![]() From Lazica to the Arabian Desert, the Persian frontier blazed with action in a series of campaigns in which many of the generals later destined for fame in the West first demonstrated their capacities. The reign opened with external warfare and internal strife. The history of East Rome during that period illustrates, in classical fashion, how the impact of war can transform ideas and institutions alike. All those accomplishments are, in the deepest sense of the word, civilian, and it is easy to forget that Justinian’s empire was almost constantly at war during his reign. Justin, the uncle, was a rude and illiterate soldier Justinian, the nephew, was a cultivated gentleman, adept at theology, a mighty builder of churches, and a sponsor of the codification of Roman law. Justinian is but one example of the civilizing magic that Constantinople often worked upon the heirs of those who ventured within its walls. Of the four traumas that eventually transformed the one into the other-namely, pestilence, warfare, social upheaval, and the Arab Muslim assault of the 630s-the first two were features of Justinian’s reign. Justinian’s reign may be divided into three periods: (1) an initial age of conquest and cultural achievement extending until the decade of the 540s (2) 10 years of crisis and near disaster during the 540s and (3) the last decade of the reign, in which mood, temper, and social realities more nearly resembled those to be found under Justinian’s successors than those prevailing throughout the first years of his own reign.Īfter 550, it is possible to begin to speak of a medieval Byzantine, rather than an ancient East Roman, empire. The latter wrote a laudatory account of the emperor’s military achievements in his Polemon ( Wars) and coupled it in his Anecdota ( Secret History) with a venomous threefold attack upon the emperor’s personal life, the character of the empress Theodora, and the conduct of the empire’s internal administration. The following account of those more than 40 years of Justinian’s effective rule is based upon the works of Justinian’s contemporary the historian Procopius. During most of Justin’s reign, actual power lay in the hands of his nephew and successor, Justinian I. The 6th century opened, in effect, with the death of Anastasius and the accession of the Balkan soldier who replaced him, Justin I (ruled 518–527). ![]()
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