Bélisaire (Greek: Latin Belisarios , : Flavius Belisarius) born about the year 500 with the borders of the Illyrie and the Thrace, was a general of great value. Faithful support of the emperor Justinien, it maintained the integrity of the Roman Empire of the East and reconquered the Occident.

Winner of the Persian with Dara in 530, it was right, in 532 with Narsès, of a known popular rising under the name of Sédition Nika ( victory in Greek) because of his rallying cry. He had on this occasion the support of the empress Théodora, of which he married the friend, Antonine. He took again Africa with the Vandales at the time of the countryside of 533 - 534 then faced the Ostrogoths in Italy: Sicily (535), Naples (536), Rome at the conclusion of the seat of 537 - 538 and finally Ravenne in 540 fell in front of him.

But with Constantinople one plotted against him and the imperial support missed to him to save Rome in 544. Conscious of the operations aiming at its disgrace, it obtained its recall in the capital where it took the command of the imperial guard and preserved the city of the beachcomber of the Huns in 559. Again implied with its body defending in a plot then rehabilitated in 562 it never found however an important command.

He dies in Constantinople in March 565 in a relative poverty.

The multiple disavowals whose this trusty servant of the monarch was victim made some in the literature and painting an example of the ingratitude of powerful of this world. It is the case in particular in a prohibited novel of Jean-François Marmontel where it aimed Louis XV clearly. Painters such Durameau or David contributed to spread the legend of a man finishing in the begging. It is known since it is surely a fiction, but it gave rise to the sentence which is allotted to him: “Give a alms to Bélisaire! ”.

Internal bonds

• Marmontel

External bonds

• '' Bélisaire '' of Jean-François Marmontel on Gallica

Biography

L.M.CHASSIN, " Byzantine Bélisaire, généralissime (504-565) " , Paris, Payot, 1957.

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