'Belisarius asking for alms') is a large-format (288 × 312 cm) history painting in oil on canvas by the French artist Jacques-Louis David.

[1] It depicts the Byzantine general Belisarius, who heroically defeated the Vandals in North Africa in AD 533–534 on behalf of Justinian I, and (according to an apocryphal account probably added to his biography in the Middle Ages) was later blinded by the emperor and reduced to begging for alms on the street.

The same subject had already been used by Peyron in his own Belisarius receiving Hospitality from a Peasant; in contrast, only a few characters are present here and the scene is dependent on the story for dramatic effect.

David shows us a fallen hero, old and blind, begging in the street with a young child when one of his former soldiers, astonished, recognises him.

Nonetheless, the neo-classical perspective can still be found, especially in the ideas behind this painting: a revolutionary (David) offers a meditation on the moral heroism in adversity.