Justinian I

Justinian I depicted on a Byzantine mosaic

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus or Justinian I (May 11, 483–November 13/14, 565), was Eastern Roman Emperor from AD August 1, 527 until his death. One of the most important rulers of Late Antiquity, he is best remembered for his reform of the law code and the military expansion of imperial territory that was achieved during his reign, primarily through the campaigns of Belisarius. He is also known as "The last Roman Emperor." He is considered a saint in the Orthodox Church, commemorated on November 14th.

Life

Justinian I was born in a small village called Tauresina (Taor) in Illyricum (near Skopje), in the Balkan peninsula, probably on May 11, 483 to Vigilantia, the sister of the highly esteemed General Justin, who rose from the ranks of the army to become emperor. His uncle Justin adopted him and ensured the boy's education. Justinian completed the usual course of education, occupying himself with jurisprudence and philosophy. His military career featured rapid advancement, and a great future opened up for him when, in 518, Justin became emperor. Justinian was appointed Consul in 521, and later as commander of the army of the east. He was functioning as virtual regent long before Justin made him associate emperor on April 1, 527.

Four months later, Justinian became the sole sovereign upon Justin's death. His administration had world-wide impact, constituting a distinct epoch in the history of the Byzantine Empire and the Orthodox Church. He was a man of unusual capacity for work, and possessed a temperate, affable, and lively character; but was also unscrupulous and crafty when it served him. He was the last emperor to attempt to restore the Roman Empire to the territories it enjoyed under Theodosius I. To this end he directed his great wars and his colossal activity in building. Starting from the premise that the existence of a commonwealth rested upon arms and laws, he paid particular attention to legislation, and wrought a lasting memorial for himself by codifying the Roman law (the Codex Justinianus and the Novellae Constitutiones).

In 523 he married Theodora, a former actress. Actresses were socially akin to prostitutes prior to the reign of Justin I, and Justinian would have in earlier times been unable to marry her. Justin had passed a law allowing intermarriage between social classes, which, during Justinian's reign, led to a blurring of class distinctions at the Byzantine court. Theodora would become very influential in the politics of the Empire, and later emperors would follow Justinian's precedent and marry outside of the aristocratic class.

Procopius provides our primary source for the history of Justinian's reign, although the chronicle of John of Ephesus (which survives as the basis for many later chronicles) contributes many valuable details. Both historians became very bitter towards Justinian and Theodora. Aside from his main history Procopius also wrote the Secret History, which reports on various scandals at Justinian's court.

Theodora died in 548; Justinian outlived her for almost 20 years, and died on November 13 or 14, 565.

Legal activities

Justinian achieved lasting fame for his judicial revolution, which organized Roman law in a form and organic scheme that remains the basis of law in a number of countries today. His authorities issued the first draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis on April 7, 529 in three parts: Digesta (or Pandectae), Institutiones, and the Codex. A group of commissioners headed by the quaestor Tribonian drafted the Corpus in Latin, the traditional language of the Roman Empire which most citizens of the Eastern Empire poorly understood. The Authenticum or Novellae Constitutiones, a collection of new laws issued during Justinian's reign, later supplemented the Corpus. The Novellae appeared in Greek, the common language of the Empire.

The Corpus forms the basis of Latin jurisprudence (including ecclesiastical Canon law: ecclesia vivit lege romana) and, for historians, provides a valuable insight into the concerns and activities of the remains of the Roman Empire. As a collection it gathers together the many sources in which the leges (laws) and the other rules were expressed or published: proper laws, senatorial consults (senatusconsulta), imperial decrees, case law, and jurists' opinions and interpretations (responsa prudentum).

Military activities and the campaigns of Belisarius

East Roman Empire, 526-600

Like his Roman predecessors and Byzantine successors, Justinian engaged in war against Sassanid dynasty Persia. However, his primary military ambitions focused on the western Mediterranean, where his general Belisarius spearheaded the reconquest of parts of the territory of the old Roman Empire. Belisarius gained this task as a reward after successfully putting down the Nika riots in Constantinople in January of 532, in which chariot racing fanatics had forced Justinian to dismiss the unpopular Tribonian, and had then attempted to overthrow Justinian himself. Justinian considered fleeing the capital, but remained in the city on the advice of Theodora, and Belisarius arrived to crush the rebellion a few days later.

In 533 Belisarius reconquered North Africa from the Vandals after the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage. Belisarius then advanced into Sicily and Italy, recapturing Rome (536) and the Ostrogoth capital at Ravenna (540).

Belisarius disagreed with Justinian over what to do with the reconquered land; Justinian wanted to let the Ostrogoths rule a tributary state, but Belisarius preferred to make Italy an Imperial Roman territory. Unhappy with Belisarius, Justinian dispatched him to the East to defend against renewed attacks by the Persians. After establishing a new peace in the East in 545, Belisarius returned to Italy, where the Ostrogoths had since recaptured Rome. The eunuch general Narses took over Belisarius' command, and the historian Procopius, a former officer in Belisarius' army, accused Narses of treason. Belisarius briefly suffered imprisonment, but Justinian later pardoned him and he defeated the Bulgars when they appeared on the Danube for the first time in 559. In 551, Byzantine forces conquered part of southern Spain from the Visigoths. Narses failed to defend Italy against either the Ostrogoths or the Lombards. Nevertheless, under Justinian, the empire's territory expanded greatly, if only for a short time.

Suppression of non-Christian religions

Justinian's religious policy reflected the imperial conviction that the unity of the empire unconditionally presupposed unity of faith; and with him it seemed a matter of course that this faith could be only the orthodox. Those of a different belief had to recognize that the process which imperial legislation had begun from Constantius II down would now vigorously continue. The Codex contained two statutes (Cod., I., xi. 9 and 10) which decreed the total destruction of Hellenism, even in the civil life; these provisions were zealously enforced. Contemporary sources (John Malalas, Theophanes, John of Ephesus) tell of severe persecutions, even of men in high position.

Perhaps the most noteworthy event occurred in 529 when the teaching Academy of Plato of Athens was placed under state control by order of Justinian, effectively strangling this training-school for Hellenism. Paganism was actively suppressed. In Asia Minor alone, John of Ephesus claimed to have converted 70,000 pagans (cf. F. Nau, in Revue de l'orient chretien, ii., 1897, 482). Other peoples also accepted Christianity: the Heruli (Procopius, Bellum Gothicum, ii. 14; Evagrius, Hist. eccl., iv. 20), the Huns dwelling near the Don (Procopius, iv. 4; Evagrius, iv. 23), the Abasgi (Procopius, iv. 3; Evagrius, iv. 22) and the Tzani (Procopius, Bellum Persicum, i. 15) in Caucasia.

The worship of Ammon at Augila in the Libyan desert (Procopius, De Aedificiis, vi. 2) was abolished; and so were the remnants of the worship of Isis on the island of Philae, at the first cataract of the Nile (Procopius, Bellum Persicum, i. 19). The Presbyter Julian (DCB, iii. 482) and the Bishop Longinus (John of Ephesus, Hist. eccl., iv. 5 sqq.) conducted a mission among the Nabataeans, and Justinian attempted to strengthen Christianity in Yemen by despatching thither an ecclesiastic of Egypt (Procopius, Bellum Persicum, i. 20; Malalas, ed. Niebuhr, Bonn, 1831, pp. 433 sqq.).

The Jews, too, had to suffer; for not only did the authorities restrict their civil rights (Cod., I., v. 12), and threaten their religious privileges (Procopius, Historia Arcana, 28); but the emperor interfered in the internal affairs of the synagogue (Nov., cxlvi., Feb. 8, 553), and forbade, for instance, the use of the Hebrew language in divine worship. The recalcitrant were menaced with corporal penalties, exile, and loss of property. The Jews at Borium, not far from Syrtis Major, who resisted Belisarius in his Vandal campaign, had to embrace Christianity; their synagogue became a church. (Procopius, De Aedificiis, vi. 2).

The emperor had much trouble with the Samaritans, finding them refractory to Christianity and repeatedly in insurrection. He opposed them with rigorous edicts, but yet could not prevent hostilities towards Christians from taking place in Samaria toward the close of his reign. The consistency of Justinian's policy meant that the Manicheans too suffered severe persecution, experiencing both exile and threat of capital punishment (Cod., I., v. 12). At Constantinople, on one occasion, not a few Manicheans, after strict inquisition, were executed in the emperor's very presence: some by burning, others by drowning (F. Nau, in Revue de l'orient, ii., 1897, p. 481).

Ecclesiastical policy

As with his secular administration, despotism appeared also in the emperor's ecclesiastical policy. He regulated everything, both in religion and in law.

At the very beginning of his reign, he deemed it proper to promulgate by law his belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation; and to threaten all heretics with the becoming penalties (Cod., I., i. 5); whereas he subsequently declared that he designed to deprive all disturbers of orthodoxy of the opportunity for such offense by due process of law (MPG, lxxxvi. 1, p. 993). He made the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan creed the sole symbol of the Church (Cod., I., i. 7), and accorded legal force to the canons of the four ecumenical councils (Novellae, cxxxi.). The bishops in attendance at the Second Council of Constantinople in 536 recognized that nothing could be done in the Church contrary to the emperor's will and command (Mansi, Concilia, viii. 970B); while, on his side, the emperor, in the case of the Patriarch Anthimus, reinforced the ban of the Church with temporal proscription (Novellae, xlii). Bishops without number had to feel the tyrant's wrath. On the other hand, it is true, he neglected no opportunity for securing the rights of the Church and clergy, for protecting and extending monasticism.

Indeed, were not the despotic character of his measures so glaring, one might be tempted to call him a father of the Church. Both the Codex and the Novellae contain many enactments regarding donations, foundations, and the administration of ecclesiastical property; election and rights of bishops, priests and abbots; monastic life, residential obligations of the clergy, conduct of divine service, episcopal jurisdiction, etc. Justinian also rebuilt the Church of Hagia Sophia, the original site having been destroyed during the Nika riots. The new Hagia Sophia, with its numerous chapels and shrines, gilded octagonal dome, and mosaics, became the centre and most visible monument of Eastern Orthodoxy in Constantinople.

Relations with Rome

From the middle of the fifth century onward increasingly arduous tasks confronted the emperors of the East in the province of ecclesiastical polity. For one thing, the radicals on all sides felt themselves constantly repelled by the creed which had been adopted by the Council of Chalcedon with the design of mediating between the dogmatic parties. The letter of Pope Leo I to Flavian of Constantinople was widely considered in the East as the work of Satan; so that nobody cared to hear aught of the Church of Rome. The emperors, however, had to wrestle with a twofold problem. In the first place they had a policy of preserving the unity between East and West, between the Constantinople and Rome; and this remained possible only if they swerved not from the line defined at Chalcedon. In the next place, the factions in the East which had become stirred up and disaffected on account of Chalcedon needed restraining and pacifying. This problem proved the more difficult because the dissenting groups in the East exceeded the party for Chalcedon in the East both in numerical strength and in intellectual ability; and so the course of events demonstrated the incompatibility of the two aims: whoever chose Rome and the West must renounce the East, and vice versa.

Justinian entered the arena of ecclesiastical statecraft shortly after his uncle's accession in 518, and put an end to the Monophysite schism that had prevailed between Rome and Byzantium since 483. The recognition of the Roman see as the highest ecclesiastical authority (cf. Novellae, cxxxi.) remained the cornerstone of his Western policy, offensive as it was to many in the East -- nonetheless he felt himself entirely free to take a despotic stance toward the popes such as Silverius and Vigilius. His policy towards Rome, though inconsistent at times, bore the mark of greatness. While no compromise could ever be accepted by the dogmatic wing of the church, his sincere efforts at reconcilliation gained him the approval of the major body of the church. A signal proof was his attitude in the Theopaschite controversy. At the outset he was of the opinion that the question turned on a quibble of words. By degrees, however, Justinian came to understand that the formula at issue not only appeared orthodox, but might also serve as a conciliatory measure toward the Monophysites, and he made a vain attempt to do this in the religious conference with the followers of Severus of Antioch, in 533.

Again, Justinian reviewed the same approvingly in the religious edict of March 15, 533 (Cod., L, i. 6), and congratulated himself that Pope John II admitted the orthodoxy of the imperial confession (Cod., I., i. 8). The serious blunder that he had made at the beginning by abetting after Justin's accession a severe persecution of the Monophysite bishops and monks and thereby embittering the population of vast regions and provinces, he remedied eventually. His constant aim now remained to win the Monophysites, yet not to surrender the Chalcedonian faith. For many at court, he did not go far enough: Theodora especially would have rejoiced to see the Monophysites favored unreservedly. Justinian, however, felt restrained in that policy by the complications that would have ensued with the West. Neither, for that matter, could he escape these issues; for instance, the Three-Chapter Controversy (see also Pope Vigilius). In the condemnation of the Three Chapters Justinian tried to satisfy both the East and the West, but succeeded in satisfying neither. Although the pope assented to the condemnation, the West believed that the emperor had acted contrary to the decrees of Chalcedon; and though many delegates emerged in the East subservient to Justinian, yet many, especially the Monophysites, remained unsatisfied. So the emperor squandered his efforts on an impossible task; the more bitter for him because during his last years he took a greater interest in theological matters.

See also

• Plague of Justinian
• Cleon II, a science-fiction version of Justinian from Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series
• History of the Roman Empire

Bibliography

• Bury, J. B. (1958). History of the later Roman Empire, Vol. 2. New York (reprint).
• Cameron, Averil et al.(eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 14, Second Edition, Cambridge 2000.
• Maas, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian, Cambridge 2005.
• Rubin, Berthold (1960). Das Zeitalter Iustinians. Berlin. — German standard work; partially obsolescent, but still useful.