Justinien Ier (born the May 11th 483 in It - died the November 13rd 565) is Byzantine emperor of 527 with 565. He is one of the most important leaders of the late Antiquité. That it is on the plan of the legislative mode, of the expansion of the borders of the Empire or the religious policy, it leaves a considerable work and a vision.

The one time end

The long reign of Justinien, nearly 40 years, does not mark, contrary to what is often advanced, the one new era beginning but represents the last attempt of old the Roman Empire to remake the imperial unit, as well by the military reconquest as by the coding of the right and the will to impose the capacity of the sovereign on the Church. Undeniable successes of the reign go, in particular in the military field and territorial, to appear without disproportionate following days because for the structures and the resources of the Empire. It is only at the price of deep social transformations and policies, which make the Byzantine Empire of it under the reign of Héraclius, that this one will find the means of surmounting the many adversaries and dangers with which he is confronted.

Origins, formation and character

Justinien ( Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus ) was born in It the May 11th 483 with Taurésium (Justiniana Prima), (close to current the Leskovac) in a rather modest family of It romanized. Its chance is to be the nephew of a soldier whom a brilliant career gives access the imperial throne in 518 under the name of Justin I {{er}}, succeeding the emperor Anastase I {{er}}.

Justin adopts his nephew and makes him give, whereas it is itself without field crop, best possible education - the education of then is based on the right, the Rhétorique and the Théologie. Become emperor, Justin quickly associates Justinien with the businesses and Patrice then Consul names it. He is extremely rare in the Byzantine political history to see a man also born far from the throne, at this point prepared to reign. When it reaches the capacity in 527, at the 45 years age, it is a ripe man with the contrasted personality.

Indeed Justinien has undeniable qualities: a great direction of the State and imperial idea, a strong capacity for work, a relative simplicity of atypical enough manners for the time (he is vegetarian and does not drink alcohol), and a famous culture. Its intellectual qualities are however sometimes wasted by a character suspicious, influenceable, an authoritarianism which changes brutally into pusillanimity (as at the time of the Sédition Nika) and, especially after the death of the empress Théodora in 548, a lack of perseverance in the action.

It also knows, and it is one of its qualities first, to surround itself by remarkable collaborators, though often without scruples, such Bélisaire, Narsès, Tribonien or the prefect of the court Jean de Cappadoce. Justinien does not hesitate to support the men in whom it has confidence, the example of Narsès, eunuque of modest extraction become one of the largest military chiefs of its time is the best illustration.

Lastly, and even if its influence should not be exaggerated, the role of Théodora, former actress of very humble origin (so much so that Justin I {{er}} made amend the law prohibiting a senator from marrying an actress to allow the marriage of its nephew), wife of Justinien since approximately 523, is indéniable.il is the Roman Emperor who will test recontruire the Romain Empire

Foreign policy

Peace with Persia sassanide

At the beginning of its reign Justinien seems to have like objective to reconstitute the old Roman empire around the the Mediterranean. But for that it must initially put an end to the fight against the Perse whose troops are with the doors of Antioche in 529. Bélisaire gains some successes between 529 and 531 but Justinien finally prefers in 532 to buy the peace which is necessary for him to carry out its objectives of reconquest in Occident.

War against the Vandals

The emperor initially attacks the kingdom of the Vandales in North Africa. It fears that the fleet of the latter pertube later its military operations in Italy and the connections commercial. In addition to this aspect there is a more political reason: Hildéric, king of the Vandals has just been reversed by Gélimer. Hildéric was the representative of the tendency pro-Byzantine and favorable to a bringing together. Also Bélisaire with the head of a strong army for the time, undoubtedly: 18000 men, unloads between Sfax and Sousse in 533. The battles of the AD Decimum in 533, then the September 15th 533 the catch of Carthage and king Gélimer ring the knell of the kingdom founded by Genséric. In the tread the Byzantine armies seize the Corsica , the Sicily and the Sardinia.

War against Ostrogoths

The assassination, by her husband Théodat, of the girl of Théodoric I {{er}} Large the , the queen Amalasonte, is the pretext evoked by Justinien to invade the Italy in 535. Two armies take out of clipper the armies of the Ostrogoths, one coming from Dalmatie the other of Sicily, under the direction of essential the Bélisaire. This one seizes Naples, then occupies Rome the December 10th 536 and finally Ravenne in 540 in spite of the obstinate resistance of the new king Vitigés. This last is made prisoner and envoy with Constantinople where Justinien treats it with honor. But the emperor makes the error in 540 to disgrace Bélisaire, of which it fears obviously popularity and which it had already tried to control by sending to him Narsès like second towards 538. The bitter failure of this attempt had led to the recall of Narsès one year later. In 540 the recall of Bélisaire in the capital, where he sees himself entrusting missions more honorary than real commands, also corresponds to a new offensive of the Perse in the the Caucasus and in Syria. Peace is definitively signed only in 562 and leads to a progression of the Byzantine influence in Arménie and in the the Caucasus. Always in 540, the capital is threatened by the Bulgares of which Justinien gets rid only while launching against them the Avars which will be established in the valley of the the Danube. These difficulties allow the Ostrogoths, directed by Totila, to take again the offensive and to overcome the Byzantines twice ( Faenza , then Mugillo in central Italy). The town of Naples is taken again in 543, that of Rome the December 17th 546.

It is necessary to await the arrival of Narsès in 552 to see the situation turning to the advantage of the troops of Justinien. Narsès, only commander-in-chief this time and equipped with a strong army, appears an excellent war leader and inflicts in Ostrogoths the defeat Taginae (552) in Ombrie where Totila is killed. Last resistances are swept in 553 to the Lactarus mount, close to the Vesuvius, where their last king, Téias is killed. In 555 Narsès crushes an invasion alamande close to Capoue. The Italy is become again Roman but at the price of the ruin of the peninsula.

Benefitting from the call using the king Visigoth Athanagild fights about it against a candidate, Agila I {{er}}, Justinien is made yield for price of its support the old province of Bétique (current the Andalusia) in 554 and imposes Byzantine suzerainty on the kingdom of the Visigoths.

Justinien is the last emperor to have tried to join together the two parts of the old Roman Empire. Its successors, if they do not give up the title, will take note of final separation between the East and the Occident.

Interior policy

Legislative and administrative work

With its accession with the capacity Justinien finds an economic situation and financial healthy thanks to the wise policy pursued by its predecessor such Anastase I {{er}}. That leaves him the freehands in order to apply its programme of restoration and unification of the Roman world. To the beginning of its reign it applies to a great legal reform.

Various commissions, directed by the lawyer Tribonien, qualified but hated for its venality, are charged to give of the order in the whole of the imperial constitutions published since Hadrian. This reorganization, the Corpus Juris Civilis , is what we call the Code Justinien (529) written in Latin, the vernacular Language of the Roman Empire, which was not included/understood by the majority of the citizens of the Byzantine Empire. One second version, the Codex retitae praelectionis , the only one that we have, that of 529 being lost, is published in 534.

In 533 is also published the Digeste (or Pandectes ), which corresponds to a modernization of all the ancient legislation like to a synthesis of ancient jurisprudence. To that a handbook is added to teach the right, the Institutes (533). Finally the new laws, wanted by Justinien, the Novelle S , are written in Greek, the Common language of the empire, after 534. This legislative work takes a fundamental importance in Occident because it is in this received form of Justinien that the medieval Occident, as from the 12th century adopts the Roman law.

Justinien undertakes also many administrative reforms, contained especially in large the Novelle S of the period 535 - 536. Their objective is primarily to reinforce the capacity of the emperor by dismembering the large offices, to fight against the worrying development of the great land and buildings like against the endemic corruption of the imperial civils servant. Also, often for tax reasons, Justinien gathers various provinces, considered of insufficient size and, in order to simplify the local government, removes a certain number of dioceses and gathers sometimes, as in Egypt agitated by regular disorders, the civil capacities and soldiers between the military hands of commanders.

Religious policy

Justinien is conceived like the elected official of God, his representative and his vicar on the ground. It is given for task to be the champion of orthodoxy in his wars or in the main effort which it makes to propagate the orthodoxe faith, that is to say in the way in which it dominates the Church and fights the heresy. He wants to control the Church as a Master, and in exchange of protection and the favors of which he fills it, he has imposes his will to him, proclaiming emperor and priest clearly. The legislative action of Justinien thus fits in the duration with a very detailed attention for the Church. Indeed the emperor is a sincere Christian and it is estimated, in the tradition Césaropapisme inherited Constantin I {{er}}, the supreme leader of the Church. The Christianisme is, from an institutional and legal point of view, religion of State. It is in that it regulates with a fastidious meticulousness the conditions of recruitment of the members of the clergy, their statutes, the organization of the administration of the ecclesiastical goods. It is him which legalizes the control of the bishop S on the local civil authorities, which has like curious consequence to attenuate centralizing excesses of many its decisions. Indeed the notable provincial ones, which takes part in the episcopal elections, can thus express their opinions and control to some extent the use of certain public funds.

Justinien is confronted with last resurgences of the paganism against which it acts with strength. Thus it puts an end to the Académie of Plato to Athens, then chaired by Damase and prohibits the worship of the pagan gods in particular in certain areas moved back of the Anatolia. He persecutes the Juifs although the constraint employed hardly gives conversions.

It is with the internal dissensions with the Churches Christian woman that Justinien tries to put an end to maintain the cohesion of the Empire. This is why it tries a bringing together with the monophysites, many in the oriental party of the empire (in Syria and Egypt), the more so as the religious convictions of Théodora are manifestly close to the latter. The empress in 537 does not hesitate to order with Bélisaire, which fights then in Italy, to seize the pope Silvère to replace it by Vigile supposed less intransigent towards than papacy regards as a heresy. However Justinien must also compose with the various popes which it needs in its company for reconquest for the Italy.

This policy of rocker illustrates in the business known as of the Three Chapters . Justinien makes condemn the memory of three theologists hated by the monophysites, in the hope to rejoin the latter with the official Church, under the charge of Nestorianisme (Theodore de Mopsueste, Ibas d' Édesse and Théodoret de Cyr). Oecumenical Ve Concile of 553 which officializes this judgment sees its decrees extremely badly accommodated in Occident, especially by the pope Vigile that Justinien makes remove in order to force it to accept the Three Chapters , without for that rejoining the monophysites.

Prosperity commercial and cultural life and artistic

The destruction of the kingdom vandal, and lowers it piracy which results from this, involves a stronger economic dynamism. The merchants of Egypt and Syria maintain a rather dynamic trade with the Occident of which the Gaulle mérovingienne where they sell oil, fruits dry, considered wines, glassmakings of Syria and papyrus. The empire is supplied with slaves by the Black Sea. It maintains the commercial relations with Ceylon via the Ethiopian kingdom of Axoum, with the China by the Silk route. Need for supplying the Byzantine silk workshops, and the will to circumvent the Persian Sassanides, partly explains the policy undertaken by Justinien to insert the Caucasian people in the sphere of influence of the empire. Starting from 552 - 553, thanks to clandestinely imported worms with silk of China, Byzance begins itself besides to produce silk. It should be noted however that empire, and the economic relations, are deeply disturbed by a great epidemic of " peste" , to which besides the historians gives the name of Peste of Justinien.

The cultural life intense under Justinien and is deeply marked by the personality and the concerns of the emperor. One finds in the historian Procope, who writes the history of the reign of Justinien, this research of the Roman size which animates the imperial couple (of which however he slanders much). The anthems (religious poetry) of Romanos Mélode are a faithful echo of the major Christian faith, though intolerant, of Justinien and Théodora. It makes rebuild Antioche, under the name of Théopolis after its destruction by a terrible earthquake in 526 and the plundering of the city by the Perses in 538.

The builder

Justinien is also a large builder. It made build the church Holy-Sophie in Constantinople (dedicated to divine Wisdom, Sophia in Greek) using 2 architects, 100 master masons and: 10000 workmen. It is high between 532 and 537 by Anthemius de Tralles and Isidore de Milet. The first cupola being broken down in 558, one second is remade in 562. But in all the empire Justinien finances the construction of cities, bridges, thermal baths, roads.

Justinien dies the November 15th 565 after having designated its nephew, Justin II, like successor.

Justinien and Théodora are represented in their imperial ornaments, with the dignitaries of their court by two famous panels of mosaic in the basilica San Vitale with Ravenne.

See too

References

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