Justinian I

Justinian was born in Tauresium, Dardania,Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2008, {{ISBN|1593394926}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ea-bAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1007 p. 1007.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723092514/https://books.google.com/books?id=ea-bAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1007 |date=23 July 2023 }}{{cite book |title=The Classical Roman Reader: New Encounters with Ancient Rome |first=Kenneth John |last=Atchity |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |series= |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W0KI0lU2FoIC&dq=tauresium+naissus&pg=PA358 |chapter=Justinian |isbn=978-0-521-32591-2 |page=358 |access-date=2 June 2024 |archive-date=2 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240602105742/https://books.google.com/books?id=W0KI0lU2FoIC&dq=tauresium+naissus&pg=PA358 |url-status=live }} probably in 482.Joannes Zonaras ({{Circa}} 1140) [https://archive.org/details/ioanniszonaraea00pindgoog/page/n180/mode/2up?view=theater Epitome XIV, 5]. He was crowned at the age of 45. A native speaker of Latin (possibly the last Byzantine emperor to be one),The Inheritance of Rome, Chris Wickham, Penguin Books Ltd. 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-670-02098-0}} (p. 90). Justinian referred to Latin as his native tongue in several of his laws. See Moorhead (1994), p. 18. he came from a peasant family thought to have been of either of Illyro-Roman{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9AvjaThtrKYC&q=Justinian++latin-speaking+Illyrians&pg=PA74|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian|publisher=Cambridge University Press|author=Michael Maas|date=2005|isbn=978-1139826877|access-date=18 October 2020|archive-date=23 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723092516/https://books.google.com/books?id=9AvjaThtrKYC&q=Justinian++latin-speaking+Illyrians&pg=PA74|url-status=live}}Treadgold, Warren T. (1997). A history of the Byzantine state and society. Stanford University Press. p. 246. {{ISBN|978-0-8047-2630-6}}. Retrieved 12 October 2010.{{cite book|last=Barker|first=John W.|title=Justinian and the later Roman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiJljEXvwAoC&q=%22Though+he+shared+an+Illyrian%22&pg=PA75|access-date=28 November 2011|year=1966|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-03944-8|page=75|archive-date=23 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723092515/https://books.google.com/books?id=LiJljEXvwAoC&q=%22Though+he+shared+an+Illyrian%22&pg=PA75|url-status=live}} or Thraco-Roman{{cite book|author=Robert Browning|page=21|title=Justinian and Theodora|publisher=Gorgias Press|year=2003|isbn=978-1593330538}}Shifting Genres in Late Antiquity, Hugh Elton, Geoffrey Greatrex, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2015, {{ISBN|1472443500}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=aR2dBQAAQBAJ&dq=Justinian+Thracian+origin&pg=PA259 p. 259.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528122822/https://books.google.com/books?id=aR2dBQAAQBAJ&dq=Justinian+Thracian+origin&pg=PA259 |date=28 May 2023 }}Pannonia and Upper Moesia: A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire, András Mócsy, Routledge, 2014, {{ISBN|1317754255}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LP9RAwAAQBAJ&dq=Justinian+Thracian+stock&pg=PA350 p. 350.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407083159/https://books.google.com/books?id=LP9RAwAAQBAJ&dq=Justinian+Thracian+stock&pg=PA350 |date=7 April 2023 }} origin. The name Iustinianus, which he took later, is indicative of adoption by his uncle Justin. During his reign, he founded Justiniana Prima not far from his birthplace.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ki1icLbr_QQC&q=Justiniana+Prima+Leskovac&pg=PA5|title=The Serbs|publisher=Wiley|author=Sima M. Cirkovic|date=2004|isbn=978-0631204718|access-date=18 October 2020|archive-date=23 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723093023/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ki1icLbr_QQC&q=Justiniana+Prima+Leskovac&pg=PA5|url-status=live}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?um=1&q=Justiniana+Prima+Site+of+an+early+Byzantine+city+located+30+km+south-west+of+Leskovac+in+Serbia&btnG=Search+Books |title=Justiniana Prima Site of an early Byzantine city located 30 km south-west of Leskovci in Kosovo|publisher=Grove's Dictionaries |year=2006}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tG0p_sZH-fEC&q=Justiniana+Prima+Leskovac&pg=PA37|title=Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life|publisher=Brill|year=2001|isbn=978-9004116252|access-date=18 October 2020|archive-date=23 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723093017/https://books.google.com/books?id=tG0p_sZH-fEC&q=Justiniana+Prima+Leskovac&pg=PA37|url-status=live}} His mother was Vigilantia, the sister of Justin. Justin, who was commander of one of the imperial guard units (the Excubitors) before he became emperor, adopted Justinian, brought him to Constantinople, and ensured the boy's education. As a result, Justinian was well educated in jurisprudence, theology, and Roman history. Justinian served as a candidatus, one of 40 men selected from the scholae palatinae to serve as the emperor's personal bodyguard.{{sfn|PLRE}} The chronicler John Malalas, who lived during the reign of Justinian, describes his appearance as short, fair-skinned, curly-haired, round-faced, and handsome, with receding hairline and greying hair and beard.Malalas, Chronicle 18.425 Another contemporary historian, Procopius, describing him in similar terms, compares Justinian's appearance to that of Emperor Domitian.Cambridge Ancient History p. 65

When Emperor Anastasius died in 518, Justin was proclaimed the new emperor with significant help from Justinian. Justinian showed a lot of ambition, and several sources claim that he was functioning as virtual regent long before Justin made him associate emperor,{{Sfn|PLRE}} although there is no conclusive evidence of this.Moorhead (1994), pp. 21–22, with a reference to Procopius, Secret History 8.3. As Justin became senile near the end of his reign, Justinian became the de facto ruler. Following the general Vitalian's assassination in 520 (orchestrated by Justinian or Justin),Justinian: Procopius, Secret History 6.28 and Victor of Tunnuna, Chronicle 523; Justin: Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 4.3 Justinian was appointed consul and commander of the army of the east.This post seems to have been titular; there is no evidence that Justinian had any military experience. See A.D. Lee, "The Empire at War", in Michael Maas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge 2005), pp. 113–133 (pp. 113–114). Justinian remained Justin's close confidant, and in 525 was granted the titles of nobilissimus and caesar (heir-apparent).Victor of Tunnuna ({{Circa}} 570), [https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_auct_ant_11/#page/196/mode/1up Chronica s.a. 525] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230731065304/https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_auct_ant_11/#page/196/mode/1up |date=31 July 2023 }}.{{Sfn|PLRE}} He was crowned co-emperor on 1 April 527,Marcellinus Comes [https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/marcellinus2.html 527] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307050854/https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/marcellinus2.html |date=7 March 2023 }}; Chronicon Paschale 527; Theophanes Confessor AM 6019.{{Efn|Constantine VII's De Ceremoniis dates Justinian's coronation to 4 April,Constantine VII ({{circa}} 956), [https://books.google.com/books?id=9VQ6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA433 De Ceremoniis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307051545/https://books.google.com/books?id=9VQ6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA433 |date=7 March 2023 }}, I 95. probably a confusion between α (1) and δ (4).}} and became sole ruler after Justin's death on 1 August 527.

As a ruler, Justinian showed great energy. He was known as "the emperor who never sleeps" for his work habits. Nevertheless, he seems to have been amiable and easy to approach.See Procopius, Secret history, ch. 13. Around 525, he married his mistress, Theodora, in Constantinople. She was by profession an actress and some twenty years his junior. In earlier times, Justinian could not have married her owing to her class, but his uncle, Emperor Justin I, had passed a law lifting restrictions on marriages with ex-actresses.M. Meier, Justinian, p. 57.P. N. Ure, Justinian and his age, p. 200. Though the marriage caused a scandal, Theodora would become very influential in the politics of the Empire. Other talented individuals included Tribonian, his legal adviser;{{sfn|Bury|1958|p=41}} Peter the Patrician, the diplomat and long-time head of the palace bureaucracy;{{sfn|Bury|1958|p=33}} Justinian's finance ministers John the Cappadocian and Peter Barsymes, who managed to collect taxes more efficiently than any before, thereby funding Justinian's wars;{{sfn|Bury|1958|p=33}} and finally, his generals, Belisarius and Narses, responsible for the re-conquest of North Africa and Italy.{{sfn|Bury|1958|p=58}}

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Justinian's rule was not universally popular; early in his reign he nearly lost his throne during the Nika riots, and a conspiracy against the emperor's life by dissatisfied entrepreneurs was discovered as late as 562.{{cite web|url=http://www.roman-emperors.org/justinia.htm|title=DIR Justinian|publisher=Roman Emperors|date=25 July 1998|access-date=14 November 2012|archive-date=13 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413123151/http://www.roman-emperors.org/justinia.htm|url-status=live}} Justinian was struck by the plague in the early 540s but recovered. Theodora died in 548Robert Browning, Justinian and Theodora (1987), 129; James Allan Evans, The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian (2002), 104 at a relatively young age, possibly of cancer; Justinian outlived her by nearly twenty years. Justinian, who had always had a keen interest in theological matters and actively participated in debates on Christian doctrine,Theological treatises authored by Justinian can be found in Migne's Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 86. became even more devoted to religion during the later years of his life. He died on 14 November 565,Chronicon Paschale 566; John of Ephesus [https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/ephesus_6_book5.htm III 5.13.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226002018/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/ephesus_6_book5.htm |date=26 December 2017 }}; Theophanes Confessor AM 6058; John Malalas [https://en.calameo.com/read/000675905f2f4bf509d49 18.1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027030636/https://en.calameo.com/read/000675905f2f4bf509d49 |date=27 October 2021 }}. childless. He was succeeded by Justin II, who was the son of his sister Vigilantia and married to Sophia, the niece of Theodora. Justinian's body was entombed in a specially built mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles until it was desecrated and robbed during the pillage of the city in 1204 by the Latin States of the Fourth Crusade.{{cite book|last=Crowley |first=Roger |title=City of Fortune, How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire|year=2011|publisher=Faber & Faber Ltd. |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-24595-6 |page=109}}

{{main|Corpus Juris Civilis}}

File:Porphyry head of Justinian I (cropped).jpg, an imperial porphyry head in Venice perhaps representing Justinian{{cite web|author=Yuri Marano|website=Last Statues of Antiquity (LSA Database), University of Oxford|title=Discussion: Porphyry head of emperor ('Justinian'). From Constantinople (now in Venice). Early sixth century.|url=http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/database/discussion.php?id=826|date=2012|access-date=5 April 2020|archive-date=24 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180524222921/http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/database/discussion.php?id=826|url-status=live}}

]]

Justinian remains well-known for his judicial reforms, particularly through the complete revision of all Roman law,{{Cite web |last=Department |first=Reference |title=GW Law Library: Library Guides: Roman Law Research: Corpus Juris Civilis |url=https://law.gwu.libguides.com/romanlaw/corpusjuriscivilis |access-date=20 October 2024 |website=law.gwu.libguides.com |language=en}} something that had not previously been attempted. The total of Justinian's legislation is known today as the {{Lang|la|Corpus juris civilis}}. It consists of the Codex Justinianeus, the Digesta or Pandectae, the Institutiones, and the Novellae.

Early in his reign, Justinian had appointed the quaestor Tribonian to oversee this task. The first draft of the Codex Justinianeus, a codification of imperial constitutions from the 2nd century onward, was issued on 7 April 529. (The final version appeared in 534.) It was followed by the Digesta (or Pandectae), a compilation of older legal texts, in 533, and by the Institutiones, a textbook explaining the principles of law. The Novellae, a collection of new laws issued during Justinian's reign, supplements the Corpus. As opposed to the rest of the corpus, the Novellae appeared in Greek, the common language of the Byzantine Empire.{{Cite book |last=Johnston |first=David |title=Roman Law in Context |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0521639611 |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |pages=24}}

The Corpus forms the basis of Latin jurisprudence (including ecclesiastical Canon Law) and, for historians, provides a valuable insight into the concerns and activities of the Byzantine Empire. As a collection it gathers together the many sources in which the leges (laws) and the other rules were expressed or published: proper laws, senatorial consults (senatusconsulta), imperial decrees, case law, and jurists' opinions and interpretations (responsa prudentium).

Tribonian's code ensured the survival of Roman law. It formed the basis of later Byzantine law, as expressed in the Basilika of Basil I and Leo VI the Wise. The only western province where the Justinianic code was introduced was Italy (after the conquest by the so-called Pragmatic Sanction of 554),Kunkel, W. (translated by J. M. Kelly) An introduction to Roman legal and constitutional history. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1966; 168 from where it was to pass to Western Europe in the 12th century and become the basis of much Continental European law code, which was eventually spread by European empires to the Americas and beyond in the Age of Discovery. It eventually passed to Eastern Europe where it appeared in Slavic editions, and it also passed on to Russia.{{Cite journal|jstor=3001333 |title=Russia and the Roman Law |journal=American Slavic and East European Review |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–13 |author=Darrell P. Hammer |publisher=JSTOR |year=1957 |doi=10.2307/3001333 }} It remains influential to this day.

His legislations restricted avenues of divorce, including divorce by mutual consent. The latter was overturned by his immediate successor, Justin II.Sarris, P. (2017). Emperor Justinian. In J. Witte, Jr & G. Hauk (Eds.), Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction (Law and Christianity, pp. 85-99). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108233255.008; Novellae Constitutiones 140.

He passed laws to protect prostitutes from exploitation and women from being forced into prostitution. Rapists were treated severely. Further, by his policies: women charged with major crimes should be guarded by other women to prevent sexual abuse; if a woman was widowed, her dowry should be returned; and a husband could not take on a major debt without his wife giving her consent twice.Garland (1999), pp. 16–17

Family legislation also revealed a greater concern for the interests of children. This was particularly so with respect to children born out of wedlock. The law under Justinian also reveals a striking interest in child neglect issues. Justinian protected the rights of children whose parents remarried and produced more offspring, or who simply separated and abandoned their offspring, forcing them to beg.{{Cite book |last=Sarris |first=Peter |title=Christianity and Family Law |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-23325-5 |editor-last=Witte |editor-first=J. |chapter=Emperor Justinian |doi=10.1017/9781108233255.008 |editor-last2=Hauk |editor-first2=G.}}

He passed legislations directed against the Christian "heretics", pagans, Jews and Samaritans, forbidding them from holding public office, destroying their places of worship and restricting the ownership of property.Michael Maas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge 2005), pp. 330-331, p. 517

Justinian discontinued the regular appointment of consuls in 541.Vasiliev (1952), p. I 192.

In Constantinople, under Justinian, hospitals were built and free medical care provided to the many poor residents of the city. In addition, public baths were free for all residents and 20 state bakeries provided free bread to those who needed it.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

{{Main|Nika riots}}

File:Diptych Barberini Louvre OA9063 whole.jpg, thought to portray either Justinian or Anastasius I]]

In January 532, partisans of the chariot racing factions in Constantinople, normally rivals, united against Justinian in a revolt that has become known as the Nika riots. They forced him to dismiss Tribonian and two of his other ministers, and then attempted to overthrow Justinian himself and replace him with the senator Hypatius, who was a nephew of the late emperor Anastasius. While the crowd was rioting in the streets, Justinian considered fleeing the capital by sea, but eventually decided to stay, apparently on the prompting of his wife Theodora, who refused to leave. In the next two days, he ordered the brutal suppression of the riots by his generals Belisarius and Mundus. Procopius relates that 30,000J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 200 unarmed civilians were killed in the Hippodrome. Justinian had Anastasius' nephews executed.{{efn|According to one source, this came at Theodora's insistence, and apparently against his own judgment. Pseudo-Zachariah of Mytilene, Syriac Chronicle 9.14; Diehl, Charles. Theodora, Empress of Byzantium ((c) 1972 by Frederick Ungar Publishing, Inc., transl. by S.R. Rosenbaum from the original French Theodora, Imperatice de Byzance), 89.}}Vasiliev (1958), p. 157.

The destruction that took place during the revolt provided Justinian with an opportunity to carry out his building program in Constantinople, most notably the architectural innovation of the domed Hagia Sophia.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=116}}

File:Gurlitt Justinian column.jpg, after Cornelius Gurlitt, 1912. The column was erected in the Augustaeum in Constantinople in 543 in honour of his military victories.]]

Justinian's reign was marked by the recovery of large stretches of land around the Western Mediterranean basin that had slipped out of imperial control in the 5th century.For an account of Justinian's wars, see Moorhead (1994), pp. 22–24, 63–98, and 101–109. Although he never personally took part in military campaigns, he boasted of his successes in the prefaces to his laws and had them commemorated in art.See A. D. Lee, "The Empire at War", in Michael Maas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge 2005), pp. 113–33 (pp. 113–114). For Justinian's own views, see the texts of Codex Iustinianus 1.27.1 and Novellae 8.10.2 and 30.11.2. The re-conquests were in large part carried out by his general Belisarius.{{efn|Justinian himself took the field only once, during a campaign against the Huns in 559, when he was already an old man. This enterprise was largely symbolic and although no battle was fought, the emperor held a triumphal entry in the capital afterwards. (See Browning, R. Justinian and Theodora. London 1971, 193.)}}

{{Main|Iberian War}}

From his uncle, Justinian inherited ongoing hostilities with the Sassanid Empire.See Geoffrey Greatrex, "Byzantium and the East in the Sixth Century" in Michael Maas (ed.). Age of Justinian (2005), pp. 477–509. In 530 the Persian forces suffered a double defeat at Dara and Satala, but the next year saw the defeat of Byzantine forces under Belisarius near Callinicum. Justinian then tried to make alliance with the Axumites of Ethiopia and the Himyarites of Yemen against the Persians, but this failed.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Sidney |title=Events in Arabia in the 6th Century A.D. |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |date=1954 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=425–468 |jstor=608617 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00086791 |s2cid=163004552 }} When king Kavadh I of Persia died (September 531), Justinian concluded an "Eternal Peace" (which cost him 11,000 pounds of gold)J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, p. 195. with his successor Khosrau I (532). Having thus secured his eastern frontier, Justinian turned his attention to the West, where Germanic kingdoms had been established in the territories of the former Western Roman Empire.Procopius, De Bellus III.9.5. Translated by H.B. Dewing, Procopius (Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library, 1979), vol. 2 p. 85

{{Main|Vandalic War}}

The first of the western kingdoms Justinian attacked was that of the Vandals in North Africa. King Hilderic, who had maintained good relations with Justinian and the North African Catholic clergy, had been overthrown by his cousin Gelimer in 530 AD. Imprisoned, the deposed king appealed to Justinian. Justinian protested Gelimer's actions, demanding that Gelimer return the kingdom to Hilderic. Gelimer replied, in effect, that Justinian had no authority to make these demands. Angered at this response, Justinian quickly concluded his ongoing war with the Sassanian Empire and prepared an expedition against the Vandals in 533.

In 533, Belisarius sailed to Africa with a fleet of 92 dromons, escorting 500 transports carrying an army of about 15,000 men, as well as a number of barbarian troops. They landed at Caput Vada (modern Ras Kaboudia) in modern Tunisia. They defeated the Vandals, who were caught completely off guard, at Ad Decimum on 14 September 533 and Tricamarum in December; Belisarius took Carthage. King Gelimer fled to Mount Pappua in Numidia, but surrendered the next spring. He was taken to Constantinople, where he was paraded in a triumph. Sardinia and Corsica, the Balearic Islands, and the stronghold Septem Fratres near Mons Calpe (later named Gibraltar) were recovered in the same campaign.Moorhead (1994), p. 68.

File:Medallion of Justinian I.jpg, AD 534]]

In this war, the contemporary Procopius remarks that Africa was so entirely depopulated that a person might travel several days without meeting a human being, and he adds, "it is no exaggeration to say, that in the course of the war 5,000,000 perished by the sword, and famine, and pestilence."{{Cite book |last=Mavor |first=William Fordyce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uaCgjEAmUfEC&pg=RA1-PA81 |title=Universal History, Ancient and Modern: From the Earliest Records of Time, to the General Peace of 1801 |date=1802 |publisher=R. Phillips |pages=81 |language=en |access-date=9 August 2023 |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407083159/https://books.google.com/books?id=uaCgjEAmUfEC&pg=RA1-PA81 |url-status=live }} An African prefecture, centred in Carthage, was established in April 534,Moorhead (1994), p. 70. but it would teeter on the brink of collapse during the next 15 years, amidst warfare with the Moors and military mutinies. By the mid-540s, under a succession of Byzantine generals, the region was disrupted under civil war, plague and military campaigning.{{Cite journal |last=Merrills |first=Andy |date=2021 |title=The Men Who Would Be King: Moorish Political Hierarchies and Imperial Policy in By |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2020.1833575 |journal=Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean |volume=33 |pages=16 |doi=10.1080/09503110.2020.1833575 |via=Taylor & Francis online}} The area was not completely pacified until 548,{{cite book | last = Procopius | title = De Bello Vandalico | chapter = II.XXVIII}} but remained peaceful thereafter and enjoyed a measure of prosperity. The recovery of Africa cost the empire about 100,000 pounds of gold.{{cite web | url = http://www.tulane.edu/~august/H303/handouts/Finances.htm | title = Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization: Constantine to Crusades | publisher = Tulane | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080309095541/http://www.tulane.edu/~august/H303/handouts/Finances.htm | archive-date = 9 March 2008 | df = dmy-all }}

{{Main|Gothic War (535–554)}}

File:Empèri Bizantin - Rèine de Justinian.png

As in Africa, dynastic struggles in Ostrogothic Italy provided an opportunity for intervention. The young king Athalaric had died on 2 October 534, and a usurper, Theodahad, had imprisoned queen Amalasuintha, Theodoric's daughter and mother of Athalaric, on the island of Martana in Lake Bolsena, where he had her assassinated in 535. Thereupon Belisarius, with 7,500 men,J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 215 invaded Sicily (535) and advanced into Italy, sacking Naples and capturing Rome on 9 December 536. By that time Theodahad had been deposed by the Ostrogothic army, who had elected Vitigis as their new king. He gathered a large army and besieged Rome from February 537 to March 538 without being able to retake the city.{{sfn|Rosen|2007|pp=153–155}}

Justinian sent another general, Narses, to Italy, but tensions between Narses and Belisarius hampered the progress of the campaign. Milan was taken, but was soon recaptured and razed by the Ostrogoths. Justinian recalled Narses in 539. By then the military situation had turned in favour of the Byzantines, and in 540 Belisarius reached the Ostrogothic capital Ravenna. There he was offered the title of Western Roman Emperor by the Ostrogoths at the same time that envoys of Justinian were arriving to negotiate a peace that would leave the region north of the Po River in Gothic hands. Belisarius feigned acceptance of the offer, entered the city in May 540, and reclaimed it for the Empire.Moorhead (1994), pp. 84–86. Then, having been recalled by Justinian, Belisarius returned to Constantinople, taking the captured Vitigis and his wife Matasuntha with him.{{cite book|author1=John Stevens Cabot Abbott|author2=Wilfred C. Lay|title=Italy|url=https://archive.org/details/italy00laygoog|year=1900|publisher=P. F. Collier|page=[https://archive.org/details/italy00laygoog/page/n424 424]}}

{{main|Lazic War}}

File:Roman-Persian Frontier, 565 AD.png on the eastern shore of the Black Sea became the new battlefield of the Roman–Persian Wars.]]

Belisarius had been recalled in the face of renewed hostilities by the Persians. Following a revolt against the Empire in Armenia in the late 530s and possibly motivated by the pleas of Ostrogothic ambassadors, King Khosrau I broke the "Eternal Peace" and invaded Roman territory in the spring of 540.See for this section Moorhead (1994), pp. 89 ff., Greatrex (2005), p. 488 ff., and especially H. Börm, "Der Perserkönig im Imperium Romanum", in Chiron 36, 2006, pp. 299 ff. He first sacked Beroea and then Antioch (allowing the garrison of 6,000 men to leave the city),J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 229 besieged Daras, and then went on to attack the Byzantine base in the small but strategically significant satellite kingdom of Lazica near the Black Sea as requested by its discontented king Gubazes, exacting tribute from the towns he passed along his way. He forced Justinian I to pay him 5,000 pounds of gold, plus 500 pounds of gold more each year.

Belisarius arrived in the East in 541, but after some success, was again recalled to Constantinople in 542. The reasons for his withdrawal are not known, but it may have been instigated by rumours of his disloyalty reaching the court.Procopius mentions this event both in the Wars and in the Secret History, but gives two entirely different explanations for it. The evidence is briefly discussed in Moorhead (1994), pp. 97–98.

The outbreak of the plague coupled with a rebellion in Persia brought Khosrow I's offensives to a halt. Exploiting this, Justinian ordered all the forces in the East to invade Persian Armenia, but the 30,000-strong Byzantine force was defeated by a small force at Anglon.J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 235 The next year, Khosrau unsuccessfully besieged the major city of Edessa. Both parties made little headway, and in 545 a truce was agreed upon for the southern part of the Roman-Persian frontier. After that, the Lazic War in the North continued for several years: the Lazic king switched to the Byzantine side, and in 549 Justinian sent Dagisthaeus to recapture Petra, but he faced heavy resistance and the siege was relieved by Sasanian reinforcements. Justinian replaced him with Bessas, who was under a cloud after the loss of Rome in 546, but he managed to capture and dismantle Petra in 551. The war continued for several years until a second truce in 557, followed by a fifty years' peace in 562. Under its terms, the Persians agreed to abandon Lazica in exchange for an annual tribute of 400 or 500 pounds of gold (30,000 solidi) to be paid by the Byzantines.Moorhead ((1994), p. 164) gives the lower, Greatrex ((2005), p. 489) the higher figure.

File:Spanish Visigothic gold tremisses in the name of emperor Justinian I with cross on breast 7th century.jpg gold Tremissis in the name of emperor Justinian I, 7th century. The Christian cross on the breast defines the Visigothic attribution. British Museum.]]

While military efforts were directed to the East, the situation in Italy took a turn for the worse. Under their respective kings Ildibad and Eraric (both murdered in 541) and especially Totila, the Ostrogoths made quick gains. After a victory at Faenza in 542, they reconquered the major cities of Southern Italy and soon held almost the entire Italian Peninsula. Belisarius was sent back to Italy late in 544 but lacked sufficient troops and supplies. Making no headway, he was relieved of his command in 548. Belisarius succeeded in defeating a Gothic fleet of 200 ships.{{Cite book |last=D’Amato |first=Raffaele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9aRWDgAAQBAJ |title=Imperial Roman Warships 193–565 AD |date=23 February 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-1827-0 |pages=44 |language=en}} During this period the city of Rome changed hands three more times, first taken and depopulated by the Ostrogoths in December 546, then reconquered by the Byzantines in 547, and then again by the Goths in January 550. Totila also plundered Sicily and attacked Greek coastlines.{{sfn|Bury|1958|pp=233–238}}

Finally, Justinian dispatched a force of approximately 35,000 men (2,000 men were detached and sent to invade southern Visigothic Hispania) under the command of Narses.J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 251 The army reached Ravenna in June 552 and defeated the Ostrogoths decisively within a month at the battle of Busta Gallorum in the Apennines, where Totila was slain. After a second battle at Mons Lactarius in October that year, the resistance of the Ostrogoths was finally broken. In 554, a large-scale Frankish invasion was defeated at Casilinum, and Italy was secured for the empire, though it would take Narses several years to reduce the remaining Gothic strongholds. At the end of the war, Italy was garrisoned with an army of 16,000 men.J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 233 The recovery of Italy cost the empire about 300,000 pounds of gold. Procopius estimated 15,000,000 Goths died.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g1YBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA82|title=Universal history, ancient and modern|date=1 March 1802|via=Google Books|last1=Mavor|first1=William Fordyce}}

File:4KJUSTINIAN.png, Dalmatia, Africa, and southern Hispania.]]

In addition to the other conquests, the Empire established a presence in Visigothic Hispania, when the usurper Athanagild requested assistance in his rebellion against King Agila I. In 552, Justinian dispatched a force of 2,000 men; according to the historian Jordanes, this army was led by the octogenarian Liberius.Getica, 303 The Byzantines took Cartagena and other cities on the southeastern coast and founded the new province of Spania before being checked by their former ally Athanagild, who had by now become king. This campaign marked the apogee of Byzantine expansion.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

During Justinian's reign, the Balkans suffered from several incursions by the Turkic and Slavic peoples who lived north of the Danube. Here, Justinian resorted mainly to a combination of diplomacy and a system of defensive works. In 559 a particularly dangerous invasion of Sklavinoi and Kutrigurs under their khan Zabergan threatened Constantinople, but they were repulsed by the aged general Belisarius.{{Cite book|last=Evans|first=James Allan|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/843198707|title=The Power Game in Byzantium : Antonina and the Empress Theodora.|date=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4411-2040-3|location=London|pages=205–206|oclc=843198707}}

Justinian's ambition for re-conquest was only partly realized, with the only lasting and sustainable conquest being Africa. In the West, the early military successes of the 530s were followed by years of stagnation. The dragging war with the Goths was a disaster for Italy, even though its long-lasting effects may have been less severe than is sometimes thought.See Lee (2005), pp. 125 ff. The heavy taxes that the administration imposed upon Italian population were deeply resented.{{cite book |last=Amory |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Amory |year=1997 |title=People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=176 |isbn=0-521-57151-0}}

The final victory in Italy and the conquest of Africa and the coast of southern Hispania significantly enlarged the area of Byzantine influence and eliminated all naval threats to the empire, which in 555 reached its territorial zenith. Despite losing much of Italy soon after Justinian's death, the empire retained several important cities, including Rome, Naples, and Ravenna, leaving the Lombards as a regional threat. The newly founded province of Spania kept the Visigoths as a threat to Hispania alone and not to the western Mediterranean and Africa.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Events of the later years of his reign showed that Constantinople itself was not safe from barbarian incursions from the north, and even the relatively benevolent historian Menander Protector felt the need to attribute the Emperor's failure to protect the capital to the weakness of his body in his old age.W. Pohl, "Justinian and the Barbarian Kingdoms", in Maas (2005), pp. 448–476; 472 Some historians view that in his efforts to renew the Roman Empire, Justinian dangerously stretched its resources while failing to take into account the changed realities of 6th-century Europe.See Haldon (2003), pp. 17–19.

File:Sanvitale03.jpg showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna (Italy), bodyguards, and courtiersAdams History of Western Art pp. 158–159]]

Justinian saw the orthodoxy of his empire threatened by diverging religious currents, especially miaphysitism, which had many adherents in the eastern provinces of Syria and Egypt. Miaphysitism rejected the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which ruled that Jesus Christ has two natures (one divine and one human), instead maintaining that he has one nature that is both fully divine and fully human. The tolerant policies towards Miaphysitism of Zeno and Anastasius I had been a source of tension in the relationship with the bishops of Rome.{{sfn|Meyendorff|1989|pp=207–250}}

Justin reversed this trend and confirmed the Chalcedonian doctrine, openly condemning the Miaphysites. Justinian, who continued this policy, tried to impose religious unity on his subjects by forcing them to accept doctrinal compromises that might appeal to all parties, a policy that proved unsuccessful as he satisfied none of them.{{sfn|Meyendorff|1989|pp=207–250}}

Near the end of his life, Justinian became ever more inclined towards Miaphysitism, especially in the form of Aphthartodocetism, but he died before being able to issue any legislation. The empress Theodora, herself a Miaphysite, sympathized with the Miaphysites and was accused of being constant source of pro-Miaphysite intrigues at the court in Constantinople in the earlier years. In the course of his reign, Justinian, who had a genuine interest in matters of theology, authored a small number of theological treatises.Treatises written by Justinian can be found in Migne's Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 86.

File:Sergius and Bacchus Church February 2011.JPG (Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus) was built by Justinian]]

As in his secular administration, despotism appeared also in the Emperor's ecclesiastical policy. At the very beginning of his reign, he promulgated by law the Church's belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation, and to threaten all heretics with the appropriate penalties,Cod., I., i. 5. whereas he subsequently declared that he intended to deprive all disturbers of orthodoxy of the opportunity for such offense by due process of law.MPG, lxxxvi. 1, p. 993. He made the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan creed the sole symbol of the ChurchCod., I., i. 7. and accorded legal force to the canons of the four ecumenical councils.Novellae, cxxxi. The bishops in attendance at the Council of Constantinople (536) recognized that nothing could be done in the Church contrary to the emperor's will and command,Mansi, Concilia, viii. 970B. while, on his side, the emperor, in the case of the Patriarch Anthimus, reinforced the ban of the Church with temporal proscription.Novellae, xlii. Justinian protected the purity of the church by suppressing heretics. He neglected no opportunity to secure the rights of the Church and clergy, and to protect and extend monasticism. He granted the monks the right to inherit property from private citizens and the right to receive solemnia, or annual gifts, from the imperial treasury or from the taxes of certain provinces and he prohibited lay confiscation of monastic estates.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Both the Codex and the Novellae contain many enactments regarding donations, foundations, and the administration of ecclesiastical property; election and rights of bishops, priests and abbots; monastic life, residential obligations of the clergy, conduct of divine service, episcopal jurisdiction, etc. Justinian also rebuilt the Church of Hagia Sophia (which cost 20,000 pounds of gold),P. Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, 283 the original site having been destroyed during the Nika riots. The new Hagia Sophia, with its numerous chapels and shrines, gilded octagonal dome, and mosaics, became the Byzantine Empire's space of identification.{{Cite web |title=Religion and politics at the Golden Horn? |url=https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/aktuelles/schwerpunkte/umnutzungen/Religion_und_Politik_am_Goldenen_Horn.html |access-date=3 June 2022 |website=www.uni-muenster.de |date=22 July 2020 |archive-date=11 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211065840/https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/aktuelles/schwerpunkte/umnutzungen/Religion_und_Politik_am_Goldenen_Horn.html |url-status=live }}

Justinian entered the arena of ecclesiastical conflicts shortly after his uncle's accession in 518, and put an end to the Acacian schism. Previous Emperors had tried to alleviate theological conflicts by declarations that deemphasized the Council of Chalcedon, which had condemned miaphysitism, which had strongholds in Egypt and Syria, and by tolerating the appointment of Miaphysites to church offices. The Popes reacted by severing ties with the Patriarch of Constantinople who supported these policies. Emperors Justin I (and later Justinian himself) rescinded these policies and re-established the union between Constantinople and Rome.cf. Novellae, cxxxi. After this, Justinian also felt entitled to settle disputes in papal elections, as he did when he favored Vigilius and had his rival Silverius deported.{{sfn|Bury|1958|pp=378–379}}

File:Hagia Sophia Southwestern entrance mosaics 2.jpg presents a model of Constantinople.]]

This new-found unity between East and West did not, however, solve the ongoing disputes in the east. Justinian's policies switched between attempts to force Miaphysites to accept the Chalcedonian creed by persecuting their bishops and monks – thereby embittering their sympathizers in Egypt and other provinces – and attempts at a compromise that would win over the Miaphysites without surrendering the Chalcedonian faith. Such an approach was supported by the Empress Theodora, who favoured the Miaphysites unreservedly. In the condemnation of the Three Chapters, three theologians that had opposed Miaphysitism before and after the Council of Chalcedon, Justinian tried to win over the opposition. At the Fifth Ecumenical Council, most of the Eastern church yielded to the Emperor's demands, and Pope Vigilius, who was forcibly brought to Constantinople and besieged at a chapel, finally also gave his assent. However, the condemnation was received unfavourably in the west, where it led to new (albeit temporal) schism, and failed to reach its goal in the east, as the Miaphysites remained unsatisfied – all the more bitter for him because during his last years he took an even greater interest in theological matters.{{sfn|Bury|1958|pp=372–384}}

{{Infobox saint

|honorific_prefix=Saint

|name = Justinian the Great

|death_date =

|feast_day = 14 November

|venerated_in = * Eastern Orthodoxy

• Eastern Catholicism
• Lutheranism

|image = Angel shows a model of Hagia Sofia to Justinian in a vision.png

|imagesize =

|caption = Illustration of an angel showing Justinian a model of Hagia Sophia in a vision, by Herbert Cole (1912)

|birth_place =

|death_place =

|titles = Emperor

|beatified_date=

|beatified_place=

|beatified_by=

|canonized_date=

|canonized_place=

|canonized_by=

|attributes = Imperial Vestment

|patronage =

|major_shrine = Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople

|issues=

|prayer=

|prayer_attrib=

}}

Justinian's religious policy reflected the conviction that the unity of the empire presupposed unity of faith under the Chalcedonian Church.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Those of different beliefs were subjected to persecution, which imperial legislation had effected from the time of Constantius II and which would now vigorously continue. The Codex contained two statutesCod., I., xi. 9 and 10. that decreed the total destruction of paganism, even in private life; these provisions were zealously enforced. Contemporary sources (John Malalas, Theophanes, and John of Ephesus) tell of severe persecutions, including men in high positions.{{cite book |last1=Sarris |first1=Peter |title=Justinian: emperor, soldier, saint |date=2023 |publisher=Basic Books |location=London |isbn=9781529365399 |page=279}}

The original Academy of Plato had been destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. Several centuries later, in 410 AD, a Neoplatonic Academy was established that had no institutional continuity with Plato's Academy, and which served as a center for Neoplatonism and mysticism. It persisted until 529 AD when it was finally closed by Justinian I. Other schools in Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, which were the centers of Justinian's empire, continued.Lindberg, David C. "The Beginnings of Western Science", p. 70

In Asia Minor alone, John of Ephesus was reported to have converted 70,000 pagans, which was probably an exaggerated number.François Nau, in Revue de l'orient chretien, ii., 1897, 482. Other peoples also accepted Christianity: the Heruli,Procopius, Bellum Gothicum, ii. 14; Evagrius, Hist. eccl., iv. 20 the Huns dwelling near the Don,Procopius, iv. 4; Evagrius, iv. 23. the Abasgi,Procopius, iv. 3; Evagrius, iv. 22. and the Tzanni in Caucasia.Procopius, Bellum Persicum, i. 15.

The worship of Amun at the oasis of Awjila in the Libyan desert was abolished,Procopius, De Aedificiis, vi. 2. and so were the remnants of the worship of Isis on the island of Philae, at the first cataract of the Nile.Procopius, Bellum Persicum, i. 19. The Presbyter JulianDCB, iii. 482 and the Bishop LonginusJohn of Ephesus, Hist. eccl., iv. 5 sqq. conducted a mission among the Nabataeans, and Justinian attempted to strengthen Christianity in Yemen by dispatching a bishop from Egypt.Procopius, Bellum Persicum, i. 20; Malalas, ed. Niebuhr, Bonn, 1831, pp. 433 sqq.

The civil rights of Jews were restrictedCod., I., v. 12 and their religious privileges threatened.Procopius, Historia Arcana, 28; Justinian also interfered in the internal affairs of the synagogueNov., cxlvi., 8 February 553 and encouraged the Jews to use the Greek Septuagint in their synagogues in Constantinople.{{Citation|author=Michael Maas|title=The Cambridge companion to the Age of Justinian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9AvjaThtrKYC&pg=PA16|access-date=18 August 2010|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-81746-2|pages=16–}}

The Emperor faced significant opposition from the Samaritans, who resisted conversion to Christianity and were repeatedly in insurrection. He persecuted them with rigorous edicts, for example, in 529, he banned them from having wills, an intentional act of humiliation.{{cite book |last1=Sarris |first1=Peter |title=Justinian: emperor, soldier, saint |date=2023 |publisher=Basic Books |location=London |isbn=9781529365399 |page=283}} However, he could not prevent reprisals towards Christians from taking place in Samaria toward the close of his reign.

The Manicheans too suffered persecution, experiencing both exile and threat of capital punishment.Cod., I., v. 12. In Constantinople, c.450, a number of Manicheans, after strict inquisition, were executed by burning.{{cite book |last1=Sarris |first1=Peter |title=Justinian: emperor, soldier, saint |date=2023 |publisher=Basic Books |location=London |isbn=9781529365399 |page=279}}

File:Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus 02.JPG displaying Justinian's full name (Constantinople 521)]]

Justinian's reputation as a prolific builder is attested in the works of Procopius, Paul the Silentiary, John Malalas and Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor.See Procopius, Buildings. Under Justinian's reign, the San Vitale in Ravenna, which features two famous mosaics representing Justinian and Theodora, was completed under the sponsorship of Julius Argentarius.Robert Browning. "Justinian I" in Dictionary of the Middle Ages, volume VII (1986). Most notably, he had the Hagia Sophia, originally a basilica-style church that had been burnt down during the Nika riots, splendidly rebuilt according to a completely different ground plan, under the architectural supervision of Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. On 26 December 537, according to Pseudo-Codinus, Justinian stated at the completion of this edifice: "Solomon, I have outdone thee" (in reference to the first Jewish temple). The church had a second inauguration on 24 December 562, after several reworks made by Isidore the Younger. This new cathedral, with its magnificent dome filled with mosaics, remained the centre of eastern Christianity for centuries.{{cite book|last=Barker|first=John W.|title=Justinian and the Later Roman Empire|date=1966|page=183|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiJljEXvwAoC&pg=PA183|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=9780299039448|access-date=9 August 2023|archive-date=7 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307051544/https://books.google.com/books?id=LiJljEXvwAoC&pg=PA183|url-status=live}}

File:Hagia Sophia (228968325).jpeg in Istanbul. Construction began by order of Justinian in AD 532—537]]

Another prominent church in the capital, the Church of the Holy Apostles, which had been in a very poor state near the end of the 5th century, was likewise rebuilt.Vasiliev (1952), p. 189 The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, later renamed Little Hagia Sophia, was also built between 532 and 536 by the imperial couple.{{Cite journal|last=Bardill|first=Jonathan|date=2017|title=The Date, Dedication, and Design of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople|journal=Journal of Late Antiquity|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=62–130|doi=10.1353/jla.2017.0003|issn=1942-1273|doi-access=free}} Works of embellishment were not confined to churches alone: excavations at the site of the Great Palace of Constantinople have yielded several high-quality mosaics dating from Justinian's reign, and a column topped by a bronze statue of Justinian on horseback and dressed in a military costume was erected in the Augustaeum in Constantinople in 543.Brian Croke, "Justinian's Constantinople", in Michael Maas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge 2005), pp. 60–86 (p. 66) Rivalry with other, more established patrons from the Constantinopolitan and exiled Roman aristocracy might have enforced Justinian's building activities in the capital as a means of strengthening his dynasty's prestige.See Croke (2005), pp. 364 ff., and Moorhead (1994).

Justinian also strengthened the borders of the Empire from Africa to the East through the construction of fortifications and ensured Constantinople of its water supply through construction of underground cisterns (see Basilica Cistern). To prevent floods from damaging the strategically important border town Dara, an advanced arch dam was built. During his reign the large Sangarius Bridge was built in Bithynia, securing a major military supply route to the east. Furthermore, Justinian restored cities damaged by earthquake or war and built a new city near his place of birth called Justiniana Prima, which was intended to replace Thessalonica as the political and religious centre of Illyricum.{{sfn|Turlej|2016|pp=47–86}}

In Justinian's reign, and partly under his patronage, Byzantine culture produced noteworthy historians, including Procopius and Agathias, and poets such as Paul the Silentiary and Romanus the Melodist flourished. On the other hand, centres of learning such as the Neoplatonic Academy in Athens and the famous Law School of BerytusFollowing a terrible earthquake in 551, the school at Berytus was transferred to Sidon and had no further significance after that date. (Vasiliev (1952), p. 147) lost their importance during his reign.{{sfn|Bury|1958|p=369}}

{{further|Byzantine silk}}

File:Gold coin of Justinian I 527CE 565CE excavated in India probably in the south.jpg probably in the south, an example of Indo-Roman trade during the period]]

As was the case under Justinian's predecessors, the empire was an agrarian-based economy. In addition, long-distance trade flourished, reaching as far north as Cornwall where tin was exchanged for Roman wheat.John F. Haldon, "Economy and Administration", in Michael Maas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge 2005), pp. 28–59 (p. 35) Within the empire, convoys sailing from Alexandria provided Constantinople with wheat and grains. Justinian made the traffic more efficient by building a large granary on the island of Tenedos for storage and further transport to Constantinople.John Moorhead, Justinian (London/New York 1994), p. 57 Justinian also tried to find new routes for the eastern trade, which was suffering badly from the wars with the Persians.

Silk was an important luxury product, which was imported and then processed in the empire. In order to protect the manufacture of silk products, Justinian granted a monopoly to the imperial factories in 541.Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity (London 1971), pp. 157–158 In order to bypass the Persian landroute, Justinian established friendly relations with the Abyssinians, whom he wanted to act as trade mediators by transporting Indian silk to the empire; the Abyssinians, however, were unable to compete with the Persian merchants in India.Vasiliev (1952), p. 167 Then, in the early 550s, two monks succeeded in smuggling eggs of silk worms from Central Asia back to Constantinople,See Moorhead (1994), p. 167; Procopius, Wars, 8.17.1–8 and silk became an indigenous product.

File:Byzantinischer Mosaizist des 5. Jahrhunderts 002.jpg, early 6th century]]

Gold and silver were mined in the Balkans, Anatolia, Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt and Nubia.{{cite web |url=http://technology.infomine.com/articles/1/3707/justinian-gold.roman-mines.egypt-gold/justinian%E2%80%99s.gold.mines.aspx |title=Justinian's Gold Mines – Mining Technology | TechnoMine |publisher=Technology.infomine.com |date=3 December 2008 |access-date=14 November 2012 |archive-date=2 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302061813/http://technology.infomine.com/articles/1/3707/justinian-gold.roman-mines.egypt-gold/justinian%E2%80%99s.gold.mines.aspx |url-status=dead }} At the start of Justinian I's reign, he had inherited a surplus 28,800,000 solidi (400,000 pounds of gold) in the imperial treasury from Anastasius I and Justin I. Under Justinian's rule, measures were taken to counter corruption in the provinces and to make tax collection more efficient. Greater administrative power was given to both the leaders of the prefectures and of the provinces, while power was taken away from the vicariates of the dioceses, of which a number were abolished. The overall trend was towards a simplification of administrative infrastructure.Haldon (2005), p. 50 According to Brown (1971), the increased professionalization of tax collection did much to destroy the traditional structures of provincial life, as it weakened the autonomy of the town councils in the Greek towns.Brown (1971), p. 157 It has been estimated that before Justinian I's reconquests the state had an annual revenue of 5,000,000 solidi in AD 530, but after his reconquests, the annual revenue was increased to 6,000,000 solidi in AD 550.

Throughout Justinian's reign, the cities and villages of the East thrived, although Antioch was struck by two earthquakes (526, 528) and sacked and evacuated by the Persians (540). Justinian had the city rebuilt, but on a slightly smaller scale.Kenneth G. Holum, "The Classical City in the Sixth Century", in Michael Maas (ed.), Age of Justinian (2005), pp. 99–100

The empire suffered several major setbacks in the course of the 6th century. The first one was the plague, which lasted from 541 to 543 and, by decreasing the empire's population, probably created a scarcity of labor and a rising of wages.Moorhead (1994), pp. 100–101 It has been proposed that the lack of manpower also led to a significant increase in the number of "barbarians" in the Byzantine armies after the early 540s,John L. Teall, "The Barbarians in Justinian's Armies", in Speculum, vol. 40, No. 2, 1965, 294–322. The total strength of the Byzantine army under Justinian is estimated at 150,000 men (J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 259). but others are skeptical of this view.A.D. Lee, "The Empire at War", in Michael Maas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (2005), p. 118 The protracted war in Italy and the wars with the Persians themselves laid a heavy burden on the empire's resources, and Justinian was criticized for curtailing the government-run post service, which he limited to only one eastern route of military importance.Brown (1971), p. 158; Moorhead (1994), p. 101

{{main|551 Beirut earthquake|Extreme weather events of 535–536|Plague of Justinian}}

File:Mosaic of Justinian I - Sant'Apoilinare Nuovo - Ravenna 2016.png, Ravenna (possibly a modified portrait of Theodoric)]]

The extreme weather events of 535–536 led to a famine such as had not been recorded before, affecting both Europe and the Middle East.{{cite journal |last1=Gibbons |first1=Ann |title=Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive' |journal=Science |date=15 November 2018 |doi=10.1126/science.aaw0632 |s2cid=189287084 }} These events may have been caused by an atmospheric dust veil resulting from a large volcanic eruption.{{cite journal |last1=Larsen |first1=L. B. |title=New ice core evidence for a volcanic cause of the A.D. 536 dust veil |journal=Geophys. Res. Lett. |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=L04708 |year=2008 |doi=10.1029/2007GL032450 |last2=Vinther |first2=B. M. |last3=Briffa |first3=K. R. |last4=Melvin |first4=T. M. |last5=Clausen |first5=H. B. |last6=Jones |first6=P. D. |last7=Siggaard-Andersen |first7=M.-L. |last8=Hammer |first8=C. U. |last9=Eronen |first9=M. |last10=Grudd |first10=H. |last11=Gunnarson |first11=B. E. |last12=Hantemirov |first12=R. M. |last13=Naurzbaev |first13=M. M. |last14=Nicolussi |first14=K. |bibcode=2008GeoRL..35.4708L |display-authors=8 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |author=Than, Ker |title=Slam dunks from space led to hazy shade of winter |journal=New Scientist |volume=201 |issue=2689 |pages=9 |date=3 January 2009 |bibcode=2009NewSc.201....9P |doi=10.1016/S0262-4079(09)60069-5}}

The historian Procopius recorded in 536 in his work on the Vandalic War "during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness … and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear".{{cite book |last1=Procopius |last2=Dewing |first2=Henry Bronson, trans. |title=Procopius |date=1916 |publisher=William Heinemann |location=London, England |volume=2: History of the [Vandalic] Wars, Books III and IV |page=329 |isbn=978-0-674-99054-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=szQjAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA329 |access-date=3 October 2021 |archive-date=11 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231011072516/https://books.google.com/books?id=szQjAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA329#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}{{cite book |author1=Ochoa, George |author2=Jennifer Hoffman |author3=Tina Tin |title=Climate: the force that shapes our world and the future of life on earth |publisher=Rodale |location=Emmaus, PA |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-59486-288-5}}

The causes of these disasters are not precisely known, but volcanoes at the Rabaul caldera, Lake Ilopango, Krakatoa, or, according to a recent finding, in Iceland are suspected.

Seven years later in 542, a devastating outbreak of Bubonic Plague, known as the Plague of Justinian, was traditionally believed to have killed tens of millions, second only to Black Death of the 14th century. Justinian and members of his court were afflicted, with Justinian himself contracting and surviving the pestilence. The impact of this outbreak of plague has recently been disputed, since evidence for tens of millions dying is uncertain.{{Cite journal|last1=Mordechai|first1=Lee|last2=Eisenberg|first2=Merle|last3=Newfield|first3=Timothy P.|last4=Izdebski|first4=Adam|last5=Kay|first5=Janet E.|last6=Poinar|first6=Hendrik|date=27 November 2019|title=The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic?|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=116|issue=51|pages=25546–25554|language=en|doi=10.1073/pnas.1903797116|issn=0027-8424|pmid=31792176|pmc=6926030|bibcode=2019PNAS..11625546M |doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal|last1=Mordechai|first1=Lee|last2=Eisenberg|first2=Merle|date=1 August 2019|title=Rejecting Catastrophe: The Case of the Justinianic Plague|journal=Past & Present|language=en|issue=244|pages=3–50|doi=10.1093/pastj/gtz009|issn=0031-2746}}

In July 551, the Beirut earthquake struck the eastern Mediterranean and triggered a tsunami. The combined fatalities of both events likely exceeded 30,000, with tremors felt from Antioch to Alexandria.{{Cite journal|last1=Sbeinati|first1=M. R.|last2=Darawcheh|first2=R.|last3=Mouty|first3=M.|date=25 December 2005|title=The historical earthquakes of Syria: an analysis of large and moderate earthquakes from 1365 B.C. to 1900 A.D.|url=https://www.annalsofgeophysics.eu/index.php/annals/article/view/3206|journal=Annals of Geophysics|language=en|volume=48|issue=3|doi=10.4401/ag-3206|issn=2037-416X|doi-access=free|access-date=24 December 2021|archive-date=20 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120234748/https://www.annalsofgeophysics.eu/index.php/annals/article/view/3206|url-status=live}}

Contemporary sources include the writings of Procopius, John Malalas, John of Ephesus, Agathias, John the Lydian, Menander Protector, Evagrius Scholasticus, Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, Jordanes, Marcellinus Comes, Corippus and Victor of Tunnuna. The Paschal Chronicle and Theophanes the Confessor also provide accounts of his reign though written in a later period.

Procopius provides some of the primary sources for the history of Justinian's reign, but displays growing disillusionment (Justinian and the Later Roman Empire by John W. Barker) and bitterness towards Justinian and his empress Theodora. While he glorified Justinian's architectural achievements in his panegyric (Buildings) and provided a more lukewarm account in his history (Wars), Procopius also wrote a hostile account, Anekdota (the so-called Secret History), in which Justinian is depicted as cruel, venal, incompetent and demonic. The Syriac chronicle of John of Ephesus, which survives partially, was used as a source for later chronicles, contributing many additional details of value. John Malalas' chronicle was another popular source that summarized the events of his reign.

Justinian is widely regarded as a saint by Orthodox Christians. In various Eastern Orthodox Churches, including the Orthodox Church in America, Justinian and his empress Theodora are commemorated on the anniversary of his death, 14 November. Some denominations translate the Julian calendar date to 27 November on the Gregorian calendar. The Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Lutheran Church–Canada also commemorate Justinian on 14 November.

File:Gold solidus of Justinian I (obverse).jpg on the obverse of a coin.]]

File:Portnoy Normal DT 190913A-21205 - Copy.jpg, prior to restoration in 2020]]

File:Knachfuss Pandekten Kassel.tif to Emperor Justinian (design for a mural in the Court building in Kassel, 1891) by Hermann Knackfuss]]

In the Paradiso section of the Divine Comedy, Canto (chapter) VI, by Dante Alighieri, Justinian I is prominently featured as a spirit residing on the sphere of Mercury. The latter holds in Heaven the souls of those whose acts were righteous, yet meant to achieve fame and honor. Justinian's legacy is elaborated on, and he is portrayed as a defender of the Christian faith and the restorer of Rome to the Empire. Justinian confesses that he was partially motivated by fame rather than duty to God, which tainted the justice of his rule in spite of his proud accomplishments. In his introduction, "Cesare fui e son Iustinïano" ("Caesar I was, and am Justinian"Paradiso, Canto VI verse 10), his mortal title is contrasted with his immortal soul, to emphasize that "glory in life is ephemeral, while contributing to God's glory is eternal", according to Dorothy L. Sayers.Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradiso, notes on Canto VI. Dante also uses Justinian to criticize the factious politics of his 14th-century Italy, divided between Ghibellines and Guelphs, in contrast to the unified Italy of the Roman Empire.

Justinian is a major character in the 1938 novel Count Belisarius, by Robert Graves. He is depicted as a jealous and conniving Emperor obsessed with creating and maintaining his own historical legacy.{{Cite news |last=Cournos |first=John |date=20 November 1938 |orig-date=20 November 1938 |title=A Rich Novel by Robert Graves: In "Count Belisarius" He Offers Another Vivid Picture of Ancient Times, Here the Period of Justinian |language=en |work=The New York Times |page=92|quote=..."petty, envious masters. For such was the Emperor Justinian, in the full-length portrait of him in this book; his reputation for greatness is perhaps due to his wife..." }}

Justinian appears as a character in the 1939 time-travel novel Lest Darkness Fall, by L. Sprague de Camp.{{Cite news |last=Dean |first=Charlotte |date=23 February 1941 |title=Fiction in Lighter Vein: LEST DARKNESS FALL. By L. Sprague de Camp |language=en |page=21 |work=The New York Times Book Review |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.comhttp//arch-timesmachine-fe-prd-40741-2-575473780.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/timesmachine/1941/02/23/85451774.html?pageNumber=72 |access-date=2 July 2023 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

The Glittering Horn: Secret Memoirs of the Court of Justinian was a novel written by Pierson Dixon in 1958 about the court of Justinian.{{Cite web |title=BIBLIO {{!}} The Glittering Horn: Secret Memoirs of the Court of Justinian. by Dixon, Pierson {{!}} {{!}} 1958 {{!}} Jonathan Cape {{!}} |url=https://www.biblio.com/book/glittering-horn-secret-memoirs-court-justinian/d/1371294388?srsltid=AfmBOoq5gx5rbX0EWQWh1ByPY9Ftcnl7N0I-qKEKzmhzIH9JRE-MhVD_ |access-date=20 October 2024 |website=www.biblio.com}}

In the 1968 West German-Italian historical drama film Kampf um Rom (English language title: The Last Roman) Justinian is played by Orson Welles.

In the 1985 Soviet film Primary Russia Justinian is played by Innokenty Smoktunovsky.{{cite AV media |people= Vasilyev,Gennady (director). |date=1985 |title=Русь изначальная |trans-title=Primary Russia |type=motion picture |language=ru |time=00:02:47 |location=Soviet Union |publisher=Gorky Film Studio |id= |isbn= |oclc= |quote=Юстиниан- Иннокентий СМОКТУНОВСКИЙ}}

Justinian is a chief protagonist of Belisarius in "Empire in Apocalypse" by Robert Bruton (Legend Books 2023). The emperor's jealousy and envy of Belisarius eventually prompt him to undermine his best general.

Justinian occasionally appears in the comic strip Prince Valiant, usually as a nemesis of the title character.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Justinian's Crown is a historical artifact claimed by the Byzantine Empire in the popular 2020 computer strategy game Crusader Kings 3, by Paradox Development Studio.Paradox Wiki's, Historical Artifacts https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Artifacts {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730153805/https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Artifacts |date=30 July 2023 }}.

{{portal|Byzantine Empire}}

• Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, rebuilt by Justinian
• International Roman Law Moot Court

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• This article incorporates text from the Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.

• Procopius, Historia Arcana.
• [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL290/1935/volume.xml The Anecdota or Secret History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805172558/https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL290/1935/volume.xml |date=5 August 2018 }}. Edited by H. B. Dewing. 7 vols. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press and London, Hutchinson, 1914–40. Greek text and English translation.
• [https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book//lookupid?key=olbp79885 Procopii Caesariensis opera omnia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125022041/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book//lookupid?key=olbp79885 |date=25 January 2022 }}. Edited by J. Haury; revised by G. Wirth. 3 vols. Leipzig: Teubner, 1962–64. Greek text.
• The Secret History, translated by G.A. Williamson. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1966. A readable and accessible English translation of the Anecdota.
• John Malalas, [https://en.calameo.com/books/000675905f2f4bf509d49 Chronicle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209175911/https://en.calameo.com/books/000675905f2f4bf509d49 |date=9 February 2022 }}, translated by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys & Roger Scott, 1986. Byzantina Australiensia 4 (Melbourne: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies) {{ISBN|0-9593626-2-2}}
• Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, translated by Edward Walford (1846), reprinted 2008. Evolution Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-889758-88-6}}.

• {{Cite book|last=Barker|first=John W.|year=1966|title=Justinian and the Later Roman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiJljEXvwAoC|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|place=Madison|isbn=978-0299039448}}
• {{Cite book|last=Ostrogorsky|first=George|year=1956|title=History of the Byzantine State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt0_AAAAYAAJ|publisher=Basil Blackwell|place=Oxford|author-link=George Ostrogorsky|access-date=18 October 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423035501/https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt0_AAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}
• {{cite book|last=Bury|first=J. B.|date=1958|title=History of the later Roman Empire|volume=2|place=New York (reprint)|author-link=J. B. Bury}}
• {{cite book |last=Bury |first=J. B. |publisher=Dover Publications |year=2012 |isbn=9780486143385 |title=History of the later Roman Empire |volume=1 |place=New York |author-link=J. B. Bury}}
• {{Cite book |last=Meyendorff |first=John |author-link=John Meyendorff |year=1989 |title=Imperial unity and Christian divisions: The Church 450–680 A.D. |series=The Church in history |volume=2 |location=Crestwood, NY |publisher=St. Vladimir's Seminary Press |isbn=978-0-88-141056-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6J_YAAAAMAAJ}}
• {{cite journal |editor-last=Cameron |editor-first=Averil |display-editors=etal |title=Justinian Era |journal=The Cambridge Ancient History |volume=14 |isbn=9780521325912 |edition=Second |place=Cambridge |date=}}
• {{cite book |last=Cumberland Jacobsen |first=Torsten |title=The Gothic War |publisher=Westholme |isbn=9781594160844 |date=2009}}
• {{cite book|author=Dixon, Pierson|date=1958|title=The Glittering Horn: Secret Memoirs of the Court of Justinian|author-link=Pierson Dixon}}
• {{cite book|last=Evans|first=James Allan|title=The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire|place=Westport, CT|publisher=Greenwood Press|date=2005|isbn=978-0-313-32582-3}}
• {{cite book |last=Garland |first=Lynda |author-link=Lynda Garland |title=Byzantine empresses: women and power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204 |place=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134756391 |date=1999}}
• {{cite book |isbn=9781139826877 |editor-last=Maas |editor-first=Michael |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian |place=Cambridge |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Martindale|editor-first=J.R.|editor-link=John Robert Martindale|title=Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire|volume=II|pages=645–648|chapter=Fl. Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus 7|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/plre-ii/page/645/mode/1up|date=1980|ref=CITEREFPLRE}}
• {{cite book |last=Meier |first=Mischa |title=Das andere Zeitalter Justinians. Kontingenz Erfahrung und Kontingenzbewältigung im 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr. |publisher=Gottingen |year=2003 |isbn=9783666252464 |language=de |trans-title=The other age of Justinian: Experience of contingency and coping with contingency in the 6th century AD.}}
• {{cite book |last=Meier |first=Mischa |title=Justinian. Herrschaft, Reich, und Religion |place=Munich |publisher=CH Beck |year=2004 |isbn=9783406508325 |language=de |trans-title=Justinian: Rule, Empire and Religion}}
• {{cite book |last=Moorhead |first=John |title=Justinian |place=London |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9781317898795}}
• {{cite book|last=Rosen|first=William|title=Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe|publisher=Viking Adult|date=2007|isbn=978-0-670-03855-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/justiniansfleapl00rose}}
• {{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Berthold|date=1960|title=Das Zeitalter Iustinians|place=Berlin}} – German standard work; partially obsolete, but still useful.
• {{cite book |last=Sarris |first=Peter |title=Economy and society in the age of Justinian |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9781139459044 |author-link=Peter Sarris}}
• {{cite book |last=Sarris |first=Peter |title=Justinian: emperor, soldier, saint |place=London |publisher=Basic Books |year=2023 |isbn=9781529365399 |author-link=Peter Sarris}}
• {{cite book|last=Ure|first=PN|date=1951|title=Justinian and his Age|publisher=Penguin, Harmondsworth}}
• {{cite book|author=Vasiliev, A. A.|title=History of the Byzantine Empire|ref=324–1453|edition=2nd|publisher=Madison|date=1952|author-link=Alexander Vasiliev (historian)}}
• {{cite journal|journal=Ancient Warfare |volume=IV|issue=3|date=Jun–Jul 2010|title=Justinian's fireman: Belisarius and the Byzantine empire |editor=Sidney Dean |editor2=Duncan B. Campbell |editor3=Ian Hughes |editor4=Ross Cowan |editor5=Raffaele D'Amato |editor6=Christopher Lillington-Martin}}
• {{Cite book|last=Turlej|first=Stanisław|title=Justiniana Prima: An Underestimated Aspect of Justinian's Church Policy|year=2016|location=Krakow|publisher=Jagiellonian University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2yYDQAAQBAJ|isbn=978-8323395560}}

{{Commons category|Iustinianus I}}

{{Wikisource|Author:Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus Augustus|Iustinianus I}}

• {{cite encyclopedia | article = Justinian I | last = Kettenhofen | first = Erich | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/justinian-i-flavius-petrus-sabbatius-justinianus#article-tags-overlay | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XV, Fasc. 3 | pages = 257–262 | year = 2009 | title = Archived copy | access-date = 25 June 2018 | archive-date = 9 February 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220209180411/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/justinian-i-flavius-petrus-sabbatius-justinianus#article-tags-overlay | url-status = live }}
• [http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=103301 St Justinian the Emperor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023023758/http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=103301 |date=23 October 2012 }} Orthodox Icon and Synaxarion (14 November)
• [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/procop-anec.html The Anekdota ("Secret history") of Procopius in English translation.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011231759/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/procop-anec.html |date=11 October 2013 }}
• [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_244.html Lewis E 244 Infortiatum at OPenn] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209183639/https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_244.html |date=9 February 2022 }}
• [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Procopius/Buildings/home.html The Buildings of Procopius in English translation.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120831060912/http://web.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak/ The Roman Law Library by Professor Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev]
• [http://www.anders.com/lectures/lars_brownworth/12_byzantine_rulers/ Lecture series covering 12 Byzantine Rulers, including Justinian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160718092221/http://anders.com/lectures/lars_brownworth/12_byzantine_rulers/ |date=18 July 2016 }} – by Lars Brownworth
• [http://www.roman-emperors.org/justinia.htm De Imperatoribus Romanis. An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413123151/http://www.roman-emperors.org/justinia.htm |date=13 April 2020 }}
• [http://www.byzantium1200.com/justinia.html Reconstruction of column of Justinian in Constantinople] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301154244/http://www.byzantium1200.com/justinia.html |date=1 March 2016 }}
• [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_20_0482-0565-_Flavius_Justinianus_Imperator.html Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Graeca with analytical indexes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229233103/http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_20_0482-0565-_Flavius_Justinianus_Imperator.html |date=29 December 2020 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100619002804/http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Law508/Roman%20Law/PrefacesDigest.htm Preface to the Digest of Emperor Justinian]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120311111356/http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/blume%26justinian/ Annotated Justinian Code (University of Wyoming website)]
• [http://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/constantine-justinian-hagia-sophia.html Mosaic of Justinian in Hagia Sophia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209175914/https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/constantine-justinian-hagia-sophia.html |date=9 February 2022 }}

{{S-start}}

{{S-reg|}}

{{S-bef|before=Justin I}}

{{S-ttl|title=Byzantine emperor|years=527–565|regent1=Justin I|years1=527}}

{{S-aft|after=Justin II}}

{{S-off}}

{{S-bef|before=Rusticius|before2=Vitalianus}}

{{S-ttl|title=Roman consul|years=521|with=Valerius}}

{{S-aft|after=Symmachus|after2=Boethius}}

{{S-bef|before=Vettius Agorius Basilius Mavortius}}

{{S-ttl|title=Roman consul|years=528}}

{{S-aft|after=Decius}}

{{s-vac|last=Rufius Gennadius Probus Orestes
Lampadius}}

{{s-ttl|title=Roman consul|years=533–534|regent1=Decius Paulinus|years1=534}}

{{S-aft|after=Belisarius}}

{{s-end}}

{{Roman emperors}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Justinian 01}}

Category:480s births

Category:565 deaths

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Category:Justinian dynasty

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Category:Pre-Reformation saints of the Lutheran liturgical calendar

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Category:People from Zelenikovo Municipality

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