The First Siege of Rome

King Vitiges of the Ostrogoths besieged Rome, that had been taken and inhabited by the Byzantine forces of Justinian I, led by General Belisarius. Rome had not even put up a fight against Belisarius, so there had been no attack and no damage to the walls.

The Ostrogoth forces besieged Rome for an entire year without success, from March 537 to March 538. They couldn't take down the walls, and Belisarius did not have enough soldiers to leave Rome and defeat the army surrounding them.

In April 537, an army of 1600 Huns and Slavs hired by Constantinople approached, capturing towns behind the Goths siege. An additional 5000 men in November gave the Byzantine army the advantage of numbers. The Byzantine navy prevented the Goths from getting more supplies by sea.

Additionally, 2000 Byzantine cavalry had attacked and captured the town of Ariminum (modern Rimini), which was so near the Gothic capital of Ravenna that Vitiges abandoned the siege of Rome to head back north to protect the eat of his power.

On the way north, he reinforced towns and forts. Belisarius had sent word to his commander at Ariminum, John, to replace the cavalry with infantry, thinking they would be sufficient to hold the town, and bring the cavalry elsewhere. John refused the order, but did not have enough supplies to withstand a long siege, which Vitiges' forces set up.

A meeting of Belisarius with his other commanders who brought reinforcements discussed the Ariminum situation. There was debate to allow John to fail due to his insubordination. Belisarius and others were willing to allow John to suffer, but General Narses pointed out that a Gothic victory would be bad for morale, so the Byzantine army in two parts moved to surround the Gothic siege of Ariminum. Vitiges saw that he might be surrounded by the enemy, and chose to abandon Ariminum and retreat to Ravenna.

Things looked good for the Byzantine reconquest of Italy, but the Ariminum incident caused a rift in the army between Belisarius and Narses. Before we continue with the Gothic Wars, let's look at a problem that might have led to failure.