The First Siege of Rome

King Vitiges of the Ostrogoths besieged Rome, that had been taken and inhabited by the Byzantine forces of Justinian I, led by General Belisarius. Rome had not even put up a fight against Belisarius, so there had been no attack and no damage to the walls.The Ostrogoth forces besieged Rome for an entire year without success, from March 537 to March 538. They couldn't take down the walls, and Belisarius did not have enough soldiers to leave Rome and defeat the army surrounding them.In April 537, an army of 1600 Huns and Slavs hired by Constantinople approached, capturing towns behind the Goths siege. An additional 5000 men in November gave the Byzantine army the advantage of numbers. The Byzantine navy prevented the Goths from getting more supplies by sea.Additionally, 2000 Byzantine cavalry had attacked and captured the town of Ariminum (modern Rimini), which was so near the Gothic capital of Ravenna that Vitiges abandoned the siege of Rome to head back north to protect the eat of his…