Date Obolum Belisario: A [Anti-Unit]
Giving Alms to the Beggar of Rome
“I stand here at the gates of Rome,
The city I won, the city I conquered.
I stand here a beggar, a senile and blind old man.
So, won’t you please,
Date Obolum Belisario?”
562 AD. Belisarius is brought before a court of nobles and charged with corruption. These were false charges, Belisarius was a man of virtue and charity. He had never taken bribes nor did he extort others. And yet the nobles brought out phony evidence and phony witnesses who all accused Belisarius of the same thing. Shocked, appalled, Belisarius shouted for his innocence, argued with all he had. But the nobles were not there for a true trial, they were there to tear down the star general of Justinian, they were there to take their revenge for their curbed influence. Belisarius scanned the room looking for someone, anyone who could help him. But the only thing that stared back at him were soulless eyes of men who sold their lives to gold and power. Belisarius resorted to pleading, begging, anything. He was innocent, he had done no wrong, but all fell on deaf ears. A judge was brought in, and it was Procopius, his own secretary! He felt hope return to his chest but in an instant Procopius condemned Belisarius and he was convicted. Belsarius’ heart sunk. He was old, sixty two, but never before had he felt such hopelessness. Suddenly Procopius stepped aside and another man took his place at the judge’s seat. It was Justinian!
Belisarius nearly cried with joy, his old friend would see reason, his old friend would pardon him, surely. He was an ancient monarch, five years older than Augustus was at his death, and with a voice still powerful and still filled with imperium Belisarius’ oldest friend and practical brother sentenced Belisarius to blindness and poverty.Belisarius could not feel anything but unbridled rage as Justinian got up from his seat and left the court. He had been betrayed, in his final hours and at his greatest need his friend abandoned him to the wolves. He was dragged away to the confines of the pitch black rooms of the palace dungeons. Here his eyes were torn from his skull with a hot poker. Oh how Belisarius screamed, how the old general wailed in agony as his very sight was taken from him. He was then loaded onto a boat and shipped to Rome where, under orders from Justinian, he was forced to stand at the Pincian Gate and ask all who passed by “date obolum Belisario”. “Give an obolus to Belisarius”. Within three years the great general was dead. He died in the streets of Rome blind, in rags, and without anyone to mourn him.
Date Obolum Belisario is the manifestation of all the anger, the indignation, and the feelings of betrayal that Belisarius felt in the final three years of his life. He was a hero, the man who saved Rome countless times and expanded her borders to the level that he was compared to Alexander and Caesar. And yet in an instant he was accused and convicted of crimes he was innocent of and damned by his oldest friend to a life in darkness and in squalor. This injustice is one that the world itself felt. Not since the assassination of Julius Caesar in the Theater of Pompey had such treachery been seen. Therefore, the existence of this Noble Phantasm, and the existence of Belisarius Alter, has come to pass.
When activated Belisarius will transform from his normal battle attire into a smaller, weaker version dressed in rags and hunched over with age. In his left hand a wooden staff used to find his way is gripped. Belisarius will raise his right hand, palm up, and gently, in a parched and elderly voice, say. “I stand here at the gates of Rome, the city I won, the city I conquered. I stand here a beggar, a senile and blind old man. So, won’t you please, give an obolus to Belisarius?”A black void then engulfs the nearby area leaving nothing but Belisarius and his target. From behind Belisarius black hands emerge slowly. They curl around the elderly man like wings until bursting forward and seizing the target by all their extremities. These black arms are limbs of hatred. They are the manifestations of the absolute fury Belisarius felt every time he stretched his hands outward to receive alms from the very men and women he once held imperium over. And now, with his target gripped by these hands of wrath, Belisarius will take him alms.Their arms, their legs, their head, their stomach, their chest, their heart, their eyes, their brain, their toes, their fingers, their very soul all are taken as alms for the poor, alms for Belisarius the Blind. The target is ripped asunder by the hands of the Beggar General and consumed by the black void of Belisarius’ anger. Nothing will remain of the target save for a puddle of blood and scraps of loose flesh.