Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Belisarius.

This is coolbert:

"It was for him I chased
The Persians o'er wild and waste,
As General of the East;
Night after night I lay
In their camps of yesterday;
Their forage was my feast.

For him, with sails of red,
And torches at mast-head,
Piloting the great fleet,
I swept the Afric coasts
And scattered the Vandal hosts,
Like dust in a windy street."


Here is a figure from ancient history, a general of the Byzantine Empire, a strategoi, a commander of some repute.

Belisarius.

"Flavius Belisarius (ca. 500[1] – 565) was one of the greatest generals of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire"

"One of the defining features of Belisarius' career was his success despite the little or no support he received from Justinian. He is also among a select group of men considered to be the 'Last of the Romans'".

Belisarius, a military man of marked ability. In the same league as a Julius Caesar, a Napoleon, a Genghis?

A master of the combined naval and ground offensive, amphibious warfare as practiced during the time [500 A.D.]!

A man whose military conquests in large measure enabled the Byzantine Empire to enlarge by almost fifty percent [50 %] during the reign of Justinian.

[rulers whose realm increased in size are said by historians to have been successful?]

Over a period of thirty years, almost constantly in the field, Belisarius commanding the Byzantine army in battle against a variety of enemies, in various theatres of combat, enemies to include:

* Sassanids. [Persians]
* Vandals.
* Ostrogoths.
* Goths.
* Slavs and Bulgars.

Also - - a man - - Belisarius, whose life and personae have been touched upon by a wide variety of modern writers in various genres'. Literary geniuses to include:

* Isaac Asimov. "Foundation and Empire – a science fiction novel"
* Jorge Luis Borges. "the legend of Belisario as a blind beggar"
* L. Sprague de Camp. "Lest Darkness Fall – an alternate history novel"
* Robert Graves. "Count Belisarius – a novel"
* Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. "Belisarius, 19th century poem"

"Ya puedes ver el tragico escenario y cada cosa en lugar debido; la espada y la ceniza para Dido y la moneda para Belisario"

"You already can see the tragic scene and each thing in place due; the sword and the ash for Dido and the currency for Belisario"


coolbert.

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