Justinian I

(jŭstĭn`ēən), 483–565, Byzantine emperor (527–65), nephew and successor of Justin IJustin I,
c.450–527, Byzantine emperor (518–27); successor of Anastasius I. He was chief of the imperial guard and became emperor when Anastasius died. Justin persecuted the Monophysites and maintained close relations with the Western Church.
..... Click the link for more information. . He was responsible for much imperial policy during his uncle's reign. Soon after becoming emperor, Justinian instituted major administrative changes and tried to increase state revenues at the expense of his subjects. Justinian's fiscal policies, the discontent of the Monophysites at his orthodoxy, and the loyalty of the populace to the family of Anastasius I produced the Nika riot (532), which would have cost Justinian his throne but for the firmness of his wife, Empress TheodoraTheodora
, d. 548, Byzantine empress. Information about her early career comes from the often-questionable source, the Secret History of Procopius. It appears that she was the daughter of an animal trainer in the circus, and that she was an actress and prostitute before
..... Click the link for more information. , and the aid of his great generals, BelisariusBelisarius
, c.505–565, Byzantine general under Justinian I. After helping to suppress (532) the dangerous Nika riot (see Blues and Greens), he defeated (533–34) the Vandals of Africa, and captured their king.
..... Click the link for more information. and NarsesNarses
, c.478–c.573, Byzantine official and general, one of the eunuchs of the palace. He assisted in the suppression of the Nika riot (532) by bribing the Blues of the Circus (see Blues and Greens) to return their allegiance to Justinian I.
..... Click the link for more information. (see Blues and GreensBlues and Greens,
political factions in the Byzantine Empire in the 6th cent. They took their names from two of the four colors worn by the circus charioteers. Their clashes were intensified by religious differences.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Justinian, through Belisarius and Narses, recovered Africa from the Vandals (533–48) and Italy from the Ostrogoths (535–54). He was less successful in fighting the Persians and was unable to prevent the raids of the Slavs and the Bulgars. Justinian's policy of caesaropapism (i.e., the supremacy of the emperor over the church) included not only matters of organization, but also matters of dogma. In 553, seeking to reconcile the Monophysites to the church, he called a council (see Constantinople, Second Council ofConstantinople, Second Council of,
553, regarded generally as the fifth ecumenical council. It was convened by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I to settle the dispute known as the Three Chapters.
..... Click the link for more information. ) but accomplished nothing and finally tended to drift into heresy himself. Justinian's greatest accomplishment was the codification of Roman law, commonly called the Corpus Juris CivilisCorpus Juris Civilis
, most comprehensive code of Roman law and the basic document of all modern civil law. Compiled by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, the first three parts appeared between 529 and 535 and were the work of a commission of 17 jurists presided over by the
..... Click the link for more information. , executed under his direction by TribonianTribonian
(Tribonianus) , d. 545?, Roman jurist. Under the command of Justinian I, he directed the compilation of the Corpus Juris Civilis. It is not possible to determine exactly what Tribonian himself contributed; in all likelihood he wrote largely from his encyclopedic
..... Click the link for more information. . It gave unity to the centralized state and greatly influenced all subsequent legal history. Justinian erected many public works, of which the church of Hagia SophiaHagia Sophia
[Gr.,=Holy Wisdom] or Santa Sophia,
Turkish Aya Sofia, originally a Christian church at Constantinople (now İstanbul), later a mosque, and now converted into a museum.
..... Click the link for more information. is the most notable. He was succeeded by his nephew, Justin II. The writings of ProcopiusProcopius
, d. 565?, Byzantine historian, b. Caesarea in Palestine. He accompanied Belisarius on his campaigns as his secretary, and later he commanded the imperial navy and served (562) as prefect of Constantinople.
..... Click the link for more information. are the main source of information on Justinian's reign.

Bibliography

See C. Diehl, Justinien et la civilisation byzantine au VIe siècle (1901, repr. 1969); J. W. Barker, Justinian and the Later Roman Empire (1966); R. Browning, Justinian and Theodora (1971); A. Gerostergios, Justinian the Great (1982).

Justinian I

Born 482 or 483 in Tauresium, upper Macedonia; died Nov. 14, 565, in Constantinople. Byzantine emperor from 527.

The son of a peasant, Justinian was educated under the patronage of his uncle Justin I, who was emperor from 518 to 527. Brought by Justin to the imperial court, Justinian exercised great influence on affairs of state. After ascending to the throne he strove to restore the Roman Empire to its former boundaries and former greatness. Supported by the middle strata of landowners and slaveholders, he also sought the support of the orthodox church; he attempted to limit the senatorial aristocracy’s claims to power. His wife, Theodora, played an important role in state politics.

During Justinian’s reign Roman law was codified (seeCODIFICATION OF JUSTINIAN). The emperor’s legislative activities were on the whole directed toward the establishment of unlimited imperial power, the strengthening of slavery, and the defense of property rights. He contributed to the centralization of the state by his reforms of 535 and 536, which increased the size of administrative districts, concentrated civil and military power in the hands of the districts’ governors, and regulated and strengthened the army and the administration of the state. He placed handicrafts and trade under the control of the state. Oppressive taxation increased under Justinian, and heretics were brutally persecuted.

Justinian was responsible for a vast program of construction. He erected fortifications for defense against barbarian invasions, built up cities, and constructed palaces and churches, including Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

Justinian’s foreign policy was one of conquest. He regained areas of the Western Roman Empire that had been seized by the barbarians: northern Africa, Sardinia, and Corsica were recovered from the Vandals in 533 and 534, the Italian Peninsula and Sicily from the Ostrogoths between 535 and 555, and the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula from the Visigoths in 554. Slaveholding relations were restored in these areas. In the east, the Byzantines waged war against Iran from 527 to 532 and from 540 to 561; in the north they repulsed an attack by the Slavs.

In various regions of the empire, especially in the lands annexed under Justinian, popular uprisings broke out in protest against the emperor’s authority. Notable expressions of unrest were an uprising of Samaritans in Palestine in 529 and 530, the Nika revolt in Constantinople in 532, the revolutionary movement in North Africa from 536 to 548 headed by Stotzas, and the people’s liberation movement in Italy led by Totila.

REFERENCE

Istoriia Vizantii, vol. 1. Moscow, 1967. Chapters 10–14.

Z. V. UDALTSOVA

Justinian I

called the Great; Latin name Flavius Anicius Justinianus. 483--565 ad, Byzantine emperor (527--565). He recovered North Africa, SE Spain, and Italy, largely owing to the brilliance of generals such as Belisarius. He sponsored the Justinian Code

Justinian I

Related to Justinian I: Belisarius, Justinian II, Justinian code

Justinian I

The emperor Justinian I ruled the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire from 527 until 565. He is significant for his efforts to regain the lost provinces of the Western Roman Empire, his Codification of Roman Law, and his architectural achievements.

"Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render to every one his due."
—Justinian I

Justinian was born circa 482 in Pauresium, Illyricum (probably south of modern Nišs, Serbia). Justinian came to the throne with the intention of reestablishing the Roman Empire as it had been before the provinces of the Western Roman Empire fell under the control of various Germanic tribes during the fifth century. To this end, he sent his armies against the Vandals in North Africa (roughly, modern Algeria and Tunisia), the Visigoths in Spain, and the Ostrogoths in Italy. The Vandals surrendered in 534, but the Visigoths and Ostrogoths proved more difficult. Justinian's forces never succeeded in capturing more than a small part of Spain and subdued Italy only after a devastating war that ended in 563 with Italy in ruins. Nonetheless, when Justinian died, he could claim with some justice that the Mediterranean Sea was once again a Roman lake.

Justinian's conquests proved ephemeral, however. Within four years of his death, northern Italy had fallen to the Lombards, another Germanic tribe, and by the early eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered North Africa and Spain.

Justinian's achievements in law were more long-lasting. Although several collections of imperial Roman legislation had been compiled in the past, by Justinian's reign even the most recent, the Theodosian Code (Codex Theodosianus), which had been issued in 438, was out-of-date. Accordingly in 528 Justinian established a commission of ten experts, including Tribonian, to prepare a new edition, which was completed in 534. The Code (Codex), as it was called, contains 4,562 laws from the reign of Hadrian (117–138) to 534.

Roman law, however, encompasses both legislation and Jurisprudence; that is, literature interpreting the law. Despite the importance of jurisprudence, no single collection had ever been made, and some important works were not readily available. Therefore in 530 Justinian ordered his commission to collect the most important writings on jurisprudence and to edit and clarify the texts whenever necessary. To complete their task, the commission had to read two thousand books containing over three million lines, but nonetheless they finished the compilation known as the Digest (Digestum), or Pandects (Pandectae), by December 533.

In the same year, the commissioners issued the Institutes (Institutiones), a handbook for law students. Although Justinian had only planned a tripartite compilation of Roman law, imperial legislation did not cease with the completion of the Code in 534. Therefore the edicts issued by Justinian after 534 were collected and came to be known as the Novels (Novellae), or New Laws. The Code, Digest, and Institutes had been written in Latin, the traditional language of Rome, but Justinian issued the Novels in Greek in recognition of the fact that Greek was the ordinary language of the Eastern Roman Empire. Together the Code, Digest, Institutes, and Novels came to be known as the Corpus juris civilis ("the corpus of civil law"). The Corpus juris not only preserved Roman law for later generations but, after the twelfth century when it came to be known and studied in western Europe, provided inspiration for most European legal systems.

Justinian is also known for the extensive building program that he undertook both in the East and in Italy. The church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which was completed in 562, is considered one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture. Justinian died November 14, 565, in Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey.

Justinian I

Jus·tin·i·an I

Justinian I

Jus•tin•i•an I

Justinian I

Justinian I

Bibliography

Justinian I

REFERENCE

Justinian I

Justinian I

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Further readings

Justinian I

Synonyms for Justinian I

noun Byzantine emperor who held the eastern frontier of his empire against the Persians

Synonyms