A Book or Two to Review (4): In the Name of Rome

The review opens by explaining why Adrian Goldsworthy's In the Name of Rome is useful for studying Roman commanders across a long military tradition.

A short quotation from Belisarius turns the review toward command discipline and the danger of officers pursuing independent judgments.

The Belisarius excerpt argues that late Roman armies could still win battles, but political instability and decaying support systems made that performance harder to sustain.

The excerpt complicates the fall of the Western Roman Empire by treating sacks, deposition, and successor kingdoms as stages in political fragmentation rather than one foreign conquest.

The excerpt explains why the Eastern Roman Empire could recover enough stability to let emperors delegate command and fight in several theaters.

The review highlights a sixth-century shift in Roman diplomacy, with the Persian king increasingly addressed as an equal even while emperors retained ambitions of imperial recovery.

Belisarius begins as a household officer trained for command, and his early defeat in Persian Armenia shows that his later reputation was built through experience rather than an unbroken record of success.

The earlier Roman-Persian war begins with Kavadh's request for money and ends in a paid peace that restricts new frontier fortifications, creating the dispute that later surrounds Dara.

Kavadh's pressure on Christian Iberia and his effort to secure Khosrow's succession through Roman adoption turn religion, alliance politics, and dynastic law into causes of war.

The setup for Dara shows Roman-Persian warfare as a contest of raids and frontier strongholds in which every new fortification carried strategic and diplomatic meaning.

Despite failed frontier operations, Belisarius earns one of the empire's senior field commands, while Procopius joins him and becomes the principal source for the campaign.

The Roman army at Dara relies on experienced mounted specialists and Belisarius's bucellarii because much of its garrison-trained infantry has seen little active fighting.

Peroz leads a larger Sasanian army built around armored cavalry and an elite reserve, although the reported round numbers should not be treated too literally.

An unusual connected trench system protects almost the entire Roman frontage, channels movement through controlled crossings, and forces Peroz toward the frontal attack Belisarius expects.

Before the main battle, a feigned Roman retreat and two single combats expose the cost of Persian contempt for their opponents.

Messages continue between the armies while Persian reinforcements arrive, then Peroz delays combat in hopes that Roman meal customs and the June heat will weaken Belisarius's men.

The battle account follows Belisarius using concealed Heruls, Hun flank attacks, and restraint after victory to defeat a larger Persian force.

The opening missile fight shows how wind, borrowed archery techniques, and the rotation of Persian cavalry lines affected combat before either side charged.