Justinian I (Latin: Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus Augustus, Greek : Φλάβιος  Πέτρος Σαββάτιος Ἰουστινιανός Flábios Pétros Sabbátios Ioustinianos)  (c. 482 – 14 November  565), traditionally known as Justinian the Great and also Saint  Justinian in the Orthodox Church , was a Byzantine (East Roman) emperor from 527 to 565.  During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the empire's greatness and  reconquer the lost western half of the historical Roman Empire.

One of the most important figures of late antiquity and possibly the last Roman  emperor to speak Latin as a first language, Justinian's rule  constitutes a distinct epoch in the history of the Later Roman empire . The impact of his  administration extended far beyond the boundaries of his time and domain.  Justinian's reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire".

Because of his restoration activities, Justinian has sometimes been called  the "last  Roman" in modern historiography. This ambition was expressed by the  partial recovery of the territories of the defunct western Roman empire . His general, Belisarius , swiftly conquered the Vandal kingdom in North Africa, re-extending  Roman control to the Atlantic Ocean . Subsequently Belisarius, Narses , and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom , restoring Dalmatia , Sicily , Italy , and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the  Ostrogoths.

The prefect Liberius reclaimed most of southern Iberia , establishing the province of Spania . These campaigns re-established Roman  control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue  by over a million solidi . During his reign Justinian also subdued  the Tzani , a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule  before.

A still more resonant aspect of his legacy was the uniform rewriting of Roman  law, the Corpus Juris Civilis , which is still the  basis of civil law in many modern states. This work was  carried out primarily by his quaestor Tribonian . His reign also marked a blossoming  of Byzantine culture, and his building program yielded such masterpieces as the  church of Hagia Sophia , which was to be the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity for many  centuries.

A devastating outbreak of bubonic plague (see Plague of Justinian ) in the early 540s marked  the end of an age of splendour. The Empire entered a period of territorial  decline not to be reversed until the 9th century.

Procopius provides the primary source for the  history of Justinian's reign. The Syriac chronicle of John of Ephesus , which does not survive, was  used as a source for later chronicles, contributing many additional details of  value. Both historians became very bitter towards Justinian and his empress, Theodora . Other sources include the histories  of Agathias , Menander Protector , John Malalas , the Paschal Chronicle , the chronicles of Marcellinus Comes and Victor of Tunnuna .

Justinian is considered a saint among Eastern Orthodox Christians , and is also  remembered by some in the Lutheran Church on November 14.

Life

Summary

 

Justinian was born in Tauresium around 482. His Latin -speaking peasant family is believed to have been of Thraco-Roman or Illyro-Roman origins.

The cognomen Iustinianus, which he took  later, is indicative of adoption by his uncle Justin . During his reign, he founded Justiniana Prima not far from his birthplace,  today in South East Serbia. His mother was Vigilantia, the sister of Justin.  Justin, who was in the imperial guard (the Excubitors ) before he became emperor, adopted  Justinian, brought him to Constantinople , and ensured the boy's  education. As a result, Justinian was well educated in jurisprudence , theology and Roman history. Justinian served  for some time with the Excubitors but the details of his early career  are unknown. Chronicler John Malalas , who lived during the reign of  Justinian, tells of his appearance that he was short, fair skinned, curly  haired, round faced and handsome. Another contemporary chronicler, Procopius , compares Justinian's appearance to  that of tyrannical Emperor Domitian , although this is probably slander.

When Emperor Anastasius died in 518, Justin was proclaimed  the new emperor, with significant help from Justinian. During Justin's reign  (518–527), Justinian was the emperor's close confidant. Justinian showed much  ambition, and it has been thought that he was functioning as virtual regent long  before Justin made him associate Emperor on 1 April 527, although there is no  conclusive evidence for this. As Justin became senile near the end of his reign,  Justinian became the de facto ruler. Justinian was appointed consul in 521 and later commander of the army  of the east. Upon Justin's death on 1 August 527, Justinian became the sole  sovereign.

As a ruler, Justinian showed great energy. He was known as "the emperor who  never sleeps" on account of his work habits. Nevertheless, he seems to have been  amiable and easy to approach. Around 525, he married his mistress, Theodora , in Constantinople. She was by  profession a courtesan and some twenty years his junior. In  earlier times, Justinian could not have married her because of her class, but  his uncle, Emperor Justin I, had passed a law allowing intermarriage between  social classes. Theodora would become very influential in the politics of the  Empire, and later emperors would follow Justinian's precedent in marrying  outside the aristocratic class. The marriage caused a  scandal, but Theodora would prove to be shrewd judge of character and  Justinian's greatest supporter. Other talented individuals included Tribonian , his legal adviser; Peter the Patrician , the diplomat and longtime  head of the palace bureaucracy; Justinian's finance ministers John the Cappadocian and Peter Barsymes , who managed to collect taxes  more efficiently than any before, thereby funding Justinian's wars; and finally,  his prodigiously talented generals, Belisarius and Narses .

Justinian's rule was not universally popular; early in his reign he nearly  lost his throne during the Nika riots , and a conspiracy against the  emperor's life by dissatisfied businessmen was discovered as late as 562.  Justinian was struck by the plague in the early 540s but recovered.  Theodora died in 548 at a relatively young age, possibly of cancer; Justinian  outlived her by nearly twenty years. Justinian, who had always had a keen  interest in theological matters and actively participated in debates on  Christian doctrine, became even more devoted to religion during the later years  of his life. When he died on 14 November 565, he left no children, though his  wife Theodora had given birth to a stillborn son several years into his reign.  He was succeeded by Justin II , who was the son of his sister  Vigilantia and married to Sophia, the niece of Empress Theodora. Justinian's  body was entombed in a specially built mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles until it was  desecrated and robbed during the pillage of the city in 1204 by the Latin States of the Fourth Crusade .

Legislative activities

 

Justinian achieved lasting fame through his judicial reforms, particularly  through the complete revision of all Roman law , something that had not previously  been attempted. The total of Justinian's legislature is known today as the Corpus juris civilis . It consists of the Codex Iustinianus , the Digesta or Pandectae , the Institutiones , and the Novellae .

Early in his reign, Justinian appointed the quaestor Tribonian to oversee this task. The first draft  of the Codex Iustinianus , a codification of  imperial constitutions from the 2nd century onward, was issued on 7 April 529.  (The final version appeared in 534.) It was followed by the Digesta (or Pandectae ), a compilation of older legal  texts, in 533, and by the Institutiones , a textbook explaining the  principles of law. The Novellae , a collection of new laws issued  during Justinian's reign, supplements the Corpus. As opposed to the rest  of the corpus, the Novellae appeared in Greek , the common language of the Eastern  Empire.

The Corpus forms the basis of Latin jurisprudence (including  ecclesiastical Canon Law ) and, for historians, provides a  valuable insight into the concerns and activities of the later 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).

Tribonian's code ensured the survival of Roman law. It formed the basis of  later Byzantine law, as expressed in the Basilika of Basil I and Leo VI the Wise . The only western province  where the Justinianic code was introduced was Italy (after the conquest, by the  so-called Pragmatic Sanction of 554), from where it was  to pass to Western Europe in the 12th century and become  the basis of much European law code. It eventually passed to Eastern Europe where it appeared in Slavic  editions, and it also passed on to Russia . It remains influential to this day.

He passed laws to protect prostitutes from exploitation and women from being  forced into prostitution. Rapists were treated severely. Further, by his  policies, women charged with major crimes should be guarded by other women to  prevent sexual abuse, and were a woman widowed, her dowry should be returned and  a husband could not take on a major debt without his wife giving her consent  twice.

Nika riots

Justinian's habit of choosing efficient, but unpopular advisers nearly cost  him his throne early in his reign. In January 532, partisans of the chariot racing factions in Constantinople,  normally divided among themselves, united against Justinian in a revolt that has  become known as the Nika riots . They forced him to dismiss Tribonian and two of his other ministers, and  then attempted to overthrow Justinian himself and replace him with the senator Hypatius , who was a nephew of the late emperor Anastasius . While the crowd was rioting in the  streets, Justinian considered fleeing the capital, but eventually decided to  stay, apparently on the prompting of Theodora, who refused to leave. In the next  two days, he ordered the brutal suppression of the riots by his generals Belisarius and Mundus . Procopius relates that 30,000 unarmed  civilians were killed in the Hippodrome. On Theodora's insistence, and  apparently against his own judgment, Justinian had Anastasius' nephews executed.

The destruction that had taken place during the revolt provided Justinian  with an opportunity to tie his name to a series of splendid new buildings, most  notably the architectural innovation of the domed Hagia Sophia .

Military activities

One of the most spectacular features of Justinian's reign was the recovery of  large stretches of land around the Western Mediterranean basin that had slipped  out of Imperial control in the 5th century. As a Christian Roman emperor,  Justinian considered it his divine duty to restore the Roman Empire to its ancient boundaries.  Although he never personally took part in military campaigns, he boasted of his  successes in the prefaces to his laws and had them commemorated in art. The  re-conquests were in large part carried out by his general Belisarius .

War with the Sassanid Empire, 527–532

From his uncle, Justinian inherited ongoing hostilities with the Sassanid Empire . In 530 a Persian army was  defeated at Dara , but the next year saw the defeat of Roman  forces under Belisarius near Callinicum . When king Kavadh I of Persia died (September 531),  Justinian concluded an "Eternal  Peace" (which cost him 11,000 pounds of gold) with his successor Khosrau I (532). Having thus secured his  eastern frontier, Justinian turned his attention to the West, where Germanic kingdoms had been established in the  territories of the former Western Roman Empire .

Conquest of North Africa, 533–534

 

The first of the western kingdoms Justinian attacked was that of the Vandals in North Africa . King Hilderic , who had maintained good relations  with Justinian and the North African Catholic clergy, had been overthrown by his  cousin Gelimer in 530. Imprisoned, the deposed king  appealed to Justinian.

In 533, Belisarius with a fleet of 92 dromons escorting 500 transports, landed at Caput Vada (modern Ras Kaboudia) in modern Tunisia with an army of about 15,000 men, as  well as a number of barbarian troops. They defeated the Vandals, who were caught  completely off guard, at Ad Decimum on 14 September 533 and Tricamarum in December; Belisarius took Carthage . King Gelimer fled to Mount Pappua in Numidia , but surrendered the next spring. He  was taken to Constantinople, where he was paraded in a triumph . Sardinia and Corsica , the Balearic Islands , and the stronghold Septem near Gibraltar were recovered in the same campaign.

An African prefecture , centered in Carthage, was  established in April 534, but it would teeter on the brink of collapse during  the next 15 years, amidst warfare with the Moors and military mutinies. The area was not  completely pacified until 548, but remained peaceful thereafter and enjoyed a  measure of prosperity. The recovery of Africa cost the empire about 100,000  pounds of gold.

War in Italy, first phase, 535–540

As in Africa, dynastic struggles in Ostrogothic Italy provided an opportunity for  intervention. The young king Athalaric had died on 2 October 534, and an  usurper, Theodahad , had imprisoned queen Amalasuntha , Theodoric 's daughter and mother of Athalaric,  on the island of Martana in Lake Bolsena , where he had her assassinated in  535. Thereupon Belisarius with 7,500 men invaded Sicily (535) and advanced into Italy, sacking Naples and capturing Rome on 9 December 536. By that time Theodahad had been deposed by the Ostrogothic army, who had elected Vitigis as their new king. He gathered a large  army and besieged Rome from February 537 to March 538 without  being able to retake the city.

Justinian sent another general, Narses , to Italy, but tensions between Narses  and Belisarius hampered the progress of the campaign. Milan was taken, but was soon recaptured and  razed by the Ostrogoths. Justinian recalled Narses in 539. By then the military situation  had turned in favour of the Romans, and in 540 Belisarius reached the  Ostrogothic capital Ravenna . There he was offered the title of Western Roman Emperor by the Ostrogoths at the  same time that envoys of Justinian were arriving to negotiate a peace that would  leave the region north of the Po River in Gothic hands. Belisarius feigned to  accept the offer, entered the city in May 540, and reclaimed it for the Empire.  Then, having been recalled by Justinian, Belisarius returned to Constantinople,  taking the captured Vitigis and his wife Matasuntha with him.

War with the Sassanid Empire, 540–562

 

Belisarius had been recalled in the face of renewed hostilities by the Persians . Following a revolt against the Empire  in Armenia in the late 530s and possibly motivated  by the pleas of Ostrogothic ambassadors, King Khosrau I broke the "Eternal Peace" and invaded  Roman territory in the spring of 540. He first sacked Beroea and then Antioch (allowing the garrison of 6,000 men to  leave the city), besieged Daras , and then went on to attack the small but  strategically significant satellite kingdom of Lazica near the Black Sea , exacting tribute from the towns he  passed along his way. He forced Justinian I to pay him 5,000 pounds of gold,  plus 500 pounds of gold more each year.

Belisarius arrived in the East in 541, but, after some success, was again  recalled to Constantinople in 542. The reasons for his withdrawal are not known,  but it may have been instigated by rumours of disloyalty on behalf of the  general reaching the court. The outbreak of the plague caused a lull in the fighting during the  year 543. The following year Khosrau defeated a Byzantine army of 30,000 men,  but unsuccessfully besieged the major city of Edessa . Both parties made little headway, and  in 545 a truce was agreed upon for the southern part of the Roman-Persian  frontier. After that the Lazic War in the North continued for several  years, until a second truce in 557, followed by a Fifty Years' Peace in 562. Under its terms, the  Persians agreed to abandon Lazica in exchange for an annual tribute of 400 or  500 pounds of gold (30,000 solidi) to be paid by the Romans.

War in Italy, second phase, 541–554

While military efforts were directed to the East, the situation in Italy took  a turn for the worse. Under their respective kings Ildibad and Eraric (both murdered in 541) and especially Totila , the Ostrogoths made quick gains. After  a victory at Faenza in 542, they reconquered the major  cities of Southern Italy and soon held almost the entire peninsula. Belisarius  was sent back to Italy late in 544, but lacked sufficient troops. Making no  headway, he was relieved of his command in 548. Belisarius succeeded in  defeating a Gothic fleet with 200 ships. During this period  the city of Rome changed hands three more times, first  taken and depopulated by the Ostrogoths in December 546, then reconquered by the  Byzantines in 547, and then again by the Goths in January 550. Totila also  plundered Sicily and attacked the Greek coastlines.

Finally, Justinian dispatched a force of approximately 35,000 men (2,000 men  were detached and sent to invade southern Visigothic Hispania ) under the command of Narses . The army reached Ravenna in June 552,  and defeated the Ostrogoths decisively within a month at the battle of Busta Gallorum in the Apennines , where Totila was slain. After a  second battle at Mons Lactarius in October that year, the  resistance of the Ostrogoths was finally broken. In 554, a large-scale Frankish invasion was defeated at Casilinum , and Italy was secured for the  Empire, though it would take Narses several years to reduce the remaining Gothic  strongholds. At the end of the war, Italy was garrisoned with an army of 16,000  men. The recovery of Italy cost the empire about 300,000 pounds of gold.

Other campaigns

 

In addition to the other conquests, the Empire established a presence in Visigothic Hispania , when the usurper Athanagild requested assistance in his  rebellion against King Agila I . In 552, Justinian dispatched a force  of 2,000 men; according to the historian Jordanes , this army was led by the octogenarian Liberius . The Byzantines took Cartagena and other cities on the southeastern  coast and founded the new province of Spania before being checked by their former  ally Athanagild, who had by now become king. This campaign marked the apogee of  Byzantine expansion.

During Justinian's reign, the Balkans suffered from several incursions by the Turkic and Slavic peoples who lived north of the Danube . Here, Justinian resorted mainly to a  combination of diplomacy and a system of defensive works. In 559 a particularly  dangerous invasion of Sklavinoi and Kutrigurs under their khan Zabergan threatened Constantinople, but they  were repulsed by the aged general Belisarius.

Results

 

Justinian's ambition to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory was only  partly realized. In the West, the brilliant early military successes of the 530s  were followed by years of stagnation. The dragging war with the Goths was a  disaster for Italy, even though its long-lasting effects may have been less  severe than is sometimes thought. The heavy taxes that the administration  imposed upon its population were deeply resented. While the final victory in  Italy and the conquest of the coast of southern Hispania significantly enlarged the area over  which the Empire could project its power and influence, and while they must have  contributed to the Empire's prestige, most of the conquests proved ephemeral.  The greater part of Italy would be lost to the invading Lombards three years after Justinian's death  (568), the newly founded province of Spania was completely recovered by the  Hispanian Visigoths in 624 under the leadership of Suintila , and within a century and a half  Africa would be forever lost for the empire to the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates during the Muslim conquests .

Events of the later years of the reign showed that Constantinople itself was  not safe from barbarian incursions from the north, and even the relatively  benevolent historian Menander Protector felt the need to attribute  the Emperor's failure to protect the capital to the weakness of his body in his  old age. In his efforts to renew the Roman Empire, Justinian dangerously  stretched its resources while failing to take into account the changed realities  of 6th-century Europe. Paradoxically, the grand scale of Justinian's military  successes probably contributed in part to the Empire's subsequent decline.

Natural disasters

During the decade of the 530s, it seemed to many that God had abandoned the  Christian Roman Empire. There was noxious fumes in the air, the Sun, while still  providing day, refused to give much heat. This caused famine unlike anything  those of the time had seen before, weakening the people of Europe and the Middle  East.

The cause of these disasters aren't precisely known, but the Rabaul caldera , Lake Ilopango and Krakatoa volcanoes or a collision with a swarm  of meteors are suspected. Scientists have spent decades on the mystery.

Five years earlier a devastating outbreak of Bubonic Plague , second only to that of the 14th  century, laid siege to the world, killing tens of millions. As an Emperor,  Justinian got through the famine just fine, but he did contract the plague and  survived.

In 551, the eastern coast of the Mediterranean was devastated by a massive  earthquake and tsunami. Thousands died.

Religious activities

Justinian saw the orthodoxy of his empire threatened by diverging religious  currents, especially Monophysitism , which had many adherents in the  eastern provinces of Syria and Egypt. Monophysite doctrine, which maintains that  Jesus Christ had one divine nature or a synthesis of a divine and human nature,  had been condemned as a heresy by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and the tolerant  policies towards Monophysitism of Zeno and Anastasius I had been a source of tension in  the relationship with the bishops of Rome. Justin reversed this trend and  confirmed the Chalcedonian doctrine, openly condemning the Monophysites.  Justinian, who continued this policy, tried to impose religious unity on his  subjects by forcing them to accept doctrinal compromises that might appeal to  all parties, a policy that proved unsuccessful as he satisfied none of them.

Near the end of his life, Justinian became ever more inclined towards the  Monophysite doctrine, especially in the form of Aphthartodocetism , but he died before being  able to issue any legislation that would have elevated its teachings to the  status of dogma. The empress Theodora sympathized with the Monophysites and is  said to have been a constant source of pro-Monophysite intrigues at the court in  Constantinople in the earlier years. In the course of his reign, Justinian, who  had a genuine interest in matters of theology, authored a small number of  theological treatises.

Religious policy

 

As in 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  the Church's belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation ; and to threaten all heretics with the appropriate penalties;  whereas he subsequently declared that he intended to deprive all disturbers of  orthodoxy of the opportunity for such offense by due process of law. He made the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan  creed the sole symbol of the Church, and accorded legal force to the canons of the four ecumenical councils. The bishops in attendance  at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553  recognized that nothing could be done in the Church contrary to the emperor's  will and command; while, on his side, the emperor, in the case of the Patriarch Anthimus , reinforced the ban of the  Church with temporal proscription. Justinian protected the purity of the church  by suppressing heretics. He neglected no opportunity for securing the rights of  the Church and clergy , for protecting and extending monasticism . He granted the monks the right to  inherit property from private citizens and the right to receive solemnia or  annual gifts from the Imperial treasury or from the taxes of certain provinces  and he prohibited lay confiscation of monastic estates.

Although the despotic character of his measures is contrary to modern  sensibilities, he was indeed a "nursing 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, et cetera.  Justinian also rebuilt the Church of Hagia Sophia (which cost 20,000 pounds of  gold), 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.

Religious  relations with Rome

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From the middle of the 5th century onward, increasingly arduous tasks  confronted the emperors of the East in ecclesiastical matters. For one thing,  the radicals on all sides felt themselves constantly repelled by the creed  adopted by the Council of Chalcedon to defend the biblical  doctrine of the nature of Christ and bridge the gap 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 of the  Church of Rome. The Emperors, however, had a policy of preserving the unity  between Constantinople and Rome; and this remained possible only if they did not swerve from the  line defined at Chalcedon . In addition, the factions in the  East that had become stirred up and disaffected because of Chalcedon needed  restraining and pacifying. This problem proved the more difficult because, in  the East, the dissenting groups exceeded supporters of Chalcedon both in  numerical strength and in intellectual ability. Tension from the incompatibility  of the two aims grew: 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  Constantinople since 483. The recognition of the Roman see as the highest ecclesiastical  authority remained the cornerstone of his Western policy. Offensive as it was to  many in the East, nonetheless Justinian felt himself entirely free to take a  Despotic stance toward the popes such as Silverius and Vigilius . While no compromise could ever be  accepted by the dogmatic wing of the church, his sincere efforts at  reconciliation 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 moved toward compromise in the religious edict of 15 March  533, and congratulated himself that Pope John II admitted the orthodoxy of the  imperial confession. The serious blunder that he had made at the beginning by  abetting 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 over 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 favoured  unreservedly. Justinian, however, felt restrained by the complications that  would have ensued with the West. But 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. Though many delegates  emerged in the East subservient to Justinian, many, especially the Monophysites,  remained unsatisfied; all the more bitter for him because during his last years  he took an even greater interest in theological matters.

Suppression of  religions

 

Justinian's religious policy reflected the Imperial conviction that the unity  of the Empire unconditionally presupposed unity of faith; and it appeared to him  obvious that this faith could only be the Orthodox (Nicaean). Those of a different belief  had to recognize that the process of consolidation, which imperial legislation  had effected from the time of Constantius II , would now vigorously continue.  The Codex contained two statutes that decreed the total destruction of paganism , even in private 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 Neoplatonic Academy of Athens was placed under state control as  paganism by order of Justinian, effectively strangling this training school for Hellenistic philosophy and science. Paganism was actively suppressed. In Asia Minor alone, John of Ephesus claimed to  have converted 70,000 pagans. Other peoples also  accepted Christianity: the Heruli , the Huns dwelling near the Don , the Abasgi , and the Tzanni in Caucasia .

The worship of Amun at Augila in the Libyan desert was abolished; and so were the  remnants of the worship of Isis on the island of Philae , at the first cataract of the Nile. The Presbyter Julian and the Bishop Longinus conducted a mission among the Nabataeans , and Justinian attempted to  strengthen Christianity in Yemen by despatching a bishop from Egypt .

The civil rights of Jews were restricted and their religious  privileges threatened. Justinian also interfered in the internal affairs of the synagogue , and he encouraged the Jews to use  the Greek Septuagint in their synagogues in  Constantinople.

The Emperor had much trouble with the Samaritans , who resisted conversion to  Christianity and were 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. 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 .

Architecture, learning, art and literature

Justinian was a prolific builder; the historian Procopius bears witness to  his activities in this area. Under Justinian's patronage the San Vitale in Ravenna, which features two  famous mosaics representing Justinian and Theodora, was completed. Most notably,  he had the Hagia Sophia , originally a basilica -style church that had been burnt down  during the Nika riots , splendidly rebuilt according to a  completely different ground plan, under the architectural supervision of Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles . According to Procopius,  Justinian stated at the completion of this edifice, "Solomon I have outdone  thee" (in reference to the 1st Jewish temple). This new cathedral, with its  magnificent dome filled with mosaics, remained the centre of eastern  Christianity for centuries.

Another prominent church in the capital, the Church of the Holy Apostles , which had been in  a very poor state near the end of the 5th century, was likewise rebuilt. Works  of embellishment were not confined to churches alone: excavations at the site of  the Great Palace of Constantinople have yielded  several high-quality mosaics dating from Justinian's reign, and a column topped by a bronze statue of Justinian  on horseback and dressed in a military costume was erected in the Augustaeum in Constantinople in 543. Rivalry  with other, more established patrons from the Constantinopolitan and exiled  Roman aristocracy (like Anicia Juliana ) may have enforced Justinian's  building activities in the capital as a means of strengthening his dynasty's  prestige.

Justinian also strengthened the borders of the Empire from Africa to the East  through the construction of fortifications, and ensured Constantinople of its  water supply through construction of underground cisterns (see Basilica Cistern ). To prevent floods from  damaging the strategically important border town Dara , an advanced arch dam was built. During his  reign the large Sangarius Bridge was built in Bithynia , securing a major military supply  route to the east. Furthermore, Justinian restored cities damaged by earthquake  or war and built a new city near his place of birth called Justiniana Prima , which was intended to replace Thessalonica as the political and religious  centre of Illyricum .

In Justinian's era, and partly under his patronage, Byzantine culture  produced noteworthy historians, including Procopius and Agathias , and poets such as Paul the Silentiary and Romanus the Melodist flourished during his  reign. On the other hand, centres of learning as the Platonic Academy in Athens  and the famous Law School of Beirut lost their importance  during his reign. Despite Justinian's passion for the glorious Roman past, the  practice of choosing Roman consul was allowed to lapse after 541.

Economy and  administration

 

As was the case under Justinian's predecessors, the Empire's economic health  rested primarily on agriculture. In addition, long-distance trade flourished,  reaching as far north as Cornwall where tin  was exchanged for Roman wheat. Within the Empire, convoys sailing from Alexandria provided Constantinople with wheat  and grains. Justinian made the traffic more efficient by building a large  granary on the island of Tenedos for storage and further transport to  Constantinople. Justinian also tried to find new routes for the eastern trade,  which was suffering badly from the wars with the Persians.

One important luxury product was silk, which was imported and then processed in the Empire. In order  to protect the manufacture of silk products, Justinian granted a monopoly to the  imperial factories in 541. In order to bypass the Persian landroute, Justinian  established friendly relations with the Abyssinians , whom he wanted to act as trade  mediators by transporting Indian silk to the Empire; the Abyssinians, however,  were unable to compete with the Persian merchants in India. Then, in the early  550s, two monks succeeded in smuggling eggs of silk worms from Central Asia back to Constantinople, and silk  became an indigenous product.

Gold and silver were mined in the Balkans, Anatolia, Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt  and Nubia.

 

At the start of Justinian I's reign he had inherited a surplus 28,800,000 solidi (400,000 pounds of gold) in the imperial treasury from Anastasius I  and Justin I . Under Justinian's rule, measures were  taken to counter corruption in the provinces and to make tax collection more  efficient. Greater administrative power was given to both the leaders of the prefectures and of the provinces, while power  was taken away from the vicariates of the dioceses , of which a number were abolished. The  overall trend was towards a simplification of administrative infrastructure.  According to Brown (1971), the increased professionalization  of tax collection did much to destroy the traditional structures of provincial  life, as it weakened the autonomy of the town councils in the Greek towns. It  has been estimated that before Justinian I's reconquests the state had an annual  revenue of 5,000,000 solidi in AD 530, but after his reconquests, the  annual revenue was increased to 6,000,000 solidi in AD 550.

Throughout Justinian's reign, the cities and villages of the East prospered,  although Antioch was struck by two earthquakes (526,  528) and sacked and evacuated by the Persians (540). Justinian had the city  rebuilt, but on a slightly smaller scale.

Despite all these measures, the Empire suffered several major setbacks in the  course of the 6th century. The first one was the plague , which lasted from 541 to 543 and, by  decimating the Empire's population, probably created a scarcity of labor and a  rising of wages. The lack of manpower also led to a significant increase in the  number of "barbarians" in the Byzantine armies after the early 540s. The  protracted war in Italy and the wars with the Persians themselves laid a heavy  burden on the Empire's resources, and Justinian was criticized for curtailing  the government-run post service, which he limited to only one eastern route of  military importance.