The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire / Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · Chapter 179
Justinian's Reconquest of the West
Under Justinian I, the brilliant general Belisarius reconquered North Africa from the Vandals and much of Italy from the Ostrogoths, temporarily restoring Roman rule to the western Mediterranean.
Outcome
The reconquests exhausted the empire's resources, left Italy devastated, and proved unsustainable as Lombard invasions soon undid much of the gains.