The belief that the Roman Empire died with the demise of Romulus Augustulus and the fall of Rome to Odoacer in 476 is a myth too often propagated and dangerous in its assumption that this year is the beginning of a sort of Dark Age for Europe, an era where no great men emerged, and no great deeds were done. Rome did indeed fall, and the decline of the Western Empire was long and terminal, with disputes over succession, the growing emboldening of frontier tribes who now made up a sizable portion of the Roman Army, and monetary issues combining to rot the core of the central power. But Pax Romana did not fall, nor did the Eastern Roman Empire, with the continuity of Roman ideals, laws, customs (albeit with a rather Greco element to them), and most importantly, military prowess still controlled from the New Rome at Constantinople in modern day Turkey. This empire was to continue, in shape or form, until the fall of the great city to the Turks in 1453, and it saw few greater Emperors than Justinian I, who reigned when strength was needed most, immediately after the fall of Rome.
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| Justinian I |
When Justinian came to power the extent of the Empire’s lands was the Mediterranean coastland from Greece right the way around to Libya, with vast swathes of Anatolia and the region around the Black Sea as well as mainland Greece, leading to Bulgaria. The rest of Rome’s possessions had been divided among various barbarian tribes, with Spain falling to the Vandals and the Visigoths, Italy succumbing to the Ostrogoths and the Lombards and the Adriatic Coast being divided between different ethnic groupings. Indeed, even in Constantinople, political intrigue was rendering the Eastern Empire, which would come to be known as the Byzantium Empire, weak and ineffective, certainly in regards to its responsibility to the territorial integrity of the Latin lands. Born not of aristocratic blood, Justinian had to make up for his lack of political and familial connections by being hard working and surrounding himself with brilliant men and women. One of his greatest triumphs just before becoming Emperor was choosing a worthy match in his wife Theodora, who would provide him with excellent counsel for a large part of his reign.
He came to power in 527 having being both Consul and Commander of the Eastern Armies and he needed both political and military skills to hold his Empire together and reunite both parts of the former Roman lands. His first military actions saw him send his army east to secure an ‘Eternal Peace’ with the Persian Sassanid Empire, leaving his army free to focus on the Mediterranean. In 533-534 his forces reconquered large parts of North Africa, defeating the Vandal King and taking land as far away as Gibraltar. The following years his fleet retook Sicily and landed in Naples and Rome, hoping to crush the Gothic Kingdom, which was in the middle of a dynastic struggle. By 540 Rome and Ravenna had been taken and the Gothic King was in chains in Constantinople. All of this was made possible by a number of factors, including weaknesses in the Barbarian kingdoms, and the professionalism and organisational capabilities which was inherent in Roman legions, even those of the Eastern variety. But above all Justinian had an ace in the pack, his star General, Belisarius, was the key to the retaking of the Empire. His name was famous, a moral boost to the legions and a blow to their enemies, he was even spoken of as the equal of Julies Caesar himself, and Justinian found himself both reliant on, thankful for and jealous of the warrior. Belisarius was even offered the crown of the Western Empire by the King of the Goths at Ravenna and turned it down out of personal loyalty to Justinian and the Empire. Taking Italy proved much easier than keeping it and Justinian spent much of the rest of his reign consolidating his Western lands and pushing his Eastern frontier.
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| Justinian's Empire |
Justinian’s major reform was in the legal realm with the reform of the old Roman law codes and the introduction of a body of legislation which became known as the Code of Justinian which is the basis for much of European law today, as it is in Russia. Theodora’s influence is all over these pieces of legislation with a number of progressive tracts on the rights of women, widows, and prostitutes. Justinian was a strong supporter of Orthodoxy in the Church and in the Empire and he attempted to unite various Christian and non-Christian groups under the Imperial umbrella, as well as trying to keep Imperial religious practices in keeping with the Pope’s instructions.
Justinian also deserves recognition for the scale and beauty of some of the buildings commissioned and built during his reign, including the splendid Hagia Sophia. There was a church building spree under Justinian and some of the finest buildings in the world at the time were constructed giving Constantinople the look of the real centre of Imperial power in the Western world. He also built fortifications along the Eastern borders of the Empire in order to strengthen the defence of the empire, and this is telling in the sense that it shows where he thought the real threat to Imperial power lay.
Justinian is a forgotten man both in Western European history, but also in Eastern European history. He was probably one of the most successful of all Roman Emperors, deserving of his place with Augustus and Constantine, yet because he never ruled from Rome he is brushed under the carpet. The fact that this civilisation, this European Empire, survived and, at times, thrived, after the ‘fall of Rome’ is too often airbrushed put of the passage of European and with it the legacy left to us by great men like Justinian.
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