The siege of Naples in 536 was a successful siege of

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

by the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

under

Belisarius BelisariusSometimes called Flavia gens#Later use, Flavius Belisarius. The name became a courtesy title by the late 4th century, see (; ; The exact date of his birth is unknown. March 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under ...

during the Gothic War. The Byzantine army under

, having subdued

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

with ease, landed on mainland Italy in late spring 536, and advanced along the coast on Naples. The citizens of Naples, after being roused by two pro-Gothic orators named Pastor and Asclepiodotus, decided to resist, even though Belisarius presented the city with very favorable conditions for surrender. The citizens of Naples were also under the impression that Theodahad, king of the

Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

, would send an army to relieve them. However, the siege dragged on for twenty days with numerous Byzantine casualties, and Belisarius was preparing to abandon it, until an Isaurian soldier under his command discovered an entrance into the city through its disused aqueduct. Belisarius sent engineers to widen the hole in the aqueduct while sending some soldiers to clear out the noise of the engineers working by banging their shields together. After giving the city a final chance to surrender, Belisarius launched his troops in a brutal sack. According to John Julius Norwich: The Ostrogothic garrison of 800 men was taken prisoner and treated well.The citizens of Naples, meanwhile, angrily killed Asclepiodotus for convincing them to reject Belisarius's demands, while Pastor committed suicide as the city fell.

References

Sources

Military history of Naples Naples 536 Naples 536

Gothic War (535–554) 530s in the Byzantine Empire 536 Belisarius {{Byzantine-stub