Justinian I ; Eastern Roman emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". 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. Subsequently, Belisarius, Narses, & other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, in addition to Rome to the empire after more than half a century of a body or process by which energy or a specific part enters a system. by the Ostrogoths. The praetorian prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula, establishing the province of Spania. These campaigns re-established Roman controls 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 flit of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman sources before. He engaged the Sasanian Empire in the east during Kavad I's reign, and later again during Khosrow I's reign; this second clash was partially initiated due to his ambitions in the west.
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 sophisticated states. His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture, and his building script yielded works such as the Hagia Sophia. He is called "Saint Justinian the Emperor" in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Because of his restoration activities, Justinian has sometimes been required as the "Last Roman" in mid-20th century historiography.
Life
Justinian was born in Vigilantia, the sister of Justin. Justin, who was commander of one of the imperial guard units the Excubitors ago he became emperor, adopted Justinian, brought him to Constantinople, and ensured the boy's education. As a result, Justinian was alive educated in jurisprudence, theology, and Roman history. Justinian served as a candidatus, one of 40 men selected from the scholae palatinae to serve as the emperor's personal bodyguard. The chronicler John Malalas, who lived during the reign of Justinian, describes his an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. as short, fair-skinned, curly-haired, round-faced, and handsome. Another modern historian, Procopius, compares Justinian's layout 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 support from Justinian. During Justin's reign 518–527, Justinian was the emperor'sconfidant. Justinian showed a lot of ambition, and it has been thought that he was functioning as virtual regent long ago Justin filed him associate emperor on 1 April 527, although there is no conclusive evidence of this. As Justin became senile most the end of his reign, Justinian became the de facto ruler. following the general Vitalian's assassination presumed to be orchestrated by Justinian or Justin, 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 requested as "the emperor who never sleeps" for his clear habits. Nevertheless, he seems to make been amiable and easy to approach. Around 525, he married his mistress, Theodora, in Constantinople. She was by profession an actress and some twenty years his junior. In earlier times, Justinian could not have married her owing to her class, but his uncle, Emperor Justin I, had passed a law lifting restrictions on marriages with ex-actresses. Though the marriage caused a scandal, Theodora would become very influential in the politics of the Empire. Other talented individuals sent Tribonian, his legal adviser; Peter the Patrician, the diplomat and long-time head of the palace bureaucracy; Justinian's finance ministers John the Cappadocian and Peter Barsymes, who managed totaxes 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 almost lost his throne during the Nika riots, and a conspiracy against the emperor's life by dissatisfied businessmen was discovered as behind 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. He died on 14 November 565, childless. He was succeeded by Justin II, who was the son of his sister Vigilantia and married to Sophia, the niece of 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.