The Age of Justinian examines the reign of the great emperor Justinian (527-565) and his wife Theodora, who advanced from the theatre to the throne. The origins of the irrevocable split between East and West, between the Byzantine and the Persian Empire are chronicled, which continue up to the present day. The book looks at the social structure of sixth century Byzantium, and the neighbours that surrounded the empire. It also deals with Justinian's wars, which restored Italy, Africa and a part of Spain to the empire.

The Age of Justinian

In this captivating biography, readers will learn how Emperor Justinian I ruled the Byzantine Empire for 38 years, and what he accomplished during his time of reign that would make him known as Justinian the Great. Featuring engaging images, maps, photos, stunning facts, and easy-to-read text, readers will be introduced to Justinian's Code, the Nika Rebellion, and iconoclasm. Readers will be fascinated as they discover that Justinian put down a rebellion, conquered new territory, and even survived the bubonic plague! To provide readers with tools they'll need to better understand the content, this book features an accessible glossary and index, as well as an in-class activity to help students better understand the language people used in medieval times.

Justinian I: Byzantine Emperor

*Includes pictures *Explains Justinian's foreign policy, domestic policy, the building of the Hagia Sophia, and more *Includes a bibliography for further reading The zenith of the Byzantine Empire was reached in the middle of the 6th century during the reign of the Emperor Justinian (527-565). The internal stabilization of the Byzantine state was completed, and Justinian then embarked on a wide range of external re-conquests. Justinian's prime directive was to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory in the west. He sought to strengthen the immutable law that Byzantium, the successor of Rome, maintained not only in the east but also the west, and by doing so, he hoped to revive the unity of the Roman world. In addition to attempting to conquer Italy and restore all the old dominions of the Roman Empire, Justinian also had to quell inner unrest by fighting barbarian usurpers, securing the borders, re-establishing religious orthodoxy, reorganizing the law, and reviving prosperity. Accounts describe him as a stocky and ugly man, but he was deeply conscious of the prerogatives and duties of his position as a person exalted and close to God, and he was self-controlled in his personal life. From an administrative standpoint, he was an adroit diplomat and organizer who was gifted when it came to choosing collaborators and streamlining the administration of his empire. He was also married to Theodora, a woman of extraordinary beauty, courage, and intellect. Justinian was profoundly religious, which ensured that he spent considerable time attempting to reestablish orthodoxy and guide the church into the future. Justinian even ensured religious uniformity as this was the same as domestic law. There was no real separation between the legal order and canon law. At the same time, however, Justinian was a short-sighted emperor who was unable to come to grips with the fact that it was impossible to solve religious conflicts through wavering political compromises. He was also unable to stem the decline in the Byzantine economy and unwilling to form long-term plans for the future that would secure the northern and eastern borders of the empire against the Persians and Slavs. Naturally, since he remained so focused on the present, Justinian also engaged in grandiose propaganda schemes to promote his own glory, such as easy conquests, trading in luxury goods with far-away countries (including China, India, and Abyssinia), a well-planned publicity campaign carried out by his court historian Procopius and his court poet Paul the Silentiary, and a grandiose building campaign in the capital of Constantinople, which included the Hagia Sophia. Ironically, Justinian's foreign policy is what he is best remembered for, despite the fact it was ultimately unsuccessful. Though he inevitably fell short of at least some of his aims, Justinian did make the Byzantine Empire a more efficient empire in many ways. The Nika revolt in 532 that precipitated the building of Hagia Sophia and the undertaking of Justinian's building campaign was the last major populist insurrection against autocratic rule, and the Marcellinus Conspiracy in 556 was the last of the aristocratic uprisings in the Empire. Justinian succeeded in setting up a nearly bribe-proof civil service, his bureaucrats created a well-disciplined army, and he also succeeded in giving the empire a uniform code of law. That code of law, the corpus juris civilis, or "body of civil law," remains the foundation of the legal system in many modern European countries. Justinian the Great chronicles the life and legacy of the Byzantine Empire's most important leader. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about Justinian like never before, in no time at all.

Justinian the Great

The era of the Emperor Justinian (527-68) intersects the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the collapse of the east in the face of rampant Arab invasions in the seventh. Determined to reverse the losses Rome suffered in the fifth century, Justinian's stubborn aggression in the face of all adversity, not least the plague, led the eastern Empire to overreach itself, making it vulnerable to the Islamic takeover of its richest territories in the seventh century, which turned the great East Roman Empire of late antiquity, into its pale Byzantine shadow of the Middle Ages. Rome Resurgent promises to introduce to a wide readership this fascinating but unjustly overlooked chapter in ancient warfare.

Rome Resurgent

Weaving together evolutionary microbiology, economics, military strategy, ecology, and ancient and modern medicine, author Rosen tells of history's first pandemic--a plague seven centuries before the Black Death that killed tens of millions, devastated th

Justinian's Flea

When Justinian first assumed the title of Roman Emperor in 527 CE, his inherited empire—now based in Constantinople— had lost almost all of its connection with the Eternal City itself, and was threatened from within by profound theological splits, and from without by the various barbarian kingdoms that surrounded it. By taking military action against the barbarian Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Vandals, and signing an eternal peace with Persia, Justinian managed to reclaim much of the lands formerly held by Rome; while through his incessant legislation and monetary contributions to an extensive building program, he sought to reestablish the old Roman cultural institutions of order and architectural beauty in his newly won kingdom. This inveterate reformer and innovative leader, whose name remains on the beams of the Hagia Sophia, and whose influence extends into the legal practices of the present time, remains as compelling a man today as he was to his original historians almost 1500 years ago. Designed as an accessible introduction to Justinian's reign and his time, The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire offers readers and researchers an appealing mix of descriptive chapters, biographical sketches, and annotated primary documents. An overview of the world of Late Antiquity is presented in the introduction, and is followed by chapters on the shape of the Empire, the Nike revolt of 532, the legal achievements of Justinian, the Empress Theodora, and Justinian's building program. The narrative chapters conclude with a section discussing the imperial achievements as a whole. An annotated bibliography and index are also included in this work.

The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire

A definitive new biography of the Byzantine emperor Justinian Justinian is a radical reassessment of an emperor and his times. In the sixth century CE, the emperor Justinian presided over nearly four decades of remarkable change, in an era of geopolitical threats, climate change, and plague. From the eastern Roman--or Byzantine--capital of Constantinople, Justinian's armies reconquered lost territory in Africa, Italy, and Spain. But these military exploits, historian Peter Sarris shows, were just one part of a larger program of imperial renewal. From his dramatic overhaul of Roman law, to his lavish building projects, to his fierce persecution of dissenters from Orthodox Christianity, Justinian's vigorous statecraft--and his energetic efforts at self-glorification--not only set the course of Byzantium but also laid the foundations for the world of the Middle Ages. Even as Justinian sought to recapture Rome's past greatness, he paved the way for what would follow.

Justinian

The reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527–65) stands out in late Roman and medieval history. Justinian re-conquered far-flung territories from the barbarians, overhauled the Empire's administrative framework and codified for posterity the inherited tradition of Roman law. This work represents a modern study in English of the social and economic history of the Eastern Roman Empire in the reign of the Emperor Justinian. Drawing upon papyrological, numismatic, legal, literary and archaeological evidence, the study seeks to reconstruct the emergent nature of relations between landowners and peasants, and aristocrats and emperors in the late antique Eastern Empire. It provides a social and economic context in which to situate the Emperor Justinian's mid-sixth-century reform programme, and questions the implications of the Eastern Empire's pattern of social and economic development under Justinian for its subsequent, post-Justinianic history.

Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian

Justinian (482-565 A.D.), who ruled the Roman Empire from his capital in Constantinople, was, along with his wife Empress Theodora, one of the most scandalous monarchs in history. During his reign, Justinian oversaw the construction of the Hagia Sophia, one of the wonders of the ancient world, and he strove to maintain Rome's territories. Yet despite the heights reached under his rule, the time was one of revolts, intrigues, and brutality to his subjects. Baker's biography takes a redemptive view of Justinian and his wife, both of whom were vilified by the chronicler Procopius, he for his despotism and she for her endless sexual escapades. Baker points out that Justinian also codified Roman law and brought other modern solutions to the problems that had plagued his empire for years. Baker also describes the battles of Justinian's famous general Belisarius, who waged successful wars against the Vandals, Goths, and Persians on behalf of his emperor.

The eastern half of the Roman Empire, economically the stronger, did not fall but continued almost intact, safe in the new capital of Constantinople. This empire is the subject of John Barker Jr.'s book and the central focus of his examination of questions of continuity and change.

Justinian and the Later Roman Empire

Against a tumultuous backdrop of earthquakes, plague and civil unrest Emperor Justinian I is determined to take back the lost Western Roman Empire from the Vandals and the Goths. At any cost. Born an illiterate peasant's son, he rose to become the most powerful man in the world. And behind this great man was a great woman – Theodora. An actress and courtesan, she rose to be Justinian's equal in love, power and politics. Justinian, heartbroken after her early death, would become for ever known as The Sleepless One.

The Secret History of the Court of Justinian

From one of the nation's leading Byzantine scholars comes a fictional look at the vicious reign of Justinian II, Emperor of the Romans in the seventh century and one of history's most desperate and brutal rulers. "Electrifying...An artfully styled narrative and painstaking attention to historical detail vivify this mesmerizing account of one of history's most remarkable rulers." --Booklist At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In the period I have chosen to bring before the reader, civilization was on the decline, and progress imperceptible, but the germs of a riper growth were still existent, concealed within the spreading darkness of medievalism. When Grecian science and philosophy seemed to stand on the threshold of modern enlightenment the pall of despotism and superstition descended on the earth and stifled every impulse of progress for more than fifteen centuries. The Yggdrasil of Christian superstition spread its roots throughout the Roman Empire, strangling alike the nascent ethics of Christendom, and the germinating science of the ancient world. Had the leading minds of that epoch, instead of expending their zeal and acumen on theological inanities, applied themselves to the study of nature, they might have forestalled the march of the centuries, and advanced us a thousand years beyond the present time...

This book introduces the Age of Justinian, the last Roman century and the first flowering of Byzantine culture. Dominated by the policies and personality of emperor Justinian I (527–565), this period of grand achievements and far-reaching failures witnessed the transformation of the Mediterranean world. In this volume, twenty specialists explore the most important aspects of the age including the mechanics and theory of empire, warfare, urbanism, and economy. It also discusses the impact of the great plague, the codification of Roman law, and the many religious upheavals taking place at the time. Consideration is given to imperial relations with the papacy, northern barbarians, the Persians, and other eastern peoples, shedding new light on a dramatic and highly significant historical period.

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian

Justinian and Theodora

This book combines comprehensive discussion of the main aspects of Justinian's rule, together with a varied selection of source material, from both textual and material culture, making it a valuable resource for students and lecturers alike.

Justinian and the Sixth Century

A fully-outfitted edition of Prokopios' late Antique masterpiece of military history and ethnography--for the 21st-century reader. "At last . . . the translation that we have needed for so long: a fresh, lively, readable, and faithful rendering of Prokopios' Wars, which in a single volume will make this fundamental work of late ancient history-writing accessible to a whole new generation of students." --Jonathan Conant, Brown University

The Wars of Justinian

"It becomes, therefore, important to have a clear record as to what Justinian did, not only in Palestine but in other countries, so as to be able to judge to some extent, by well-authenticated examples, of the founders of those edifices whose history is involved in doubt. Of the writers who can give us this record, none has such authority as Procopius, or gives so much detailed information; and he has, for that reason, been largely quoted by Gibbon and by well-nigh every other writer on Byzantine history; and he gives such definite information as to the dates of many of Justinian's buildings which remain to us, as to form a standard by which to recognise the general characteristics in outline and detail adopted by his architects in his greatest works, and which characterize the style now well known as Byzantine." source

Of the Buildings of Justinian

This ancient Roman history examines the military campaigns of Justinian I, from army organization to tactics and strategy—with maps and battle diagrams. Justinian I was the last great Roman conqueror. Though he never led an army in person, his leadership dramatically increased the size of his realm. His long reign, from 527 to 565, was devoted to the renovatio imperii, or renovation of Empire. His will and vision drove the reconquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths, North Africa from the Vandals, and parts of Spain from the Visigoths. These grand schemes were largely accomplished through the services of two talented generals, Belisarius and Narses. They were successful in spite of concurrent wars against the Persians and the devastation caused by bubonic plague. In this comprehensive study, Michael Whitby draws on the full range of sources to examine all of Justinian's campaigns. Besides narrating the course and outcome of these wars, Whitby analyses the Roman army of the period, considering its equipment, organization, leadership, strategy and tactics, and considers the longer-term impact of Justinian’s military ventures on the stability of the empire.

The Wars of Justinian I

This study examines the sixth century formation of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Menze shows that the separation of the Syrian Orthodox Christians from Western Christianity occurred due to the divergent political interests of bishops and emperors. Discrimination and persecution forced the establishment of an independent church.

Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church

This book explores the professional and social lives of the soldiers who served in the army of the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century. More than just a fighting force, this army was the setting in which hundreds of thousands of men forged relationships and manoeuvred for promotion. The officers of this force, from famous generals like Belisarius and Narses to lesser-known men like Buzes and Artabanes, not only fought battles but also crafted social networks and cultivated their relationships with their emperor, fellow officers, families, and subordinate soldiers. Looming in the background were differences in identity, particularly between Romans and those they identified as barbarians. Drawing on numerical evidence and stories from sixth-century authors who understood the military, Justinian’s Men highlights a sixth-century Byzantine army that was vibrant, lively, and full of individuals working with and against each other.

Justinian's Men

When Justinian became sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire in A.D. 527, he ordered the preparation of three compilations of Roman law that together formed the Corpus Juris Civilis. These works have become known individually as the Code, which collected the legal pronouncements of the Roman emperors, the Institutes, an elementary student's textbook, and the Digest, by far the largest and most highly prized of the three compilations. The Digest was assembled by a team of sixteen academic lawyers commissioned by Justinian in 533 to cull everything of value from earlier Roman law. It was for centuries the focal point of legal education in the West and remains today an unprecedented collection of the commentaries of Roman jurists on the civil law. Commissioned by the Commonwealth Fund in 1978, Alan Watson assembled a team of thirty specialists to produce this magisterial translation, which was first completed and published in 1985 with Theodor Mommsen's Latin text of 1878 on facing pages. This paperback edition presents a corrected English-language text alone, with an introduction by Alan Watson.

The Digest of Justinian

Social Conflict in the Age of Justinian explores a range of often violent conflicts across the whole empire during AD 527-565. These conflicts were reflected at the ideological level and lead to intense persecution of intellectuals and Pagans as an ever more robust Christian ideological hegemony was established.

Social Conflict in the Age of Justinian

The Institutes of Justinian

The Age of Justinian and Theodora

"Translated into English with an index."--T.p.

The author tells the story of the 6th century emperor who attempted to revive the Roman Empire in Byzantium after the fall of Rome to the Goths and Vandals.

Justinian and His Age

An Introduction to the Study of Justinian's Digest

Justinian the Great, reigning from 527 to 565 AD, is one of the most significant Byzantine emperors, renowned for his comprehensive codification of Roman laws, known as the Corpus Juris Civilis, which laid the foundation for much of the Western legal tradition. His rule was marked by ambitious architectural projects, including the Hagia Sophia, which epitomized Byzantine architectural achievements and served as a centerpiece of Orthodox Christian worship. Justinian's reign was also characterized by extensive military campaigns aimed at reconquering former Roman territories in the West, including parts of Italy, North Africa, and Spain, efforts that temporarily restored Roman imperial unity. However, his reign was also beset by challenges, including the devastating Justinianic Plague, fiscal strain from military expenditures, and internal dissent, which, despite his achievements, left the empire more vulnerable to future threats.

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Justinian the Great

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