Talk:Siege of Panormus

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Siege of Panormus/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: A.Cython (talk · contribs) 00:28, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: TheNuggeteer (talk · contribs) 01:57, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

I will review this for WP:GARC. 🍗TheNuggeteer🍗 (My "blotter") 01:57, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Lead

Nothing wrong here.

Prelude

• Belisarius was ordered to pretend that his mission was to reach Carthage by way of Sicily. why? Was the mission supposed to be a secret? Please add this into the article if you can find a good source.
  • A surprise attack. It was secret so that it won't spook the Goths and they send reinforcements before the war started. Much of south Italy and Sicily were largely undefended as there was a mutual understanding between the Italo-Romans and Goths, i.e., the Italo-Romans would provide food/taxes and Goths will not have strong garrisons as they did in northern regions. While Byzantine spies might have informed Justinian and his generals, much was a giant gambit as many things could have gone wrong in the meantime.
  •  Done I rewrote the paragraph so that it does not create confusion.

Siege

• Why is this section very short? If there are sources, you should include positions, formations, casualties and damages, and other related things.
  • The only primary source that we have is Procopius and he did not provide more information (see here his narrative, not much) than what was given in the article. For other battles/sieges, he provides much more details. All secondary sources rely on Procopius. The importance of the current siege is that it is the opening of the Gothic War (535–554) and it is mentioned in secondary sources. Below I provide an example of secondary source that specializes in the warfare tactics of the period:
  • Ilkka Syvänne p. 122: Then he captured Syracuse and the other cities without trouble through surrender with the exception of Panormus (Palermo) where the local Gothic garrison resisted because they trusted its defences. Indeed Belisarius considered it impossible to capture the city from the landward side so he dispatched his fleet to the harbour which extended right up to the wall. When the fleet was then anchored there the sailors observed that the masts were higher than the walls. This enabled them to hoist small boats to the tops of the masts filled with archers who were then able to shoot at the enemy from above. This frightened the Goths who then duly surrendered the city. The attached images from Athanaios and Heron of Byzantium show how the Roman military treatises depicted similar use of ships in sieges.4 The use of ships’ masts against enemy walls was a standard means of attacking coastal cities.
  • Helped I moved the last paragraph of the "Prelude" to the "Siege" section to re-balance this and it is relevant enough. Also added a statement that comments that Belisarius approach was consistent with the general practice of Byzantine tactics against coastal cities. Please let me know if this helped.

Aftermath

• consulship link to Roman consul
  •  Done
• because he wanted to be clear to appear what do you mean by "clear"? Please specify or reword.
  •  Done I meant no ambiguity. In other words, Belisarius wanted to be sure that the citizens of Rome were fed by him. In retrospect, it appears redundant so I removed the "clear" part.
• Since you use serial commas, add a comma after Justinian a gold crown
  •  Done

Spotcheck

• 2: Y
• 6: Y

@A.Cython: only a few comments to address. 🍗TheNuggeteer🍗 (My "blotter") 12:37, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

@TheNuggeteer: Thank you for your constructive comments. Please let me know if I addressed them or if anything else is needed. A.Cython(talk) 17:40, 5 April 2026 (UTC)

@A.Cython: You addressed the comments well! I will pass this, great job in cooperating. Congratulations! 🍗TheNuggeteer🍗 (My "blotter") 11:44, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by RandomEditsForWhenIRemember (talk) 21:08, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that Byzantine archers hoisted at the ships' masts during the Siege of Panormus was enough for the Gothic garrison to surrender?

• Source: Syvänne 2021, p. 122 Indeed Belisarius considered it impossible to capture the city from the landward side so he dispatched his fleet to the harbour which extended right up to the wall. When the fleet was then anchored there the sailors observed that the masts were higher than the walls. This enabled them to hoist small boats to the tops of the masts filled with archers who were then able to shoot at the enemy from above. This frightened the Goths who then duly surrendered the city.

• • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Finity (novel)

Improved to Good Article status by A.Cython (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 10 past nominations.

A.Cython(talk) 01:20, 8 April 2026 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

• Cited: - See comments. Issues were resolved.
• Interesting: - See comments. Issues were resolved.

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Good job! Article has GA status, it's long enough, new enough (since it was approved for GA), has no copyvio issues. I have a few minor comments about the hook and article, After they're corrected we'll be good to go.

• The hook implies that the very sight of the archers scared the goths into surrender, while the corresponding sentence in the article implies that an attack had taken place and the goths could not defend against it. Petersen agrees with the account in the article, while Syvänne supports the hook as is made clear by the quote you provided. I don't have access to Syvänne, however I would sooner give more authority to Petersen, simply because the publisher, Brill, is better known in academia and his account appears to be closer to the source.
  • [AC] @TouchedWithFire: Thank you for your comments. Brill has indeed a better reputation but such high standards publishers do not publish books that describe in detail the battles/sieges. Peterson does a good job but leaves sometimes a bit too much information out.
  • Peterson quote Upon approaching the harbor of Palermo, which had a substantial Gothic garrison, Belisarius noticed that the masts overtopped the parapet, and ordered skiffs to be hoisted from which to fire upon the Gothic defenders. The Gothic garrison attempted to hold the wall but was overwhelmed by fire from above and immediately surrendered (ὁμολογίᾳ ... παρέδοσαν). Shortly afterwards, Belisarius made a triumphal entry into Syracuse.
  • Ilkka Syvänne with the exception of Panormus (Palermo) where the local Gothic garrison resisted because they trusted its defences. Indeed Belisarius considered it impossible to capture the city from the landward side so he dispatched his fleet to the harbour which extended right up to the wall. When the fleet was then anchored there the sailors observed that the masts were higher than the walls. This enabled them to hoist small boats to the tops of the masts filled with archers who were then able to shoot at the enemy from above. This frightened the Goths who then duly surrendered the city. The attached images from Athanaios and Heron of Byzantium show how the Roman military treatises depicted similar use of ships in sieges.4 The use of ships’ masts against enemy walls was a standard means of attacking coastal cities.
• How about ALT1 - "that Byzantine archers hoisted at the ships' masts during the Siege of Panormus were elevated above the city walls and caused its Gothic garrison to surrender?"
  • [AC] Y Good enough for me.
• I would recommend correcting the source for footnote 11 to Petersen p. 501-502, since it begins on p. 501 but carries over to 502 where the main content is.
  • [AC]  Done
• "Instead, he noticed that the masts overtopped the parapet, prompted Belisarius to send the fleet into the city harbor with small boats filled with archers, hoisted at the masts." - The sentence is slightly unclear in my opinion, I would change it to "Instead, he noticed that the masts overtopped the parapet, and this prompted Belisarius to send the fleet into the city harbor with small boats filled with archers, hoisted at the masts."
  • [AC]  Done
    TouchedWithFire (talk) 16:00, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

@A.Cython: Hm. I see what you mean regarding Petersen and Syvänne. In any case if ALT1 is ok with you than we'll just go with it. Well done! TouchedWithFire (talk) 08:38, 10 April 2026 (UTC)