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Justinian and Theodora - Chapter 6: Fighting for Rome (Patreon)

Published:
2015-07-24 11:38:28
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

With Rome finally in his grasp, Belisarius must fight to defend his emperor's dream.

Files

Previews only

Byzantine Empire: Justinian and Theodora - VI: Fighting for Rome - Extra History

Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon Watch the Justinian and Theodora series! http://bit.ly/1GlHdb8 Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Follow us on Facebook! http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Follow us on Twitter! http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Twitch! http://bit.y/ECTwitch ____________ Belisarius has only just taken Neapolis when the king of the Ostrogoths is overthrown. The new king, Vitiges, withdraws from Rome entirely to consolidate his power, allowing Belisarius to take Rome without a fight. But after Vitiges gathers his troops, he marches to retake Rome. He springs a surprise attack on Belisarius at the Salarian Bridge, which the Roman general barely escapes. Now he must survive in a city under siege, invening ship mills to continue producing the grain that feeds the city and training the civilians as soldiers. He holds off the Ostrogoths until reinforcements from Justinian arrive. After an indecisive battle, he agrees to a truce with Vitiges, which gives him time to position his troops. When the Ostrogoths break the truce, Belisarius is ready for them and crushes their force to drive them finally out of Rome. ____________ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H Get the outro music here! http://bit.ly/1NbpIcd __________ Extra History - World War I: The Seminal Tragedy The Concert of Europe: http://bit.ly/1pGHnQA Extra Credits - When Sequels Try Too Hard Spectacle Creep: http://bit.ly/1CYP3p4

Comments

Romain

Oooh ! I want to see what comes next ! Okay, I know what comes next, because it's History and I studied that at the Sorbonne... But I want to hear you tell it ! :)

The Brit Git

Farewell to this tale for now, but I'll definitely be voting for it to come back when the time arrives.

Brian Shao

Yeah I want to know what happens now! Please put it up to a vote this was a great series!

Mask

...This must be one of the most epic campaigns/battles in history. Game of Thrones eat your heart out, even Lord of the Rings can scarcely compare to that series of twists. Magnificent job telling this story! In inept hands, it may've seemed uninteresting, or even boring, but you've done it justice.

skyenet

I can't afford to pledge enough to vote, so others- vote to continue this story!

Nicholas Russell

Cool episode! Can't wait to vote on the next series.

Tristan Murphy

When the Ostrogoth said "Fire on the white faced bay!" it gave me chills :)

Mikkel Kaas

Wikipedia here I come! Interesting story, though I feel that calling it "justinian & Theodora" is somewhat misleading, given how the subject was mostly the (re?)rise of Rome. I get that you can't tell the entire tale of their life, but there was very little mention of them in the last couple of episodes - and Theodora especially have almost had no part in the story you ended up telling.

Brian Rose

Ah man, leaving the series on a cliffhanger? That's cold. James is at least going to finish this story during Lies, right?

Jeff DigitalAirAire

I think this episode sets Belisarius to the status of "Magnificent Bastard": 25% engineer, 25% civil leader, 25% improviser, 100% balls... and this series should be called Justinian and Belisarius. I mean, damn.

Zachary Taylor

This is most certainly one of the finest Extra Histories done yet, great work guys!

Bahumot

I can't believe this is real history. It feels like a movie. But I guess truth is stranger/more epic than fiction. Disappointed only that my old history classes skipped or just brushed over this time period. This is what, and HOW, we should have been taught.

Christian Jensen

Belisarius was a fantastic strategist. Definitely one of the top ten military commanders of all time.

Jason Youngberg

Do you think that after leaving us at this high mark we don't want to know what happens?! You tease you! Yes, continue the story!

ExtraCredits
>>659393

Once we started writing the series and found how much we had to say, we realized that we had a choice: either race through the details to fit the whole story into one six episode series, or go in depth but cut the story short. We picked the second option, and that means we didn't get to many of the moments where Theodora was (originally) supposed to feature. That being said, we still decided to keep the title "Justinian and Theodora" because they considered each other co-rulers.

ExtraCredits
>>659552

He'll talk about it a bit, but if you do want to know more about the ending, Wikipedia beckons to you!

ExtraCredits
>>659812

Belisarius and his engineering invention (the ship mills) wee my favorite thing this episode. Ship mills turned out to be such a good idea that people just kept using them for centuries, with the last one (that I read about) closing in 1992. 1992!

ExtraCredits
>>660180

We're trying to make them classroom-friendly, so hopefully students and teachers will be able to enjoy them from now on!

ExtraCredits
>>660555

Glad we can help him get some of the credit he's due. Poor fellow doesn't get nearly enough attention!

Nessf
>>660677

Ah - but that's the beauty of it. The story is all out there, if you desire more. Just have to go and read it yourself.

Mikkel Kaas
>>659393

That's fair. As I said, I enjoyed it thoroughly nonetheless :) If there ever comes a followup, that takes us through the either the rest of Justinians time as a ruler or the fall of the East Roman Empire, I'll surely vote on it.

Luna
>>659552

But it doesn't have the passion, the humanity, that you bring to it.

Martin Ockovsky

AMAZING! You guys, are the bestest! AMAZING!

John Madigan

So will the next vote be to continue this tale of history?

Kris Price

I want to see what happens next too!

Matthew Saunier

We demand more of the glory that was Rome! Actually, the next part would be the tragedy that was Rome, but it'd still be epic. I pushed you up to $12K so you can get some Byzantine lutes polished up (or whatever they had). Let's do this!

Dameol

Okay... so I'm confused... I thought Bellasarius had solved the food problem with his floating mills on the river. Why were the people of Rome starving and demanding to at least be able to fight?

Julian Jacob Wilks

Well you can only store so much food within the city. So after a while, stores would diminish.

Christian Jensen
>>660555

I recently found a book on military strategy in a used book-store ('Strategy' by B H Liddell Hart) and it makes some great points about how well he used his often incredibly slender resources. Also, Belisarius was great at adapting tactics and especially strategy to counter not only the composition of the enemy forces but also the way the enemy commanders thought and fought.

CarolineHan

Mills on boats? BEST IDEA EVER.

Stephen Maxwell
>>662313

They needed the mill to turn their grain into edible food, but they still only had a limited amount of grain.

Stephen
>>659812

Though the concept? Still used, to a greater or lesser extent - floating generators in some coastlines and in tidal rivers, the entire concept of hydroelectric damns (Particularly France for those), etc. What we use the power for has changed from milling bread to... Anything we want to use the electricity it generates for.

Stephen
>>662313

The food problem was solved, while the grain supplies lasted. But... Grain is a finite resource, unless you have access to farms, which is trickier to come up with temporary solutions for.

Evelyn

Bellasarius really was a genus.

ExtraCredits
>>660677

D'awww. We'll bring you more great stories on the First Crusade, and I'm sure we'll return to this one someday! How could we not?

ExtraCredits
>>662105

I don't think James has decided yet. We'll see! I've been tossing around the idea of having an "All Sequels" vote, where the topics are a continuation of the WWI story, or South Sea Bubble, or this... etc. But I wonder if that would be a Sophie's Choice sort of a vote for you patrons. ;)

ExtraCredits
>>662308

Was it you? Were you the last golden spike in the transcontinental railroad that was our milestone?

Chase Denecke

When are we gonna get to vote on continuing the story of Justinian and Belisarius?

Someone

I'm sure continuing the story will win as soon as it becomes and option... but honestly, I hope they do at least one other series first, break it up a bit. Eager to see how this ends, but I wouldn't mind having a palate cleanser before coming back to it.

ExtraCredits
>>671851

There are at least three series already on the docket (First Crusades, Admiral Yi, and now Broad Street Pump) so there will definitely be a break in there, don't worry!