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On August 1, 527, Justinian I became the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. From the article:
"Justinian I
Justinian I reigned as emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 527 to 565 CE. Born around 482 CE in Tauresium, a village in Illyria, his uncle Emperor Justin I was an imperial bodyguard who reached the throne on the death of Anastasius in 518 CE. Justinian is considered one of the most important late Roman and Byzantine emperors. He started a significant military campaign to retake Africa from the Vandals (in 533 to 534 CE) and Italy from the Goths (535 to 554 CE). He also ordered the rebuilding of the Hagia Sophia church (begun in 532 CE) as well as an empire-wide construction drive, resulting in new churches, monasteries, forts, water reservoirs, and bridges. His other great achievement was the completion of the legal reforms encapsulated in the Corpus Juris Civilis between 529 and 534 CE. This was the bringing together of all the Roman laws that had been issued from the time of Emperor Hadrian (117 - 138 CE) to the present. He is widely held as one of the greatest (and most controversial) late Roman/Byzantine emperors in history.
Justinian's Early Life
Not a great deal is known about Justinian's early life. His mother Vigilantia was the sister of the Excubitor (Imperial bodyguard). Justin adopted his nephew and brought him to Constantinople to guarantee his education. During Justin's reign, Justinian acted as a close confidant and advisor; he became Consul in 521 CE and thereafter commander of the Eastern army. In 525 CE he married Theodora, a woman from a poor background and possibly a courtesan.
Though not an active soldier himself, Justinian initiated an enormous military enterprise with the aim of taking Italy, Sicily, and Africa.
Though not an active soldier himself, Justinian initiated an enormous military enterprise with the aim of taking Italy, Sicily, and Africa. His military career began, however, in the east. The Iberian War (526 - 532 CE) was fought against the Sassanian Empire over control of the kingdom of Iberia in the Caucasus mountains (roughly the modern state of Georgia). The conflict was one theatre of a wider war against the Sassanian Empire going back to the time of Anastasius I. After several battles, a truce was signed upon the death of the Sassanian Shah (emperor) Kavadh I and the accession of his son Khosroes I.
Justinian & the Vandals
The Vandals had been in control of Africa's capital Carthage since 439 CE and thereafter spread their influence over Africa, Tripolitania, Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic islands. In 533 CE Justinian launched a reconquest effort aimed at claiming these areas for the Byzantine Empire. This began in the spring of 533 CE with an anti-Vandal revolt in Tripolitania (today's western Libya), which was consolidated by Roman soldiers from the empire's province of Cyrenaica. Soon after, General Belisarius (Justinian's most successful military leader) led a force of soldiers in ships from the Aegean, stopping off at Sicily and landing in Africa. A series of battles followed, and in the winter of 534 CE, the Vandal king Gelimer surrendered, leaving Africa in Roman hands after almost a century of Vandal rule.
The Gothic War & Totila
The Goths had been in control of Italy and Sicily since 476 CE, when the last Roman Emperor in the West, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed. Though the Gothic Rex Italiae (King of Italy) Odoacer recognised the authority of the emperor in Constantinople, the Gothic regime began to initiate policies independent of the Roman sphere. The Roman aristocracy of Italy remained in a position of privilege even after the Gothic conquest, but conflict and disagreement emerged in 524 CE with the execution of the leading Roman Italian politician Boethius. In this context of discontent in the Gothic regime, Justinian sought to retake Italy and Sicily. The rapid conquest of Africa had encouraged the emperor, and he sent Belisarius with a small force to attack Sicily, which fell quickly to the Romans in 535 CE. By 540 CE, after a series of victories and defeats against the Goths and their allies in Italy as well as in Dalmatia (modern Croatia), Italy was secured for the Romans.
However, this was not the end of the Gothic War. Though much of Italy was under Roman control, some towns and cities (such as Verona) remained under Gothic influence. Though soundly defeated, the remainder of the Gothic regime found a new leader in Totila. In the autumn of 541 CE, he was proclaimed king, soon after leading a reconquest of Italy. Though at the head of a relatively small force, Totila was helped in his goals by several problems in the Roman Empire. Around the same time, new hostilities opened between Justinian and the Sassanian Empire, which meant that resources had to be split between East and West. An outbreak of plague in 542 CE (later called the Justinianic Plague) crippled the empire's ability to respond. Totila thus managed to defeat the first Roman counter-attacks and captured Naples by siege in 543 CE. Rome itself changed hands three times in quick succession, ending up in 549 CE in the hands of Totila. Belisarius had attempted to defeat Totila on several occasions prior to this but was hampered by lack of supplies and support from Justinian. A new campaign was undertaken by Justinian's nephew Germanus Justinus, but he died in 551 CE, succeeded by the general Narses. In 553 CE, Narses defeated Totila and Italy was once again Roman.
Justinian's reign lasted almost 40 years, but it was not always popular. In 529 CE Julianus ben Sabar, a messianic figure in Palestine, led a revolt of the Samaritan people against the empire. In 532 CE Constantinople was gripped by civil discontent; the Nika riots lasted a week, resulted in the deaths of thousands of citizens, and left much of the monumental centre of the city in ruins. A second Samaritan revolt in 559 CE, more significant and possibly involving elements of the Jewish population of Palestine, was not quelled until after the death of Justinian.
The Codex Justinianus
Early on in his reign, Justinian commissioned a legal expert in his court, Tribonian, to gather together numerous legal notes, commentaries, and laws of the Roman legal system into a single text which would hold the force of law: this was the Codex Iustinianus. In 529 CE the first edition was published, followed in 534 CE by a revised second edition (which unlike the first, survives today). The text is divided into titles relating to specific aspects of the law, and was composed in Latin. It contained laws on heresy, orthodoxy and paganism as well.
Justinian's Life by Procopius
Justinian is unique among Roman emperors in that his life was recorded in two separate sources by the same author. Procopius of Caesarea, who was a legal secretary to General Belisarius, composed De Bellis ("On the Wars [of Justinian]") between 545 and 553 CE, which records the successes and some failures of the military campaign the emperor launched. He also composed De Aedificiis ("On the buildings [of Justinian]") between 550 and 557 CE, a work describing in great detail the many building projects the emperor undertook during his reign. Procopius also composed the Anecdota (translated as "Secret History", less often as "Unpublished Things") between 550 and 562 CE that claims to reveal the reality of life in the imperial court. It details the alleged sexual activities of the Empress Theodora, the weak determination of the emperor, and the power that women held in the imperial court. Considering the very negative tone of the text, it is unclear if Procopius intended the work to portray a satirical take on life at court or a truer account of imperial life than is portrayed in the De Bellis or De Aedificiis. What is almost certain is that the Anecdota reveals that Procopius had lost faith in the regime of Justinian, in contrast to the positive feelings expressed in his earlier works.
Justinian is credited as one of the greatest emperors in late Roman and Byzantine history. His achievements in the fields of art, architecture, legal reform, and conquest are remarkable by the standards of any leader in history. The works of Procopius have contributed greatly to this understanding as well as criticisms of his regime. His Christian faith was evident in all the spheres of his enterprise, marking a step in the transition of emperors from leaders in war and politics to leaders of faith and patronage as well."
"Justinian I
Justinian I reigned as emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 527 to 565 CE. Born around 482 CE in Tauresium, a village in Illyria, his uncle Emperor Justin I was an imperial bodyguard who reached the throne on the death of Anastasius in 518 CE. Justinian is considered one of the most important late Roman and Byzantine emperors. He started a significant military campaign to retake Africa from the Vandals (in 533 to 534 CE) and Italy from the Goths (535 to 554 CE). He also ordered the rebuilding of the Hagia Sophia church (begun in 532 CE) as well as an empire-wide construction drive, resulting in new churches, monasteries, forts, water reservoirs, and bridges. His other great achievement was the completion of the legal reforms encapsulated in the Corpus Juris Civilis between 529 and 534 CE. This was the bringing together of all the Roman laws that had been issued from the time of Emperor Hadrian (117 - 138 CE) to the present. He is widely held as one of the greatest (and most controversial) late Roman/Byzantine emperors in history.
Justinian's Early Life
Not a great deal is known about Justinian's early life. His mother Vigilantia was the sister of the Excubitor (Imperial bodyguard). Justin adopted his nephew and brought him to Constantinople to guarantee his education. During Justin's reign, Justinian acted as a close confidant and advisor; he became Consul in 521 CE and thereafter commander of the Eastern army. In 525 CE he married Theodora, a woman from a poor background and possibly a courtesan.
Though not an active soldier himself, Justinian initiated an enormous military enterprise with the aim of taking Italy, Sicily, and Africa.
Though not an active soldier himself, Justinian initiated an enormous military enterprise with the aim of taking Italy, Sicily, and Africa. His military career began, however, in the east. The Iberian War (526 - 532 CE) was fought against the Sassanian Empire over control of the kingdom of Iberia in the Caucasus mountains (roughly the modern state of Georgia). The conflict was one theatre of a wider war against the Sassanian Empire going back to the time of Anastasius I. After several battles, a truce was signed upon the death of the Sassanian Shah (emperor) Kavadh I and the accession of his son Khosroes I.
Justinian & the Vandals
The Vandals had been in control of Africa's capital Carthage since 439 CE and thereafter spread their influence over Africa, Tripolitania, Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic islands. In 533 CE Justinian launched a reconquest effort aimed at claiming these areas for the Byzantine Empire. This began in the spring of 533 CE with an anti-Vandal revolt in Tripolitania (today's western Libya), which was consolidated by Roman soldiers from the empire's province of Cyrenaica. Soon after, General Belisarius (Justinian's most successful military leader) led a force of soldiers in ships from the Aegean, stopping off at Sicily and landing in Africa. A series of battles followed, and in the winter of 534 CE, the Vandal king Gelimer surrendered, leaving Africa in Roman hands after almost a century of Vandal rule.
The Gothic War & Totila
The Goths had been in control of Italy and Sicily since 476 CE, when the last Roman Emperor in the West, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed. Though the Gothic Rex Italiae (King of Italy) Odoacer recognised the authority of the emperor in Constantinople, the Gothic regime began to initiate policies independent of the Roman sphere. The Roman aristocracy of Italy remained in a position of privilege even after the Gothic conquest, but conflict and disagreement emerged in 524 CE with the execution of the leading Roman Italian politician Boethius. In this context of discontent in the Gothic regime, Justinian sought to retake Italy and Sicily. The rapid conquest of Africa had encouraged the emperor, and he sent Belisarius with a small force to attack Sicily, which fell quickly to the Romans in 535 CE. By 540 CE, after a series of victories and defeats against the Goths and their allies in Italy as well as in Dalmatia (modern Croatia), Italy was secured for the Romans.
However, this was not the end of the Gothic War. Though much of Italy was under Roman control, some towns and cities (such as Verona) remained under Gothic influence. Though soundly defeated, the remainder of the Gothic regime found a new leader in Totila. In the autumn of 541 CE, he was proclaimed king, soon after leading a reconquest of Italy. Though at the head of a relatively small force, Totila was helped in his goals by several problems in the Roman Empire. Around the same time, new hostilities opened between Justinian and the Sassanian Empire, which meant that resources had to be split between East and West. An outbreak of plague in 542 CE (later called the Justinianic Plague) crippled the empire's ability to respond. Totila thus managed to defeat the first Roman counter-attacks and captured Naples by siege in 543 CE. Rome itself changed hands three times in quick succession, ending up in 549 CE in the hands of Totila. Belisarius had attempted to defeat Totila on several occasions prior to this but was hampered by lack of supplies and support from Justinian. A new campaign was undertaken by Justinian's nephew Germanus Justinus, but he died in 551 CE, succeeded by the general Narses. In 553 CE, Narses defeated Totila and Italy was once again Roman.
Justinian's reign lasted almost 40 years, but it was not always popular. In 529 CE Julianus ben Sabar, a messianic figure in Palestine, led a revolt of the Samaritan people against the empire. In 532 CE Constantinople was gripped by civil discontent; the Nika riots lasted a week, resulted in the deaths of thousands of citizens, and left much of the monumental centre of the city in ruins. A second Samaritan revolt in 559 CE, more significant and possibly involving elements of the Jewish population of Palestine, was not quelled until after the death of Justinian.
The Codex Justinianus
Early on in his reign, Justinian commissioned a legal expert in his court, Tribonian, to gather together numerous legal notes, commentaries, and laws of the Roman legal system into a single text which would hold the force of law: this was the Codex Iustinianus. In 529 CE the first edition was published, followed in 534 CE by a revised second edition (which unlike the first, survives today). The text is divided into titles relating to specific aspects of the law, and was composed in Latin. It contained laws on heresy, orthodoxy and paganism as well.
Justinian's Life by Procopius
Justinian is unique among Roman emperors in that his life was recorded in two separate sources by the same author. Procopius of Caesarea, who was a legal secretary to General Belisarius, composed De Bellis ("On the Wars [of Justinian]") between 545 and 553 CE, which records the successes and some failures of the military campaign the emperor launched. He also composed De Aedificiis ("On the buildings [of Justinian]") between 550 and 557 CE, a work describing in great detail the many building projects the emperor undertook during his reign. Procopius also composed the Anecdota (translated as "Secret History", less often as "Unpublished Things") between 550 and 562 CE that claims to reveal the reality of life in the imperial court. It details the alleged sexual activities of the Empress Theodora, the weak determination of the emperor, and the power that women held in the imperial court. Considering the very negative tone of the text, it is unclear if Procopius intended the work to portray a satirical take on life at court or a truer account of imperial life than is portrayed in the De Bellis or De Aedificiis. What is almost certain is that the Anecdota reveals that Procopius had lost faith in the regime of Justinian, in contrast to the positive feelings expressed in his earlier works.
Justinian is credited as one of the greatest emperors in late Roman and Byzantine history. His achievements in the fields of art, architecture, legal reform, and conquest are remarkable by the standards of any leader in history. The works of Procopius have contributed greatly to this understanding as well as criticisms of his regime. His Christian faith was evident in all the spheres of his enterprise, marking a step in the transition of emperors from leaders in war and politics to leaders of faith and patronage as well."
Justinian I
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Europe From Its Origins - Emperor Justinian - Episode 3
The Roman Empire continued through the 400s and 500s – at Constantinople. A sub-Roman order settled on the West, presided over by Theodoricus in Italy, with ...
Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on August 1, 527, [Flavius Anicius Julianus Justinianus] Justinian I became the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
Image:
1. Justinian I
2. The Byzantine Empire map.
3. The Age of Justinian I.
Europe From Its Origins - Emperor Justinian - Episode 3
"The Roman Empire continued through the 400s and 500s – at Constantinople.
A sub-Roman order settled on the West, presided over by Theodoricus in Italy, with Goths forming the ruling Ă©lite in Spain and Franks that of Gaul. A new Roman emperor, Justinian, launched a great war to reunite the West to Constantinople, which largely succeeded.
But the Black Death and the struggle with the great power of Parthia in the east undermined the Roman state’s hold on Italy, where its allies the Lombards descended and took half of the peninsula. The Goths in Spain and the Franks in Gaul took over Roman territories and underwent a process of political consolidation, forming the kernel of a future European political paradigm that differed from the Roman one.
In 613 the Sassanids launched an invasion of the Roman Empire, taking Syria and Egypt. A Great War ensued, in which the Roman Emperor Heraclius was ultimately triumphant.
But both the civilized great powers, Roman and Persian, had exhausted one another. To their south in the deserts of Arabia, their Nemesis was stirring – Islam."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqGwurTTKZk
Background from newadvent.org/cathen/08578b.htm
"Justinian I
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Roman Emperor (527-65)
Flavius Anicius Julianus Justinianus was born about 483 at Tauresium (Taor) in Illyricum (near Uskup); d. 565. The theory that he was a Slav by race is now abandoned (Krumbacher, "Byz. Litt.", 237). He was the nephew of Justin I (518-27), being the son of Justin's sister Vigilantia and a certain Sabatius. Already during his uncle's reign he became the chief power in the state. Justin was an old man, weak in body and mind; he gradually handed over all power to his nephew. In 521 Justinian was proclaimed consul, then general-in-chief, and in April, 527, Augustus; in August of the same year Justin died, and Justinian was left sole ruler.
The thirty-eight years of Justinian's reign are the most brilliant period of the later empire. Full of enthusiasm for the memories of Rome, he set himself, and achieved, the task of reviving their glory. The many-sided activity of this wonderful man may be summed up under the headings: military triumphs, legal work, ecclesiastical polity, and architectural activity. Dominating all is the policy of restoring the empire, great, powerful, and united. Of these many features of his reign — each of them epoch-making — it is impossible to give more than the merest outline here.
Military triumphs
Justinian carried on the unending war against the Persians with mixed success. His general Belisarius lost a battle at first in 528, then completely routed the Persians at Daras, near Nisibis (June, 530); but on 19 April, 531, the Romans were defeated near Callinicum on the Euphrates; in September a peace was arranged on fairly equal terms. The emperor then conceived the plan of reconquering Africa and Italy, lost to the empire by the Vandal and Gothic invasions. In 533 a fleet of five hundred ships set sail for Africa under Belisarius. In two battles the Romans annihilated the Vandal kingdom, took the king, Gelimer, prisoner to Constantinople, and re-estabished the authority of Caesar in Africa. In 535 Belisarius sailed for Sicily. The island was conquered at once. After a reverse in Dalmatia that province was also subdued. Belisarius in 536 took Rhegium and Naples, entered Rome in triumph, seized Ravenna, sustained a siege in Rome till 538, when the Goths retired. A second general, Narses, then arrived with reinforcements from Constantinople; Milan and all Liguria were taken in 539, and in 540 all Italy up to the frontier of the Frankish Kingdom was reunited to the empire. In 542 the Goths revolted under their king, Totila; by 553 they were again crushed. Narses became the first Exarch of Italy. Verona and Brixia (Brescia), the last Gothic strongholds, fell in 562. The Roman armies then marched on Spain and conquered its south-eastern provinces (lost again in 623, after Justinian's death.) Meanwhile the Crimean Goths and all the Bosporus, even the Southern Arabs, were forced to acknowledge the rule of Rome. A second war against the Persians (540-45) pushed the Roman frontier beyond Edessa. From 549 to 556 a long in Armenia and Colchis (the Lazic War) again established the empire without a rival on the shores of the Black Sea. So Justinian ruled once more over a colossal world empire, whose extent rivaled that of the great days before Diocletian. Meanwhile the emperor was no less successful at home. In 532 a very dangerous revolt (the Nika revolution), that arose from the factions of the Circus (the Blues and Greens), was put down severely. Bury says that the result of the suppression was "an imperial victory which established the form of absolutism by which Byzantine history is generally characterized". (Later Roman Empire, I, 345).
Legal work
The most enduring work of Justinian was his codification of the laws. This, too, was an important part of his general scheme. The great empire he was reconquering must have the strength of organized unity. He says in the edict of promulgation of his laws that a state rests on arms and law ("De Justin. Cod. Confirmando", printed in front of the codex). The scattered decrees of his predecessors must then be collected in a well-ordered and complete codex, logically arranged, so that every Roman citizen could learn at once the law of the empire on any subject. This codification was Justinian's great work. He made many new laws himself, but his enduring merit is rather the classification of scattered older laws. The legislation that the world owes to Justinian is in outline this:
First, a commission of ten lawyers (including the famous Tribonianus and Theophilus) reduced the bulky and rambling Theodosian Code (published in 438) to an orderly compendium, inserting into it the laws made since it was written. So the "Codex" was produced in 529.
Second, a mass of answers given by authorities (the responsa prudentum that formed acknowledged precedents) were arranged (omitting all superfluities) in fifty books, whereby a law library of a hundred and six volumes was reduced to about one-fifth. This is the "Digest", or "Pandects", published in 530.
Third, a manual of law for students was compiled from the commentaries of Gaius (second century). This, the "Institutes", was published in the same year, 530.
In 534, finally, the whole work was revised, and a fourth part, the "Authentic", or "Novels", was added, containing later decisions made by Justinian's own courts.
So the immortal "Corpus Juris Civilis" was produced, consisting of four parts: (a) Digestae seu Pondecta, (b) Institutiones, (c) Codex, (d) Authenticum seu Novellae (an excellent account of its composition is found in Bury's Gibbon, ed. Cit., IV 461-510). It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this "Corpus". It is the basis of all canon law (ecclesia vivit lege romana), and the basis of civil law in every civilized country.
Ecclesiastical polity
The Catholic cannot applaud the great emperor's ecclesiastical polity, though in this, too, we recognize the statesman's effort to promote peace and union within the empire. It was a matter of course that this union was to be that of the "most holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God" (5 c., De s. tr., I, 1). The Corpus Juris is full of laws against paganism (apostasy was punished by death, 10 c., "De pag.", I, 11), Jews, Samaritans (who began a dangerous revolt in 529), Manichæans, and other heretics. The decrees of the four general councils were incorporated in the civil law. There was no toleration of dissent. True to the ideal of Constantinople, the emperor conceived himself as "priest and king", supreme head on earth in matters ecclesiastical as well as in the State. He filled his codex with canon law and assumed the most outspoken Erastianism as the law of the empire. And all through his reign he fell foul of the authority of the Church by his attempts to conciliate the Monophysites. Ever since Chalcedon (451) these heretics filled Syria and Egypt, and were a constant source of disunion and trouble to the empire. Justinian was one of the many emperors who tried to reconcile them by concessions. His wife Theodora was a secret Monophysite; influenced by her, the emperor, while maintaining Chalcedon, tried to satisfy the heretics by various compromises. First came the Theopaschite question. Peter Fullo of Antioch had introduced into the Trisagion the clause: "Who didst suffer for us". Pope Hormisdas (514-23) refused to admit it, as savoring of Monophysitism. But Justinian approved it and promoted a Monophysite, Anthimus I (536), to the See of Constantinople. Then followed the great quarrel of the Three Chapters, the lamentable attitude of Pope Vigilius (540-55), and the Second Council of Constantinople (553). In all thus story Justinian appears as a persecutor of the Church, and takes his place, unhappily, among the semi-Monophysite tyrants who caused the long series of quarrels and schisms that were the after-effect of Monophysitism. His ecclesiastical tyranny is the one regrettable side of the character of so great a man.
Architectural activity
Justinian also acquired immortal fame by the impetus he gave to the arts. If any style can ever be ascribed to one man, what we call Byzantine architecture, at least in its perfect form, owes its origin to Justinian and the architects he employed. His activity in building was prodigious. He covered his empire from Ravenna to Damascus with superb monuments. All later building in East and West was derived from his models; two most famous schools, our medieval (Gothic) and the Moslem styles, are the lineal descendants of Justinian's architecture. Of his many buildings may be mentioned the two most famous, the church of Our Lady (now the El-Aqsa mosque) at Jerusalem and, by far the most splendid of all, the great church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) at Constantinople. This church especially, built by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, and consecrated on 27 December, 537, remains always one of the chief monuments of architecture in the world.
Naturally these great enterprises demanded great expense. Justinian's subjects frequently complained of the heavy taxes; many people in the lands he conquered back thought that the glory of being once more Roman citizens was bought too dearly when they realized how much they had to pay to the Roman exchequer. On the other hand, Justinian spent magnificently. In times of calamity, earthquake and famine, the imperial purse was opened to the sufferers with unlimited generosity.
The emperor's private life is somewhat clouded by the scandals told of his wife, Theodora. She had been a dancing-girl; there is no doubt that she had led an immoral life before her marriage in 523. She was also a Monophysite. But most scholars now reject the scandalous account of her married life given by Procopius in his "Secret History". And in January, 532, at the time of the Circus revolution that nearly wrecked the state, it was Theodora's courage and presence of mind that saved the situation. For the rest she had a hand in all her husband's policy; administration, diplomacy, church affairs, etc., felt her influence for twenty-one years. If she did not dishonor Justinian by infidelity she certainly led him into semi-Monophysitism (see Diehl, Theodora, imperatrice de Byzance," Paris, 1904).
Justinian died in November, 565 (succeeded by his nephew, Justin II, 565-78). He was undoubtedly the greatest emperor after Constantine, perhaps the greatest of all the long line of Roman Caesars. Indeed one may question whether any state can show in its history so magnificent a ruler. His glorious memory lasted through all the ages after him (see Dante, "Paradiso", vi,) and his portrait gleams still from the mosaic in S. Vitale at Ravenna, where he stands in his toga and diadem, surrounded by his court, with a bishop at his side the very type of the majesty of Christian Rome on the Bosporus.
Sources
The literature on the various sides of Justinian's activity is naturally enormous. His reign is equally important to the historian of the empire, the lawyer, theologian, and archaeologist. These are a few of the most serviceable modern works only: GIBBON (ed. BURY), The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, IV (London, 1898), xl-xliv (an excellent general account, with copious bibliography in Bury's appendix); BURY, A History of the Later Roman Empire, I (London, 1889), bk. IV 333-482 (supplements Gibbon); DIEHL, Justinien et la civilisation byzantine au Vle siecle (Paris, 1901); SCHULZE, Gesch. des Untergangs des griech.-römischen Heidentums, I (Jena, 1887), 434-59; HUTTON, The Church of the Sixth Century (London, 1897); JOERS, Die Reichspolitik Kaiser Justinians (Giessen, 1893); KNECHT, Die Religionspolitik Kaiser Justinians I. (Wurzburg, 1896); DIEKAMP, Die origenistischen Streitigkeiten (Munster, 1899); Further bibliography is given in DIEHL, Etudes byzantines (Paris, 1905), i and ii."
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Image:
1. Justinian I
2. The Byzantine Empire map.
3. The Age of Justinian I.
Europe From Its Origins - Emperor Justinian - Episode 3
"The Roman Empire continued through the 400s and 500s – at Constantinople.
A sub-Roman order settled on the West, presided over by Theodoricus in Italy, with Goths forming the ruling Ă©lite in Spain and Franks that of Gaul. A new Roman emperor, Justinian, launched a great war to reunite the West to Constantinople, which largely succeeded.
But the Black Death and the struggle with the great power of Parthia in the east undermined the Roman state’s hold on Italy, where its allies the Lombards descended and took half of the peninsula. The Goths in Spain and the Franks in Gaul took over Roman territories and underwent a process of political consolidation, forming the kernel of a future European political paradigm that differed from the Roman one.
In 613 the Sassanids launched an invasion of the Roman Empire, taking Syria and Egypt. A Great War ensued, in which the Roman Emperor Heraclius was ultimately triumphant.
But both the civilized great powers, Roman and Persian, had exhausted one another. To their south in the deserts of Arabia, their Nemesis was stirring – Islam."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqGwurTTKZk
Background from newadvent.org/cathen/08578b.htm
"Justinian I
Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99...
Roman Emperor (527-65)
Flavius Anicius Julianus Justinianus was born about 483 at Tauresium (Taor) in Illyricum (near Uskup); d. 565. The theory that he was a Slav by race is now abandoned (Krumbacher, "Byz. Litt.", 237). He was the nephew of Justin I (518-27), being the son of Justin's sister Vigilantia and a certain Sabatius. Already during his uncle's reign he became the chief power in the state. Justin was an old man, weak in body and mind; he gradually handed over all power to his nephew. In 521 Justinian was proclaimed consul, then general-in-chief, and in April, 527, Augustus; in August of the same year Justin died, and Justinian was left sole ruler.
The thirty-eight years of Justinian's reign are the most brilliant period of the later empire. Full of enthusiasm for the memories of Rome, he set himself, and achieved, the task of reviving their glory. The many-sided activity of this wonderful man may be summed up under the headings: military triumphs, legal work, ecclesiastical polity, and architectural activity. Dominating all is the policy of restoring the empire, great, powerful, and united. Of these many features of his reign — each of them epoch-making — it is impossible to give more than the merest outline here.
Military triumphs
Justinian carried on the unending war against the Persians with mixed success. His general Belisarius lost a battle at first in 528, then completely routed the Persians at Daras, near Nisibis (June, 530); but on 19 April, 531, the Romans were defeated near Callinicum on the Euphrates; in September a peace was arranged on fairly equal terms. The emperor then conceived the plan of reconquering Africa and Italy, lost to the empire by the Vandal and Gothic invasions. In 533 a fleet of five hundred ships set sail for Africa under Belisarius. In two battles the Romans annihilated the Vandal kingdom, took the king, Gelimer, prisoner to Constantinople, and re-estabished the authority of Caesar in Africa. In 535 Belisarius sailed for Sicily. The island was conquered at once. After a reverse in Dalmatia that province was also subdued. Belisarius in 536 took Rhegium and Naples, entered Rome in triumph, seized Ravenna, sustained a siege in Rome till 538, when the Goths retired. A second general, Narses, then arrived with reinforcements from Constantinople; Milan and all Liguria were taken in 539, and in 540 all Italy up to the frontier of the Frankish Kingdom was reunited to the empire. In 542 the Goths revolted under their king, Totila; by 553 they were again crushed. Narses became the first Exarch of Italy. Verona and Brixia (Brescia), the last Gothic strongholds, fell in 562. The Roman armies then marched on Spain and conquered its south-eastern provinces (lost again in 623, after Justinian's death.) Meanwhile the Crimean Goths and all the Bosporus, even the Southern Arabs, were forced to acknowledge the rule of Rome. A second war against the Persians (540-45) pushed the Roman frontier beyond Edessa. From 549 to 556 a long in Armenia and Colchis (the Lazic War) again established the empire without a rival on the shores of the Black Sea. So Justinian ruled once more over a colossal world empire, whose extent rivaled that of the great days before Diocletian. Meanwhile the emperor was no less successful at home. In 532 a very dangerous revolt (the Nika revolution), that arose from the factions of the Circus (the Blues and Greens), was put down severely. Bury says that the result of the suppression was "an imperial victory which established the form of absolutism by which Byzantine history is generally characterized". (Later Roman Empire, I, 345).
Legal work
The most enduring work of Justinian was his codification of the laws. This, too, was an important part of his general scheme. The great empire he was reconquering must have the strength of organized unity. He says in the edict of promulgation of his laws that a state rests on arms and law ("De Justin. Cod. Confirmando", printed in front of the codex). The scattered decrees of his predecessors must then be collected in a well-ordered and complete codex, logically arranged, so that every Roman citizen could learn at once the law of the empire on any subject. This codification was Justinian's great work. He made many new laws himself, but his enduring merit is rather the classification of scattered older laws. The legislation that the world owes to Justinian is in outline this:
First, a commission of ten lawyers (including the famous Tribonianus and Theophilus) reduced the bulky and rambling Theodosian Code (published in 438) to an orderly compendium, inserting into it the laws made since it was written. So the "Codex" was produced in 529.
Second, a mass of answers given by authorities (the responsa prudentum that formed acknowledged precedents) were arranged (omitting all superfluities) in fifty books, whereby a law library of a hundred and six volumes was reduced to about one-fifth. This is the "Digest", or "Pandects", published in 530.
Third, a manual of law for students was compiled from the commentaries of Gaius (second century). This, the "Institutes", was published in the same year, 530.
In 534, finally, the whole work was revised, and a fourth part, the "Authentic", or "Novels", was added, containing later decisions made by Justinian's own courts.
So the immortal "Corpus Juris Civilis" was produced, consisting of four parts: (a) Digestae seu Pondecta, (b) Institutiones, (c) Codex, (d) Authenticum seu Novellae (an excellent account of its composition is found in Bury's Gibbon, ed. Cit., IV 461-510). It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this "Corpus". It is the basis of all canon law (ecclesia vivit lege romana), and the basis of civil law in every civilized country.
Ecclesiastical polity
The Catholic cannot applaud the great emperor's ecclesiastical polity, though in this, too, we recognize the statesman's effort to promote peace and union within the empire. It was a matter of course that this union was to be that of the "most holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God" (5 c., De s. tr., I, 1). The Corpus Juris is full of laws against paganism (apostasy was punished by death, 10 c., "De pag.", I, 11), Jews, Samaritans (who began a dangerous revolt in 529), Manichæans, and other heretics. The decrees of the four general councils were incorporated in the civil law. There was no toleration of dissent. True to the ideal of Constantinople, the emperor conceived himself as "priest and king", supreme head on earth in matters ecclesiastical as well as in the State. He filled his codex with canon law and assumed the most outspoken Erastianism as the law of the empire. And all through his reign he fell foul of the authority of the Church by his attempts to conciliate the Monophysites. Ever since Chalcedon (451) these heretics filled Syria and Egypt, and were a constant source of disunion and trouble to the empire. Justinian was one of the many emperors who tried to reconcile them by concessions. His wife Theodora was a secret Monophysite; influenced by her, the emperor, while maintaining Chalcedon, tried to satisfy the heretics by various compromises. First came the Theopaschite question. Peter Fullo of Antioch had introduced into the Trisagion the clause: "Who didst suffer for us". Pope Hormisdas (514-23) refused to admit it, as savoring of Monophysitism. But Justinian approved it and promoted a Monophysite, Anthimus I (536), to the See of Constantinople. Then followed the great quarrel of the Three Chapters, the lamentable attitude of Pope Vigilius (540-55), and the Second Council of Constantinople (553). In all thus story Justinian appears as a persecutor of the Church, and takes his place, unhappily, among the semi-Monophysite tyrants who caused the long series of quarrels and schisms that were the after-effect of Monophysitism. His ecclesiastical tyranny is the one regrettable side of the character of so great a man.
Architectural activity
Justinian also acquired immortal fame by the impetus he gave to the arts. If any style can ever be ascribed to one man, what we call Byzantine architecture, at least in its perfect form, owes its origin to Justinian and the architects he employed. His activity in building was prodigious. He covered his empire from Ravenna to Damascus with superb monuments. All later building in East and West was derived from his models; two most famous schools, our medieval (Gothic) and the Moslem styles, are the lineal descendants of Justinian's architecture. Of his many buildings may be mentioned the two most famous, the church of Our Lady (now the El-Aqsa mosque) at Jerusalem and, by far the most splendid of all, the great church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) at Constantinople. This church especially, built by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, and consecrated on 27 December, 537, remains always one of the chief monuments of architecture in the world.
Naturally these great enterprises demanded great expense. Justinian's subjects frequently complained of the heavy taxes; many people in the lands he conquered back thought that the glory of being once more Roman citizens was bought too dearly when they realized how much they had to pay to the Roman exchequer. On the other hand, Justinian spent magnificently. In times of calamity, earthquake and famine, the imperial purse was opened to the sufferers with unlimited generosity.
The emperor's private life is somewhat clouded by the scandals told of his wife, Theodora. She had been a dancing-girl; there is no doubt that she had led an immoral life before her marriage in 523. She was also a Monophysite. But most scholars now reject the scandalous account of her married life given by Procopius in his "Secret History". And in January, 532, at the time of the Circus revolution that nearly wrecked the state, it was Theodora's courage and presence of mind that saved the situation. For the rest she had a hand in all her husband's policy; administration, diplomacy, church affairs, etc., felt her influence for twenty-one years. If she did not dishonor Justinian by infidelity she certainly led him into semi-Monophysitism (see Diehl, Theodora, imperatrice de Byzance," Paris, 1904).
Justinian died in November, 565 (succeeded by his nephew, Justin II, 565-78). He was undoubtedly the greatest emperor after Constantine, perhaps the greatest of all the long line of Roman Caesars. Indeed one may question whether any state can show in its history so magnificent a ruler. His glorious memory lasted through all the ages after him (see Dante, "Paradiso", vi,) and his portrait gleams still from the mosaic in S. Vitale at Ravenna, where he stands in his toga and diadem, surrounded by his court, with a bishop at his side the very type of the majesty of Christian Rome on the Bosporus.
Sources
The literature on the various sides of Justinian's activity is naturally enormous. His reign is equally important to the historian of the empire, the lawyer, theologian, and archaeologist. These are a few of the most serviceable modern works only: GIBBON (ed. BURY), The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, IV (London, 1898), xl-xliv (an excellent general account, with copious bibliography in Bury's appendix); BURY, A History of the Later Roman Empire, I (London, 1889), bk. IV 333-482 (supplements Gibbon); DIEHL, Justinien et la civilisation byzantine au Vle siecle (Paris, 1901); SCHULZE, Gesch. des Untergangs des griech.-römischen Heidentums, I (Jena, 1887), 434-59; HUTTON, The Church of the Sixth Century (London, 1897); JOERS, Die Reichspolitik Kaiser Justinians (Giessen, 1893); KNECHT, Die Religionspolitik Kaiser Justinians I. (Wurzburg, 1896); DIEKAMP, Die origenistischen Streitigkeiten (Munster, 1899); Further bibliography is given in DIEHL, Etudes byzantines (Paris, 1905), i and ii."
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