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It took the best part of two decades for the armies of the Eastern Empire to reconquer Italy (535-553): but the so-called first siege of Rome (February 537 – March 538 AD) was nonetheless an early turning point. The imperial commander, the magister militum per Orientem Belisarius, notwithstanding the scarce number of soldiers available at the beginning of the campaign (c. 7.000), landed unopposed on the peninsula, after the swift occupation of Sicily. He took Naples by assault and boldly advanced to the old capital of the empire, which his small army of warlike «New Romans» occupied in early December, 536. Belisarius chose to stay and defend the city – against the foreseeable forbidding odds – after hasty repairs to the dilapidated Aurelian Wall, in order to use it as a «catalyst» for the upcoming enemy counter-offensive. By so doing, he succeeded in taking the best advantage of a tactical defensive stance while leading an overall offensive campaign. The Goths, under the leadership of the newly elected king Vitiges (c. 500-542), wore down their best manpower and resources vainly trying to break into the city; bloodily repelled many times, discouraged and decimated by disease in the overcrowded camps outside the walls, they were finally forced to lift the siege at the beginning of March, 538. Belisarius and his warriors had accomplished a great feat of arms, and were now ready to take the offensive and win the first stage of the war.