🚩 Receive an Amazing New Player Pack, only available for the next 30 days! Play Call of War for FREE on PC or Mobile 💥 callofwar.onelink.me/q5L6/HistoryMarche 🚩 This video was made in collaboration with our friend HistoryVerse. Make sure to check out his channel: ruclips.net/user/Historyverse 🚩 After the defeat at Dara the year prior, the Sassanian King of Kings Kavad I was eager to regain the initiative in the war against the Eastern Roman Empire. His plan was to send an army along the Euphrates and strike deep into Syria, with the ultimate objective being to capture Antioch and cut the Romans off from Palestine and Egypt. But the local Roman garrisons spotted the Persian army and relayed the message to Belisarius, who made way to intercept Kavad's army in Syria.
Why do you scare people from the Persians? This is disrespectful to our history and biased😠☹️ Perrrrrsssiiiaaaannsss aaaarrreeeeeeee Coooommmmmmmiiiiiiinnnnggggggg 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
Thank you for covering all the victories of the Romans and the Greeks against the Persians . because in history the Persians did not win or they won with heavy losses and it doesn't matter !!! It's funny
I am a fan of your history channel and channels like yours, but I am heartbroken and upset why Iranians are humiliated in historical channels and historical films while Iranians have a lot of respect for the history of other nations. We are not monsters our history is full of glorious things For example: slavery that does not exist in our history as opposed to the whole history of the West OR Unlike other nations, it is very rare for our ancestors to kill the people of the defeated countries. Instead, they migrated to Iran and gave them a new life. Sorry for my English
@@ElBandito if the General was removed from office, then it was something like that, even if for a short time, a general being punished for bad display of leadership revolves around not achieving what he was supposed to.
@@nakedicarothe reason was because he couldn’t get to antioch not because he take very casualty after this battle romans pay tribute to sassanids so i wouldn’t consider useless victory
Yes!!!!!!! Thanks for making a video about Belisarius!!!! Yes, he is such an under rated Byzantine General!!!! Please make more and keep up the awesome work!!👍👍
How can you say he is underrated? Where everywhere there is guys like you claiming the same, if anything he is overrated with all those defeata being justified by his own historian
@@miracleyang3048 He lost a few battles, so what!! The reason why he is one of many great Byzantine Generals, is because of his many campaigns to retake the capital of Carthage and Italy from the Lombards and Vandals!!
You literally make these amazing videos that take up so much time and effort available for free and people still find the nerve to complain that you didn't make the exact video they wanted. Well, thank you so much for making these videos I enjoy them so much despite knowing the outcome of the battle. Often time the little anecdotes and stories you tell about underappreciated details leading up to the battle are new to me and I enjoy hearing them. Please keep up the great work.
There's so many great military history channels on YT, but for me it's an agonizing choice between you guys & Epic History TV. The two series of yours which have really captivated me were: - Hannibal (naturally) - The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains
So I wanted to point this out since there is so much detailing the history of the 6th century which I myself studied and read many books in this period would like to point out the Battle of Dara, the prior battle before Callinicum. At Dara, the Persian cavalry were at a huge disadvantage. Not only did the trenches severely hinder their ability to properly maneuver, they have to attack straight on. No way to properly go around the trenches and flank roman cavarly placed behind the trenches. The fact that the cavalry are deployed in front of the city walls prevent them from being hit in the rear. This is made worse with archers deployed at the top of the walls. Yet surprisingly, we get an unexpected development. Several times the Persian cavalry throughout the course of the battle, pushed back the Roman cavalry which should have a distinct advantage due to the trench preventing Persian cavalry from breaking through. Yet they gave ground pretty quickly and were only saved because of Hunnish cavalry hiding in the woods that his the flank of the Persian cavalry, and were repulsed. This suggests that Roman cavalry in the east in the 6th century shows a disappointing combat prowess despite holding the advantage and that it is the Hunnic cavalry that saved the day. Belisarius also did not give chase to the Persian army retreating which suggests that the Persian cavalry could quickly regroup and attack the out of formation Roman troops who would have chased the Persians and get destroyed. You can check the book by Dr Kaveh Farrokh, The armies of ancient persia, the sasanians for more details.
I think even swarths with a 2:1 numerical advantage over slightly less swarthy eastern euros should be able to make progress on a battlefield. This isn’t the 30:1 numerical advantage that a Bantu needs to fight with against real White people.
Great video! Personally I find it amazing that Belisarius was so frequently disrespected by his superiors and even troops. I think he was one of the truly great "Roman" generals especially considering the circumstances he was usually in.
This battle showcases one of Belisarius’s shortcomings. Pitched battles. In almost every famous victory of Belisarius such as his victories at Dara, Ad Decimum and Rome, there were several defeats he took that knocks him off one of the tiers of great generals. Namely, his lack of ability to win an actual full scale pitch battle against the Persians. We see that early in Belisarius’s career, he was involved in a major defeat in the Thannuris desert. Sources about this early stage of Roman-Persian wars have no clear figures, but it is estimated to be rather huge armies on both sides. The Sasanian Persians had utilized a disguised trench and lured the roman army into it, causing many to fall into the trench with many behind being swallowed by the momentum. The defeat of this army caused the supposed fortifications in the arabian desert to be destroyed. These fortifications were built to prevent further Lakhmid arab raids, who were a client state to Persia. To be fair, Belisarius at this point was not Magister Militum, so we can’t fault him too much. Though the Battle of Callinicum shows that Belisarius not placing reserves in his rear lines allowed the Persian left to smash through the Roman right then proceeded to overwhelm the roman infantry on the left flank near the river. The main primary source of this battle is Procopius who early on was biased towards Belisarius so much is to be questioned upon this so-called pyrrhic victory by the Persians. Some other sources such as John Malalas and Pseudo Zachariah both contradict Procopius’s account showing that Procopius may have been trying to lessen the severity of Belisarius’s defeat.
It was labeled a pyrrhic victory because the Persians didn't gain anything and suffered heavy losses. The losses which prevented their planned invasion of Syria. Hence why Azarethes was stripped of his command.
I disagree, yes sometimes he lost but when we take in to account that he wants was sent on a suicid mission to recapture Italy with I believe only 4 thousand troops and then end up taking Rome and destroying the enemy army sich was atleast dripple his sice then he earns it to be under one of the greatest Roman generals to ever exist
@@justinschauwecker Yes. It was a Pyrrhic victory according to Procopius. Which means that much is to be debated about Persian losses. This should have been a decisive victory for the Persians. Not a Pyrrhic one. Procopius is implied to have lied about the results. The other sources I’ve mentioned contradict the results of the final battle. Justinian obviously did not believe Procopius’s words and effectively fired Belisarius from his post.
@@althesian9741 not sure mate, the fact that the Persians returned home regardless of the numbers means that the defense of the realm was successful. If he had the troops and had defeated Belisarius "decisively" as you say, why not go for any territory at all, let alone fail to attempt the purpose for which they were there. Doesn't make sense, unless there remained too few troops.
Wow, the Romans and the Persians have finally signed an eternal peace treaty. Looks like they'll never have a conflict between them. Looking forward to peace and prosperity in the Levant, for eternity. Happily ever after for the two empire.
I sure hope the persians will have a long lasting empire and nothing extremely weird like a desert people onslaught brings them to an abrupt end, but that couldn't possibly happen.
@@Alex-tx2em soon the wings of Vahram and crescent of Anahita will rise over middle east and in the name of Ahura Mazda we will burn Athens once more . . . . . . . . . 😎
So i just got a youtube ad of HistoryMarche today.. It was an honor to fully watch it. I liked that you used the battles of Aurelian as video and loved the soundtrack! For those interested that song is: Dream Cave - Topic : peacekeepers
Flash Point History has a lot of good content on the Reconquista. A bit more narrative and less battley, but amazing content if you've got hours (days) to spare.
Then again, considering how Roman armies literally killed their commander for refusing to do something they wanted in the 3rd and 4th centuries, it’s not over the boundaries of probable.
This channel has the 2nd best narrator voice on RUclips for history content. If you opened a scroll of wisdom, you'd hear this guy talking to you. He's that good. The first best voice is Devin from Kings & Generals. Good god I'd listen to that guy teach me about foot mold at this point, I'm so entrained to learning from the sound of his dictation.
Great video, very informative. While I don't expect a response (or for this to even be read by the creators); I can't help but be extremely curious about how the narration is produced. It is credited to David McCallion, but that is not a human voice. Artifacts throughout, such as ~5:05, ~5:16, ~6:32, ~11:08, 11:27, 12:01, etc, etc are not produced by a speaking man. Is it pure text to speech being credited to a man? or (less likely) some kind of heavy digital manipultion of an actual recording? I'd love to know! Great work regardless, I'm very much enjoying the content!
This is a wonderful video and I hope part of a wider 'great generals' series that looks as much at their attempts to strategise (e.g. using battle victories to weaken their opponent's regime) as their tactical brilliance and when it comes to Belisarius I'd say strategy was more his forte (e.g. implementing long term plans) then his tactical ingenuity which was often times more 'hit and miss'. Wonderful content always by HistoryMarche and keep going, hater are always gonna hate but for the rest of us your content is delightfully informative.
@@kafon6368 The Anastasian war, Iberian war, Lazic war All won by the Sassanids The last Sassanid Byzantine war was more like a statement and even the Byzantines lost 2/3 of their territories to the Arabs Even Belisarius, the best Byzantine general was defeated several times by the Sassanid Battle of Thannuris 528 (defeated) Battle of Mindouos 528 (defeated) Battle of Dara 530 (won) Battle of Callinicum (defeated) Battle of Nisibis (stalemate, Belisarius failed to conquer Nisibis) Siege of Sisauranon (failed to conquer the fortress) Why not talking about the Roman armies that were crushed by the Sassanids before Heraclius joined the war ? Hell, even he was heavily defeated once or twice before the Sassanids conquered Egypt Watch History Experience video Roman armies were defeated left and right One of Shapur II small armies defeated a much larger Roman army at the battle of Samarra 363 and killed emperor Julian by shoving a spear in his chest After that, the Sassanids took Armenia, 15 fortresses and western Mesopotamia Before that, he conquered Amida and even though he was forced to retreat at the battle of Singara, he returned at night and defeated emperor Constantine II in a night attack and retook his camp and the Romans were forced to retreat Shapur I defeated 3 Roman emperors and even captured one of them Each of their armies had between 60,000-70,000 men and he raided over 30 Roman cities and he had less soldiers than the Romans He won the battle of Misiche (60,000 Romans), battle of Barbalissos (60,000 Romans), battle of Edessa (70,000 Romans) and siege of Dura Europos and even plundering over 30 Roman cities all of this while always being outnumbered 2-1 His father Ardashir I defeated the Romans at the siege of Nisibis 235 and his forces raided Cappadocia and Syria and conquered Armenia Watch Yore History video about him, he also defeated two Roman armies in Mesopotamia, one were led by emperor's general and the other one was led by emperor Alexander Severus himself and both were defeated The sack of Ctesiphon isn't a big deal since it was like 2 or 3 cities away from the eastern borders of Rome And pre islamic Iranian empires had multiple capitals not just one Odenathus failed to take Ctesiphon and was defeated at the battle of Ctesiphon 263 Before Narse was defeated, he defeated Romans at the battle of Carrhae 296 and also in two other minor battles but even in minor battles he inflicted heavy casualties on the Romans and if he had won one last time, the Romans would've been completely defeated that year Odenathus didn't even fought Shapur's army in a battle he just attacked him from behind while he was already going back to Iran and still, Shapur kept most of his men, prisoners, plunders and loots He even had the time to raid Syria after this clash with Odenathus which means Odenathus forces suffered heavy casualties and couldn't stop Shapur at the time even after that clash I know you guys say Shapur lost the conquered territories but the fact is he didn't because he wasn't conquering he was just raiding The Iranians didn't went as far as the heartland of Rome but when did the Romans ? Mesopotamia was as far as they could go and it wasn't even the heartland of Iran There were a lot of Iranian kings who were present during the battles and there were a lot of times that they were victorious and Romans never could catch or kill them but they could kill one or two Roman emperors and capture one alive Emperor Valerian was captured, emperor Philip the arab was humiliated and forced to pay heavy tribute and emperor Gordian III was defeated and probably killed in battle against Shapur Yazdegerd II raided Roman cities and the Roman emperor was forced to pay him tribute Khosrow I raided the Roman territories and the Iranians raided Antioch several times Kavad I and his son Khosrow I defeated the Romans several times at three series of wars in a raw Anastasian war, Iberian war and Lazic war The Parthians gained great victories too Battle of Carrhae, Romans lost even though they outnumbered the Parthians more than 4-1 and after that, they plundered the cities of Judea, Syria, and southern Anatolia two times Mark Antony Atropatene campaign, 2/5 out of 127,000 were killed by the Parthians and the Parthians had only 50,000 The Parthians also won at the battle of Rhandeia and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Romans Trajan attacked when the Parthians were in a civil war and still lost all the conquered cities to Iranian peasant rebels and even during Trajan's invasion, the Parthians gained some victories Trajan failed to take Hatra, which avoided a total Parthian defeat. Parthian forces attacked key Roman positions, and Roman garrisons at Seleucia, Nisibis and Edessa were evicted by the local populaces The Parthians may have been defeated at the Roman Parthian war of 161-166 but they lost because of a plague that came from Kushan empire and before that, they routed Roman armies in Armenia and Syria The Parthians were also victorious in war of Caracalla and the battle of Nisibis 217 AD and the Romans were forced to pay heavy tribute Khosrow II conquered territories 3 times larger than Trajan's Trajan defeated a small Parthian army but Khosrow's generals defeated at least ten Roman army that were equal in numbers with them or even surpassed them in numbers They even took true cross from Romans The last Sassanid Byzantine war wasn't even a Roman victory it was a stalemate It doesn't even says Roman victory in English Wikipedia unlike those 3 series of wars i told you which were Persian victories Oh sure when the Romans or the Greeks or arabs win battles against Iranians (because Iran were actually weakened) it's because they are strong and did something great (and you guys ignore decades of war against Rome and civil wars) But when Iranians win and humiliate the Romans or Greeks or arabs (pre islamic) is because they were weakened and Iran only used their weakness Well it should be easy for you guys to say so anyways since most of the sources are Greek or Roman and they made a lot of excuses for their defeats Rome lost half of the battles against the Parthians and most of their battles against the Sassanids
While it's not Belisarius' finest hour, his reluctance to fight showed that he understood the art of war. He could achieve his objective without fighting and realized he was at a tactical disadvantage that could have played out much worse. If he had positioned his infantry in the center with cavalry on the flanks as it was usually done the infantry could've been surrounded and killed. Instead the river provided a natural barrier and a ways of escape that prevented a total Sassanid victory. If he'd put the unreliable cavalry anywhere else than on the right the other two parts of his army could've become isolated. Any troops that he put with them to support them could've been lost in the rout. In the end, the Sassanids left the lands and their commander was fired. So was Belisarius but he was eventually restored to command, suggesting that his performance in this battle may have been re-evaluated. What's more concerning is that he lost control of his men. Later however his men would respect him and follow him through great hardships, especially in the Italian campaign. This was still early on in his career. He is regarded as a great general mostly because of his campaigns to reclaim the Western parts of the empire, so trying to hold this defeat against him too much doesn't make a lot of sense.
Excellent Job as always. Well told. But could you also pretty please do a show on Battle of Halmyros, 15 March 1311. It is very interesting , because it involves the Almogavars or Catalan company, that fought by throwing spears, like the roman pilum. They often defeated knightly cavalry and proved, that well trained infantry could defeat knights even during the high middle ages.
If you're lazy enough to try to search for reliable sources, Wikipedia had covered about the Caucasian Kingdom of Albania (unrelated to the European Albania) and you misread Edessa, which was a city on the Mesopotamia and confuse it with Odessa, a City that is located in Ukraine
"O stavrós nika, oh let there be light I'll bear my cross of shame and march on through the mire O stavrós nika, oh let there be light May I redeem myself from Callinicum"
Lol im just playing Call of War since some weeks ago with a friends group, we had a LARGE war in a Northamerican map, the coalition is winning rn, almost ending the match.
This battle is so important since Romans had nearly twice the size of the army that the sassanians had , also there were no trenches or no defensive superiority in favor of Persians . But Persians won this battle eventhough their army didn't have any immortals , heavy infantries or top level soldiers at all .
@@dubstepXpower so what ? They were in offensive positions although the enemy had likely twice the size of army they had . What else could you expect ?
Velisarius was a great General no doubt. He was one of the best cavalry commanders ever and of the best in micromanagement regarding small troops. Belisarius was the reason Justinian survived the Nika Riots and the reason Justinian managed to collect resources in order to build Agia Sophia. Belisarius with agile, little troops could outflank and annihilate superior forces and bigger armies in Africa, Italy, Anatolia, Middle East, Balkans and the whole roman world. The only problem with Velisarius was his fears(?) to lead a big army. I don't know if he has perfectionist and preferred to have full control of some well trained and trusted units. Although it is more than obvious that he had many people in Palace and army, including Justinian that he were very cautious about his victories and had second thoughts about the popularity he gained into the army. They awaited the smallest mistake and had many eyes around him in order to report him to Justinian or the over the top jealous empress Theodora. Actually they saw his victories and popularity as a red alarm for a future mutiny against Justinian's reign. His wife Antonina was an actress and prostitute like the empress Antonina and the two were old friends before their marriage to Velisarius and Justinian accordingly. The love Velisarius had about his treacherous wife I think was a big setback to his career but the same time it was Antonina who used her connections to get the pardon from Justinian. It happened a couple of times when Velisarius had to face charges or blindness or death penalty but had a last minute pardon every time. Justinian had a love and hate relation with his best general. Procopius was one of the most important sources about Velisarius. He knew him well but had no the best thoughts about him. Actually he has the judge in charge against him when he was imprisoned. Justinian himself pardoned him! Moreover Procopius accussed him as a Antonina's puppet, as a cuckolded husband and that Antonina had relation with an adopted son of Velisarius. What more to say to spill the name of Velisarius...
Loving your work recently For your next project hope you guys move to other great warfare specialists Medieval islamic expansion Chinese warfare Indian warfare Horn of africa West africa
Wait, what? You've already finished the story of Belisarius (my favorite among all your series, btw). Love that you're doing this and adding on to the story, but why?
As a history buff i try and be open minded when it comes to parts in history that we don't know for certain. I believe when he retreated behind his men, i think he stayed with them to the end as watching other documentaries about him and his personality. Yes, he made mistakes as a leader, but he seemed to be a loyal general to the Byzantines/Emperor and it seemed his men actually respected him as a commander to some degree. We know this because of how his men acted in his invasion of North Africa and Italy and how he tactically performed in them campaigns. A few occasions he was in a tough spot and instead of retreating or taking the easy way out, He pushed through. or maybe he did retreat in this battle, and this was the young Belisarius who had much to learn. History is fun. Keep up the good work.
GG Azerathes 👌 He shouldn't have been condemned by suffering heavy losses ! (That can happen in any war & the huns who were in the roman army were fierce horse archers & fighters themselves which undoubtedly proved to be troublesome for the Persian caverly) What is obvious is that Azerathes was a military genius & the fact that he defeated a great Roman general is enough credits imo
Shahanshah (king of kings) Kavad I just can't be pleased lol It's war dude, all victories in wars come at a cost What, he expected his commanders to win without any casualties ? lol First, after the battle of Thannuris and then Callinicum At Thannuris, his son, Xerxes, defeated Belisarius and was still disgraced by Kavad, his own father, which was angry because he lost 500 Immortals 500 out of 10,000 shouldn't have been a big deal it's not even 1/10 of this elite guards plus Belisarius himself lost 800 of his fine men that's more than what Xerxes lost and the fortresses that the Romans were building were destroyed Azerathes didn't plunder Antioch but he raided other territories of the Byzantines, inflicted a heavy defeat on Belisarius who defeated the Persian army at Dara and lowered his status and came back with most of his soldiers and all of their plunders and loots What else do you want man ? XD Though, what he did to Xerxes might be understandable since it's stated that he saw potential of a true leader only in his youngest son, Khosrow, and that he was trying to open a path to the throne for him Unlike Khosrow, his brothers were supported by nobles or generals and Azerathes could've been one of them Another reason might be that the mother of his other sons (or at least the mother of Xerxes and another son of his) was the Hephthalite princess that Kavad married and he didn't wanted the Hephthalites to have any influence in his empire or worse, make his empire their vassal kingdom by having half Persian half Hephthalite kings ruling it
Can u post more vids about persian victories ? I might be wrong but most of your vids are about persian defeats , which are definitely as enjoyable to watch as the rest of your vids , but i'd like to see some persian victories as well. Tnx and keep up the great work.
🚩 Receive an Amazing New Player Pack, only available for the next 30 days! Play Call of War for FREE on PC or Mobile 💥 callofwar.onelink.me/q5L6/HistoryMarche
🚩 This video was made in collaboration with our friend HistoryVerse. Make sure to check out his channel: ruclips.net/user/Historyverse
🚩 After the defeat at Dara the year prior, the Sassanian King of Kings Kavad I was eager to regain the initiative in the war against the Eastern Roman Empire. His plan was to send an army along the Euphrates and strike deep into Syria, with the ultimate objective being to capture Antioch and cut the Romans off from Palestine and Egypt. But the local Roman garrisons spotted the Persian army and relayed the message to Belisarius, who made way to intercept Kavad's army in Syria.
Why do you scare people from the Persians? This is disrespectful to our history and biased😠☹️
Perrrrrsssiiiaaaannsss aaaarrreeeeeeee
Coooommmmmmmiiiiiiinnnnggggggg 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
Thank you for covering all the victories of the Romans and the Greeks against the Persians . because in history the Persians did not win or they won with heavy losses and it doesn't matter !!! It's funny
I am a fan of your history channel and channels like yours, but I am heartbroken and upset why Iranians are humiliated in historical channels and historical films while Iranians have a lot of respect for the history of other nations.
We are not monsters
our history is full of glorious things
For example:
slavery that does not exist in our history as opposed to the whole history of the West
OR
Unlike other nations, it is very rare for our ancestors to kill the people of the defeated countries. Instead, they migrated to Iran and gave them a new life.
Sorry for my English
Was this always TTS? Did tbe aliens replace u with robots man? 🇮🇪🍿🍀
@@farshad9573 such a high sarcastic level
“Ah, there’s our wedding entertainment.*
Marching band, nothing to see here.
Definitely a story to tell to dinner guests lol
This, right here. Is a "you win the internet today" worthy comment.
Red Wedding
LOL
"I'm not a bad general, I just don't have any control over my troops!"
Not the defense I would've chosen, but apparently it worked.
i love you as a persian for making video about this battle after dara defeat😉
Great video! Even if this is a pyrrhic victory, it is always great to see some Iranian victories when most show their loses.
The so called 'Pyrrhic Victory' could've been just a Roman propaganda, and the Persians might have fared much better in actuality.
So its joke
@@ElBandito if the General was removed from office, then it was something like that, even if for a short time, a general being punished for bad display of leadership revolves around not achieving what he was supposed to.
Well said
@@nakedicarothe reason was because he couldn’t get to antioch not because he take very casualty after this battle romans pay tribute to sassanids so i wouldn’t consider useless victory
Great Another Belisarius video! ty HM
Yes!!!!!!! Thanks for making a video about Belisarius!!!! Yes, he is such an under rated Byzantine General!!!! Please make more and keep up the awesome work!!👍👍
How can you say he is underrated? Where everywhere there is guys like you claiming the same, if anything he is overrated with all those defeata being justified by his own historian
@@miracleyang3048 You talk like you could do better than Belisarius
@@ssj3gotenks589
I couldn't do better than Luigi Cadorna doesn't mean he wasn't a shit general
@@miracleyang3048 He lost a few battles, so what!! The reason why he is one of many great Byzantine Generals, is because of his many campaigns to retake the capital of Carthage and Italy from the Lombards and Vandals!!
@@ssj3gotenks589 Thanks!
You literally make these amazing videos that take up so much time and effort available for free and people still find the nerve to complain that you didn't make the exact video they wanted. Well, thank you so much for making these videos I enjoy them so much despite knowing the outcome of the battle. Often time the little anecdotes and stories you tell about underappreciated details leading up to the battle are new to me and I enjoy hearing them. Please keep up the great work.
Well said!
Very well said. Agreed.
History Marche is consistently putting out bangers with higher quality than most of the similar channels, absolutely fantastic
Love Belisarius but we need the next part in the Hannibal series - these too are outstanding!! Thank you much for making these.
There's so many great military history channels on YT, but for me it's an agonizing choice between you guys & Epic History TV.
The two series of yours which have really captivated me were:
- Hannibal (naturally)
- The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains
Yeah, Hanibal is a masterpiece. Just an amazing show.
I haven't even watched it yet and I already know this is gonna be epic.
There ability to feed/ provide logistical supplies is stunning for the time...Great video in the series...
So I wanted to point this out since there is so much detailing the history of the 6th century which I myself studied and read many books in this period would like to point out the Battle of Dara, the prior battle before Callinicum.
At Dara, the Persian cavalry were at a huge disadvantage. Not only did the trenches severely hinder their ability to properly maneuver, they have to attack straight on. No way to properly go around the trenches and flank roman cavarly placed behind the trenches. The fact that the cavalry are deployed in front of the city walls prevent them from being hit in the rear. This is made worse with archers deployed at the top of the walls.
Yet surprisingly, we get an unexpected development. Several times the Persian cavalry throughout the course of the battle, pushed back the Roman cavalry which should have a distinct advantage due to the trench preventing Persian cavalry from breaking through. Yet they gave ground pretty quickly and were only saved because of Hunnish cavalry hiding in the woods that his the flank of the Persian cavalry, and were
repulsed.
This suggests that Roman cavalry in the east in the 6th century shows a disappointing combat prowess despite holding the advantage and that it is the Hunnic cavalry that saved the day.
Belisarius also did not give chase to the Persian army retreating which suggests that the Persian cavalry could quickly regroup and attack the out of formation Roman troops who would have chased the Persians and get destroyed.
You can check the book by Dr Kaveh Farrokh, The armies of ancient persia, the sasanians for more details.
i think the double numbers advantage may also have played a role in their advance
I think even swarths with a 2:1 numerical advantage over slightly less swarthy eastern euros should be able to make progress on a battlefield. This isn’t the 30:1 numerical advantage that a Bantu needs to fight with against real White people.
Great video! Personally I find it amazing that Belisarius was so frequently disrespected by his superiors and even troops. I think he was one of the truly great "Roman" generals especially considering the circumstances he was usually in.
Every single time. Overzealous troops pressure their commander who know better into a losing battle.
These are lies. This commander failed in the battle and said that the soldiers were the reason
Thank you HistoryMarche , now I have A lot of things to do with all these rewards
Thank you for all these amazing battels illustrations
15:59 - Eternal Peace which only lasts until 540
This battle showcases one of Belisarius’s shortcomings. Pitched battles. In almost every famous victory of Belisarius such as his victories at Dara, Ad Decimum and Rome, there were several defeats he took that knocks him off one of the tiers of great generals.
Namely, his lack of ability to win an actual full scale pitch battle against the Persians. We see that early in Belisarius’s career, he was involved in a major defeat in the Thannuris desert. Sources about this early stage of Roman-Persian wars have no clear figures, but it is estimated to be rather huge armies on both sides.
The Sasanian Persians had utilized a disguised trench and lured the roman army into it, causing many to fall into the trench with many behind being swallowed by the momentum. The defeat of this army caused the supposed fortifications in the arabian desert to be destroyed. These fortifications were built to prevent further Lakhmid arab raids, who were a client state to Persia. To be fair, Belisarius at this point was not Magister Militum, so we can’t fault him too much.
Though the Battle of Callinicum shows that Belisarius not placing reserves in his rear lines allowed the Persian left to smash through the Roman right then proceeded to overwhelm the roman infantry on the left flank near the river.
The main primary source of this battle is Procopius who early on was biased towards Belisarius so much is to be questioned upon this so-called pyrrhic victory by the Persians. Some other sources such as John Malalas and Pseudo Zachariah both contradict Procopius’s account showing that Procopius may have been trying to lessen the severity of Belisarius’s defeat.
interesting take. thank you for this. I thought it was strange, being labeled as a Pyrrhic victory.
It was labeled a pyrrhic victory because the Persians didn't gain anything and suffered heavy losses. The losses which prevented their planned invasion of Syria. Hence why Azarethes was stripped of his command.
I disagree, yes sometimes he lost but when we take in to account that he wants was sent on a suicid mission to recapture Italy with I believe only 4 thousand troops and then end up taking Rome and destroying the enemy army sich was atleast dripple his sice then he earns it to be under one of the greatest Roman generals to ever exist
@@justinschauwecker Yes. It was a Pyrrhic victory according to Procopius. Which means that much is to be debated about Persian losses. This should have been a decisive victory for the Persians. Not a Pyrrhic one. Procopius is implied to have lied about the results. The other sources I’ve mentioned contradict the results of the final battle.
Justinian obviously did not believe Procopius’s words and effectively fired Belisarius from his post.
@@althesian9741 not sure mate, the fact that the Persians returned home regardless of the numbers means that the defense of the realm was successful. If he had the troops and had defeated Belisarius "decisively" as you say, why not go for any territory at all, let alone fail to attempt the purpose for which they were there. Doesn't make sense, unless there remained too few troops.
Thanks for the video!
11:43 One of the few instances where the soldiers are dying to fight but their commanders are not interested 😂
It's Always Sunny in Mesopotamia.
Episode 1: The Gang Signs an Eternal Peace.
Dude, my heart sings whenever you drop a Roman or Greek video. My smile is ear to ear.
Two strong empires bordering each other, there can be no peace.
So many toxic and degenerate people over here .. Doesn't matter, keep it up! Loving your content, and you make my time be pleasant.
Wow, the Romans and the Persians have finally signed an eternal peace treaty. Looks like they'll never have a conflict between them. Looking forward to peace and prosperity in the Levant, for eternity. Happily ever after for the two empire.
I sure hope the persians will have a long lasting empire and nothing extremely weird like a desert people onslaught brings them to an abrupt end, but that couldn't possibly happen.
@Order to be fair we did better than Byzantines in the long run. at least we still exist.
@Order kek get conquered.
@@Alex-tx2em soon the wings of Vahram and crescent of Anahita will rise over middle east and in the name of Ahura Mazda we will burn Athens once more .
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😎
Ibn Al Walid be like: hey that's free real estate.
So i just got a youtube ad of HistoryMarche today.. It was an honor to fully watch it. I liked that you used the battles of Aurelian as video and loved the soundtrack!
For those interested that song is: Dream Cave - Topic : peacekeepers
Appreciate your work thank you. Plz do some videos on the reconquista or battles of EL Cid.....
Flash Point History has a lot of good content on the Reconquista. A bit more narrative and less battley, but amazing content if you've got hours (days) to spare.
Very good videos, I love this channel immensely.
Great video, as always, waiting for more
10:35 Blaming the overzealous army and not the commander is a very Roman way when they want to deflecting blame
Then again, considering how Roman armies literally killed their commander for refusing to do something they wanted in the 3rd and 4th centuries, it’s not over the boundaries of probable.
This channel has the 2nd best narrator voice on RUclips for history content. If you opened a scroll of wisdom, you'd hear this guy talking to you. He's that good. The first best voice is Devin from Kings & Generals. Good god I'd listen to that guy teach me about foot mold at this point, I'm so entrained to learning from the sound of his dictation.
Great video, very informative. While I don't expect a response (or for this to even be read by the creators); I can't help but be extremely curious about how the narration is produced. It is credited to David McCallion, but that is not a human voice. Artifacts throughout, such as ~5:05, ~5:16, ~6:32, ~11:08, 11:27, 12:01, etc, etc are not produced by a speaking man. Is it pure text to speech being credited to a man? or (less likely) some kind of heavy digital manipultion of an actual recording? I'd love to know!
Great work regardless, I'm very much enjoying the content!
This is a wonderful video and I hope part of a wider 'great generals' series that looks as much at their attempts to strategise (e.g. using battle victories to weaken their opponent's regime) as their tactical brilliance and when it comes to Belisarius I'd say strategy was more his forte (e.g. implementing long term plans) then his tactical ingenuity which was often times more 'hit and miss'. Wonderful content always by HistoryMarche and keep going, hater are always gonna hate but for the rest of us your content is delightfully informative.
I really enjoy watching videos about battles I had never heard of in my life before. Super interesting.
Please do more battles that include Sasanian. It is always interesting to see these neglected part of Sasanid history and battle fought
Literally persians won more battles than Romans and they still milking about romans
@@parsarustami774 are , mibini dausaro? Asan bordaye iraniaro nemizaran...
@@parsarustami774 Romans literally won more wars than persians
@@parsarustami774 It's a bit of shame that not many who make videos apprrciate the beauty of Iran history.
@@kafon6368 The Anastasian war, Iberian war, Lazic war
All won by the Sassanids
The last Sassanid Byzantine war was more like a statement and even the Byzantines lost 2/3 of their territories to the Arabs
Even Belisarius, the best Byzantine general was defeated several times by the Sassanid
Battle of Thannuris 528 (defeated)
Battle of Mindouos 528 (defeated)
Battle of Dara 530 (won)
Battle of Callinicum (defeated)
Battle of Nisibis (stalemate, Belisarius failed to conquer Nisibis)
Siege of Sisauranon (failed to conquer the fortress)
Why not talking about the Roman armies that were crushed by the Sassanids before Heraclius joined the war ?
Hell, even he was heavily defeated once or twice before the Sassanids conquered Egypt
Watch History Experience video
Roman armies were defeated left and right
One of Shapur II small armies defeated a much larger Roman army at the battle of Samarra 363 and killed emperor Julian by shoving a spear in his chest
After that, the Sassanids took Armenia, 15 fortresses and western Mesopotamia
Before that, he conquered Amida and even though he was forced to retreat at the battle of Singara, he returned at night and defeated emperor Constantine II in a night attack and retook his camp and the Romans were forced to retreat
Shapur I defeated 3 Roman emperors and even captured one of them
Each of their armies had between 60,000-70,000 men and he raided over 30 Roman cities and he had less soldiers than the Romans
He won the battle of Misiche (60,000 Romans), battle of Barbalissos (60,000 Romans), battle of Edessa (70,000 Romans) and siege of Dura Europos and even plundering over 30 Roman cities all of this while always being outnumbered 2-1
His father Ardashir I defeated the Romans at the siege of Nisibis 235 and his forces raided Cappadocia and Syria and conquered Armenia
Watch Yore History video about him, he also defeated two Roman armies in Mesopotamia, one were led by emperor's general and the other one was led by emperor Alexander Severus himself and both were defeated
The sack of Ctesiphon isn't a big deal since it was like 2 or 3 cities away from the eastern borders of Rome
And pre islamic Iranian empires had multiple capitals not just one
Odenathus failed to take Ctesiphon and was defeated at the battle of Ctesiphon 263
Before Narse was defeated, he defeated Romans at the battle of Carrhae 296 and also in two other minor battles but even in minor battles he inflicted heavy casualties on the Romans and if he had won one last time, the Romans would've been completely defeated that year
Odenathus didn't even fought Shapur's army in a battle he just attacked him from behind while he was already going back to Iran and still, Shapur kept most of his men, prisoners, plunders and loots
He even had the time to raid Syria after this clash with Odenathus which means Odenathus forces suffered heavy casualties and couldn't stop Shapur at the time even after that clash
I know you guys say Shapur lost the conquered territories but the fact is he didn't because he wasn't conquering he was just raiding
The Iranians didn't went as far as the heartland of Rome but when did the Romans ? Mesopotamia was as far as they could go and it wasn't even the heartland of Iran
There were a lot of Iranian kings who were present during the battles and there were a lot of times that they were victorious and Romans never could catch or kill them but they could kill one or two Roman emperors and capture one alive
Emperor Valerian was captured, emperor Philip the arab was humiliated and forced to pay heavy tribute and emperor Gordian III was defeated and probably killed in battle against Shapur
Yazdegerd II raided Roman cities and the Roman emperor was forced to pay him tribute
Khosrow I raided the Roman territories and the Iranians raided Antioch several times
Kavad I and his son Khosrow I defeated the Romans several times at three series of wars in a raw
Anastasian war, Iberian war and Lazic war
The Parthians gained great victories too
Battle of Carrhae, Romans lost even though they outnumbered the Parthians more than 4-1 and after that, they plundered the cities of Judea, Syria, and southern Anatolia two times
Mark Antony Atropatene campaign, 2/5 out of 127,000 were killed by the Parthians and the Parthians had only 50,000
The Parthians also won at the battle of Rhandeia and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Romans
Trajan attacked when the Parthians were in a civil war and still lost all the conquered cities to Iranian peasant rebels and even during Trajan's invasion, the Parthians gained some victories
Trajan failed to take Hatra, which avoided a total Parthian defeat. Parthian forces attacked key Roman positions, and Roman garrisons at Seleucia, Nisibis and Edessa were evicted by the local populaces
The Parthians may have been defeated at the Roman Parthian war of 161-166 but they lost because of a plague that came from Kushan empire and before that, they routed Roman armies in Armenia and Syria
The Parthians were also victorious in war of Caracalla and the battle of Nisibis 217 AD and the Romans were forced to pay heavy tribute
Khosrow II conquered territories 3 times larger than Trajan's
Trajan defeated a small Parthian army but Khosrow's generals defeated at least ten Roman army that were equal in numbers with them or even surpassed them in numbers
They even took true cross from Romans
The last Sassanid Byzantine war wasn't even a Roman victory it was a stalemate
It doesn't even says Roman victory in English Wikipedia unlike those 3 series of wars i told you which were Persian victories
Oh sure when the Romans or the Greeks or arabs win battles against Iranians (because Iran were actually weakened) it's because they are strong and did something great (and you guys ignore decades of war against Rome and civil wars)
But when Iranians win and humiliate the Romans or Greeks or arabs (pre islamic) is because they were weakened and Iran only used their weakness
Well it should be easy for you guys to say so anyways since most of the sources are Greek or Roman and they made a lot of excuses for their defeats
Rome lost half of the battles against the Parthians and most of their battles against the Sassanids
Awesome job
Always a pleasure to watch!
Great video, research, and narration as always!
Very enjoyable.. Thanks
Belisarius what a underrated general never brought for a debate when people talk about the great generals.
lol, quite the opposite, he is one of the generals with most PR
Usually because those guys don't know half as much as they pretend to.
He lost this battle lol
He definitely gets a lot more rep than Narses and they were pretty much contemporaries in influence and activity
@@al-muwaffaq341 all great generals have lost a battle
Epic video 🤙🔥
While it's not Belisarius' finest hour, his reluctance to fight showed that he understood the art of war. He could achieve his objective without fighting and realized he was at a tactical disadvantage that could have played out much worse.
If he had positioned his infantry in the center with cavalry on the flanks as it was usually done the infantry could've been surrounded and killed. Instead the river provided a natural barrier and a ways of escape that prevented a total Sassanid victory. If he'd put the unreliable cavalry anywhere else than on the right the other two parts of his army could've become isolated. Any troops that he put with them to support them could've been lost in the rout.
In the end, the Sassanids left the lands and their commander was fired. So was Belisarius but he was eventually restored to command, suggesting that his performance in this battle may have been re-evaluated. What's more concerning is that he lost control of his men. Later however his men would respect him and follow him through great hardships, especially in the Italian campaign. This was still early on in his career. He is regarded as a great general mostly because of his campaigns to reclaim the Western parts of the empire, so trying to hold this defeat against him too much doesn't make a lot of sense.
i do like these battle episodes the format is just right
The byzantines last for thousand years just losing battles. Imagine if they won
"Just losing battles" nice joke
*Romans btw
It’s true, beli was the last Roman and everyone after was a greekoid loser
Ignoramus spotted
That’s CK3 for you
Thanks for your video
I could watch these all day
Amazing as always.
Great vid!
good content as always
Excellent Job as always. Well told. But could you also pretty please do a show on Battle of Halmyros, 15 March 1311. It is very interesting , because it involves the Almogavars or Catalan company, that fought by throwing spears, like the roman pilum. They often defeated knightly cavalry and proved, that well trained infantry could defeat knights even during the high middle ages.
Depending on terrain.
Great video. Keep up the great work
Great video! Narrator sounded slightly robotic at times, not sure if encoding issue or glitch
Great video
Nice content! As always.
Great video as always 👍 ❤
Could you make a video about napoleon's first deafet,his campign in egypt,so you could end the napoleonic wars and Campigns playlist,good work keep up
Love your battle vids!
Awesome work
Are the places names correct? Odessa and Albania seems wrong. Am I missing something?
If you're lazy enough to try to search for reliable sources, Wikipedia had covered about the Caucasian Kingdom of Albania (unrelated to the European Albania) and you misread Edessa, which was a city on the Mesopotamia and confuse it with Odessa, a City that is located in Ukraine
@@dominikfraaanjuan Thanks for the clarifications.
I read Belisarius as Belarusians and I cannot unsee it now
My sacrifice to the algorith. Thanks for the video, i love your channel.
Love your videos.
Well done!
"O stavrós nika, oh let there be light
I'll bear my cross of shame and march on through the mire
O stavrós nika, oh let there be light
May I redeem myself from Callinicum"
Lol im just playing Call of War since some weeks ago with a friends group, we had a LARGE war in a Northamerican map, the coalition is winning rn, almost ending the match.
Your vidéos are AMAZING
I hope one day yo do one about Las Navas de Tolosa!
Yay more horsies thank you
Amazing quality.
This battle is so important since Romans had nearly twice the size of the army that the sassanians had , also there were no trenches or no defensive superiority in favor of Persians . But Persians won this battle eventhough their army didn't have any immortals , heavy infantries or top level soldiers at all .
It was pyric victory though as nothing changed and they both had heavy losses.
@@dubstepXpower so what ? They were in offensive positions although the enemy had likely twice the size of army they had . What else could you expect ?
one of the best channels on youtube
STILL WAITING ON THAT HANNIBAL THOUGH
I saw your Add on RUclips! I subbed!
Velisarius was a great General no doubt.
He was one of the best cavalry commanders ever and of the best in micromanagement regarding small troops. Belisarius was the reason Justinian survived the Nika Riots and the reason Justinian managed to collect resources in order to build Agia Sophia. Belisarius with agile, little troops could outflank and annihilate superior forces and bigger armies in Africa, Italy, Anatolia, Middle East, Balkans and the whole roman world.
The only problem with Velisarius was his fears(?) to lead a big army. I don't know if he has perfectionist and preferred to have full control of some well trained and trusted units. Although it is more than obvious that he had many people in Palace and army, including Justinian that he were very cautious about his victories and had second thoughts about the popularity he gained into the army. They awaited the smallest mistake and had many eyes around him in order to report him to Justinian or the over the top jealous empress Theodora. Actually they saw his victories and popularity as a red alarm for a future mutiny against Justinian's reign.
His wife Antonina was an actress and prostitute like the empress Antonina and the two were old friends before their marriage to Velisarius and Justinian accordingly. The love Velisarius had about his treacherous wife I think was a big setback to his career but the same time it was Antonina who used her connections to get the pardon from Justinian. It happened a couple of times when Velisarius had to face charges or blindness or death penalty but had a last minute pardon every time. Justinian had a love and hate relation with his best general.
Procopius was one of the most important sources about Velisarius. He knew him well but had no the best thoughts about him. Actually he has the judge in charge against him when he was imprisoned. Justinian himself pardoned him! Moreover Procopius accussed him as a Antonina's puppet, as a cuckolded husband and that Antonina had relation with an adopted son of Velisarius. What more to say to spill the name of Velisarius...
Good background information. Makes the whole picture a lot clearer.
Historymarche when u gonna continue the 2 punich war video?
Best graphics I have ever seen 😊👍🏻
HistoryMarche when are you going to post on Hannibal Part 19?
Once again, I leave a sacrifice to the algorithm
2:14 did you invite a whole army 😂😂
Loving your work recently
For your next project hope you guys move to other great warfare specialists
Medieval islamic expansion
Chinese warfare
Indian warfare
Horn of africa
West africa
Great history
When does the next Hannibal thing come out?
Wait, what? You've already finished the story of Belisarius (my favorite among all your series, btw).
Love that you're doing this and adding on to the story, but why?
Thank you for a great video!
Tough outnumbered 3 to 1 Persians won and routed Romans .
Watching this on the tv 😁👍
Hope you enjoyed it! Any luck with job-seeking?
So good
Finally some one is covering the Persians!!! They are so bad ass and still around today. Although they are now Muslims not Zoroastrian.
As a history buff i try and be open minded when it comes to parts in history that we don't know for certain. I believe when he retreated behind his men, i think he stayed with them to the end as watching other documentaries about him and his personality. Yes, he made mistakes as a leader, but he seemed to be a loyal general to the Byzantines/Emperor and it seemed his men actually respected him as a commander to some degree. We know this because of how his men acted in his invasion of North Africa and Italy and how he tactically performed in them campaigns. A few occasions he was in a tough spot and instead of retreating or taking the easy way out, He pushed through. or maybe he did retreat in this battle, and this was the young Belisarius who had much to learn. History is fun. Keep up the good work.
GG Azerathes 👌
He shouldn't have been condemned by suffering heavy losses ! (That can happen in any war & the huns who were in the roman army were fierce horse archers & fighters themselves which undoubtedly proved to be troublesome for the Persian caverly)
What is obvious is that Azerathes was a military genius & the fact that he defeated a great Roman general is enough credits imo
Shahanshah (king of kings) Kavad I just can't be pleased lol
It's war dude, all victories in wars come at a cost
What, he expected his commanders to win without any casualties ? lol
First, after the battle of Thannuris and then Callinicum
At Thannuris, his son, Xerxes, defeated Belisarius and was still disgraced by Kavad, his own father, which was angry because he lost 500 Immortals
500 out of 10,000 shouldn't have been a big deal it's not even 1/10 of this elite guards plus Belisarius himself lost 800 of his fine men that's more than what Xerxes lost and the fortresses that the Romans were building were destroyed
Azerathes didn't plunder Antioch but he raided other territories of the Byzantines, inflicted a heavy defeat on Belisarius who defeated the Persian army at Dara and lowered his status and came back with most of his soldiers and all of their plunders and loots
What else do you want man ? XD
Though, what he did to Xerxes might be understandable since it's stated that he saw potential of a true leader only in his youngest son, Khosrow, and that he was trying to open a path to the throne for him
Unlike Khosrow, his brothers were supported by nobles or generals and Azerathes could've been one of them
Another reason might be that the mother of his other sons (or at least the mother of Xerxes and another son of his) was the Hephthalite princess that Kavad married and he didn't wanted the Hephthalites to have any influence in his empire or worse, make his empire their vassal kingdom by having half Persian half Hephthalite kings ruling it
@@ramtin5152 Indeed lol
& thanks for the information
@@ryansmith8345 You're welcome
You just said the words hidden in my heart lol
This is what the History Channel used to be like!
Now I just have to reenact it playing D&D
Love it
At last, Belisarius survived and proved his capability and competence in battles and wars to follow.
did u guys cut out part of the audio? cause it does not sound wel.. further a great video animation.
Can u post more vids about persian victories ? I might be wrong but most of your vids are about persian defeats , which are definitely as enjoyable to watch as the rest of your vids , but i'd like to see some persian victories as well.
Tnx and keep up the great work.
My tears when I realize it’s not the rest of hannibals campaign.
When it is coming the next video of hannibal barca?
6:13 at the battle of Thannuris 528 and at the battle of Mindouos 528
داداش عطلاعات خیلی زیاده ها😮😮
راجب هر جنگ میان ایران و روم واو به واو میدانی!!!!
اگه کتاب در این مورد میخوانی میتونی بهم معرفی کنی. با سپاس 🙏🏻❤️
My man
Good video and content, but the voice over sounds robotic and glitchy.