#but Belisarius? definitely has the most fanboys

[byzantine-suggestions]

just saw someone on twitter call Belisarius “underrated,” as if there aren’t 700 books and plays that are like “this is Belisarius, the greatest man ever to exist, the Cincinnatus of late antiquity, the world’s best and most handsome general, the only true Roman after the collapse of the west,,, also he conveniently shares all of my obscure political and religious views,, and he was good at sex too”

#i once read a book from like the late 1800s where the author regularly stalled the plot just to talk about how Belisarius was great lol #there are like 5 different sci-fi series about Belisarius #and a ton of just regular books that are totally obsessed with him #i feel like if you pick up any book about sixth-century europe #there’s like a 50/50 chance that there’ll be literal paragraphs of salivating over Belisarius #half the time authors just straight up adapt out or kill off other generals and give Belisarius their accomplishments instead #(this always seems to happen to Mundus and Sittas #rip) #people are OBSESSED with him #he’s definitely among the better-known byzantines and probably the one with the biggest fan club #like Justinian is probably objectively more famous #but a lot of people actively dislike him so it’s not like he’s got a MASSIVE fan club #but Belisarius? definitely has the most fanboys