Justinian selects one of his most trusted…
June 533 CE
Justinian selects one of his most trusted and talented generals, Belisarius, who had recently distinguished himself against the Persians and in the suppression of the Nika riots, to lead the expedition against the Vandals.
As Ian Hughes points out, Belisarius is also eminently suited for this appointment for two other reasons: he is a native Latin-speaker, and is solicitous of the welfare of the local population, keeping a tight leash on his troops.
Both these qualities will be crucial in winning support from the Latin-speaking African population.
Belisarius is accompanied by his wife, Antonina, and by Procopius, his secretary, who writes the history of the war.
(Hughes, Ian (2009).
Belisarius: The Last Roman General.
Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, LLC) According to Procopius (The Vandalic War, I.11), the army consists of ten thousand infantry, partly drawn from the field army (comitatenses) and partly from among the foederati, as well as five thousand cavalry.
There are also some fifteen hundred to two thousand of Belisarius' own retainers (bucellarii), an elite corps (it is unclear if their number is included in the five thousand cavalry mentioned as a total figure by Procopius).
In addition, there are two additional bodies of allied troops, both mounted archers, six hundred Huns and four hundrd Heruls.
The army is led by an array of experienced officers, among whom the eunuch Solomon is chosen as Belisarius' chief of staff (domesticus) and the former praetorian prefect Archelaus is placed in charge of the army's provisioning.
The whole force is transported on five hundred vessels manned by thirty thousand sailors under admiral Calonymus of Alexandria, guarded by ninety-two dromon warships.
The traditional view, as expressed by J.B.
Bury, is that the expeditionary force was remarkably small for the task, especially given the military reputation of the Vandals, and that perhaps it reflects the limit of the fleet's carrying capacity, or perhaps it was an intentional move to limit the impact of any defeat.
(Bury, John Bagnell (1923).
History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian.
London: MacMillan & Co.) Ian Hughes however comments that even in comparison with the armies of the early Roman Empire, Belisarius' army was a "large, well-balanced force capable of overcoming the Vandals and may have contained a higher proportion of high quality, reliable troops than the armies stationed in the east".
(Hughes (2009), p. 76) Amid much pomp and ceremony, with Justinian and the Patriarch of Constantinople in attendance, the Roman fleet sets sail around June 21, 533.
The initial progress is slow, as …