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

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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

Anonymous

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 ! :)

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

...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.

Anonymous

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.

Anonymous

Make more episodes!

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

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.

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

Moar Justinian plez!

Anonymous

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.

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

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.

Anonymous

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

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

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

ExtraCredits

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

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

ExtraCredits

Daniel's been doing an amazing job with the dramatic moments in these narrations!

ExtraCredits

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

Anonymous

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.

Anonymous

AMAZING! You guys, are the bestest! AMAZING!

John Madigan

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

Anonymous

I want to see what happens next too!

Anonymous

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!

Anonymous

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?

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

Mills on boats? BEST IDEA EVER.

Stephen Maxwell

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

Anonymous

Bellasarius really was a genus.

ExtraCredits

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

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

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

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

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!