Why were Roman military forces in Justinian's era comparatively smaller than earlier ?

by AntoineMichelashvili

Caesar invaded Gaul with more than 40000 men if memory serves me right, the legions Varus lost at Teutoburg numbered 20000 to 36000, yet Belisarius gets only 7000 men to invade Italy and has to fight rebels in northern Africa with 2000. Why is this ?

Thank you !

J-Force

I have answered an almost identical question here.