The General Who Saved Rome But Was Erased By It: The Tragedy of Flavius Belisarius

Of all the forgotten heroes in history, none suffered a fate quite like Flavius Belisarius. He was the genius general who reconquered the lost Western Empire, defeated the Persians against impossible odds, and suppressed the deadliest riots in Byzantine history. Yet, instead of a throne, he was rewarded with suspicion, imprisonment, and erasure. This is the tragic true story of "The Last Roman."

In this deep-dive documentary, we explore the life of Flavius Belisarius, the loyal sword of Emperor Justinian. From the miracle victory at the Battle of Dara, where he used humble trenches to destroy an elite Persian army, to the brutal slaughter of the Nika Riots that saved Justinian's throne, Belisarius was the man who did the dirty work of empire-building.

We travel to North Africa, where he dismantled the Vandal Kingdom in months, and to the horrors of the Gothic War in Italy, where he held the city of Rome for a year against 150,000 barbarians. But the real war wasn't on the battlefield. It was in the palace. We uncover the toxic love-hate triangle between Belisarius, the paranoid Emperor, and the ruthless Empress Theodora.

Using accounts from Procopius Secret History, we reveal how jealousy and the catastrophic Justinian’s Plague turned the savior of Rome into a pariah. We also examine the military tactics that made his Roman Cataphracts invincible and the tragic final years that gave birth to the legend of the blind beggar.

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