BELISARIUS. - Famous Byzantine general. Born around 500, died in 565. Having received the assignment of driving the Ostrogoths out of Italy, in a short time he conquered Sicily and the southern part of the peninsula as far as Naples, and occupied Rome, placing it in a state of defense.
During the siege of Rome by Vitiges, B., although hesitating and not without repugnance (L. Duchesne, L'Eglise au VIe siècle, pp. 151-54), lent himself in March 527 to deposing Pope Silverius, who was accused of wanting to hand the city over to the Goths, having him stripped of his priestly ornaments and clothed in a monastic habit. Furthermore, he had the Roman clergy elect as Pope the deacon Vigilius (v.), formerly apocrisiary at Constantinople and loyal to the empress. According to the concordant testimonies of the Liber pontificalis (ed. L. Duchesne, I, pp. 291-393), of Procopius (Anecdota, 1) and of the deacon Liberatus of Carthage (Breviarium, 20), the deposition of Silverius was a vengeance of Theodora, who intended thereby, but in vain, to obtain from a Pope less hostile than the deposed one to her action in favor of the Monophysites, the restoration to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople of Anthimus, already dismissed by the pontiff Agapetus.
Moreover, while B. was at Rome, he had made conspicuous gifts to the churches, such as the special cross of 100 pounds of gold, on which all his victories were named, destined for the tomb of St. Peter; he had founded a monastery on the via Flaminia and a xenodochium for pilgrims on the via Lata (Lib. pontif., ed. L. Duchesne, I, pp. 142 and 296).
Subsequently B. acted as intermediary between the empress and Pope Vigilius, both after the violence suffered, in the church of St. Peter in Constantinople, by the Pontiff himself, who did not approve the « Profession of faith of Justinian »; and in order to bring back to Constantinople Vigilius, who, to free himself from the untenable situation created for him by the emperor, had sought refuge in Chalcedon; and, on May 1, 553, when he informed the Pope that Justinian would never accept a certain proposal of his concerning the Fifth Ecumenical Council, soon to be inaugurated (May 5).
Bibliography5 works
Alberto Galleti