LOST ROMAN HEROES

Belisarius. Who was the man behind the myth? Are we right to feel uncharitably towards Antonina and Narses? Why did Justinian treat his best general and friend so poorly? And why exactly did Procopius place Belisarius on a richly deserved pedestal in the "Wars" and then tear him down in the "Secret History"? Join us with professor and historian Dr. David Parnell, author of "Belisarius and Antonina: Love and War in the Age of Justinian", as we try to answer these vexing questions about the man that did more than any other since Aurelian to restore the Empire to greatness.

Procopius was raised in Caesarea, the capital of Rome's Palaestina province, and was likely educated in Gaza and Beirut. A lawyer by training, he was plucked from obscurity by Justinian, and assigned to the staff of the brilliant young general Belisarius. Procopius would accompany Belisarius across land and sea to every major military command that Belisarius would hold, sharing his privations, organizing his correspondence and administration, and recording the history of the Age of Justinian. Without Procopius, we would know little indeed about Justinian and Belisarius' great deeds, but what can we say about the mysterious historian himself? And why would he attack the man that meant everything to him, the embodiment of a Roman hero?

The year is 542AD and Rome has just gone through its Thanos-moment - one out of every two Romans disappeared over the course of one fateful summer, and Justinian was almost one of them! Having personally survived the plague, he must now chart a course for a Roman empire that has half the soldiers, half the tax payers, half the farmers and fisherman with the same landmass to administer and defend, facing enemies that were unscathed by the two greatest scourged Mother Nature has every thrown at her children: ICE AGE & PLAGUE. Join us for Justinian's grand finale, to see how he picked up the pieces, and how he prepared Rome for the new world that awaited it!

We leave behind Belisarius, Justinian's avenging angel, and return to the Emperor's story. The year is 532AD and Constantinople still smolders in the wake of the Nika Riots. Having narrowly survived a coup thanks to Theodora's spine and Belisarius' steel, Justinian sets about remaking the Roman world. No more tentative rule, no more deference to the Senate or ancient mores, he sets about to show the world that Rome was back, just in time to meet the most fearsome enemies the Empire had ever faced: Ice Age and Plague!

Recalled to Constantinople to lead Rome's response to Persian aggression, Belisarius arrives just in time for Mother Nature to unleash the most vicious one-two punch in the history of humankind, ICE AGE + PLAGUE! Belisarius can navigate these twin disasters, but alas, the politics would prove to be his undoing. Join the last chapter in Belisarius' life, where we work through our complicated emotions and finale have an opportunity to rank the man who many call, THE LAST ROMAN.