The Life Of Belisarius [Paperback]

Lord Mahon (Author), Jon Coulston (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2005

Serving the Byzantine Emperor Justinian during the 6th century A.D., Belisarius defeated a superior Persian force that threatened to extinguish Constantinople; his small army next drove the Vandals out of the ancient Roman provinces of North Africa and forced the Visigoths to retreat from Italy, returning Rome to the Emperor for the final time. His ability to achieve victory against overwhelming odds and his fairness to both his own troops and those of his enemies became legendary. Despite his successes, Justinian recalled Belisarius and, swayed by jealous advisers, accused the general of conspiring to overthrow him. Although innocent, he was publicly humiliated and stripped of his rank. But when a massive army of barbarians moved against Constantinople and the citizenry panicked in fear, they turned to their only true hero, Belisarius. The forsaken general donned his armor, called out his trusted veterans, and repulsed the barbarian horde. But instead of showing gratitude, Justinian banished him from the city.

Considered among the greatest generals of all time and studied later for his innovative battle tactics and unconventional strategy, Belisarius is credited with reclaiming the lost glory of Rome and helping to preserve Constantinople, whose influence would continue for centuries. Lord Mahon's biography, the first scholarly history of this remarkable figure, combines the adventure of a great epic novel with the engrossing story of a man who, despite injustices, remained loyal to the end. Edited and introduced by historian Jon C. N. Coulston, this new and retypeset edition, the first in more than 100 years, will allow the modern reader to discover one of history's most intriguing figures.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lord Mahon (1805–1875), the parliamentary name of Philip Henry, Fifth Earl Stanhope, was a prominent British politician and historian. Through his efforts the National Portrait Gallery was founded. Among his many writings, Life of William Pitt remains a standard work.

Jon C. N. Coulston is Lecturer in Ancient History and Archaeology at University of St Andrews. His is editor of Ancient Rome: The Archaeology of the Eternal City

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Westholme Publishing; Westholme Ed edition (November 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594160198
• ISBN-13: 978-1594160196
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,115,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Social and Military History, January 26, 2006

By 

Jeanne E. Franklin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Life Of Belisarius (Paperback)

The life of Belisarius, a late-Georgian (not Victorian) history in the vein of Gibbons, is the story of one of the most interesting figures of late antiquity. The author does a great job of combining Byzantine court intrigue and gripping battle accounts--the entrance into Naples through an abandoned aqueduct and the seige of Rome are particularly well drawn--to chronicle the amazing military campaigns and tribulations of Belisarius. This is a sumptuous narrative--old fashioned in the best sense. These is also a very interesting subplot of the struggle between the Arian and Catholic faiths; also, the suggestion that Belisarius' defeat of the Vandals and subsequent abandonment by Byzantium led to a power vacuum in North Africa on the eve of the Islamic conquests. Professor Coulston explains in his introduction how the sources mined by Mahon are impressive for their breadth and range--and that is what makes the book relevant to the modern audience. "Lord Mahon closely attended the literary sources so in the biography we not only have a powerful story, well told, but also a solid work of history standing alongside, and interacting with, the work of other nineteenth century historians." Since the book was written more than 150 years ago, Coulston also provides a helpful "Further Reading" section.
When I decided to post a review, I became a bit concerned after reading the review below. Is this history really that "politically incorrect?" Well, I went back through the book carefully and I was relieved to find that the reviewer's claims are specious. I found no consistent allusion to "north versus south" or "east versus west." In fact to Mahon's credit, writing in an age where it was common to make sweeping generalizations based on prejudices, most of the "barbarians" are from the north. He does express dismay at the conditions along the Italian peninsula, but any criticism of Mahon's observations (and support from ancient sources) has to be viewed in the context of the time. (It would be another thirty years after the book first appeared before Italy would become a unified country.) But all of this is minor and takes up exceedingly little space in this engrossing narrative. According to Coulston--and from the notes in the book--Lord Mahon was very well traveled for his age, and he is sympathetic to other cultures. If any charge of "political incorrectness" can be leveled at Mahon it is that he plays into centuries-old mysogyny, blaming the influence of the wives of Belisarius and Justinian for most bad decisions. Enjoy this book for what it is: it is a great read, a classic account of a very interesting historical figure.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 19th century scholarly rigor, June 22, 2007

By 

Florentius (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Life of Belisarius (Christian Roman Empire) (Paperback)

This book is the only scholarly biography I'm aware of that deals with the life of the great Roman general Belisarius. As the author points out, Belisarius was one of the few great men in history who deserved to wear a crown but never did. He has been called the greatest Roman general of them all, having defeated the Persians, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths in turn with forces that would have been considered paltry by Caesar. He achieved what might have been his most glorious victory of all near the end of his life when he turned away an invading army of Huns from the very walls of Constantinople with a scant 300 veterans and some ill-equipped city-dwellers.

The depth of scholarly research needed to produce this volume is impressive. Lord Mahon cast a wide net to include a wealth of citations from historians both ancient and more contemporary to himself. Let the reader beware, however--Lord Mahon includes a number of references written in the original Latin and Greek so a working knowledge of those two languages is helpful but not necessary. My only minor criticism of Lord Mahon's scholarship is that he falls prey to one of the bugbears of his times--antipathy toward Roman Catholicism in general and the Papacy in particular. While his animus toward Catholics was not nearly as pronounced as some of his contemporaries, I still found it irksome in the few instances where it reared its ugly head.

I recommend the edition of The Life of Belisarius (Christian Roman Empire Series) by Evolution Publishing. It is a completely unabridged version of the 1848 edition of the work and is not a facsimile. The clumsy footnotes of the original have been helpfully reset as chapter endnotes. It includes a reference list of modern sources in English and additional notes and citations which help bring the text up-to-date. If, like me, you find Belisarius to be a fascinating historical figure, you might also like Belisarius: The First Shall Be Last by Paolo Belzoni which is a novel about the young general's early years.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Classic History, and the horrors of Optical Character Recognition., September 30, 2010

By 

Notvinnik "MP" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Life of Belisarius (Paperback)

The two stars, and the bulk of this review, are not for the work itself, but for this specific edition, a horrendous example of OCR production from General Books LLC. Before getting into that, however, a couple of comments on the book, to which, on its own merits, I would have given four stars.

This is, in fact an excellent biography, which illuminates a key era in European history. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian's effort to re-conquer the Western territories of the Roman Empire ended up being a disaster in the long run, largely through his failure to follow through on initial success, and to commit sufficient resources for the attempt. His greatest general, Belisarius, did an incredible job with the limited resources at his command, re-conquering the Vandal kingdom of North Africa, and bringing Italy to the point where other commanders, with more troops at their disposal, could finish the job. It's a fascinating period in history, which, if you insist on relevance, has lessons for our own era.

Stanhope was a meticulous historian, careful not to draw definite conclusions where the evidence is lacking. This work was written in 1829, and modern readers will find some prejudices and attitudes that grate a bit in the early 21st century. Let's get over it. Who knows what our own attitudes will seem like to people 180 years in our future? This is an exceptionally well written and informative work. Where it gives opinions on matters of fact, they are supported either by evidence or by clearly explained reasoning.

Now, about this edition. It's truly awful. I have to fault myself for carelessly overlooking that this book was produced by OCR, but even if I had known, I would not have anticipated just how bad it could be. The human role in producing this must have been minimal at best. Here are some of the worst faults.

The footnotes get mixed in with the text, without any indication where one leaves off and the other begins. Unlike modern works, where the footnotes are numbered, Stanhope used a sequence of special symbols, which the OCR program often didn't know what to do with.

The original work included short quotations and words in the Greek alphabet. Again, the OCR didn't know what to do, and tried to interpret these in the Roman alphabet, resulting in strings of gibberish.

Stanhope had put marginal notes on some of the pages indicating the year in which the events were taking place. You guessed it, the OCR just took these and stuck them somewhere in the middle of a sentence. Chapter headings also appear in the middle of sentences.

This edition is divided into "sections" instead of chapters, which often break off in the middle of a sentence, and pick up in the next.

There are many spelling errors which probably result from problems in the clarity of the scan used by the program.

Now all this might be marginally acceptable if the publisher had revealed that this edition did in fact contain all these defects, not just that it "might". It might also be acceptable if they had charged only one or two dollars for the book. I don't care what they needed to charge to make a profit. If you're going to produce work this shoddy, either sell it for a pittance or don't sell it.

It's an absolute disgrace that the publisher would charge a premium paperback price for this travesty. I see it has gone up 50% over what I paid, which itself was way too much.

I won't use this review to plug another specific edition, but I did find one that was much better, and thought well enough of Stanhope's work to buy it. I just wish I hadn't wasted my money on the General Books version.