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Justinian was one of the most
famous and successful emperors
of the Byzantine era after
Constantine I. He was born in
Ilyricum (near Skopje in
Macedonia) in 482 or 483 AD. In
523 he married Theodora, a
scandalous dancer thus he was
criticized a lot, and ascended
to the throne in 527 AD after
the death of Justin I. After
becoming an emperor, he fought
against the Persians between
528-530 who invaded Mesopotamia
and attacked on the
Byzantine lands, and he
stopped them thanks to one of
his great commanders of the army,
Belisarius. |
It was under his reign when Nika Riot destroyed the
city and most of its
important monuments
including Hagia Sophia
Church, killing over 30.000
people in five days of urban
warfare. Justinian managed
to end the riot with a great
difficulty and than he
dedicated himself on the
reconstruction of Constantinople and its
monuments; Hagia Sophia
church, Hagia Irene church,
Underground cistern were all
built under his rule.
In 533 AD Justinian sent his
army to Africa under the
command of Belisarius to get
rid of the Vandal Kingdom
which caused the Byzantines many
problems, and he succeeded.
In 535 AD he sent his army
to Italy with his most
favorite commander to end
the incapable government of
Theodahad, landing in Sicily
and advancing all the way to
Rome and Ravenna fighting
against the Goths until 540.
Afterwards another war broke
out with Persians in the
east, who attacked on the Byzantines and captured
Antioch. The war went on
until finally Justinian
signed a peace pact with
Persians in 555 AD.
As for the interior affairs,
Justinian supported the
Roman Law even though Byzantine population
were largely pro-Greek. He
established the Justinian
Code (Codex Justinianus) in
529 AD uniting all valid
imperial laws under one and
thus founding the base of
almost all legal systems in
Europe. He also introduced
the silk-worm culture to
Europe. But on the other
hand, his passion for
building great monuments
such as Hagia Sophia put the Byzantine treasure under
stress and this brought high
taxes damaging the trade and
industry. Same thing
happened with a heavy war
taxation to support his war
campaigns.
Emperor Justinian died in
565 AD at the age of 83,
after reigning for 38 years.
He was succeeded by his
nephew Justin II. Justinian
was buried at the Church of
the Holy Apostles in today's
Fatih district, which was
plundered by the Crusaders
and later destroyed by
earthquakes. |
