Justinian I was born in 482, in the village of Tauresium, near Justinian Prima in the Roman prefecture of Illyria. His Tsarist family was Latin-speaking, and Justinian was the grandson of the future Emperor Justinian I. After 470 had a military career in the army of Emperor Leo I of the Eastern Roman Empire (457-474).
Justinian I was born in the village of Tauresium in 482. He ruled from 527 to 565. Thus, after his death, Justinian would become the sole sovereign. Justinian I was much talked about because he came forward with his thirst for bloodshed. But also remained known because he tried to remake the old Roman Empire by recapturing the ancient territories.
Justinian became emperor in 527. Justinian’s dream was to rebuild the (Christianized) Roman Empire by uniting the two empires. The Western and the Eastern. He succeeded partly through his general Belisarius, who conquered the Italic Peninsula and northern Africa. The militarily and financially difficult attempts to conquer Italy, begun by Belisarius and completed by Narses (another general), did not last long. In 568, the arrival of the Longobards there destroyed Justinian’s work.
What was Justinian famous for?
The writings of Procopius described Justinian as a tyrant obsessed with bloodshed without mercy.
In his account of the Christian religion, Justinian is described as a valiant defender of Christianity. Still, even Christians at the time saw in him a cold-blooded man who ordered the death of all those who dared to choose a different religious orientation. He forcibly instituted religious decrees and orders and often used the death threat on his subjects.
Although he supported Christianity, he remained known for the brutal and barbaric way he defended the Christian religion. And yet he played an essential role in the history of the Church through the religious treaties it issued and the synods it conducted. Flavius Petrus Sabbatius, the future Emperor of Justinian the Great, was born 482 south of the Danube in the village of Tauresium, near Skopje, the capital of modern-day Macedonia.
What were Justinian’s accomplishments?
In addition to his bloody way of asserting himself in front of the people. Justinian also had several achievements that he put into practice during his tenure.
Emperor Justinian’s most significant accomplishment was to renew Romanian society, which was collapsing—trying a system of classical and postclassical rights according to the realities of the Empire. Roman from the 6th century.
Another achievement of Emperor Justinian was the restoration of the church of Hagia Sophia or Holy Wisdom. Restored it to its current form, turning it into a monumental object of universal architecture.
Regarding church writings, Justinian ordered that Nestorian writings be banned, and those who were to be found to have such reports in their possession were to be punished with death, as provided in this mandate.
Why was Justinian considered the last Roman emperor?
Emperor Justinian gained a lasting influence for his reforms, especially for summing up all the Roman laws, something never seen before. Thus, he managed to ensure the continuity of the Romanian laws that reached the West in the twelfth century, later going to Russia.
From a military point of view, Justinian was hugely successful, being declared the last Byzantine emperor to have control of Rome and parts of the West. Initially, he engaged in a war against Sassanid Persia, as did those before him. But he focused more militarily on the western Mediterranean, where he entrusted Belisarius with starting a battle for the recapture of the ancient Roman Empire.
In 533, Belisarius managed to recapture North Africa. Slowly advanced on Sicily and Italy, thus recapturing Rome in 536 and the Ostrogothic capital Ravenna in 540, a battle known as the Gothic Rabbi.
Did Justinian reunite the Roman Empire?
Due to repeated abuse by Justinian, Nika revolted, which the emperor successfully confronted with the help of his general, Belisarius. History sources say the racetrack was full of Justinian’s victims.
Justinian planned to reunite the old Roman Empire. Thus he tried to bring back under the control of Constantinople the ancient territories. Of the empire. He succeeded thanks to General Belisarius, who managed to conquer North Africa and the Italian Peninsula. But this action of Justinian would not be long-lasting. In 568, the Logobards came and destroyed Justinian’s entire plan.
When they began to recover from this economic crisis, Justinian’s plan would throw the entire region back on the brink of collapse. Thus, the impact that Justinian’s actions had would make the Peninsula go through centuries of attempts. To recover to combat both political and economic instability.
What happened to emperor Justinian?
In his personal life, Emperor Justinian was highly faithful, which is why he often fasted. During Lent, he refused to eat bread and drink wine and was content with only water and vegetables.
However, in some sources of history, Emperor Justinian is considered a despot, as characterized in the hagiography of St. Eutychius, who claims that in his last years, the emperor had inclinations toward a new heresy at that time, namely Aftartodochetism.
St. Eutychius states that he vehemently denounced this heresy and that for this reason, the emperor ordered his soldiers to take him to church, strip him of his holy garments, and finally to be exiled him to the monastery of Amaziah.
2 Interesting facts about Justinian I
1. On April 1, 527, he was officially appointed associate emperor
Although the affairs of the empire had long been exclusively in his care, on 1 August, after the death of Emperor Justinian I, he became the sole ruler of the kingdom. Justinian’s dream was to become a new Constantine the Great to recapture the western Roman territories, then held by migrating Germanic tribes. He firmly believed in a political and economic order in the Mediterranean basin. With Constantinople as its capital and a single Christian emperor.
2. Birth of the Byzantine style
Even the empire’s future would have been in jeopardy due to the agitated external situation: Byzantium then had open fronts both in the East, with Persia, and in the West, with the Germanic tribes.
Conclusion
The Byzantine Empire irresistibly attracts and forever fascinates those who research its history. The glorious era of Justinian the Great crowned Emperor of Byzantium on 1 August 527. Left traces that not even the 1500 years that have passed since then could erase. And hard work and wisdom found a suitable solution to any problem.
In conclusion, despite the claims made to Emperor Justinian. That he had chosen another heresy in the last stage of his life, we can say from his proven facts that he was a sincere follower of Christianity. The death sentences of those who dared to choose another heresy besides the Christian religion are a concrete fact that supports his absolute Christianity. He managed to reunite the old provinces of the Roman Empire.
