Narses

Narsés represented in the Nuremberg Chronicles.

Narses (Greek, Ναρσής) (Persian Armenia c. 478- Rome, 573) was a eunuch freedman (he was castrated to care for the Persian harems) that was bought by Justinian I, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, and freed by him. As a freedman he fulfilled his administrative functions with great efficiency. According to the chronicles of the time, Narsés was noble, honest, intelligent, loyal and appreciated by all court officials.

Origins

He was born in Persian Armenia, the eastern part of Armenia, which had been handed over to Persia less than a hundred years earlier. He was a member of the Armenian noble family of the Camsaracano, also, the Kamsarakan family (Armenian: ԿԿԡԀԀԀԀրԀҡүҡԶ, transliterated Kamsarakan and Latin: Camsaracanus), derived from the House of Karen, one of the seven great Parthian houses. Its first mention in a primary source is by Procopius in the year 530. His year of birth is unknown, probably between 478 and 480. The year of his death is also unknown, between 566 and 574.

Importance

Narses was a great connoisseur of the theories of war. He was, together with Belisarius, the main general of Justinian I. In addition, he was the great chamberlain of Justinian's court, and, therefore, the second most powerful civilian in the empire.

His first notable performance was his contribution to putting down the Nika rebellion in Constantinople in 532. He was able to persuade the leaders of the Blues to abandon the hippodrome, leaving the Greens alone against the troops of Belisarius and Mundus.

In 538 he went to Italy to reinforce the campaign of conquest undertaken by Belisarius. He had been called to Constantinople after failing to quell the Ostrogothic rebellion, and he was replaced by General Narses, who managed to win a long war. Totila's army was defeated at the Battle of Busa Gallorum, in Umbria around 552, to later defeat the survivors of that battle at the Battle of Vesuvius in 553. In 554, after almost twenty years of war, Justinian considered achieved the objective with the recovery of the areas of Italy: Ravenna, Rome and Sicily. Narsés remained "active" in his charge until the last years of his life.