# The Day the Mediterranean Burned: Battle of Cape Bon, 468 ## Метаданные - **Канал:** HistoryMarche - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYm_5wlLUg ## Содержание ### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYm_5wlLUg) Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) It is May, 461 AD, and at the Portus Ilicitanus on the coast of the Roman province of Cartagena, an awesome sight bobs on the waves before the stupefied locals. Fully 300 ships of the Emperor Majorian’s fleet lie waiting for his army to embark, their destination the former Roman provinces of North Africa, conquered more than five centuries earlier by the legions of the republic and lately wrested from the commonwealth of Rome by the warriors of the Vandal tribe. Since their seizure of the lands of Carthage, the Vandals have proven to be a ruinous foe of Rome – their constant attacks on the coast of Italy culminating in the seizure of the entire island of Sicily and even the capture and sack of Rome itself in 455. Now, however, Rome is blessed to have found a new emperor that is forged in the mold of those ancient giants, and through a twin policy of diplomacy and ruthless warfare, he has painstakingly rebuilt the western provinces into a structure that resembles the empire of old. Majorian – who could be called a new Aurelian and the Restorer of the World – has in just a few short years built a ring of loyal and effective generals under his command in Gaul, Illyria, and Hispania, and with the aid of his ally, the magister militum Ricimer – reduced the Visigoths, Burgundians, and Suebi, bringing them all back under the imperial remit and reinstating their lands to the empire. The Vandals too have been defeated on the shores of Italia, and Sicily has been retaken. There now only remains the liberation of North Africa to undo all of the catastrophes of the previous decades... On a map, the African provinces may seem peripheral to Roman interests, but this is precisely why the area has become so pivotal to the fueling of the empire’s war machine. Roman North Africa has not traditionally been subject to raiding in force like the northern lands west of the Rhine. Berber incursions are of course de rigeur for much of the time, but these are for the most part of a hit and run nature, not the mass invasions carried out by the Alemanni and other Germanic tribes when the urge takes them. For centuries, a single Roman legion – just 5,000 men – was adequate to protect Rome’s interests in Africa, a very reasonable rate of investment for an area that provided food and goods to the mother city at an exponential rate. In the time of Julius Caesar, when he expanded the province from its initial borders, Roman Africa shipped fully 50,000 tons of grain to Rome every year, feeding its unprecedented population and powering its mighty legions. A hundred years after Caesar’s death ### [5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYm_5wlLUg&t=300s) Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) the province had seen the characteristically exceptional Roman colonization and economic developments programs, and it was now shipping no fewer than half a million tons of grain annually to the port of Ostia. So valuable are the commodities from the province – which also provides ceramics, oil, fruits, wine, timber, and textiles – that its exports to Rome very quickly exceed those of Egypt, Rome’s richest province. Thus Gaiseric’s invasion of Africa around 429 and his subsequent annexation of the province as a kingdom of the Vandals in 435 effectively rips the right arm from Rome’s ability to wage war. Majorian has displayed superlative ability as an emperor to stitch the sundered provinces of Europe back together, but in order to put the seal on Rome’s resurgence and ensure its continued hegemony of the world, he must restore the revenues of Africa and avenge Gaiseric’s unprecedented and devastating sack on Rome. Gaiseric himself – a wily operator, but one whose force of fighting men likely never exceeds 20,000 – attempts to sue for peace, but Majorian will have none of it. All is ready for the Romans to sail, even if the army their emperor leads is no longer that of imperial regulars but a mercenary force of numerous nationalities. The season is perfect... the men are ready... All is in train to restore the final piece of the empire just as their forebears did in the time of Aurelian and Diocletian... And then in the night, the fires begin... Traitors amidst their own number turn on their former brothers in arms and kill without mercy, all paid with Gaiseric’s plentiful coin. By the morning, it is all over, and Majorian’s fleet lies in ruins. With no other means of transporting his army, the emperor is forced to a humiliating peace with the Vandals, and then disbands his host. Thus defenseless and riding back to Italy with just his personal escort, Majorian is shockingly arrested, beaten, and executed by Ricimer, who has constructed a seditious alliance with Roman aristocrats who are offended at the emperor’s egalitarian and rigorous economic and taxation measures. Thus, the empire is deprived of its first effective emperor in six decades, and it immediately implodes into warring factions once more. When Ricimer places the puppet Libius Severus on the throne at Rome, Majorian’s loyal lieutenants immediately reject Ricimer’s treason. Aegidus’s refusal brings most of Roman Gaul out of the central authority, as does Nepotianus in Hispania. In Sicily, the powerful Marcellinus had only been won over by his belief in Majorian alone, and his refusal to follow Ricimer takes Illyria – the source of the west’s finest manpower - out of the remit of the state entirely. To make matters worse for Ricimer, Gaiseric is able to build on his victory and take all of the main islands of the western Mediterranean, not only Corsica and Sardinia, but also Malta and the Balearics, giving him a huge range for raiding on the mainland. Meanwhile, realizing that the empire is once more weak, the Visigoths and Burgundians seize back much of the territory that Marjorian had taken from them in titanic clashes during his lifetime. Ricimer appears to have condemned Rome’s empire to a fate worse than it suffered during the time of Attila. For the first time in 600 years, there is no land corridor linking Rome with Hispania now the Visigoths are marching once more. The eastern Roman court, under its own pressure from marauding Ostrogoths and Huns, as well as barbarian warlords in its military command like Aspar, gives no support to Ricimer or the man known to be his puppet. For his part, Ricimer does his best to rebuild the shattered western imperium, and he has notable and praiseworthy victories. ### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYm_5wlLUg&t=600s) Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) He makes alliance with the Burgundians who block Aegidus from moving south with Majorian’s army to engage the usurpers. He also gifts Narbonne to the Goths who now also go to war with Aegidus. The Gallo-Roman is thus stymied even though he wins a victory over the Goths at Orleans. His death a year later, ends the opposition from the north. Similarly, Nepotianus is cordoned off in Hispania by land and sea and unable to intervene in the affairs in Italy. The Visigoths of Theodoric II eventually manage to simply force Nepotianus out of Spain and another puppet named Arborius is put in his place. Ricimer also bribes the Huns that are fighting in Sicily for Marcellinus to defect, thus depriving of him of that valuable base and sending him back to Illyria where he submits to the protection of the eastern emperor Leo. In spite of his own victory over the Visigoths at Orleans in 463, and another over the Alans at Bergamo a year later, Ricimer’s deals with the Goths, Burgundians, and Huns have only left him ostensibly in control - it is a thin veneer of authority. In reality, he controls little to nothing outside of Italy. The Roman army of Gaul has effectively ceased to exist, half a millennium after the legions first stood guard on the Rhine. The control won under Majorian’s rule now undeniably gone, Ricimer knows that he cannot win back anything without major support, and the only source of such support can come from one place – Byzantium. The eastern emperor Leo has asserted himself over the previous years – though he will never enjoy the kind of independence enjoyed by his forebears - and it is known that he is overtly occupied with winning back the lost provinces of the west and his ancestral heritage. Leo, however, has no interest in dealing at all with the puppet Libius Severus, which presents Ricimer with an obstacle. The barrier is cleared when Libius Severus conveniently dies in the winter of 465. Ricimer does not immediately choose another stooge from the western senate, but instead he enters into negotiation with the eastern court in the hopes of winning money and arms. Gaiseric also plays the game of imperial nominations – putting forward his own candidate in Olybrius, who like Gaiseric’s son Huneric is married to a daughter of the former emperor Valentinian III. Having his son’s brother-in-law take the imperium of the west would effectively make Gaiseric a legitimate power within the Roman world, or so he believes. To urge the empire to see things his way, he ups the frequency, violence, and range of his raids beyond Italy to Illyria and even Greece to help Leo make up his mind. The emperor is not amenable to such cajolery, however, and he selects Procopius Anthemius, a noble Roman born in Constantinople who has risen through the ranks and enjoys a good relationship with Marcellinus, to the western throne. To honey the decision with Ricimer, Anthemius offers him the hand of his daughter, thus bringing the barbarian into the imperial family in the same manner as the first prominent barbarian general Stilicho was welcomed seven decades previously. The new emperor arrives in Italy with an eastern army numbering the tens of thousands - and a plan. From Constantinople, Leo is convinced of the critical urgency in reconquering Africa. With that easily defended and rich power base in hand, Gaul and Hispania will inevitably revert back to Roman jurisdiction. Leo is prepared to back this operation with more than just words and a token host. If the size of the force he sends with Anthemius is not a clear enough message, he also funds the deployment of a truly gargantuan navy. Fully eleven hundred ships will transport the combined western and eastern Roman armies to Africa. Marcellinus is dispatched with the resources to not only secure Sicily but also invade and seize ### [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYm_5wlLUg&t=900s) Segment 4 (15:00 - 20:00) Sardinia, which he does without issue in 467. From Egypt, the governor Heraclius is to move with an army and make his landing in Tripolitania and march from there to Carthage. The main Roman force will be placed under Basilicus, who will sail directly from Italy. Basilicus’s sister is Verina – wife of the Emperor Leo – and he has been awarded this supreme honor after winning sterling victories along the eastern empire’s Danubian frontier against both Huns and Goths. Against the latter, it is said that he had engaged the sons of Attila himself and showed them that the power of both new and old Rome was still supreme. Now, with virtually all of the united empire’s resources at his disposal, he will replace the capstone of Roman imperium and the world will be restored. The size of this expedition cannot be properly conveyed even by panegyrist poets and rhetoricians like Sidonius Apollinaris. Almost 65,000 pounds of gold and 700,000 pounds of silver at least have been raised just in the east and the western empire has guaranteed that it will put forward a quarter of that amount again. These are figures truly unimaginable to any of the tribes currently inhabiting the lands formerly under imperial control. In sixty years time, when Justinian constructs the wonder of the world that is the Cathedral of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the price of this immortal work of devotion and art will be just one fifth of this campaign to conquer Carthage once more. Leo and Anthemius are determined like no other emperors to restore the empire to its former glory. All is ready, but the weather of the campaign season in 467 turns, and there is no one who will to risk an irreplaceable army and armada on the whim of the wind. The decision is made to stand by and keep the men in station – paying their exorbitant wages and waiting for the time to be ripe. In the meantime, the expectations in still Roman Italy reach a fever pitch. In the warm months of 468, with the sea a placid and idyllic blue, the fleet moves off. Heraclius has already left from Egypt and landed in Tripolitania, his army marching east and scattering whatever Vandal garrisons and stragglers cross its path. Basiliscus’s colossal fleet catches a wind and powers south, taking the ancient route followed by the Roman triremes as far back as the First Punic War. But at Sicily, the enemy hooves into view. Gaiseric has known of this operation since the first ships arrived with their troops from the east, and he has prepared for it with all of his own available resources. Africa has given him a more than formidable force of 500 ships, and he does not intend to go quietly while the Romans rip his life’s work out from under him. The two fleets clash off Sicily, and it is a thunderous, rapturous victory for the Romans, the Vandals are broken and scattered and hundreds of their ships are lost. A broken and bloodied remnant limps back to Carthage. Basiliscus steers his armada on and the ships cruise into view of the African coastline. Gaiseric and his high command are in despair. Where once Rome trembled at their arrival before they spent a fortnight putting the great city to the sack, now they await their nemesis. In near panic, they send emissaries to the Roman admiral, emphasizing that Gaiseric is an old and enfeebled man, now near 80, and he will give his word that should the honorable and noble Basiliscus allow him leave, he will depart from Carthage and trouble the empire no more. He asks for a mere five days to make his preparations. Arriving at a point on the coast known as Cape Bon, a little under 40 miles from Carthage ### [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYm_5wlLUg&t=1200s) Segment 5 (20:00 - 25:00) but close to the second port of Utica, Basiliscus grants this request. There is no sign of Marcellinus, and he likely needs to make contact with Heraclius, and in any case, with no fleet to speak of after their recent loss, Gaiseric is no threat. It is a fatal decision. The wily old Vandal who has ruled his own domain now for three decades does not spend his time preparing to run. Instead, he and his tribe press gang and commandeer every ship and craft they can lay hands on and prepare to fight for their lives. Basiliscus’s fleet and army are still at sea when the new flotilla sails over the horizon. The ships at the front move strangely, and it takes some time before the Romans realize what they see before them. From their densely packed armada, they watch rowboats approach, seemingly followed by slightly larger merchant craft. The wind has now changed, unseasonably blowing behind the Vandal flotilla and against the Romans... In the high summer sun, the heat haze and the spray from the waves makes identification difficult until the ships are close enough to read their ensigns. Perhaps it is the instrument of Gaiseric’s surrender and the keys to Carthage? Perhaps the empire will be spared a fight for its most vital province... Too late, Basiliscus and his captain hear the cries from the watchmen. FIRE! The small rowboats cut the lines of the ships behind and move out of the way. Basiliscus realizes that there is nothing to be done. The rowboats have loosed the fireships and now the treacherous wind will do the rest. The Romans scramble to try and clear the way, but there are too many ships in too small a space, and there is no time. The first of the fireships crashes into the titanic fleet and all hell breaks loose. With no room or wind to reverse, the ships hit by the attackers almost instantaneously catch fire themselves in the dry of a Mediterranean summer, and the flames spread from ship to ship with lightning-like alacrity and thoroughness. Those ships on the edge pull away as best they can, and the armada slowly starts to disperse, but this is precisely the moment for which Gaiseric’s captains are waiting. The Vandal fleet powers down on the now scattered and isolated Romans – the wind gauge gloriously in their favor – and the fighting is vicious and desperate. The Romans still have the numbers, but their commanders are frozen after the shock of the assault and their ships are too far away from their comrades and inoperable against the wind in any case. The Vandals have no other options but victory or death, and their fighting shows that they have a full understanding of this dilemma. Quickly – terrifyingly briskly – the greatest naval operation Rome has ever launched sees its ships either burning on the water, fleeing the battle, or else sinking to the bottom of the waves at the hands of the enemy. Somehow, from certain defeat and obliteration, Gaiseric has grasped victory and once more brought Rome to its knees. Roman losses are cataclysmic. At least 100 ships are lost, though there are accounts of losses of hundreds more. Figures for the losses and casualties are as high as 10,000, but the damage to Rome and Constantinople’s prestige is far higher than any number of deaths. Gaiseric has sacked Rome and now defeated the combined strength of its eastern and western empires, and he has shown that one tribe can overcome the imperial power even at its fullest effort with impunity. The Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths among other are watching with interest. Worse yet, Constantinople’s treasury has expended all of its wealth for this expedition, and it will be a long time before the coffers fill once more. On his return to eastern capital, Basilicus is forced into hiding in the old Hagia Sophia ### [25:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYm_5wlLUg&t=1500s) Segment 6 (25:00 - 25:00) lest he be lynched by the incandescent mob. Marcellinus makes landfall in Sicily, no doubt with the intention of continuing his semi-independent rule in the eastern emperor’s name, but an assassin quickly finds him, and that is the end of his travails. Ricimer – who almost certainly sent the killer – is now free to continue his rule of Rome’s husk – staying the course until his own death from natural causes four years later. Cape Bon marks the last and greatest chance for the rebirth of the old Roman Empire, and there can nothing like it again. As the still burning ships slip under the water in the light of a setting sun, so goes the civilization that once ruled the sea and all the land around it. --- *Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/40439*