This Week in History recalls memorable and decisive events and personalities of the past.
1st April 527 Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne
Mosaic of Justinian I, in Ravenna [Petar Milošević – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40035957]
Justinian I is one of those great characters of history whose biography is written again and again and whose choices help to define an era. He stands near Napoleon, Ghenghis Khan, Alexander the Great and Augustus in his importance and impact. His decisions and ambitions can, not unfairly, be said to have brought one era of European history to a close, and begun a new one.
Justinian was the nephew of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justin I, who ruled the eastern half of the Roman Empire, with its capital in Constantinople, from 518 to 527.
Justin I [Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128234495]
Justin was born in around 450 and so would have been a young man when the last Roman Emperor in the west, Romulus Augustulus, was dethroned by a general named Odoacer in 476, today considered by some as the “end of the Roman Empire”.
Romulus Augustus resigns the Crown (from a 19th-century illustration)
At the time, this was not regarded as a particularly significant event. Odoacer described himself as a subject of the Eastern Emperor, and described the dethroning of the Western Emperor as simply placing Italy, which Odoacer ruled, under control of the east as there was no longer a need for an emperor in the west.
Indeed, on paper, much of Western Europe − which by this time was ruled by various Germanic kings − was ruled “on behalf of” the Eastern Roman Emperor, even if in reality these were independent kingdoms.
A map of the Roman Empire by 476, showing the western and eastern division.
Roman power had been in decline for decades by 476 but the idea of the Roman Empire was still so strong that much of the former empire still considered itself Roman and part of a Roman Empire, even if it was now ruled by a Frankish, or Gothic king. Trade continued around the Mediterranean, and much of the Empire’s legal system remained intact. Indeed, in much of the Empire 476 did not seem like the end of anything, the Roman world still existed, even if it was more troubled than in the time of the average citizen’s great-grandfather.
Around 476, Justin was a peasant from somewhere in the Balkans, likely modern-day Kosovo or Serbia, who moved from the countryside to the capital of Constantinople to escape poverty. Despite his illiteracy, he managed to secure a place in the palace guard, the Excubitors, as a regular foot solider.
Due to his bravery and skill he rose through the ranks of the guard until, during the reign of the Eastern Emperor, Anastasius I Dicorus, he was appointed head of the palace guard.
Anastasius I (centre), alongside his wife Ariadne (right) on the consular diptych of his grandnephew Sabinianus Anastasius (AD 517). The third figure may be the co-consul Agapitus. [Clio20, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=568686]
When Anastasius I died in 518, he had no clear heir and various officials in his inner circle plotted to replace him with a candidate of their own. One of these officials, Amantius, gave Justin a large sum of money to buy support for his candidate on his behalf.
Justin had other ideas, forming a group of elite soldiers from the palace guard loyal to himself and using the money he had been given by Amantius to bribe people into supporting him. By these means, Justin was able to pressure the senior leaders of the empire to elect him as Emperor and so he became Justin I.
Justin would go on to assassinate all his rivals for the throne and establish himself as uncontested ruler of the Roman world.
Justin I (left) depicted persecuting Monophysites of Italy in this miniature from the 12th century Manasses Chronicle
His reign was relatively peaceful, (by late Roman standards) and he focused much of his attention on internal religious matters in the Christian community, stamping out theological division and pulling the eastern churches back into line with the views of the churches in Western Europe. He also played skilful diplomatic games to establish allied client states on the empire’s borders and prevent invasions, which managed to stabilise the east.
During his reign, he steadily promoted his nephew Justinian into ever higher reaches of government and the army. Some later and possibly biased sources describe Justinian as being instrumental throughout the rise to power of his uncle.
Finally, in April 527 he selected Justinian as his heir by crowning him co-Emperor. His health was in decline and in August 527, he died, leaving the empire to Justinian.
Justinian’s reign got off to a rocky start. Within five years he faced a major rebellion, the Nika Riots in 532, which saw Justinian slaughter thousands to keep the throne and destroyed much of Constantinople. (You can read more about them in this edition of This Week in History.)
He also fought a tough war against the Sassanid Persian empire between 527 and 532.
After the riots, Justinian would establish one of his most spectacular legacies, the massive Hagia Sophia church, which still stands today in Istanbul as a combined museum and Mosque. (you can read more about that in this edition of This Week in History.)
It was after the riots however that Justinian would embark on his most famous endeavour: the reconquest of the Roman Empire.
As the decades had passed since 476, the Romans in the east had begun to reassess the dethroning of the Western Emperor back in 476. Justinian and the men around him began to cast this event not simply as one of the many political transitions and upheavals of the last century in Roman politics, but rather a fundamental break. Rather than the west simply being a reconfigured part of the empire ruled by allied kings, it was now described as Roman lands which had been conquered by foreign barbarians.
Justinian would develop this view during his reign, and it is the source of the modern belief that the Western Roman Empire fell in 476.
As part of efforts to “Restore the Empire” Justinian would embark on a series of military conquests, led by his excellent general Belisarius. These would begin in 533 when an army led by Belisarius destroyed the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa and restored it to direct imperial rule (which you can read about in this edition of This Week in History).
In 535, Justinian sent Belisarius again out, this time to conquer Italy, which at the time was ruled by the Gothic king Theodahad. This war would be a defining struggle of his reign, and would last in various phases until 554.
Bélisaire, by François-André Vincent (1776). Belisarius, blinded, a beggar, is recognized by one of his former soldiers
Initially the Romans captured much of Italy, and despite some setbacks, Belisarius defeated the Goths for the most part by 540, retaking along with Italy, the ancient capital of Rome. However, just as victory seemed imminent in Italy, the Persians invaded the east of the empire, and resources had to be directed there.
Nature itself also seemed to be conspiring to stop Justinian.
In 535, and 536, the sun was partially blocked across all of Europe by massive volcanic eruptions, possibly in Iceland. This began one of the worst periods to be alive in European history.
The contemporary historian Procopius said of this period:
“For the sun gave forth its light without brightness … and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear”
The reduced sunlight and temperature caused huge crop failures across Europe, which resulted in one of Europe’s worst ever famines. Just as things began to recover, in 541, Europe and the Middle East were hit with the first outbreak of Bubonic Plague.
The full impact of this plague is debated today, but traditional estimates suggest a quarter of the population of the eastern Mediterranean died. Justinian himself caught the plague, but was lucky enough to survive its estimated 60% mortality rate.
As plague and eastern invasion took their toll, the Goths in Italy made a comeback and retook much of Italy from the Romans. Finally, in 554, the Goths were decisively defeated.
Justinian’s conquests [Nicolas Eynaud – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30158330]
The war had nearly bankrupted the empire and although Justinian would also retake some of southern Spain, the planned reconquest was put on hold. Ironically, his war, the plague and the famine had sped up the transformation of the Roman world. Much of the old Roman economic infrastructure had been destroyed or disrupted, the Imperial armies had been stretched to their limit and soon after his death in 565, the Roman Empire would begin to retreat.
Some historians therefore view him as a man who inadvertently helped destroy the very world he hoped to restore.
A curious fact about Justinian was that he was likely the last man who held the title of Roman Emperor to speak Latin as his native tongue. Future Roman emperors would speak Greek, Armenian or other languages, but not Latin. This has led to some calling Justinian “the last Roman”.
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