theodora although he was extremely faithful to Justinian ?
Thanks! :-) I asked the scriptwriter of this video. It seems that Belisarius and the generals surrounded him grouped up and planned to declare the next emperor, without consulting Theodora. So, it wasn't an outright rebellion, but Justinian didn't like that at all.
Ah, I see ! Thank you very much for taking the time to answer. :)
Always. :-)
Love this channel. Keep up the great work
We surely will, thank you!
This makes me want to start another Byzantium campaign in eu4
I eerily remember that it was very difficult. :-)
@@KingsandGenerals yes indeed it was, i remember starting over a few times
But well worth it. Byzantium is one of the most fun Nations in EU4.
Only 5 of 20.000 managed to escape. Now that's decisive battle.
Great video like your channel!!!
Thanks!
Good one. I think the failure of later Roman armies was that it failed to evolve the changing military tactics and weaponary of its enemies. Love your presentation. Keep up the good work. Cheers!
Thanks! We will talk about the Byzantine armies in more detail, in future. They actually managed to evolve, but too many enemies surrounded them and too many civil wars hindered their ability to defend properly.
Kings and Generals it's true that they evolved over time but mostly depending on auxiliary forces. What I meant to say is that the core of the Roman army was still infantry and they failed to evolve to develop other skills within their core rather than depend on auxiliaries.
Vinod Varghese, are you just talking about late Romans or Byzantines, cause the Byzantines by 1025 has the strongest army on earth outside china, made up professional heavy infantry supported by cataphracts and thematic well equipped militia troops.
Finally a Great Sunday
Loved this! Well done as usual.
Thanks! :-)
I'm curious though--Do you guys redesign the Total War units in your videos yourselves, or do you use a mod? If so, I'd love to know which one! They look much better than the vanilla game.
GEMFX with Aztec lighting and Last Roman HD graphic's mod :-)
Thanks!!
I wish you would have some videos about what happend next.
Anyway, great work!
Will think about it. Thank you!
These videos are so awesome. I am definitely gone help out in Patreon. These videos makes me want to go and fire up Rome Total War, and start kicking ass again..2005 style..
Thanks for considering it!
Finally some Byzantine Battles Quality as always superb
Thank you :)
After watching the vid I discovered I had liked it already, though don't remember watching it ))
Around 12:28, that's not Calabria, that's Puglia.
Calabria is the southwestern end of the peninsula (the one near Sicily)
Yep, our mistake, I mixed up Calabria and Apulia.
eheh
Thank you for your amazing video !! Please, continue your Ottoman series . Thank you !!
We will, thank you!
great documentary as always, could you make one of the evolution of the byzantine army ? and how the greeks- romanic traditions and the asiatic and nomadic tribes affect his way of fighting!!!
I also don't get the notification i don't know why?
nonetheless...thank you guys good job
Yeah, it is planned!
Have you pressed the bell button next to the subscribe button?
Hello guys, for those who are asking regarding the mods that were used in this video:
(Last Roman HD) steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=929523366&searchtext=last+roman+HD
(Aztec Lighting) steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532125259&searchtext=Aztec
(GEM FX) www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?2101-Graphic-Enhancement-Mod-GEMFX
Belisarius, Stannis Baratheon of Byzantine.
Thankyou for great serie. You should end it with Battle of Melantias, last battle of Belisarius where he won army of nomadic Kutrigurs who were threatening Bysantium. Emperor was terrified and he had to call belisarius back from retirement, who fougth and won against numerically vastly superior nomadic army.
It would not be exactly on topic of "restoration of Justinian" but it would end nicely serie of this era, being last battle of Belisarius, who undoubtedly was most superb of bysantine generals, whole career considered.
When my Grandfather was 73, he stayed in bed and didn't go far away from home without any of his sons
And we have Narses who commanded his army against Dangerous Ostrogoths
Btw do you guys know he was Armenian
I was waiting for this video for so long thanks for uploading :)
Great video once again. I think Justinian was right to attempt to liberate Italy from Gothic rule. After all Rome was considered the old Capital of the Empire. One thing I wonder though. The restoration of Justinian has been blamed for the depopulation and decline of Italy. Why is that? Italy had suffered invasions with much larger armies and for long years since Pyrrhus and Hannibal and Attila and Alaric. And Rome and Italy always seemed to pull through and recover fast. Was it perhaps due to the Plague of Justinian’ time that decline after the restoration could not be prevented?
Thanks! I guess, it was a mix of factors: the plague, crop failures, famines, the war itself. The main reason Justinian is blamed is that he sent a very small amount of troops to the area- enough to take over towns, not enough to defend them. And that happened a number of times.
Please make videos about the Greek period of the Empire (Macedonian komnenoi laskarides angeloi palaiologoi dynasties)
Imagine a Julius Caesar reconquering Italian lands. Not because Belisar was a bad strategist rather because less romans would question his orders
I had never heard about Belisarius before getting a DLC about him in TW Attila. This guy along with al-Walid deserve way more attention than they have now.
I always hate Narses because I'm a Belisarius man but damn he is one fine commander.
Had it not been for Narses & John’s outright insubordination, the Italian Campaign could’ve came to an End in 541 or 542 & not 12 years later
Narses was a good General & I acknowledge his victory in the final phase. But it was because of him, John & to an extent Justinian, that the campaign went on for as long as it did
Plse do a video about the conquests of Trajan!!
In my opinion Trajan is one of the most Underrated Roman Emperor,he belongs to the league of Constantine the great,Augustus,Julius Caeser(though not emperor),Pompey the great(again not an emperor)etc..
Please make a video on Trajan's conquests and also the early conquests of Rome when it was just a City-state!!
Will be glad to see a video covering these topics...
Will consider!
A guy called optimus princeps wasn't really underrated.
I'd like to see you do a video on the Great Siege of Malta, I think it's a super interesting battle with many moving pieces.
It is on the list.
you'll never hear this sht in media lol. i dont know why western media seem to hate byzantines so much lol
Your videos are wonderful, do not despond and do not stop, K&G.
.They are of interest to both professionals and history lovers
Narses lived upto the age of 95 in those times. That was achievement in itself!
I guess, the lack of... lust was helpful.
Yes, and a lot of luck too. Also he might be much more hygienic than the standards of those times..
One of the best video about Justinian Restoration, but you can make a video on Justinian's war on Spain in a much more detailed way. And it is worth it to do a video on Justinian's last years and wars with Huns.
Thank you, we'll see!
that John character had to be told twice to do one thing, by two generals. these days i think he would have been up for a Court-Martial.
I named my parrot Belisarius in honour of the general.
FINALLY THE LAST PART! I am writing this before watching, so... LET'S GET INTO IT! 😁
Hope, you are going to enjoy it. :-)
Kings and Generals Well you done it....well. But there do exist some serious mistakes. The ones that I noticed were mostly about period between 540-552 in Italy. Firsty to say that there was two major battles in 542. First being the battle of Flaventia in which Totila with 5.000 men defeated Byzantine army of 12.000. Second one was battle of Mucellium in which Totila also defeated Byzantines this time led by John and other notably commanders. Second thing is that on the map all time in 540's it looks like 90% of the cities in Italy were under Byzantine control, while in reality since the second half 540's only the small number of cities were under byzantine rule. Actually by the time when Narses came into Italy in 552, only 4 cities on the peninsula were still in Roman/byzantine hands! The third thing that you missed to show, or to mention at least, was roman expedition in Visigoth Spain 552-555 which, at the end, manage to reconquer some 1/6 of Iberian peninsula, including capital of Visigoths, Kordoba. You could also show invasions on Balkan, though that is not related to reconquest of the West.
Nevertheless, all in all, you did great work, even if you didn't mention Spain. May I also ask you when would second part of Napoleon go? Also I could recommend you some good books about Napoleon and his campaigns, if you need. 😉
Brilliant work. Continue in this spirit, I am a sworn fan already.
Screw Justinian Bellesarius was the real key in all this shabange
Alas, often the leaders are the ones who get all the glory.
Well at least most leaders actually lead their armies ,manage tactics and create plans managing supply lines organizing the hierarchy yet all Justinian did was sitting down in his fancy palace even the affairs of the state were mostly Theodora's thingy
Justinian's great achievement was rewriting the laws of the empire. His legal reforms are still used as the foundation of modern law.
Best thing about Justinian is that he always know who it pick for a job.
Darn! This series it's so good! 👍🏽
Alas, it is not concluded. But we will have more on the Byzantine history. :-)