The west of the Roman Empire, captured by the Germans, who divided it into barbarian kingdoms, lay in ruins. Only islets and fragments of the Hellenistic civilization survived there, by that time already transformed by the light of the Gospel. The German kings - Catholic, Arian, pagan - still had reverence for the Roman name, but the center of gravity for them was no longer a dilapidated, devastated and depopulated city on the Tiber, but New Rome, created by the creative act of St. Constantine on the European shore of the Bosphorus, cultural superiority which over the cities of the West was an indisputable evidence.
The primordially Latin-speaking, as well as the Latinized inhabitants of the German kingdoms, assimilated the ethnonyms of their conquerors and masters - Goths, Franks, Burgundians, while the Roman name has long become familiar to the former Hellenes, who lost their original ethnonym, which fed their national pride in the past, to the small in the east empires to the pagans. Paradoxically, later in Russia, at least in the writings of learned monks, pagans of any origin, even Samoyeds, are called “Greeks”. The Romans, or, in Greek, the Romans, also called themselves immigrants from other peoples - Armenians, Syrians, Copts, if they were Christians and citizens of the empire, which was identified in their minds with the ecumene - the Universe, not because, of course, they imagined on its borders, the edge of the world, but because the world lying beyond these borders was deprived of its fullness and self-worth in their consciousness and in this sense belonged to pitch darkness - meon, in need of enlightenment and familiarization with the blessings of Christian Roman civilization, in need of integration into a genuine ecumene, or, what is the same, to the Roman Empire. Since then, newly baptized peoples, regardless of their real political status, by the very fact of baptism were considered included in the imperial body, and their rulers from barbarian sovereigns became tribal archons, whose powers stem from the emperors, in whose service they are, at least symbolically , acted, honoring ranks from the palace nomenclature as a reward.
In Western Europe, the era from the 6th to the 9th century is the dark ages, and the East of the empire experienced during this period, despite crises, external threats and territorial losses, a brilliant flowering, the reflections of which were cast to the west, and therefore not overturned as a result of barbarian conquest into the maternal womb of prehistoric existence, as happened in due time with the Mycenaean civilization, destroyed by the invaders from Macedonia and Epirus, conventionally called Dorians, who invaded its borders. The Dorians of the Christian era - the Germanic barbarians - stood no higher than the ancient conquerors of Achaia in terms of their cultural development, but, once within the empire and turning the conquered provinces into ruins, they fell into the field of attraction of the fabulously rich and beautiful world capital - New Rome, which withstood the blows of human elements and learned to appreciate the bonds that bound their peoples to him.
The era ended with the assimilation of the Frankish king Charles the imperial title, and more precisely and definitely - with the failure of attempts to settle relations between the newly proclaimed emperor and the successor emperor - Saint Irene - so that the empire remained united and indivisible if it had two rulers with the same title, as it happened many times happened in the past. The failure of the negotiations led to the formation of a separate empire in the West, which, from the point of view of political and legal traditions, was an act of usurpation. The unity of Christian Europe was undermined, but not completely destroyed, for the peoples of the East and West of Europe remained for another two and a half centuries in the bosom of a single Church.
The period, which lasted from the 6th to the turn of the 8th-9th centuries, is called early Byzantine because of the anachronistic, but still sometimes used in these centuries in relation to the capital - and never to the empire and the state - the ancient toponym Byzantium, reanimated by modern historians, for whom it began to serve as a name both the state and civilization itself. Within this period, its most brilliant segment, its acme and apogee was the era of Justinian the Great, which began with the reign of his uncle Justin the Elder and ended with the turmoil that led to the overthrow of the legitimate emperor Mauritius and the coming to power of the usurper Phocas. The emperors who ruled after St. Justinian until the rebellion of Phocas were directly or indirectly related to the dynasty of Justin.
Reign of Justin the Elder
After the death of Anastasius, his nephews, the Master of the East, Hypatius, and the consulars of Probe and Pompey, could claim supreme power, but the dynastic principle in itself meant nothing in the Roman Empire without reliance on real power and the army. The nephews, having no support from the excuvites (life guards), did not seem to have any claim to power. The eunuch Amantius, who enjoyed special influence on the late emperor, would put the sacred bedchamber (a kind of minister of the court), the eunuch Amantius, tried to install his nephew and bodyguard Theocritus as emperor, for which, according to Evagrius Scholasticus, having called on the committee of excuvites and senator Justin, “transferred to him great wealth, ordering to distribute them among people, especially useful and able (to help) Theocritus to put on purple clothes. Having bribed with these riches either the people, or the so-called excuvites ... (Justin himself) seized power. According to John Malala, Justin conscientiously fulfilled the order of Amantius and distributed money to the excuvites subordinate to him, so that they would support Theocritus's candidacy, and "the army and the people, having taken (the money), did not want to make Theocritus king, but by the will of God they made Justin king" .
According to another and quite convincing version, which, however, does not contradict the information about the distribution of gifts in favor of Theocritus, at first the traditionally rival guard units (the technology of power in the empire provided for a system of balances) - excuvites and schols - had different candidates for supreme power. The excuvites raised to the shield the tribune John, a companion of Justin, who soon after the acclamation of his chief emperor became a cleric and was appointed metropolitan of Heraclea, and the scholia proclaimed the emperor of the master militum praesentalis (the army stationed in the capital) Patricius. The threat of civil war that arose in this way was averted by the decision of the Senate to install the elderly and popular commander Justin as emperor, who shortly before the death of Anastasius defeated the rebellious troops of the usurper Vitalian. The excuvites approved this choice, and the scholas agreed with it, and the people gathered at the hippodrome greeted Justin.
On July 10, 518, Justin ascended the hippodrome box together with Patriarch John II and the highest dignitaries. Then he stood on the shield, campiduktor Godila put a golden chain - hryvnia - on his neck. The shield was raised to the salutatory acclamations of the warriors and the people. The banners flew up. The only innovation, according to J. Dagron, was the fact that the newly proclaimed emperor after acclamation "did not return to the triclinium of the lodge in order to receive the insignia", but the soldiers lined up "tortoise" to hide him "from prying eyes" while "the patriarch laid a crown on his head" and "dressed him in a mantle". Then the herald, on behalf of the emperor, announced a welcoming address to the troops and people, in which he called for Divine Providence to help in his service to the people and the state. Each warrior was promised 5 gold coins and a pound of silver as a gift.
A verbal portrait of the new emperor is available in the "Chronicle" of John Malala: "He was short, broad-chested, with gray curly hair, with a beautiful nose, ruddy, handsome." The historian adds to the description of the appearance of the emperor: “experienced in military affairs, ambitious, but illiterate.”
At that time, Justin had already approached the 70-year mark - at that time it was the age of old age. He was born around 450 into a peasant family in the village of Bederian (located near the modern Serbian city of Leskovac). In this case, he, and hence his more famous nephew Justinian the Great, comes from the same Inner Dacia as Saint Constantine, who was born in Naissus. Some historians find Justin's homeland in the south of the modern Macedonian state - near Bitola. Both ancient and modern authors indicate the ethnic origin of the dynasty in different ways: Procopius calls Justin an Illyrian, while Evagrius and John Malala call him a Thracian. The version of the Thracian origin of the new dynasty seems less convincing. Despite the name of the province where Justin was born, Inner Dacia was not the true Dacia. After the evacuation of the Roman legions from real Dacia, its name was transferred to the province adjacent to it, where the legions were redeployed at one time, leaving Dacia conquered by Trajan, and not the Thracian, but the Illyrian element prevailed in its population. In addition, within the Roman Empire, by the middle of the 1st millennium, the process of Romanization and Hellenization of the Thracians had already been completed or was being completed, while one of the Illyrian peoples, the Albanians, had successfully survived to this day. A. Vasiliev definitely considers Justin an Illyrian; in one way or another he was, of course, a Romanized Illyrian. Despite the fact that his native language was the language of his ancestors, he, like his fellow villagers and all the inhabitants of Inner Dacia, as well as neighboring Dardania, at the very least knew Latin. In any case, Justin should have mastered it in military service.
For a long time, the version of the Slavic origin of Justin and Justinian was seriously considered. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Vatican librarian Alemann published a biography of Justinian, attributed to a certain abbot Theophilus, who was named his mentor. And in this biography, Justinian adopted the name "Administration". In this name, the Slavic translation of the Latin name of the emperor is easily guessed. The seepage of the Slavs across the imperial border into the central part of the Balkans took place in the 5th century, although at that time it was not of a massive nature and did not yet seem to be a serious danger. Therefore, the version of the Slavic origin of the dynasty was not rejected from the threshold. But, as A.A. Vasiliev, "the manuscript used by Alemann was found and studied at the end of the 19th century (1883) by the English scientist Bryce, who showed that this manuscript, being compiled at the beginning of the 17th century, is of a legendary nature and has no historical value" .
In the reign of Emperor Leo, Justin, together with his fellow villagers Zimarch and Ditivist, went to military service. “They reached Byzantium on foot, carrying goat coats over their shoulders, in which, upon arrival in the city, they had nothing but crackers taken from home. Enlisted in the soldier's lists, they were selected by the basileus for the court guard, for they were distinguished by their excellent physique. The imperial career of a poor peasant, fantastically unthinkable in medieval Western Europe, was an ordinary phenomenon and even typical of the late Roman and Roman Empire, just as similar metamorphoses were repeated more than once in the history of China.
Being in the service of the guard, Justin acquired a concubine, later taken by him as his wife - Lupicina, a former slave, whom he bought from her master and cohabitant. After becoming empress, Lupicina changed her common name to an aristocratic one. According to the caustic remark of Procopius, “she did not appear in the palace under her own name (it was too funny already), but began to be called Euphemia.”
Possessing courage, common sense, diligence, Justin made a successful military career, rising to the rank of officer, and then the rank of general. In the service field, he also had breakdowns. One of them has been preserved in the annals, because after the rise of Justin it received a providential interpretation among the people. The story of this episode is included by Procopius in his Secret History. During the suppression of the rebellion of the Isaurians during the reign of Anastasius, Justin was in the army, commanded by John, nicknamed Kirt - "Humpbacked". And for some unknown offense, John arrested Justin in order to “put him to death the next day, but he was prevented from doing this ... a vision ... In a dream, someone of enormous growth appeared to him ... And this vision ordered him to release her husband, whom he ... threw into prison » . John at first did not attach importance to the dream, but the dream was repeated the next night and then a third time; the husband who appeared in the vision threatened Kirt “to prepare for him a terrible fate if he does not fulfill what was ordered, and at the same time added that later ... he would urgently need this man and his relatives. That was how Justin managed to stay alive,” Procopius sums up his anecdote, possibly based on the story of Kirt himself.
Anonymous Valesia tells another story, which, according to popular rumor, foreshadowed Justin, when he was already one of the dignitaries close to Anastasius, the supreme power. Having reached a ripe old age, Anastasius thought about which of his nephews should become his successor. And then one day, in order to divine the will of God, he invited all three of them to his chambers and, after supper, left them to spend the night in the palace. “At the head of one bed, he ordered to put the royal (sign), and by whoever of them chooses this bed for rest, he will be able to determine who to give power to subsequently. One of them lay down on one bed, while the other two, out of brotherly love, lay down together on the second bed. And ... the bed where the royal sign was hidden turned out to be unoccupied. When he saw this, on reflection, he decided that none of them would rule, and began to pray to God that He would send him a revelation ... And one night he saw in a dream a man who said to him: “The first one about whom you will be informed tomorrow in the chambers, and will take over after you power. It so happened that Justin ... as soon as he arrived, he was sent to the emperor, and he was the first to report on him ... he would oppose. Anastasius, according to Anonymous, “exalted gratitude to God for showing him a worthy heir,” and yet, humanly, Anastasius was upset by what had happened: “Once, during the royal exit, Justin, in a hurry to pay respect, wanted to bypass the emperor from the side and involuntarily stepped on his mantle. To this, the emperor only said to him: “Where are you in a hurry?”
In climbing the career ladder, Justin was not hindered by his illiteracy, and according to the probably exaggerated certification of Procopius, illiteracy. The author of The Secret History wrote that, even after becoming emperor, Justin found it difficult to sign the issued edicts and constitutions, and so that he could still do this, a “small smooth plate” was made, on which was cut “the contour of four letters, meaning in Latin "Read" (Legi. - prot. V.Ts.); dipping a pen in colored ink, with which the basileus usually write, they handed it to this basileus. Then, putting the mentioned tablet on the document and taking the hand of the basileus, they traced the outline of these four letters with a pen. With a high degree of barbarization of the army, illiterate military leaders were put at the head more than once. This does not mean at all that they were mediocre generals, on the contrary, in other cases, illiterate and illiterate generals turned out to be outstanding commanders. Turning to other times and peoples, one can point out that Charlemagne, although he loved to read and highly valued classical education, could not write. Justin, who became famous under Anastasia for his successful participation in the war with Iran and then, shortly before his ascension to the top of power, for suppressing the rebellion of Vitalian in the decisive naval battle near the walls of the capital, was at least a capable military leader and a sensible administrator and politician, which is eloquent says popular rumor: Anastasius thanked God when it was revealed to him that it was he who would become his successor, and therefore Justin does not deserve the contemptuous characteristics of Procopius: “He was very simple (hardly so, probably, only in appearance, in manners. - prot. V.Ts.), did not know how to speak fluently and was generally very masculine”; and even: “He was extremely weak-minded and truly like a pack donkey, capable only of following the one who pulls him by the bridle, and now and then shake his ears.” The meaning of this swearing philippic is that Justin was not an independent ruler, that he was manipulated. Such an ominous, in the view of Procopius, a manipulator, a kind of "gray eminence", turned out to be the emperor's nephew Justinian.
He really surpassed his uncle both in abilities, and even more so in education, and willingly helped him in matters of state government, enjoying his complete confidence. Another assistant to the emperor was the prominent jurist Proclus, who from 522 to 526 held the position of quaestor of the sacred court and headed the imperial office.
The first days of Justin's reign were stormy. Amantius and his nephew Theocritus, whom he intended as Anastasia's heirs, will not put up with the sacred bedchamber, not resigning himself to an unfortunate defeat, with the failure of his intrigue, “thought, according to Theophanes the Confessor, to make an outrage, but paid with their lives.” The circumstances of the conspiracy are unknown. Procopius presented the execution of the conspirators in a different form, unfavorable for Justin and especially Justinian, whom he considers the main culprit of what happened: “Not even ten days have passed since he reached power (meaning the proclamation of Justin emperor. - prot. V.Ts), how he killed, along with some others, the head of the court eunuchs, Amantius, without any reason, except for the fact that he said a rash word to the bishop of the city, John. The mention of Patriarch John II of Constantinople sheds light on the possible spring of the conspiracy. The fact is that Justin and his nephew Justinian, unlike Anastasius, were adherents, and they were burdened by the break in Eucharistic communion with Rome. They considered the overcoming of the schism, the restoration of church unity between the West and the East, the main goal of their policy, especially since Justinian the Great saw the prospect of restoring the Roman Empire to its former fullness in achieving this goal. Their like-minded person was the newly appointed primate of the Metropolitan Church, John. It seems that in his desperate attempt to replay the already played game by eliminating Justin, the priest wanted to rely on those dignitaries who, like the late emperor, gravitated towards Monophysitism and who were little bothered by the break in canonical communion with the Roman See. According to the monophysite John of Nikius, who refers to the emperor as Justin the Cruel, after coming to power, he “put to death all the eunuchs, regardless of their degree of guilt, since they did not approve of his accession to the throne.” Monophysites, obviously, were other eunuchs in the palace, in addition to the presiding officer of the sacred bedchamber, who was in charge of them.
Vitalian tried to rely on adherents of Orthodoxy in his rebellion against Anastasius. And in the new situation, despite the fact that he himself played a decisive role in defeating the rebel, Justin now, perhaps - on the advice of his nephew, decided to bring Vitalian closer to him. Vitalian was appointed to the highest military post of commander of the army stationed in the capital and its environs - magister militum praesentalis - and even awarded the title of consul for the year 520, which in that era was usually worn by the emperor, members of the imperial house with the titles of Augustus or Caesars, and only the most high-ranking dignitaries from persons who do not belong to the number of close relatives of the autocrat.
But already in January 520, Vitalian was killed in the palace. At the same time, he was inflicted 16 dagger wounds. Byzantine authors find three main versions regarding the organizers of his assassination. According to one of them, he was killed by order of the emperor, because he knew that he "planned to raise a rebellion against him." This is the version of John of Nikius, in whose eyes Vitalian was especially odious, because, close to the emperor, he insisted that the tongue of the Monophysite Patriarch Severus of Antioch be curtailed for his "sermons full of wisdom and accusations against the emperor Leo and his vicious faith" , in other words, against the Orthodox diaphysite dogma. Procopius of Caesarea in The Secret History, written with a fury obsessed with hatred for St. Justinian, calls him the culprit of Vitalian's death: autocratically ruling in the name of his uncle, Justinian at first "hurriedly sent for the usurper Vitalian, having previously given him a guarantee in his safety", but " soon, suspecting him of having offended him, he unreasonably killed him in the palace along with his relatives, not at all considering the terrible oaths he had previously taken as an obstacle to this. More credible, however, is the version set out much later, but probably based on non-surviving documentary sources. So, according to Theophan the Confessor, a writer at the turn of the 8th-9th centuries, Vitalian was "killed in an insidious manner by those of the Byzantines who were angry with him for the extermination of so many of their compatriots during his uprising against Anastasius" . The reason to suspect Justinian of a conspiracy against Vitalian could be given by the fact that after his assassination he took the post of master of the army, which became vacant, although in reality the emperor’s nephew undoubtedly had more direct and irreproachable paths to the highest posts in the state, so a serious argument this circumstance cannot serve.
But to what act of the emperor his nephew was really touched was the restoration of Eucharistic communion with the Roman Church, broken in the reign of Zeno in connection with the publication of the notorious Enoticon, the initiative of which belonged to Patriarch Akakios, so that this break itself, which continued for 35 years old, in Rome received the name "Akakian schism." On Pascha 519, after exceptionally difficult negotiations conducted by the papal legates in Constantinople, a divine service was celebrated in the church of Hagia Sophia with the participation of Patriarch John and the papal legates. Justinian was moved to this step not only by his same commitment to the Chalcedon oros as his uncle, but also by the concern to remove obstacles (among which one of the most difficult was the church schism) for the implementation of the grandiose plan he had already outlined to restore the integrity of the Roman Empire.
Various circumstances distracted the government from the implementation of this plan, among them the renewed war on the eastern border. This war was preceded by a phase that rarely happened in the history of relations between Iran and Rome, not only peaceful, but also directly friendly phase, which was established in the first years of Justin's reign. From the end of the 5th century, Iran was shaken by opposition caused by the teachings of Mazdak, who preached utopian social ideas similar to the chiliasm that had grown on Christian soil: about universal equality and the abolition of private property, including the introduction of the community of wives; he received massive support from the common people and that part of the military aristocracy, which was burdened by the religious monopoly of the Zoroastrian magicians. Among the enthusiasts of Mazdakism were also persons belonging to the Shah's dynasty. Shah Kavad himself was fascinated by Mazdak's preaching, but later he became disillusioned with this utopia, seeing it as a direct threat to the state, turned away from Mazdak and began to persecute both himself and his supporters. Being already old, the Shah made sure that after his death the throne would go to his younger son Khosrov Anushirvan, who was closely connected with the circles of zealous adherents of traditional Zoroastrianism, bypassing the eldest son Kaos, whose upbringing Kavad at the time of his passion for Mazdakism handed over to the adherents of this teaching, and he , unlike his father, who changed his views, remained a Mazdakit according to his convictions.
In order to purchase an additional guarantee of the transfer of power to Khosrow, Kavad decided to enlist support in the event of a critical turn of events from Rome and sent Justin a message that, in the retelling of Procopius of Caesarea (not in his Secret History, but in the more reliable book War with the Persians, ) looks like this: “The fact that we suffered injustice from the Romans, you yourself know, but I decided to completely forget all the insults against you ... However, for all this I ask you for one favor, which ... would be able to give us in all the blessings of the world abound. I suggest that you make my Khosrov, who will be the successor of my power, your adopted son. It was an idea that mirrored the situation of a hundred years ago, when, at the request of Emperor Arcadius, Shah Yazdegerd took Arcadius's infant successor Theodosius II under his wing.
The message of Kavad delighted both Justin and Justinian, who did not see a trick in it, but the quaestor of the sacred court Proclus (whom Procopius does not skimp on praises both in the history of wars and in the Secret History, where he contrasts him with another outstanding jurist Tribonian and Justinian himself as an adherent of existing laws and an opponent of legislative reforms) saw in the Shah's proposal a danger to the Roman state. Addressing Justin, he said: “I am not accustomed to putting my hand to what smacks of innovation ... knowing full well that the desire for innovation is always fraught with danger ... In my opinion, we are now discussing nothing more than how to under a plausible pretext to transfer the state of the Romans to the Persians ... For ... this embassy from the very beginning aims to make this Khosrov, whoever he may be, the heir of the Roman basileus ... By natural law, the property of the fathers belongs to their children. Proclus managed to convince Justin and his nephew of the danger of Kavad's proposal, but, on his own advice, it was decided not to deny him his request directly, but to send envoys to him to negotiate a peace - until then, only a truce was in effect, and the question of the boundaries were not settled. As for the adoption of Khosrov by Justin, the ambassadors will have to declare that it will take place, “as it happens with the barbarians”, and “the barbarians make the adoption not with the help of letters, but with the delivery of weapons and armor” . The highly experienced and overly cautious politician Proclus and, as can be seen, the cunning Levantine Procopius, quite sympathetic to his incredulity, were hardly right in their suspicion, and the first reaction to the proposal of the shah from the rulers of Rome, who came from the Illyrian rural hinterland, could be more adequate. , but they changed their minds and followed the advice of Proclus.
The nephew of the late emperor, Anastasia Hypatius, and the patrician Rufin, who had friendly relations with the shah, were sent for negotiations. From the Iranian side, high-ranking dignitaries Seos, or Siyavush, and Mevod (Mahbod) took part in the negotiations. Negotiations were conducted on the border of the two states. When discussing the terms of the peace treaty, the country of the Lazians, which in ancient times was called Colchis, turned out to be a stumbling block. From the time of Emperor Leo, it was lost by Rome and was in the sphere of influence of Iran. But shortly before these negotiations, after the death of the king of the Laz Damnaz, his son Tsaf did not want to apply to the shah with a request to grant him the royal title; instead, he went to Constantinople in 523, was baptized there, and became a vassal of the Roman state. At the talks, the envoys of Iran demanded the return of Lazika to the supreme power of the Shah, but this demand was rejected as insulting. In turn, the Iranian side considered it an "intolerable insult" to propose that Khosrov be adopted by Justin according to the rite of the barbarian peoples. Negotiations reached an impasse, nothing could be agreed upon.
The response to the breakdown of negotiations by Kavad was repressions against the Iberians, closely related to the Laz, who, according to Procopius, “Christians and better than all peoples known to us keep the statutes of this faith, but from ancient times ... are subordinate to the Persian king. Kavad decided to forcibly convert them to his faith. He demanded from their king Gurgen that he perform all the rituals that the Persians adhere to, and, among other things, in no case bury the dead, but throw them all to be eaten by birds and dogs. King Gurgen, or, in other words, Bakur, turned to Justin for help, and he sent the nephew of the emperor Anastasius, the patrician Prov, to the Cimmerian Bosporus, so that the ruler of this state would send his troops against the Persians to help Gurgen for a monetary reward. But Prov's mission did not bring results. The ruler of the Bosporus refused to help, and the Persian army occupied Georgia. Gurgen, together with his family and the Georgian nobility, fled to Lazika, where they continued to resist the now invading Persians in Lazika.
Rome went to war with Iran. In the country of the Lazians, in the powerful fortress of Petra, located near the modern village of Tsikhisdziri, between Batum and Kobuleti, a Roman garrison was stationed, but the main theater of hostilities was the region familiar to the wars of the Romans with the Persians - Armenia and Mesopotamia. The Roman army entered Perso-Armenia under the command of the young commanders Sitta and Belisarius, who had the rank of Justinian's spearmen, and troops led by the master of the army of the East, Livelarius, moved against the Mesopotamian city of Nisibis. Sitta and Belisarius acted successfully, they devastated the country into which their armies entered, and, "capturing many Armenians, retired to their own borders." But the second invasion of the Romans into Perso-Armenia under the command of the same commanders turned out to be unsuccessful: they were defeated by the Armenians, whose leaders were two brothers from the noble family of Kamsarakans - Narses and Aratiy. True, soon after this victory, both brothers betrayed the Shah and went over to the side of Rome. Meanwhile, the army of Livelarius during the campaign suffered the main losses not from the enemy, but because of the exhausting heat and was eventually forced to retreat.
In 527, Justin dismissed the unlucky commander, appointing his nephew Anastasius Hypatius as the master of the army of the East, and Belisarius as the dux of Mesopotamia, who was entrusted with the command of the troops that retreated from Nisibis and stationed in Dara. Speaking about these movements, the historian of the war with the Persians did not fail to notice: “Then Procopius was appointed to him as an adviser” - that is, he himself.
During the reign of Justin, Rome provided armed support to the distant Ethiopian kingdom with its capital in Aksum. The Christian king of Ethiopia, Kaleb, waged war with the king of Yemen, who patronized the local Jews. And with the help of Rome, the Ethiopians managed to defeat Yemen, restoring the dominance of the Christian religion in this country, located on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. A.A. Vasiliev remarks on this: “At the first moment, we are surprised to see how the Orthodox Justin, who ... launched an offensive against the Monophysites in his own empire, supports the Monophysite Ethiopian king. However, outside the official borders of the empire, the Byzantine emperor supported Christianity in general ... From a foreign policy point of view, the Byzantine emperors considered each conquest for Christianity as an important political and, possibly, economic conquest. In connection with these events in Ethiopia, a legend later acquired an official status, which was included in the book "Kebra Negast" ("Glory of the Kings"), according to which two kings - Justin and Caleb - met in Jerusalem and divided the whole land among themselves, but with thus the worst part of her went to Rome, and the best to the king of Aksum, because he has a more noble origin - from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and his people are therefore God's chosen New Israel - one of the many examples of naive messianic megalomania.
In the 520s, the Roman Empire suffered from several earthquakes that destroyed large cities in different parts of the state, among them Dyrrhachium (Durres), Corinth, Anazarb in Cilicia, but the earthquake that befell the metropolis of Antioch with about 1 million inhabitants was the most detrimental in its consequences. . As Theophanes the Confessor writes, on May 20, 526, “at the 7th hour of the day, during the consulate in Rome of Olivria, the great Syrian Antioch, through the wrath of God, suffered an unspeakable disaster ... Almost the entire city collapsed and became a tomb for the inhabitants. Some, being under the ruins, became victims of the fire that came out of the ground while still alive; another fire fell from the air in the form of sparks and, like lightning, burned everyone it met; while the earth shook for a whole year. Up to 250,000 Antiochians, led by their patriarch Euphrasius, fell victim to the natural disaster. The restoration of Antioch required enormous expenditures and continued for decades.
From the very beginning of his reign, Justin relied on the help of his nephew. On April 4, 527, the deeply aged and seriously ill emperor appointed Justinian as his co-ruler with the title of August. Emperor Justin died on August 1, 527. Before his death, he experienced excruciating pain from an old wound in his leg, which in one of the battles was pierced by an enemy arrow. Some historians retroactively give him a different diagnosis - cancer. In his best years, Justin, although he was illiterate, was distinguished by considerable abilities - otherwise he would not have made a career as a military leader and, moreover, would not have become an emperor. “In Justin,” according to F.I. Uspensky, - one should see a person who was fully prepared for political activity, who brought certain experience and a well-thought-out plan to the administration ... The main fact of Justin's activity is the end of a long church dispute with the West ", which in other words can be described as the restoration of Orthodoxy in the east of the empire after long-term dominance of monophysitism.
Justinian and Theodora
After the death of Justin, his nephew and co-ruler Justinian, who at that time already bore the title of August, remained the only emperor. The beginning of his sole and in this sense monarchical rule did not cause confusion either in the palace, or in the capital, or in the empire.
The future emperor before the rise of his uncle was called Peter Savvaty. He named himself Justinian in honor of his uncle Justin, having then adopted for himself, having already become emperor, as his predecessors did, the family name of the first Christian autocrat Constantine - Flavius, so that in the consular diptych of 521 his name is read as Flavius Peter Savvatius Justinian. He was born in 482 or 483 in the village of Taurisia near Bederiana, the native village of his maternal uncle Justin, into a poor peasant family, Savvatius and Vigilancia, of Illyrian, according to Procopius, or, less likely, of Thracian origin. But even in the rural outback of Illyricum at that time, in addition to the local language, Latin was used, and Justinian knew it from childhood. And then, once in the capital, under the patronage of his uncle, who made a brilliant general career during the reign of Anastasius, Justinian, who possessed extraordinary abilities, inexhaustible curiosity and exceptional diligence, mastered the Greek language and received a thorough and comprehensive, but mostly, as can be concluded from the circle of his later studies and interests, legal and theological education, although he was also well-versed in mathematics, rhetoric, philosophy and history. One of his teachers in the capital was the outstanding theologian Leontius of Byzantium.
Not having a penchant for military affairs, in which Justin excelled remarkably, he developed as an armchair and book man, equally well prepared for both academic and state activities. Nevertheless, Justinian began his career under Emperor Anastasius as an officer in the palace school of the Excuvites under his uncle. He enriched his experience by spending several years at the court of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great as a diplomatic agent of the Roman government. There he got to know the Latin West, Italy and the barbarian Arians better.
During the reign of Justin, becoming his closest assistant and then co-ruler, Justinian was awarded honorary titles and titles of senator, committee and patrician. In 520 he was appointed consul for the following year. The festivities held on this occasion were accompanied by “the most costly games and performances at the hippodrome that Constantinople has ever known. At least 20 lions, 30 panthers and an unknown number of other exotic animals were killed in a large circus. At one time Justinian held the post of master of the army of the East; in April 527, shortly before the death of Justin, he was proclaimed August, becoming not only de facto, but now also de jure co-ruler of his uncle, who was already dying. This ceremony took place modestly, in the private chambers of Justin, "from where a serious illness no longer allowed him to leave," "in the presence of Patriarch Epiphanius and other high dignitaries."
We find a verbal portrait of Justinian in Procopius: “He was not big and not too small, but of medium height, not thin, but slightly plump; his face was round and not devoid of beauty, for even after two days of fasting a blush played on it. In order to give an idea of his appearance in a few words, I will say that he was very similar to Domitian, the son of Vespasian ”, - whose statues have been preserved. This description can be trusted, especially since it corresponds not only to miniature relief portraits on coins, but also to the mosaic images of Justinian in the Ravenna churches of St. Apollinaris and St. Vitalius and the porphyry statue in the Venetian church of St. Mark.
But it is hardly worth trusting the same Procopius when he is in The Secret History (otherwise called "Anecdote", which means "Unpublished", so that this conditional title of the book, due to its peculiar content, subsequently came into use as a designation of the corresponding genre - biting and caustic, but not necessarily reliable stories) characterizes the temper and moral rules of Justinian. At the very least, his malicious and biased assessments, so contrasting with other statements, already panegyric in tone, with which he abundantly equipped his history of wars and in particular the treatise On Buildings, should be taken critically. But, given the extreme degree of irritable hostility with which Procopius writes about the personality of the emperor in The Secret History, there is no reason to doubt the validity of the characteristics placed in it, representing Justinian from the best side, regardless of whether in what - positive, negative or dubious - light they were seen by the author himself with his special hierarchy of ethical values. “With Justinian,” he writes, “every business went easily ... because he ... did without sleep and was the most accessible person in the world. People, even if they were not noble and completely unknown, had every opportunity not only to come to the tyrant, but also to have a secret conversation with him”; “in the Christian faith, he ... was firm”; “he, one might say, almost did not feel the need for sleep and never ate or drank to his full, but it was enough for him to barely touch the food with his fingertips to stop the meal. As if this seemed to him a matter of secondary importance, imposed by nature, for he often remained without food for two days, especially when it was time for the eve of the celebration of the so-called Easter. Then often ... he remained without food for two days, content with a small amount of water and wild plants, and after sleeping, God forbid, an hour, he spent the rest of the time in constant pacing.
Procopius wrote in more detail about the ascetic asceticism of Justinian in the book “On Buildings”: “He constantly got up from his bed at dawn, awake in his cares for the state, always directing state affairs personally both in deed and in word, both during the morning and at noon, and often all night long. Late at night he lay down on his bed, but very often got up at once, as if angry and indignant at the soft bedding. When he took to food, he did not touch either wine, or bread, or anything else that is edible, but ate only vegetables, and at the same time coarse, aged for a long time in salt and vinegar, and served as a drink for him. pure water. But even with this he was never satisfied: when dishes were served to him, he, having only tasted from those that he ate at that time, sent the rest back. His exceptional devotion to duty is not hidden in the libelous "Secret History": "What he wanted to publish in his own name, he did not instruct to be compiled by someone who had the position of quaestor, as was customary, but considered it permissible to do this for the most part himself ". Procopius sees the reason for this in the fact that in Justinian "there was nothing of royal dignity, and he did not consider it necessary to observe it, but he was like a barbarian in language, appearance, and way of thinking." In such conclusions, a measure of the author's conscientiousness is characteristically revealed.
But are the accessibility of Justinian noted by this hater of the emperor, his incomparable diligence, which obviously stemmed from a sense of duty, an ascetic way of life and Christian piety, with a highly original conclusion about the demonic nature of the emperor, in support of which the historian refers to the evidence of unnamed courtiers? who “felt that instead of him they saw some unusual diabolical ghost”? In the style of a real thriller, Procopius, anticipating medieval Western fantasies about succubi and incubus, reproduces or rather still composes stunning gossip about “that his mother ... used to say to someone close that he was not born from her husband Savvaty and not from any person. Before she became pregnant with him, a demon visited her, invisible, but left her with the impression that he was with her and had intercourse with her as a man with a woman, and then disappeared as in a dream. Or about how one of the courtiers “told how he ... suddenly got up from the royal throne and began to wander back and forth (he was not used to sitting in one place for a long time), and suddenly Justinian’s head suddenly disappeared, and the rest of the body seemed , continued to make these long movements, he himself (who saw this) believed (and, it seems, quite sensibly and soberly, if all this is not an invention of pure water. - prot. V.Ts.) that his eyesight was blurred, and he stood shocked and depressed for a long time. Then, when the head returned to the body, he thought in embarrassment that the gap he had before (in vision) was filled.
With such a fantastic approach to the image of the emperor, it is hardly worth taking seriously the invectives contained in such a passage from The Secret History: full of lies, and at the same time he easily succumbed to those who wanted to deceive him. There was in him some unusual mixture of unreasonableness and corruption of character ... This basileus was full of cunning, deceit, was distinguished by insincerity, had the ability to hide his anger, was two-faced, dangerous, was an excellent actor when it was necessary to hide his thoughts, and knew how to shed tears not from joy or sorrow, but artificially calling them up at the right time as needed. He lied all the time." Some of the traits listed here seem to relate to the professional qualities of politicians and statesmen. However, as is known, it is common for a person to notice his own vices in his neighbor with special vigilance, exaggerating and distorting the scale. Procopius, who wrote the History of Wars with one hand and the book On Buildings, which was more than complimentary to Justinian, and the Secret History with the other, presses with particular energy on the insincerity and duplicity of the emperor.
The reasons for the partiality of Procopius could be and, obviously, were different - perhaps some episode of his biography that remained unknown, but also, probably, the fact that for the famous historian the feast of the Resurrection of Christ was "the so-called Easter"; and perhaps another factor: according to Procopius, Justinian “prohibited sodomy by law, subjecting to inquiry cases that did not take place after the issuance of the law, but concerning those persons who were seen in this vice long before it ... Those exposed in this way were deprived of their shameful members were led around the city anyway ... They were also angry at astrologers. And ... the authorities ... subjected them to torment for this reason alone and, having severely whipped them on the back, put them on camels and drove them around the city - they, people already elderly and in all respects respectable, who were accused only of wanting to become wise in the science of the stars."
Be that as it may, in view of such disastrous contradictions and inconsistencies found in the notorious "Secret History", it follows from b about more confidence in the characteristics that the same Procopius gives him in his published books: in the History of Wars and even in the book On Buildings written in a panegyric tone: “In our time, the emperor Justinian appeared, who, having taken power over the state , shaken by unrest and brought to shameful weakness, increased its size and brought it to a brilliant state ... Finding faith in God in the old days unsteady and forced to follow the paths of various confessions, erasing from the face of the earth all paths that led to these heretical hesitations, he achieved this so that she now stands on one solid foundation of true confession ... Himself, on his own impulse, forgiving in and filling us with riches to satiety and thus overcoming a humiliating unfortunate fate for them, he ensured that the joy of life reigned in the empire ... Of those whom we know from rumors, they say, the best sovereign was the Persian king Cyrus ... If someone carefully looks at the reign of our emperor Justinian ... this person admits that Cyrus and his state were a toy compared to him.
Justinian was granted a wonderful bodily strength, excellent health, inherited from his peasant ancestors and hardened by the unpretentious, ascetic way of life that he led in the palace, being at first the co-ruler of his uncle, and then the sovereign autocrat. His amazing health was not undermined by sleepless nights, during which, as in the daytime hours, he indulged in the affairs of state government. In old age, when he was already 60 years old, he fell ill with the plague and successfully recovered from this deadly disease, then living to a ripe old age.
A great ruler, he knew how to surround himself with assistants of outstanding abilities: these were the generals Belisarius and Narses, the outstanding lawyer Tribonian, the brilliant architects Isidore from Miletus and Anthimius from Thrall, and among these luminaries his wife Theodora shone as a star of the first magnitude.
Justinian met her around 520 and became infatuated with her. Like Justinian, Theodora was of the humblest, although not so ordinary, but rather exotic origin. She was born in Syria, and according to some, less reliable information, in Cyprus at the end of the 5th century; the exact date of her birth is unknown. Her father Akakiy, who moved with his family to the capital of the empire, found a kind of income there: he became, according to Procopius, which is repeated by other Byzantine historians, “an overseer of the animals of the circus”, or, as he was also called, “bear cub”. But he died early, leaving orphans three young daughters: Komito, Theodora and Anastasia, the eldest of whom was not yet seven years old. The widow of the "bear cub" got married a second time in the hope that her new husband would continue the craft of the deceased, but her hopes were not justified: in Dima Prasinov, another replacement was found for him. The mother of the orphaned girls, however, according to the story of Procopius, did not lose heart, and "when ... the people gathered in the circus, she put wreaths on the heads of three girls and gave each of them garlands of flowers in both hands, put them on their knees with a plea for protection". The rival circus party of the Veneti, probably for the sake of moral triumph over rivals, took care of the orphans and took their stepfather to the position of animal overseer in their faction. Since then, Theodora, like her husband, has become an ardent fan of venets - blue.
When the daughters grew up, their mother placed them on the stage. Procopius, characterizing the profession of the eldest of them, Komito, calls her not an actress, as it should be with a calm attitude to the topic, but a hetero; later, in the reign of Justinian, she was given in marriage to the master of the army, Sitta. At the time of her childhood, spent in poverty and need, Theodora, according to Procopius, “dressed in a tunic with sleeves ... accompanied her, serving her in everything.” When the girl grew up, she became an actress of mimic theater. “She was unusually graceful and witty. Because of this, everyone was delighted with her. ” One of the reasons for the delight in which the young beauty led the audience, Procopius considers not only her inexhaustible ingenuity in witticisms and jokes, but also the lack of shame. His further story about Theodore is full of shameful and dirty fantasies, bordering on sexual delirium, which speaks more about the author himself than about the victim of his libelous inspiration. Is there any truth in this game of inflamed pornographic imagination? The historian Gibbon, famous in the age of "enlightenment", who set the tone for the Western fashion for Byzanthophobia, willingly believes Procopius, finding a compelling argument in favor of the reliability of the anecdotes he told in their very improbability: Meanwhile, street gossip could serve as the only source of information on this part of Procopius, so that the real way of life of the young Theodora can only be judged on the basis of the biographical outline, the characteristics of the artistic profession and the mores of the theatrical environment. The modern historian of Norwich, touching on this topic, rejects the reliability of Procopius' pathological insinuations, but, considering the rumor from which he could draw some of his anecdotes, he notes that "yet, as you know, there is no smoke without fire, therefore there is no doubt about The fact that Theodora, as our grandmothers used to say, had a “past”. Whether she was worse than others at the same time - the answer to this question remains open. The famous byzantologist S. Diehl, touching on this sensitive topic, wrote: “Some psychological features of Theodora, her concern for poor girls who died in the capital more often from need than from depravity, the measures taken by her to save them and free them“ from the yoke of shameful slavery ”... and also the somewhat contemptuous cruelty that she always showed to men, to a certain extent confirm what is said about her youth ... But can one believe, as a result of this, that Theodora’s adventures produced that terrible scandal that Procopius describes, that she was really out of the ordinary courtesan? .. It should not be overlooked that Procopius likes to represent the depravity of the faces he draws in almost epic sizes ... I ... would be very inclined to see in her ... the heroine of a more banal story - a dancer who behaved in the same way as they behave at all times women of her profession.
In fairness, it should be noted that the unflattering characteristics addressed to Theodora came from a different side, however, their essence remains unclear. S. Dil expresses annoyance at the fact that the Monophysite historian Bishop John of Ephesus, “who knew Theodora closely, out of respect for the greats of this world, did not tell us in detail all the insulting expressions with which, in his own words, the pious monks reviled the Empress - people known with its brutal frankness.
When, at the beginning of the reign of Justin, the hard-to-get theatrical bread became bitter Theodora, she changed her way of life and, becoming close to a native of Tire, possibly her countryman, Hekebol, who was then appointed ruler of the province of Pentapolis, located between Libya and Egypt, left with him to his place. services. As Theodora Sh. Diel commented on this event in the life of Theodora, “Finally tired of fleeting connections, and, having found a serious person who provided her with a strong position, she began to lead a decent life in marriage and piety.” But her family life did not last long, ending in a break. Theodora left a young daughter. Abandoned by Hekebol, whose later fate is unknown, Theodora moved to Alexandria, where she settled in a hospice belonging to the Monophysite community. In Alexandria, she often talked with the monks, from whom she sought consolation and guidance, as well as with priests and bishops.
There she met the local Monophysite Patriarch Timothy - at that time the Orthodox throne of Alexandria remained vacant - and with the Monophysite Patriarch Severus of Antioch, who was in exile in this city, respectful attitude towards whom she kept forever, which in a special way encouraged her when she became a powerful assistant her husband, seek reconciliation between diaphysites and monophysites. In Alexandria, she seriously took up her education, read the books of the Church Fathers and external writers, and, possessing extraordinary abilities, an unusually penetrating mind and a brilliant memory, in time became, like Justinian, one of the most erudite people of her time, a competent connoisseur of theology. Life circumstances prompted her to move from Alexandria to Constantinople. Contrary to everything that is known about Theodora's piety and impeccable behavior from the time when she left the stage, Procopius, losing a sense of not only proportion, but also reality and plausibility, wrote that “after passing through the whole East, she returned to Byzantium. In every city, she resorted to a craft, which, I think, a person cannot name without losing the grace of God "- this expression is given here to show the price of the writer's testimony: in other places of his pamphlet, he, without fear of "forfeiting the grace of God" , enthusiastically names the most shameful of the exercises that actually existed and invented by his inflamed imagination, which he falsely attributes to Theodora.
In Constantinople, she settled in a small house on the outskirts. In need of funds, she, according to legend, set up a spinning workshop and wove yarn herself in it, sharing the labors of hired workers. There, under circumstances that remain unknown, around 520 Theodora met the emperor's nephew Justinian, who became infatuated with her. At that time, he was already a mature person, approaching the 40-year milestone. Frivolity was never characteristic of him. Apparently, in the past he did not have a rich experience of relationships with women. He was too serious and picky for that. Having recognized Theodora, he fell in love with her with amazing devotion and constancy, and this later, at the time of their marriage, was expressed in everything, including his activities as a ruler, which Theodora influenced like no other.
Possessing rare beauty, a penetrating mind and education, which Justinian knew how to appreciate in women, brilliant wit, amazing self-control and strong character, Theodora managed to captivate the imagination of her high-ranking chosen one. Even the vindictive and vindictive Procopius, who seems to have been painfully hurt by some of her caustic jokes, but harboring a grudge and spilling it onto the pages of his “Secret History” written “on the table”, pays tribute to her external attractiveness: “Theodora was beautiful in face and besides she is full of grace, but short in stature, pale-faced, but not quite white, but rather yellowish-pale; her gaze from under her frowning brows was menacing. This is a kind of intravital verbal portrait, all the more reliable because it corresponds to that of her also lifetime, but already a mosaic image, which has been preserved in the apse of the Ravenna church of St. Vitaly. A successful description of this portrait of her, referring, however, not to the time of her acquaintance with Justinian, but to a later period of her life, when old age was already ahead, was made by S. Diel: “Under the heavy imperial mantle, the camp seems higher, but less flexible; under the diadem that hides the forehead, a small delicate face with a somewhat thinner oval, a large straight and thin nose looks solemn, almost sad. Only one thing remained on this withered face: under the dark line of fused eyebrows, beautiful black eyes ... still illuminate and seem to destroy the face. The exquisite, truly Byzantine grandeur of Augusta's appearance on this mosaic is emphasized by her regal clothes: “The long, purple purple mantle that covers her below shimmers with lights in the soft folds of an embroidered gold border; on her head, surrounded by a halo, is a high diadem of gold and precious stones; her hair is intertwined with pearl threads and threads studded with precious stones, and the same jewelry falls in sparkling streams on her shoulders.
Having met Theodora and fell in love with her, Justinian asked his uncle to grant her the high title of patrician. The co-ruler of the emperor wanted to marry her, but faced two obstacles in this intention. One of them was of a legal nature: the senators, to whose estate the nephew of the autocrat was naturally ranked, were forbidden by the law of the holy emperor Constantine to marry former actresses, and the other came from the resistance of the thought of such a misalliance on the part of the wife of the emperor Euphemia, who loved her nephew her husband and sincerely wishing him every good, even though she herself, in the past called not by this aristocratic, but by the common people name of Lupicina, which Procopius finds ridiculous and absurd, had the most modest origin. But such fanabery is just a characteristic feature of suddenly exalted persons, especially when they are characterized by innocence combined with common sense. Justinian did not want to go against the prejudices of his aunt, to whose love he responded with grateful affection, and did not rush into marriage. But time passed, and in 523 Euthymia departed to the Lord, after which Emperor Justin, alien to the prejudices of the late wife, repealed the law prohibiting unequal marriages for senators, and in 525, in the church of Hagia Sophia, Patriarch Epiphanius married the senator and patrician Justinian to the patrician Theodora.
When Justinian was proclaimed August and Justin's co-ruler on April 4, 527, his wife Saint Theodora was next to him and received proper honors. And henceforth, she shared with her husband his government work and honors, which befitted him as an emperor. Theodora received ambassadors, gave audiences to dignitaries, and statues were erected to her. The state oath included both names - Justinian and Theodora: I swear "by the almighty God, His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the holy glorious Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, the four Gospels, the holy archangels Michael and Gabriel, that I will well serve the most pious and holy sovereigns Justinian and Theodora, the wife of his imperial majesty, and to work without hypocrisy for the sake of the prosperity of their autocracy and government.
War with the Persian Shah Kavad
The most important foreign policy event of the first years of Justinian's reign was the renewed war with Sasanian Iran, described in detail by Procopius. In Asia, four mobile field armies of Rome were stationed, constituting b about most of the armed forces of the empire and designed to defend its eastern borders. Another army was in Egypt, two corps were in the Balkans - in Thrace and Illyricum, covering the capital from the north and west. The personal guard of the emperor, which consisted of seven scholas, consisted of 3,500 selected soldiers and officers. There were also garrisons in strategically important cities, especially in fortresses located in the border zone. But, as can be seen from the above description of the composition and deployment of the armed forces, Sasanian Iran was considered the main adversary.
In 528, Justinian ordered the head of the garrison of the border city of Dara, Belisarius, to begin building a new fortress at Mindon, near Nisibis. When the walls of the fortress, on the construction of which many workers worked, rose to a fair height, the Persians became worried and demanded that the construction be stopped, seeing in it a violation of the agreement concluded earlier, under Justin. Rome rejected the ultimatum, and the redeployment of troops to the border began on both sides.
In the battle between the Roman detachment led by Kutsey and the Persians near the walls of the fortress under construction, the Romans were defeated, the survivors, including the commander himself, were captured, and the walls, the construction of which served as the fuse of the war, were razed to the ground. In 529 Justinian appointed Belisarius to the highest military post of Master, or, in Greek, Stratilates, of the East. And he made an additional set of troops and moved the army towards Nisibis. Next to Belisarius at the headquarters was Hermogenes, sent by the emperor, who also had the title of master - in the past he was Vitalian's closest adviser when he rebelled against Anastasius. The Persian army under the command of Mirran (commander-in-chief) Peroz was advancing towards them. The Persian army at first consisted of up to 40 thousand cavalry and infantry, and then reinforcements of 10 thousand people came up. They were opposed by 25 thousand Roman soldiers. Thus, the Persians had a twofold superiority. On both front lines were troops of different tribes of the two great powers.
Correspondence took place between the military leaders: Mirran Peroz, or Firuz, from the Iranian side and Belisarius and Hermogenes from the Roman side. The Roman generals offered peace, but insisted on the withdrawal of the Persian army from the border. Mirran wrote in response that the Romans could not be trusted, and therefore only war could resolve the dispute. The second letter to Peroz, sent by Belisarius and his associates, ended with the words: “If you are so eager for war, then we will oppose you with the help of God: we are sure that He will help us in danger, condescending to the peacefulness of the Romans and angry at the boasting of the Persians, who decided to go to war against us, who offered you peace. We will march against you, attaching to the tops of our banners before the battle what we mutually wrote to each other. Mirran's answer to Belisarius was filled with insulting arrogance and bragging: “And we do not go into battle without the help of our gods, with them we will go against you, and I hope that tomorrow they will lead us into Dara. Therefore, let a bathhouse and dinner be ready for me in the city.
The general battle took place in July 530. Peroz began it at noon with the expectation that “they will attack the hungry,” because the Romans, unlike the Persians, who are accustomed to dine at the end of the day, eat until noon. The battle began with a skirmish with bows, so that the arrows rushing in both directions blocked the sunlight. The Persians had a richer supply of arrows, but eventually they ran out. The Romans were favored by the wind that blew in the face of the enemy, but there were losses, and considerable ones, on both sides. When there was nothing more to shoot, the enemies entered into hand-to-hand combat with each other, acting with spears and swords. During the battle, more than once, the superiority of forces was found on one side or the other in different parts of the line of contact. A particularly dangerous moment for the Roman army came when the Persians, standing on the left flank under the command of the one-eyed Varesman, together with a detachment of "immortals", "swiftly rushed at the Romans standing against them", and "they, unable to withstand their onslaught, fled", but then there was a turning point that decided the outcome of the battle. The Romans, who were on the flank, hit the side of the rapidly advancing detachment and cut it in two. The Persians, who were ahead, were surrounded and turned back, and then the Romans, who had fled from them, stopped, turned around and hit the warriors who had been pursuing them earlier. Having fallen into the enemy’s ring, the Persians desperately resisted, but when their commander Varesman fell, thrown off his horse and killed by Sunica, they rushed to flee in a panic: the Romans overtook them and beat them. Up to 5,000 Persians perished. Belisarius and Hermogenes finally ordered the pursuit to stop, fearing surprises. “On that day, the Romans,” according to Procopius, “managed to defeat the Persians in battle, which has not happened for a long time.” For Mirran's failure, Peroz was subjected to a humiliating punishment: “the king took away from him the jewelry of gold and pearls, which he usually wore on his head. Among the Persians, this is a sign of the highest dignity after the royal.
The victory of the Romans at the walls of Dara did not end the war with the Persians. Sheikhs of Arab Bedouins intervened in the game, wandering near the borders of the Roman and Iranian empires and robbing the border cities of one of them in agreement with the authorities of the other, but, above all, in their own interests - for their own benefit. One of these sheikhs was Alamundar, a highly experienced, resourceful and resourceful robber, not without diplomatic skills. In the past, he was considered a vassal of Rome, received the title of Roman patrician and king of his people, but then went over to the side of Iran, and, according to Procopius, “for 50 years he exhausted the strength of the Romans ... From the borders of Egypt to Mesopotamia, he devastated all areas, stole and took away everything in a row, burned buildings that came across to him, enslaved many tens of thousands of people; most of them he immediately killed, others he sold for a lot of money. The protege of the Romans from among the Arab sheikhs, Aref, in skirmishes with Alamundar, invariably failed or, Procopius suspects, "acted treacherously, as most likely should be allowed." Alamundar came to the court of Shah Kavad and advised him to move around the province of Osroene with its numerous Roman garrisons through the Syrian desert to the main outpost of Rome in the Levant - to the brilliant Antioch, whose population is distinguished by special carelessness and cares only about entertainment, so that the attack will be for him a terrible surprise for which they will not be able to prepare in advance. And as for the difficulties of the campaign through the desert, Alamundar suggested: "Do not worry about the lack of water or anything, for I myself will lead the army, as I think best." Alamundar's proposal was accepted by the shah, and he placed the Persian Azaretes at the head of the army that was to storm Antioch, next to whom Alamundar was supposed to be, "showing him the way."
Having learned about the new danger, Belisarius, who commanded the Roman troops in the East, moved a 20,000-strong army towards the enemy, and he retreated. Belisarius did not want to attack the retreating enemy, but militant moods prevailed in the troops, and the commander failed to calm his soldiers. On April 19, 531, on the day of Holy Easter, a battle took place on the banks of the river near Kallinikos, which ended in defeat for the Romans, but the victors, who forced the army of Belisarius to retreat, suffered enormous losses: when they returned home, the dead and captured were counted. Procopius tells how this is done: before the campaign, the soldiers each throw one arrow into the baskets placed on the parade ground, “then they are stored, sealed with the royal seal; when the army returns ... then each soldier takes one arrow from these baskets. When the troops of Azaretes, returning from a campaign in which they failed to take either Antioch or any other city, although they won a victory in the case at Kallinikos, marched in front of Kavad, taking out arrows from baskets, then, “as in baskets left a lot of arrows ... the king considered this victory a shame for Azareth and subsequently kept him among the least worthy.
Another theater of war between Rome and Iran was, as in the past, Armenia. In 528, a detachment of Persians invaded Roman Armenia from Perso-Armenia, but was defeated by the troops stationed there, commanded by Sitta, after which the Shah sent a larger army there under the command of Mermeroy, the backbone of which was Savir mercenaries numbering 3 thousand horsemen. And again the invasion was repulsed: Mermeroy was defeated by troops under the command of Sitta and Dorotheus. But, having recovered from the defeat, having made an additional set, Mermeroy again invaded the boundaries of the Roman Empire and camped near the city of Satala, located 100 kilometers from Trebizond. The Romans unexpectedly attacked the camp - a bloody stubborn battle began, the outcome of which hung in the balance. The decisive role in it was played by the Thracian horsemen who fought under the command of Florence, who died in this battle. After the defeat, Mermeroy left the empire, and three prominent Persian commanders, originally from Armenians: the brothers Narzes, Aratius and Isaac, from the aristocratic family of Kamsarakans, who successfully fought the Romans during the reign of Justin, went over to the side of Rome. Isaac surrendered to his new owners the fortress of Bolon, located near Theodosiopolis, on the border, the garrison of which he commanded.
On September 8, 531, Shah Kavadh died of paralysis on the right side, which befell him five days before his death. He was 82 years old. His successor was, on the basis of his will, the youngest son Khosrov Anushirvan. The highest dignitaries of the state, led by Mevod, stopped the attempt of the eldest son of Kaos to take the throne. Shortly thereafter, negotiations began with Rome for a peace treaty. From the Roman side, Rufinus, Alexander and Thomas participated in them. The negotiations were difficult, interrupted by breaks in contacts, threats from the Persians to resume the war, accompanied by the movement of troops towards the border, but in the end, in 532, an agreement on "perpetual peace" was signed. In accordance with it, the border between the two powers remained basically unchanged, although Rome returned to the Persians the fortresses Farangia and Volus taken from them, the Roman side also undertook to transfer the headquarters of the commander of the army stationed in Mesopotamia, further from the border - from Dara to Constantine. In the course of negotiations with Rome, Iran earlier, and this time, put forward a demand for the joint defense of the passes and passages through the Greater Caucasus Range near the Caspian Sea to repel the raids of nomadic barbarians. But, since this condition was unacceptable for the Romans: located at a considerable distance from the Roman borders military unit would be in an extremely vulnerable position there and completely dependent on the Persians, an alternative proposal was put forward - to pay money to Iran in compensation for its costs for the defense of the Caucasian passes. This proposal was accepted, and the Roman side undertook to pay Iran 110 centinaries of gold - a centinary was 100 libra, and the weight of a libra is approximately one third of a kilogram. Thus, Rome, under the plausible cover of compensation for the costs of joint defense needs, undertook to pay an indemnity of about 4 tons of gold. At that time, after the multiplication of the treasury under Anastasius, this amount was not particularly burdensome for Rome.
The situation in Lasik and Iveria was also the subject of negotiations. Lazika remained under the protectorate of Rome, and Iveria - of Iran, but those Iberians, or Georgians who fled from the Persians from their country to neighboring Lazika, were given the right to stay in Lazika or return to their homeland at their own request.
Emperor Justinian agreed to make peace with the Persians, because at that time he was developing a plan for conducting military operations in the West - in Africa and Italy - with the aim of restoring the integrity of the Roman Empire and for the sake of protecting the Orthodox Christians of the West from the discrimination that they were subjected to by the Arians who dominated them. But the dangerous development of events in the capital itself kept him from carrying out this plan for a while.
Rebellion "Nika"
In January 532, a rebellion broke out in Constantinople, the instigators of which were members of circus factions, or dims, prasins (green) and venets (blue). Of the four circus parties, by the time of Justinian, two - Levki (white) and Rus (red) - disappeared, leaving no noticeable traces of their existence. “The original meaning of the names of the four parties,” according to A.A. Vasiliev, is unclear. Sources of the VI century, that is, the era of Justinian, say that these names correspond to four elements: earth (green), water (blue), air (white) and fire (red). Dimas, similar to those in the capital, bearing the same names for the colors of the clothes of circus drivers and carriages, also existed in those cities where hippodromes were preserved. But the dims were not only communities of fans: they were endowed with municipal duties and rights, they served as a form of organizing a civil militia in case of a siege of the city. Dimas had their own structure, their own treasury, their leaders: these were, according to F.I. Uspensky, “democrats, of which there were two - the dimocrats of the Venets and the Prasins; both of them were appointed by the king from the highest military ranks with the rank of protospafarius. In addition to them, there were also dimarchs, who used to be headed by the dimarchs of the Levks and Russ, who actually died out, but retained the memory of themselves in the nomenclature of ranks. Judging by the sources, the remnants of the Dimalevks were absorbed by the Venets, and the Rusians by the Prasins. There is no complete clarity regarding the structure of dims and the principles of division into dims due to insufficient information in the sources. It is only known that the dimas, led by their dimocrats and dimarchs, were subordinate to the prefect, or eparch, of Constantinople. The number of Dims was limited: at the end of the 6th century, during the reign of Mauritius, there were one and a half thousand Prasins and 900 Venets in the capital, but much more numerous supporters joined the formal members of the Dims.
The division into dimas, like modern party affiliation, to a certain extent reflected the existence of different social and ethnic groups and even different theological views, which in New Rome served as the most important indicator of orientation. More affluent people predominated among the Veneti - landowners and officials; natural Greeks, successive diaphysites, while the Dim Prasin united mainly merchants and artisans, there were many immigrants from Syria and Egypt, among the Prasins the presence of Monophysites was also noticeable.
Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora were supporters, or, if you like, fans of the Veneti. The characterization of Theodora as a supporter of the Prasins found in the literature is based on a misunderstanding: on the one hand, on the fact that her father at one time was in the service of the Prasins (but after his death, the Prasins, as mentioned above, did not take care of his widow and orphans, in while the Veneti showed generosity to the orphaned family, and Theodora became a zealous "cheerleader" of this faction), and on the other hand, on the fact that she, not being a Monophysite, provided patronage to the Monophysites at a time when the emperor himself was looking for a way to reconcile them with the diaphysites, meanwhile, in the capital of the empire, the Monophysites concentrated around the Dima Prasins.
Not being recognized as political parties, performing, in accordance with their place in the hierarchy of metropolitan institutions, rather a representative function, the Dima nevertheless reflected the moods of various circles of urban residents, including their political desires. Back in the days of the principate and then the dominance, the hippodrome became the focus of political life. After the acclamation of the new emperor in the military camp, after the church blessing on the reign, after his approval by the senate, the emperor appeared at the hippodrome, occupied his box there, which was called the kathisma, and the people - the citizens of New Rome - with their salutatory cries performed a legally significant act of his election as emperor, or, closer to the real state of affairs, recognition of the legitimacy of an earlier election.
From a real-political point of view, the participation of the people in the election of the emperor was exclusively formal, ceremonial in nature, but the traditions of the ancient Roman Republic, torn apart in the time of the Gracchi, Marius, Sulla, the triumvirates by the struggle of parties, made their way in the rivalry of circus factions, which went beyond the limits of sports excitement. As F.I. Ouspensky, “the hippodrome provided the only arena, in the absence of a printing press, for the loud expression of public opinion, which was sometimes binding on the government. Here public affairs were discussed, here the population of Constantinople expressed, to a certain extent, their participation in political affairs; while the ancient political institutions, through which the people expressed their sovereign rights, gradually fell into decay, unable to get along with the monarchical principles of the Roman emperors, the city hippodrome continued to be an arena where free opinion could be expressed with impunity ... The people politicized on the hippodrome , censured both the tsar and the ministers, sometimes mocked unsuccessful policies. But the hippodrome with its dimes served not only as a place where the masses could criticize the actions of the authorities with impunity, it was also used by groups or clans surrounding the emperors, holders of government powers in their intrigues, served as a tool for compromising rivals from hostile clans. Taken together, these circumstances turned dimas into a risky weapon, fraught with riots.
The danger was aggravated by the extremely impudent criminal mores that reigned among the Stasiotes, who formed the core of the Dims, something like avid fans who did not miss the races and other performances of the hippodrome. About their manners, with probable exaggerations, but still not fantasizing, but relying on the real state of affairs, Procopius wrote in The Secret History: the Venetian stasiotes “openly carried weapons at night, but during the day they hid small double-edged daggers at their hips. As soon as it began to get dark, they gathered in gangs and robbed those who (looked) more decent, throughout the agora and in the narrow streets ... Some, during the robbery, they considered it necessary to kill, so that they would not tell anyone about what happened to them . Everyone suffered from them, and among the first were those Veneti who were not Stasiotes. Their dapper and elaborate attire was very colorful: they trimmed their clothes with “a beautiful border ... The part of the chiton that covered the arm was tightly pulled together near the wrist, and from there it expanded to an incredible size up to the shoulder. Whenever they were in the theater or on the hippodrome, shouting or cheering (charioteers) ... waving their arms, this part (tunic) naturally swelled, giving fools the impression that they had such a beautiful and strong body that they had to clothe it in similar robes ... Capes, wide trousers, and especially shoes, both in name and in appearance, were Hunnic. The stasiotes of the Prasins who competed with the Veneti either went over to the enemy gangs, “seized by the desire to participate in crimes with complete impunity, while others, having fled, took refuge in other places. Many, overtaken there, died either at the hands of the enemy, or subjected to persecution by the authorities ... Many other young men began to flock to this community ... They were motivated to this by the opportunity to show strength and audacity ... Many, seducing them with money, pointed out to the Stasiotes their own enemies and immediately they destroyed them." The words of Procopius that “no one had the slightest hope that he would remain alive in such an unreliable life” is, of course, only a rhetorical figure, but the atmosphere of danger, anxiety and fear was present in the city.
Thunderstorm tension was discharged by a riot - an attempt to overthrow Justinian. The rebels had different motives for taking risks. Adherents of the nephews of Emperor Anastasius lurked in palace and government circles, although they themselves did not seem to aspire to supreme power. They were mainly dignitaries who adhered to the Monophysite theology, of which Anastasius was an adherent. The people were dissatisfied with the tax policy of the government, the main culprits were seen as the closest assistants to the emperor, the praetorian prefect John of Cappadocia and the quaestor Tribonian. Rumor accused them of extortion, bribes and extortion. The Pracines resented Justinian's overt preference for the Veneti, and the Stasiotes of the Veneti were unhappy that the government, contrary to what Procopius wrote about condoning their banditry, nevertheless took police measures against the particularly obvious criminal excesses that they committed. Finally, there were still pagans, Jews, Samaritans, as well as heretics Arians, Macedonians, Montanists and even Manicheans in Constantinople, who rightly saw a threat to the very existence of their communities in the religious policy of Justinian, focused on supporting Orthodoxy with all the power of law and real power. So the combustible material in the capital accumulated in a high degree of concentration, and the hippodrome served as the epicenter of the explosion. It is easier for people of our time, captured by sports passions, than it was in previous centuries, to imagine how easily the excitement of fans, charged at the same time with political allegiances, can result in riots that threaten insurrection and coup, especially when the crowd is skillfully manipulated.
The beginning of the rebellion was the events that took place at the hippodrome on January 11, 532. In the interval between races, one of the prasins, apparently prepared in advance for the performance, on behalf of his dim addressed the emperor who was present at the races with a complaint about the spafarius of the sacred bedchamber of Kalopodia: “For many years, Justinian - August, win! - they offend us, the only good one, and we are not able to bear it any longer, God is my witness! . The representative of the emperor, in response to the accusation, said: "Kalopodiy does not interfere in the affairs of government ... You converge on spectacles only to insult the government." The dialogue became more and more tense: “Whatever it was, and who offends us, that part will be with Judas.” “Silence, Jews, Manichaeans, Samaritans!” “Are you slandering us as Jews and Samaritans? Mother of God, be with us all!..” – “Not joking: if you don’t stop, I will order everyone to cut off their heads” – “Order to kill! Please punish us! Already the blood is ready to flow in streams ... It would be better if Savvaty had not been born than to have a son as a murderer ... (This was already an openly rebellious attack.) So in the morning, outside the city, under Zeugma, a murder took place, and you, sovereign, at least look at it! There was a murder in the evening too.” The representative of the gay faction answered this: “The killers of this whole stage are only yours ... You kill and rebel; you only have stage killers.” The representative of the greens turned directly to the emperor: “Who killed the son of Epagaf, autocrat?” - "And you killed him, and you blame it on the blues" - "Lord, have mercy! Truth is being abused. Therefore, it can be argued that the world is not controlled by God's Providence. Where does such evil come from? “Blasphemers, theomachists, when will you shut up?” - “If it pleases your power, I willy-nilly keep silent, triaugust; I know everything, but I keep silent. Farewell justice! You are already speechless. I go to another camp, I will become a Jew. God knows! It is better to become a Hellenic than to live with the gays. Having challenged the government and the emperor, the greens left the hippodrome.
A quarrel with him at the hippodrome, insulting to the emperor, served as a prelude to the rebellion. The eparch, or prefect, of the capital, Evdemon, ordered the arrest of six people suspected of murders from both dims - green and blue. An investigation was conducted, and it turned out that seven of them were indeed guilty of this crime. Evdemon pronounced a verdict: four criminals beheaded, and three - crucified. But then something incredible happened. According to the story of John Malala, “when they ... began to hang, the pillars collapsed, and two (the condemned) fell; one was blue, the other green. A crowd gathered at the place of execution, monks from the monastery of St. Konon came and took with them the thwarted criminals sentenced to execution. They ferried them across the strait to the Asian shore and gave them asylum in the Church of the Martyr Lawrence, which had the right of asylum. But the prefect of the capital, Evdemon, sent a military detachment to the temple in order to prevent them from leaving the temple and hiding. The people were outraged by the actions of the prefect, because in the fact that the hanged broke loose and survived, they saw the miraculous effect of God's Providence. A crowd of people went to the prefect's house and asked him to remove the guards from the church of St. Lawrence, but he refused to fulfill this request. Dissatisfaction with the actions of the authorities grew in the crowd. The conspirators took advantage of the murmuring and indignation of the people. The staciots of the Venets and the Prasins agreed on a solidarity revolt against the government. The password of the conspirators was the word "Nika!" (“Win!”) - the exclamation of the spectators at the hippodrome, with which they cheered the competing drivers. The uprising went down in history under the name of this victorious cry.
On January 13, at the capital's hippodrome, equestrian competitions were again held, timed to coincide with the ides of January; Justinian sat on the imperial kathisma. In the intervals between the races, the Veneti and Prasins agreed to ask the emperor for mercy, for the forgiveness of those sentenced to death and miraculously freed from death. As Ioan Malala writes, “they continued to shout until race 22, but did not receive an answer. Then the devil inspired them with a bad intention, and they began to praise each other: “Many years to the merciful prasins and venets!” instead of greeting the emperor. Then, leaving the hippodrome, the conspirators, together with the crowd that had joined them, rushed to the residence of the prefect of the city, demanded the release of those sentenced to death and, not receiving a favorable answer, set fire to the prefecture. This was followed by new arson, accompanied by the killing of warriors and everyone who tried to counteract the rebellion. According to John Malala, “the Copper Gate burned down to the very scholia, and the Great Church, and the public portico; The people continued to rage." A more complete list of buildings destroyed by fire is given by Theophanes the Confessor: “The porticos from Kamara itself on the square to Halka (stairs), silver shops and all the buildings of Lavs burned down ... they entered houses, robbed property, burned the palace porch ... the premises of the royal bodyguards and the ninth part of Augustus ... They burned the Alexandrov baths and Sampson's large hospice with all his patients. Cries were heard in the crowd demanding to install "another king."
The equestrian competitions scheduled for the next day, January 14, were not cancelled. But when the flag was hoisted at the hippodrome, the rebellious prasins and venets, shouting “Nika!”, began to set fire to places for spectators. A detachment of Heruli under the command of Mund, whom Justinian ordered to pacify the rebellion, could not cope with the rebels. The emperor was ready to compromise. Having learned that the rebellious Dimas demanded the resignation of the dignitaries especially hated by them, John the Cappadocian, Tribonian and Eudemona, he complied with this demand and dismissed all three. But this resignation did not satisfy the rebels. Arson, killings and looting continued for several days, covering a large part of the city. The plan of the conspirators definitely leaned towards the removal of Justinian and the proclamation of one of Anastasius' nephews - Hypatius, Pompey or Probus - as emperor. In order to accelerate the development of events in this direction, the conspirators spread a false rumor among the people that Justinian and Theodora fled from the capital to Thrace. Then the crowd rushed to the house of Probus, who left it in advance and disappeared, not wanting to be involved in the riot. In anger, the rebels burned down his house. They also did not find Hypatius and Pompey, because at that time they were in the imperial palace and there they assured Justinian of their devotion to him, but, not trusting those to whom the instigators of the rebellion were going to hand over the supreme power, fearing that their presence in the palace could induce wavering bodyguards to treason, Justinian demanded that both brothers leave the palace and go to his home.
On Sunday, January 17, the emperor made another attempt to extinguish the rebellion by reconciliation. He appeared at the hippodrome, where the crowd involved in the rebellion had gathered, with the Gospel in his hands and with an oath promised to release the criminals who had escaped by hanging, and also to grant amnesty to all participants in the rebellion if they stopped the rebellion. In the crowd, some believed Justinian and greeted him, while others - and they, obviously, were the majority among those gathered - insulted him with their cries and demanded that his nephew Anastasius Hypatius be appointed emperor. Justinian, surrounded by bodyguards, returned from the hippodrome to the palace, and the rebellious crowd, having learned that Hypatius was at home, rushed there to proclaim him emperor. He himself feared the fate that lay ahead of him, but the rebels, acting aggressively, took him to the forum of Constantine to perform a solemn acclamation. His wife Maria, according to Procopius, “a sensible woman and known for her prudence, kept her husband and did not let him in, groaning loudly and calling on all those close to him that they were leading him to death,” but she was unable to prevent the intended action. Hypatius was brought to the forum and there, in the absence of a diadem, they placed a golden chain on his head. The senate, which met on an emergency basis, approved the perfect election of Hypatius as emperor. It is not known whether there were many senators who avoided participating in this meeting, and which of the senators present acted out of fear, considering Justinian's position hopeless, but it is obvious that his conscious opponents, probably mainly from among adherents of Monophysitism, were also present in the Senate earlier, before the rebellion. Senator Origen offered to prepare for a long war with Justinian, however, the majority, however, spoke in favor of an immediate assault on the imperial palace. Hypatius supported this proposal, and the crowd moved towards the hippodrome, adjacent to the palace, in order to launch an attack on the palace from there.
Meanwhile, a meeting of Justinian was held in it with his closest assistants, who remained faithful to him. Among them were Belisarius, Narses, Mund. Saint Theodora was also present. The current state of affairs, both by Justinian himself and by his advisers, was characterized in an extremely gloomy light. It was risky to rely on the loyalty of the soldiers from the capital's garrison, who had not yet joined the rebels, even on the palace schols. The plan for the evacuation of the emperor from Constantinople was seriously discussed. And then Theodora took the floor: “In my opinion, flight, even if it ever brought salvation and, perhaps, will bring it now, is unworthy. It is impossible for one who has been born not to die, but for one who once reigned, being a fugitive is unbearable. May I not lose this purple, may I not live to see the day when the people I meet do not call me mistress! If you wish to save yourself by flight, basileus, it is not difficult. We have a lot of money, and the sea is nearby, and there are ships. But see that you who have been saved do not have to choose death over salvation. I like the ancient saying that royal power is a beautiful shroud. This is the most famous of the sayings of St. Theodora, presumably - authentically reproduced by her hater and flatterer Procopius, a man of extraordinary intelligence, who was able to appreciate the irresistible energy and expressiveness of these words that characterize her herself: her mind and amazing gift of speech, with which she once shone on stage, her fearlessness and self-control, her excitement and pride, her steel will, hardened by everyday trials, which she has undergone in abundance in the past - from early youth to marriage, which raised her to an unprecedented height, from which she did not want to fall, even if on the life of both herself and her husband, the emperor, was at stake. These words of Theodora wonderfully illustrate the role that she played in Justinian's inner circle, the extent of her influence on public policy.
Theodora's statement marked a turning point in the course of the rebellion. “Her words,” according to Procopius, “inspired everyone, and, regaining their lost courage, they began to discuss how they should defend themselves ... The soldiers, both those who were entrusted with the protection of the palace, and everyone else, did not show loyalty to the basileus , but also did not want to explicitly take part in the case, waiting for what the outcome of events would be. At the meeting, it was decided to immediately begin to suppress the rebellion.
A key role in restoring order was played by the detachment that Belisarius brought from the eastern border. German mercenaries acted with him under the command of their commander Mund, who was appointed general of Illyricum. But before they attacked the rebels, the palace eunuch Narses entered into negotiations with the rebellious Venets, who were previously considered reliable, since Justinian himself and his wife Theodora were on the side of their blue dima. According to John Malala, he “secretly left (from the palace), bribed some (members) of the Veneti party, distributing money to them. And some who rose from the crowd began to proclaim Justinian king in the city; people divided and went against each other. In any case, the number of rebels decreased as a result of this division, and yet it was large and inspired the most alarming fears. Convinced of the unreliability of the capital’s garrison, Belisarius lost heart and, returning to the palace, began to assure the emperor that “their cause was lost,” but, being under the spell of the words spoken by Theodora at the council, Justinian was now determined to act in the most energetic way. He ordered Belisarius to lead his detachment to the hippodrome, where the main forces of the rebels were concentrated. There, seated on the imperial kathisma, was Hypatius, proclaimed emperor.
The detachment of Belisarius made their way to the hippodrome through the charred ruins. Having reached the portico of the Veneti, he wanted to immediately attack Hypatius and seize him, but they were separated by a locked door, which was guarded from the inside by Hypatius' bodyguards, and Belisarius feared that "when he finds himself in a difficult position in this narrow place", the people will attack the detachment and because of his small number will kill all his warriors. So he chose a different direction of attack. He ordered the soldiers to attack the unorganized crowd of many thousands that had gathered at the hippodrome, catching it by surprise with this attack, and “the people ... seeing warriors dressed in armor, famous for their courage and experience in battles, who struck with swords without any mercy, turned to flight.” But there was nowhere to run, because through the other gates of the hippodrome, which were called the Dead (Nekra), the Germans under the command of Mund broke into the hippodrome. A massacre began, more than 30 thousand people fell victim to it. Hypatius and his brother Pompey were captured and taken to the palace to Justinian. In his defense, Pompey said that “the people forced them against their own desire to take power, and then they went to the hippodrome, not having malicious intent against the basileus” - which was only a half-truth, because from a certain moment they ceased to oppose the will of the rebels . Hypatius did not want to justify himself to the winner. The next day they were both killed by soldiers, and their bodies were thrown into the sea. All the property of Hypatius and Pompey, as well as those senators who participated in the rebellion, was confiscated in favor of the fiscus. But later, for the sake of establishing peace and harmony in the state, Justinian returned the confiscated property to their former owners, without depriving even the children of Hypatius and Pompey, these unlucky nephews of Anastasius. But, on the other hand, Justinian, shortly after the suppression of the rebellion, which shed more blood, but less than could have been shed if his opponents had succeeded, who would have plunged the empire into civil war, annulled the orders made by him as a concession to the rebels: the closest assistants to the emperor, Tribonian and John, were returned to their former posts.
(To be continued.)
Emperor Justinian. Mosaic in Ravenna. 6th century
The future emperor of Byzantium was born around 482 in the small Macedonian village of Taurisius in the family of a poor peasant. He came to Constantinople as a teenager at the invitation of his uncle Justin, an influential courtier. Justin did not have his own children, and he patronized his nephew: he summoned him to the capital and, despite the fact that he himself remained illiterate, gave him a good education, and then found a position at court. In 518. the Senate, the guards and the inhabitants of Constantinople proclaimed the aged Justin emperor, and he soon made his nephew co-ruler. Justinian was distinguished by a clear mind, a broad political outlook, determination, perseverance and exceptional efficiency. These qualities made him the de facto ruler of the empire. His young, beautiful wife Theodora also played a huge role. Her life turned out unusually: the daughter of a poor circus artist and a circus artist herself, she left for Alexandria as a 20-year-old girl, where she fell under the influence of mystics and monks and was transformed, becoming sincerely religious and pious. Beautiful and charming, Theodora had an iron will and proved to be an indispensable friend to the emperor in difficult times. Justinian and Theodora were a worthy couple, although their union haunted evil tongues for a long time.
In 527, after the death of his uncle, the 45-year-old Justinian became an autocrat - autocrat - of the Roman Empire, as the Byzantine Empire was then called.
He received power at a difficult time: only the eastern part of the former Roman possessions remained, and barbarian kingdoms were formed on the territory of the Western Roman Empire: the Visigoths in Spain, the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Franks in Gaul and the Vandals in Africa. The Christian church was torn by controversy as to whether Christ was a "god-man"; dependent peasants (columns) fled and did not cultivate the land, the arbitrariness of the nobility ruined the common people, the cities were shaken by riots, the finances of the empire were in decline. Only decisive and selfless measures could save the situation, and Justinian, a stranger to luxury and pleasure, a sincerely believing Orthodox Christian, theologian and politician, was the best suited for this role.
Several stages are clearly distinguished in the reign of Justinian I. The beginning of the reign (527-532) was a period of extensive charity, distribution of funds to the poor, tax cuts, and assistance to cities affected by the earthquake. At this time, the positions of the Christian Church in the struggle against other religions were strengthened: in Athens, the last stronghold of paganism, the Platonic Academy, was closed; limited opportunities for open confession of cults of other believers - Jews, Samaritans, etc. This was a period of wars with the neighboring Iranian power of the Sassanids for influence in South Arabia, the purpose of which was to gain a foothold in the ports of the Indian Ocean and thereby undermine Iran's monopoly on the silk trade with China. It was a time of struggle against the arbitrariness and abuses of the nobility.
The main event of this stage is the reform of law. In 528, Justinian established a commission of experienced lawyers and statesmen. The main role in it was played by the specialist in law Trebonian. The commission prepared a collection of imperial decrees - "The Code of Justinian", a set of works of Roman lawyers - "Digesta", as well as a guide to the study of law - "Institutions". Carrying out legislative reform, proceeded from the need to combine the norms of classical Roman law with the spiritual values of Christianity. This was expressed primarily in the creation of a unified system of imperial citizenship and the proclamation of the equality of citizens before the law. Moreover, under Justinian, inherited from ancient rome laws relating to private property have taken their final form. In addition, the laws of Justinian considered the slave no longer as a thing - a "talking tool", but as a person. Although slavery was not abolished, many opportunities opened up for the slave to be freed: if he became a bishop, went to a monastery, became a soldier; it was forbidden to kill a slave, and the murder of another's slave entailed a cruel execution. In addition, under the new laws, the rights of women in the family were equalized with the rights of men. The laws of Justinian forbade the divorce condemned by the Church. At the same time, the epoch could not but leave an imprint on the law. Executions were frequent: for commoners - crucifixion, burning, giving to wild beasts to eat, beating with rods to death, quartering; nobles were beheaded. An insult to the emperor was also punishable by death, even damage to his sculptural images.
The emperor's reforms were interrupted by the Nika popular uprising in Constantinople (532). It all started with a conflict between two parties of fans in the circus: Veneti ("blue") and Prasin ("green"). These were not only sports, but partly socio-political unions. Political grievances were added to the traditional struggle of the fans: the Prasins believed that the government was oppressing them, and patronizing the Venets. In addition, the lower classes were dissatisfied with the abuses of the "Minister of Finance" of Justinian - John of Cappadocia, but the nobility hoped to get rid of the upstart emperor. The Prasin leaders presented their demands to the emperor, and in a very harsh manner, and when he rejected them, they called him a murderer and left the circus. Thus, an unheard-of insult was inflicted on the autocrat. The situation was complicated by the fact that when on the same day the instigators of the clash from both parties were arrested and sentenced to death, two of the condemned fell from the gallows (“were pardoned by God”), but the authorities refused to release them.
Then a single "green-blue" party was created with the slogan "Nika!" (circus cry "Win!"). An open riot began in the city, arson was committed. The emperor agreed to concessions, dismissing the ministers most hated by the people, but this did not bring peace. An important role was also played by the fact that the nobility distributed gifts and weapons to the rebellious plebs, inciting a rebellion. Neither attempts to suppress the uprising by force with the help of a detachment of barbarians, nor the public repentance of the emperor with the Gospel in his hands, yielded anything. The rebels now demanded his resignation and proclaimed the noble senator Hypatius emperor. In the meantime, the fires were getting bigger and bigger. "The city was a heap of blackening ruins," wrote a contemporary. Justinian was about to abdicate, but at that moment Empress Theodora declared that she preferred death to flight and that "the emperor's purple is an excellent shroud". Her determination played a big role, and Justinian decided to fight. The troops loyal to the government made a desperate attempt to regain control over the capital: a detachment of the commander Belisarius, the winner of the Persians, penetrated the circus, where there was a stormy rally of the rebels, and staged a brutal massacre there. It was said that 35 thousand people died, but the throne of Justinian survived.
The terrible catastrophe that befell Constantinople - fires and deaths - did not, however, plunge either Justinian or the townspeople into despondency. In the same year, rapid construction began at the expense of the treasury. The pathos of restoration captured wide sections of the townspeople. In a sense, we can say that the city has risen from the ashes, like a fabulous Phoenix bird, and has become even more beautiful. The symbol of this rise was, of course, the construction of a miracle of miracles - the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople. It began immediately, in 532, under the guidance of architects from the province - Anthemius from Thrall and Isidore from Miletus. Outwardly, the building could not impress the viewer with much, but a real miracle of transformation took place inside, when the believer found himself under a huge mosaic dome, which, as it were, hung in the air without any support. The dome with a cross hovered over the worshipers, symbolizing the divine cover over the empire and its capital. Justinian had no doubt that his authority had divine sanction. On holidays, he sat on the left side of the throne, and the right was empty - Christ was invisibly present on it. The autocrator dreamed that an invisible veil would be lifted up over the entire Roman Mediterranean. The idea of restoring the Christian empire - the "Roman house" - Justinian inspired the whole society.
When the dome of Sophia of Constantinople was still being erected, the second stage of Justinian's reign (532-540) began with the Great Liberation Campaign to the West.
By the end of the first third of the VI century. the barbarian kingdoms that arose in the western part of the Roman Empire were in deep crisis. They were torn apart by religious strife: the main population professed Orthodoxy, but the barbarians, Goths and Vandals were Arians, whose teaching was declared a heresy, condemned in the 4th century. at the I and II Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church. Within the barbarian tribes themselves, social stratification was rapidly going on, discord between the nobility and commoners intensified, which undermined the combat effectiveness of the armies. The elite of the kingdoms were busy with intrigues and conspiracies and did not care about the interests of their states. Indigenous people awaited the Byzantines as liberators. The reason for the start of the war in Africa was that the Vandal nobility overthrew the legitimate king - a friend of the empire - and put his relative Gelizmer on the throne. In 533, Justinian sent an army of 16,000 under the command of Belisarius to the African shores. The Byzantines managed to land covertly and freely occupy the capital of the Vandal kingdom of Carthage. The Orthodox clergy and the Roman nobility solemnly welcomed the imperial troops. The common people were also sympathetic to their appearance, since Belisarius severely punished robberies and looting. King Gelizmer tried to organize resistance, but lost the decisive battle. The Byzantines were helped by chance: at the beginning of the battle, the king's brother died, and Gelismer left the troops to bury him. The Vandals thought the king had fled, and panic seized the army. All Africa was in the hands of Belisarius. Under Justinian I, grandiose construction began here - 150 new cities were built, close trade contacts with the Eastern Mediterranean were restored. The province experienced economic growth throughout the 100 years that it was part of the empire.
Following the annexation of Africa, a war began for the possession of the historical core of the western part of the empire - Italy. The reason for the start of the war was the overthrow and murder of the legitimate queen of the Ostrogoths Amalasunta by her husband Theo-dat. In the summer of 535, Belisarius landed in Sicily with an eight thousandth detachment and in a short time, almost without resistance, occupied the island. The following year, his army crossed to the Apennine Peninsula and, despite the huge numerical superiority of the enemy, recaptured its southern and central parts. The Italians everywhere met Belisarius with flowers, only Naples resisted. The Christian Church played a huge role in this support of the people. In addition, confusion reigned in the camp of the Ostrogoths: the murder of the cowardly and treacherous Theodatus, a riot in the troops. The army chose Vitigis, a brave soldier but a weak politician, as the new king. He, too, could not stop the advance of Belisarius, and in December 536 the Byzantine army occupied Rome without a fight. The clergy and townspeople arranged a solemn meeting for the Byzantine soldiers. The population of Italy no longer wanted the power of the Ostrogoths, as evidenced by the following fact. When in the spring of 537 the 5,000-strong detachment of Belisarius was besieged in Rome by the huge army of Vitigis, the battle for Rome lasted 14 months; despite hunger and disease, the Romans remained loyal to the empire and did not let Vitigis into the city. It is also indicative that the king of the Ostrogoths himself printed coins with the portrait of Justinian I - only the power of the emperor was considered legitimate. In the deep autumn of 539, the army of Belisarius besieged the capital of the barbarians, Ravenna, and a few months later, relying on the support of friends, the imperial troops occupied it without a fight.
It seemed that the power of Justinian knew no bounds, he was at the height of his power, plans for the restoration of the Roman Empire were coming true. However, the main tests were still waiting for his power. The thirteenth year of the reign of Justinian I was a "black year" and began a period of difficulties that only the faith, courage and stamina of the Romans and their emperor could overcome. This was the third stage of his reign (540-558).
Even when Belisarius was negotiating the surrender of Ravenna, the Persians violated the "Perpetual Peace" signed by them ten years ago with the empire. Shah Khosrow I invaded Syria with a huge army and laid siege to the capital of the province - the richest city of Antioch. The inhabitants bravely defended themselves, but the garrison turned out to be unfit for combat and fled. The Persians took Antioch, plundered the flourishing city and sold the inhabitants into slavery. The following year, the troops of Khosrov I invaded Lazika (Western Georgia), allied with the empire, and a protracted Byzantine-Persian war began. Thunderstorm from the East coincided with the invasion of the Slavs on the Danube. Taking advantage of the fact that the fortifications of the border were left almost without garrisons (there were troops in Italy and in the East), the Slavs reached the capital itself, broke through the Long Walls (three walls stretching from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, protecting the outskirts of the city) and began to rob the suburbs of Constantinople. Belisarius was urgently transferred to the East, and he managed to stop the Persian invasion, but while his army was not in Italy, the Ostrogoths revived there. They chose the young, handsome, brave and intelligent Totila as king and, under his leadership, began a new war. The barbarians enrolled runaway slaves and columns in the army, distributed the lands of the Church and the nobility to their supporters, attracted those who were offended by the Byzantines. Very quickly Totila's small army occupied almost all of Italy; only ports remained under the control of the empire, which it was impossible to take without a fleet.
But, probably, the most difficult test for the power of Justinian I was the terrible plague epidemic (541-543), which claimed almost half of the population. It seemed that the invisible dome of Sophia over the empire cracked and black whirlwinds of death and destruction poured into it.
Justinian was well aware that his main strength in the face of a superior enemy was the faith and unity of his subjects. Therefore, simultaneously with the ongoing war with the Persians in Lazica, the difficult struggle with Totila, who created his own fleet and captured Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, the attention of the emperor was more and more occupied by questions of theology. It seemed to some that the aged Justinian had lost his mind, spending days and nights in such a critical situation reading the Holy Scriptures, studying the works of the Fathers of the Church (the traditional name for the leaders of the Christian Church who created its dogma and organization) and writing his own theological treatises. However, the emperor was well aware that it was in the Christian faith of the Romans that their strength was. Then the famous idea of the "symphony of the Kingdom and the Priesthood" was formulated - the union of church and state as a guarantee of peace - the Empire.
In 543, Justinian wrote a treatise condemning the teachings of the mystic, ascetic, and theologian of the third century. Origen, who denies the eternal torment of sinners. However, the emperor paid the main attention to overcoming the split between the Orthodox and the Monophysites. This conflict has tormented the Church for more than 100 years. In 451 the IV Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon condemned the Monophysites. The theological dispute was complicated by the rivalry between the influential centers of Orthodoxy in the East - Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople. The split between the supporters of the Council of Chalcedon and its opponents (Orthodox and Monophysites) in the reign of Justinian I became especially acute, since the Monophysites created their own separate church hierarchy. In 541, the activity of the famous Monophysite Jacob Baradei begins, who, in the clothes of a beggar, went around all the countries inhabited by Monophysites, and restored the Monophysite church in the East. The religious conflict was complicated by the national one: the Greeks and Romans, who considered themselves the ruling people in the Roman Empire, were predominantly Orthodox, and the Copts and many Arabs were Monophysites. For the empire, this was all the more dangerous because the richest provinces - Egypt and Syria - gave huge sums to the treasury, and much depended on the support of the government by trade and craft circles in these areas. While Theodora was alive, she helped mitigate the conflict by patronizing the Monophysites, despite the complaints of the Orthodox clergy, but in 548 the empress died. Justinian decided to bring the issue of reconciliation with the Monophysites to the Fifth Ecumenical Council. The emperor's intention was to smooth out the conflict by condemning the teachings of the enemies of the Monophysites - Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Willow of Edessa and Theodore of Mopsuet (the so-called "three chapters"). The difficulty was that they all died in peace with the Church. Is it possible to condemn the dead? After much hesitation, Justinian decided that it was possible, but Pope Vigilius and the vast majority of Western bishops disagreed with his decision. The emperor took the Pope to Constantinople, kept him almost under house arrest, trying to achieve consent under pressure. After a long struggle and hesitation, Vigilius gave in. In 553, the 5th Ecumenical Council in Constantinople condemned the "three chapters". The pope did not participate in the work of the council, citing malaise, and tried to oppose its decisions, but in the end he nevertheless signed them.
In the history of this council, one should distinguish between its religious meaning, which consists in the triumph of the Orthodox dogma that the divine and human natures are united in Christ inseparably and inseparably, and the political intrigues that accompanied it. The direct goal of Justinian was not achieved: reconciliation with the Monophysites did not come, and there was almost a break with the Western bishops, who were dissatisfied with the decisions of the council. However, this cathedral played a big role in the spiritual consolidation of the Orthodox Church, and this was extremely important both at that time and for subsequent eras. The reign of Justinian I was a period of religious upsurge. It was at this time that church poetry was developed, written in simple language, one of the most prominent representatives of which was Roman Sladkopevets. This was the heyday of Palestinian monasticism, the time of John of the Ladder and Isaac the Syrian.
There was also a turning point in political affairs. In 552 Justinian equipped new army for a trip to Italy. This time she took the land route through Dalmatia under the command of the eunuch Narses, a brave commander and cunning politician. In the decisive battle, Totila's cavalry attacked the troops of Narses, built in a crescent, came under cross fire from archers from the flanks, fled and crushed their own infantry. Totila was severely wounded and died. Within a year, the Byzantine army restored its dominance over all of Italy, and a year later Narses stopped and destroyed the hordes of the Lombards that poured into the peninsula.
Italy was saved from a terrible plunder. In 554, Justinian continued his conquests in the Western Mediterranean, trying to capture Spain. It was not possible to do this completely, but a small area in the southeast of the country and the Strait of Gibraltar came under the rule of Byzantium. The Mediterranean Sea has once again become the "Lake of Rome". In 555. Imperial troops defeated a huge Persian army in Lazik. Khosrow I first signed a truce for six years, and then peace. It was also possible to cope with the Slavic threat: Justinian I concluded an alliance with the nomadic Avars, who took upon themselves the protection of the Danube border of the empire and the fight against the Slavs. In 558 this treaty came into force. For the empire of the Romans, the long-awaited peace came.
The last years of the reign of Justinian I (559-565) passed quietly. The finances of the empire, weakened by a quarter of a century of struggle and a terrible epidemic, were being restored, the country was healing its wounds. The 84-year-old emperor did not leave his theological studies and hopes to end the schism in the Church. He even wrote a treatise close in spirit to the Monophysites on the incorruptibility of the body of Christ. For resistance to the new views of the emperor, the Patriarch of Constantinople and many bishops ended up in exile. Justinian I was at the same time the successor of the traditions of the early Christians and the heir of the pagan Caesars. On the one hand, he fought against the fact that only priests were active in the Church, and the laity remained only spectators, on the other hand, he constantly interfered in church affairs, removing bishops at his own discretion. Justinian carried out reforms in the spirit of the gospel commandments - he helped the poor, eased the situation of slaves and columns, restored cities - and at the same time subjected the population to severe tax oppression. Tried to restore the authority of the law, but could not destroy the venality and abuse of officials. His attempts to restore peace and stability in the territory of the Byzantine Empire turned into rivers of blood. And yet, in spite of everything, the empire of Justinian was an oasis of civilization surrounded by pagan and barbarian states and struck the imagination of his contemporaries.
The significance of the deeds of the great emperor goes far beyond the scope of his time. Strengthening the position of the Church, the ideological and spiritual consolidation of Orthodoxy played a huge role in the formation of medieval society. The Code of Emperor Justinian I became the basis of European law in subsequent centuries.
Justinian I the Great
(lat. Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus) ruled Byzantium from 527 to 565. Under Justinian the Great, the territory of Byzantium almost doubled. Historians believe that Justinian was one of the greatest monarchs of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Justinian was born around 483.
in a peasant family of a provincial village in a mountainous Macedonia, near Skupi
. For a long time, the opinion prevailed that he was of Slavic origin and originally wore the name of the council,
this legend was very common among the Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula.
Justinian was distinguished by strict Orthodoxy , was a reformer and military strategist who made the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Coming from the dark mass of the provincial peasantry, Justinian was able to firmly and firmly master two grandiose ideas: the Roman idea of world monarchy and the Christian idea of the kingdom of God. Combining both ideas and putting them into action with the help of power in a secular state that has accepted these two ideas as political doctrine of the Byzantine Empire.
Under Emperor Justinian, the Byzantine Empire reached its peak, after a long period of decline, the monarch tried to restore the empire and return it to its former greatness. It is believed that Justinian fell under the influence of the strong character of his wife Theodora, whom he solemnly crowned in 527.
Historians believe that the main goal of Justinian's foreign policy was the revival of the Roman Empire within its former borders, the empire was to turn into a single Christian state. As a result, all the wars conducted by the emperor were aimed at expanding their territories, especially to the west, on the territory of the fallen Western Roman Empire.
The main commander of Justinian, who dreamed of the revival of the Roman Empire, was Belisarius,
became a general at the age of 30. 
In 533 Justinian sent Belisarius' army into North Africa for conquering the kingdom of the Vandals. The war with the Vandals was successful for Byzantium, and already in 534 the commander of Justinian won a decisive victory. As in the African campaign, the commander Belisarius kept many mercenaries in the Byzantine army - wild barbarians.
Even sworn enemies could help the Byzantine Empire - it was enough to pay them. So, Huns made up a large part of the army Belisarius , which on 500 ships set off from Constantinople to North Africa.Hun cavalry , who served as mercenaries in the Byzantine army of Belisarius, played a decisive role in the war against Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. During the general battle, the opponents fled from the wild horde of the Huns and hid in the Numidian desert. Then the commander Belisarius occupied Carthage.
After the annexation of North Africa in Byzantine Constantinople, they turned their eyes to Italy, on whose territory there existed kingdom of the Ostrogoths. Emperor Justinian the Great decided to declare war Germanic kingdoms , who waged constant wars among themselves and were weakened on the eve of the invasion of the Byzantine army.
The war with the Ostrogoths was successful, and The king of the Ostrogoths had to turn to Persia for help. Justinian secured himself in the East from a blow from the rear by making peace with Persia and launched a campaign to invade Western Europe.
First thing commander Belisarius occupied Sicily, where he met little resistance. The Italian cities also surrendered one by one until the Byzantines approached Naples.
Belisarius (505-565), Byzantine general under Justinian I, 540 (1830). Belasarius refusing the crown of their kingdom in Italy offered to him by the Goths in 540. Belisarius was a brilliant general who defeated a range of enemies of the Byzantine Empire, virtually doubling its territory in the process. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)
After the fall of Naples, Pope Silverius invited Belisarius to enter the holy city. The Goths left Rome , and soon Belisarius occupied Rome, the capital of the empire. The Byzantine commander Belisarius, however, understood that the enemy was only gathering strength, so he immediately began to strengthen the walls of Rome. Followed then The siege of Rome by the Goths lasted one year and nine days (537-538). The Byzantine army, defending Rome, not only withstood the attacks of the Goths, but also continued its offensive deep into the Apennine Peninsula.
Belisarius' victories allowed the Byzantine Empire to establish control over the northeastern part of Italy. Already after the death of Belisarius was created exarchate (province) with Ravenna as its capital . Although Rome was later lost to Byzantium, as Rome actually fell under the control of the pope, Byzantium retained possessions in Italy until the middle of the 8th century.
Under Justinian, the territory of the Byzantine Empire reached its largest size during the entire existence of the empire. Justinian managed to almost completely restore the former borders of the Roman Empire.
The Byzantine emperor Justinian captured all of Italy and almost the entire coast of North Africa, and the southeastern part of Spain. Thus, the territory of Byzantium doubles, but does not reach the former borders of the Roman Empire.
Already in 540 New Persian
the Sassanid kingdom terminated the peace
treaty with Byzantium and actively prepared for war. Justinian was in a difficult position, because Byzantium could not withstand the war on two fronts. 
Domestic policy of Justinian the Great
In addition to an active foreign policy, Justinian also pursued a prudent domestic policy. Under him, the Roman system of government was abolished, which was replaced by a new one - the Byzantine one. Justinian was actively engaged in strengthening the state apparatus, and also tried to improve taxation . Under the emperor were connected civil and military positions attempts have been made reduce corruption by raising the salaries of officials.
The people of Justinian were nicknamed the "sleepless emperor", as he worked day and night to reform the state.
Historians believe that Justinian's military successes were his main merit, however domestic politics, especially in the second half of his reign, devastated the state treasury.
Emperor Justinian the Great left behind a famous architectural monument that still exists today - Saint Sophie Cathedral . This building is considered a symbol of the "golden age" in the Byzantine Empire. This cathedral is the second largest Christian church in the world and second only to St. Paul's Cathedral in the Vatican . With the construction of the Hagia Sophia, Emperor Justinian won the favor of the Pope and the entire Christian world.
During the reign of Justinian, the world's first plague pandemic broke out, which swept the entire Byzantine Empire. The largest number victims was recorded in the capital of the empire, Constantinople, where 40% of the total population died. According to historians, the total number of victims of the plague reached about 30 million people, and possibly more.
Achievements of the Byzantine Empire under Justinian
The greatest achievement of Justinian the Great is considered to be an active foreign policy, which doubled the territory of Byzantium, almost regaining all the lost lands after the fall of Rome in 476.
As a result of numerous wars, the treasury of the state was depleted, and this led to popular riots and uprisings. However, the rebellion prompted Justinian to issue new laws for the citizens of the entire empire. The emperor abolished Roman law, repealed obsolete Roman laws and introduced new laws. The collection of these laws is called "Code of Civil Law".
The reign of Justinian the Great was indeed called the "golden age", he himself said: “Never before the time of our reign did God grant such victories to the Romans ... Thank heaven, inhabitants of the whole world: in your days a great deed has been accomplished, which God recognized as unworthy of the entire ancient world” Commemorations of the greatness of Christianity were built Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
A huge breakthrough has occurred in military affairs. Justinian managed to create the largest professional mercenary army of that period. The Byzantine army led by Belisarius brought many victories to the Byzantine emperor and expanded the boundaries of the Byzantine Empire. However, the maintenance of a huge mercenary army and endless warriors depleted the state treasury of the Byzantine Empire.
The first half of the reign of Emperor Justinian is called the "golden age of Byzantium", while the second only caused discontent on the part of the people. The outskirts of the empire covered uprisings of the Moors and Goths. BUT in 548 during the second Italian campaign, Justinian the Great could no longer respond to requests from Belisarius to send money for the army and to pay the mercenaries.
The last time the commander Belisarius led the troops in 559, when the Kotrigur tribe invaded Thrace. The commander won the battle and could have completely destroyed the attackers, but Justinian at the last moment decided to pay off his restless neighbors. However, the most surprising thing was that the creator of the Byzantine victory was not even invited to the festive celebrations. After this episode, the commander Belisarius finally fell into disfavor and ceased to play a prominent role at court.
In 562, several noble inhabitants of Constantinople accused the famous commander Belisarius of preparing a conspiracy against the emperor Justinian. For several months Belisarius was deprived of his property and position. Soon Justinian became convinced of the innocence of the accused and made peace with him. Belisarius died in peace and solitude in 565 AD In the same year, Emperor Justinian the Great expired.
The last conflict between the emperor and the commander served as a source of legends about the poor, weak and blind commander Belisarius, begging for alms at the walls of the temple. This - fallen into disfavor - depicts him in his famous painting by the French artist Jacques Louis David.
A world state created by the will of an autocratic sovereign - such was the dream that Emperor Justinian cherished from the very beginning of his reign. By force of arms, he returned the lost old Roman territories, then he gave them a general civil law that ensures the well-being of the inhabitants, and finally - he affirmed a single Christian faith, called to unite all peoples in the worship of the one true Christian God. These are the three unshakable foundations on which Justinian built the power of his empire. Justinian the Great believed that “there is nothing higher and holier than imperial majesty”; “the creators of law themselves said that the will of the monarch has the force of law«; « he alone is capable of spending days and nights in labor and wakefulness, in order to think about the welfare of the people«.
Justinian the Great argued that the grace of the emperor's power, as "God's anointed", standing above the state and above the church, was received by him directly from God. The emperor is "equal to the apostles" (Greek ίσαπόστολος), God helps him to defeat his enemies, to issue just laws. Justinian's wars took on the character of crusades - wherever the Byzantine emperor will be master, the Orthodox faith will shine. His piety turned into religious intolerance and was embodied in cruel persecution for deviating from the faith he recognized. Every legislative act Justinian puts under the auspices of the Holy Trinity.
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Justinian I (lat. Iustinianus I, Greek Ιουστινιανός A, known as Justinian the Great; 482 or 483, Tauresius (Upper Macedonia) - November 14, 565, Constantinople), Emperor of Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire) from 527 to 565. Under him, the famous codification of Roman law was made and Italy was conquered from the Ostrogoths.
His native language was Latin. Justinian was born into the family of a poor Illyrian peasant from Macedonia. Even in childhood, the uncle-commander, having adopted Justinian and adding the name Justinian, which went down in history, to the real name of the boy Peter Savvaty, brought him to Constantinople and gave him a good education. Subsequently, the uncle became Emperor Justin I, making Justinian co-ruler, and after his death, Justinian inherited the throne in 527 and became the lord of a vast empire. On the one hand, he was distinguished by the generosity, simplicity, and wisdom of a politician. the talent of a skilled diplomat, on the other - cruelty, deceit, duplicity. Justinian I was obsessed with the idea of the greatness of his imperial person.
Emancipation from slavery belongs to the law of nations.
justinian
Having become emperor, Justinian I immediately began to implement the general program of reviving the greatness of Rome in all aspects. Like Napoleon, he slept little, was extremely energetic and attentive to detail. He was greatly influenced by his wife Theodora, a former courtesan or hetaera, whose determination played a large role in putting down the biggest Nika uprising in Constantinople in 532. After her death, Justinian I became less determined as the ruler of the state.
Justinian I was able to keep eastern border with the Sassanid Empire, thanks to his commanders Belisarius and Narses, he conquered North Africa from the Vandals and returned imperial power over the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy. At the same time, it strengthens the apparatus of state administration and improves taxation. These reforms were so unpopular that they led to the "Nika" rebellion, and it almost cost him the throne.
Using the talent of his minister Tribonian, in 528 Justinian ordered a complete revision of Roman law, aiming to make it as unsurpassed in formal legal terms as it had been three centuries earlier. The three main components of Roman law - the Digests, the Code of Justinian and the Institutions - were completed in 534. Justinian linked the welfare of the state with the welfare of the church and considered himself the bearer of the highest ecclesiastical authority, as well as secular. His policies are sometimes called "caesaropapism" (the dependence of the church on the state), although he himself did not see the difference between church and state. He legitimized church orders and orthodox doctrine, in particular the position of the Council of Chalcedon, according to which the human and the divine coexist in Christ, as opposed to the point of view of the Monophysites, who believed that Christ is an exclusively divine being, and the Nestorians, who argued that Christ has two different hypostases. - human and divine. Having built the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in 537, Justinian believed that he had surpassed Solomon.
The burned-out Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was completely rebuilt, striking in its beauty and splendor and remaining for a thousand years the most grandiose church in the Christian world.
Place of Birth
Regarding the birthplace of Justinian, Procopius speaks quite definitely, placing him in a place called Taurus (lat. Tauresium), next to Fort Bederian (lat. Bederiana) . About this place, Procopius further says that the city of Justiniana Prima was subsequently founded near it, the ruins of which are now in the south-east of Serbia. Procopius also reports that Justinian significantly strengthened and made numerous improvements in the city of Ulpiana, renaming it Justinian Secunda. Nearby, he erected another city, calling it Justinopolis, in honor of his uncle.
Most of the cities of Dardania were destroyed in the reign of Anastasius by a powerful earthquake in 518. Near the ruined capital of the province of Skupi, Justinopolis was built, a powerful wall with four towers was erected around Taurus, which Procopius calls Tetrapyrgia.
The names "Bederiana" and "Tavresia" have come down to our time in the form of the names of the villages of Bader and Taor near Skopje. Both of these places were explored in 1885 by the English archaeologist Arthur Evans, who found rich numismatic material there, confirming the importance of the settlements located here after the 5th century. Evans concluded that the Skopje region was the birthplace of Justinian, confirming the identification of old settlements with modern villages.
Family of Justinian
Name of Justinian's mother, Justin's sister, Biglenica given in Iustiniani Vita, the unreliability of which was mentioned above. Since there is no other information on this subject, we can assume that her name is unknown. The fact that Justinian's mother was Justin's sister is confirmed by numerous sources.
Regarding Father Justinian, there is more reliable news. In The Secret History, Procopius gives the following story:
From here we learn the name of the father of Justinian - Savvaty. Another source where this name is mentioned is the so-called "Acts on Kallopodius", included in the chronicle of Theophanes and the "Easter Chronicle" and relating to the events immediately preceding the uprising of Nick. There, prasins, during a conversation with a representative of the emperor, utter the phrase “It would be better if Savvaty had not been born, he would not have given birth to a murderous son.”
Savvaty and his wife had two children, Peter Savvaty (lat. Petrus Sabbatius) and Vigilantia (lat. Vigilantia). Written sources nowhere mention the real name of Justinian, and only on the consular diptychs of 521 do we see the inscription lat. fl. Petr. Saturday. Justinian. v. i., com. mag. eqq. et p. praes., et c. od. meaning lat. Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus, vir illustris, comes, magister equitum et peditum praesentalium et consul ordinarius.
The marriage of Justinian and Theodora was childless, nevertheless he had six nephews and nieces, of whom Justin II became heir.
Early years and reign of Justin
Uncle Justinian - Justin, among other Illyrian peasants, fleeing extreme need, came on foot from Bederiana to Byzantium and was hired for military service. Having arrived at the end of the reign of Leo I in Constantinople and entered the service in imperial guard, Justin quickly grew in the service, and already in the reign of Anastasia took part in the wars with Persia as a commander. Further, Justin distinguished himself in suppressing the uprising of Vitalian. Thus, Justin won the favor of the emperor Anastasius and was appointed chief of the palace guards with the rank of comite and senator.
The time of Justinian's arrival in the capital is not exactly known. It is assumed that this happened at about the age of twenty-five, then for some time Justinian studied theology and Roman law, after which he was awarded the title of lat. candidati, that is, the personal bodyguard of the emperor. Somewhere around this time, the adoption and change of the name of the future emperor took place.
In 521, as mentioned above, Justinian receives a consular rank, which he uses to increase his popularity by putting on magnificent spectacles in a circus that has grown so much that the Senate asked the aged emperor to appoint Justinian as his co-emperor. According to the chronicler John Zonara, Justin refused this offer. The Senate, however, continued to insist on the rise of Justinian, asking him to be given the title of Lat. nobilissimus, which happened until 525, when he was given the highest title of Caesar. Despite the fact that such a brilliant career could not but have a real impact, there is no reliable information about the role of Justinian in governing the empire during this period.
Over time, the health of the emperor deteriorated, the disease caused by an old wound in the leg intensified. Feeling the approach of death, Justin responded to the next petition of the Senate for the appointment of Justinian co-ruler. The ceremony, which has come down to us in the description of Peter Patricius in the treatise lat. De ceremoniis Constantine Porphyrogenitus, occurred on Easter, April 4, 527 - Justinian and his wife Theodora were crowned both August and August.
Justinian finally received full power after the death of Emperor Justin I on August 1, 527.
Appearance and lifetime images
There are few descriptions of Justinian's appearance. In his Secret History, Procopius describes Justinian as follows:
| He was not large and not too small, but of medium height, not thin, but slightly plump; his face was round and not devoid of beauty, for even after two days of fasting, a blush played on it. In order to give an idea of his appearance in a few words, I will say that he was very similar to Domitian, the son of Vespasian, whose malevolence the Romans were fed up to such an extent that, even tearing him to pieces, they did not satisfy their anger against him, but it was endured the decision of the Senate that his name should not be mentioned in the inscriptions and that not a single image of him should remain.
The Secret History, VIII, 12-13 |
During the reign of Justinian, a large number of coins were issued. Known are donative coins of 36 and 4.5 solidus, a solidus with a full-figure image of the emperor in consular vestments, as well as an exceptionally rare aureus weighing 5.43 g, minted according to the old Roman foot. The obverse side of all these coins is occupied by either a three-quarter or profile bust of the emperor, with or without a helmet.
Justinian and Theodora
A vivid depiction of the future empress's early career is given at great length in The Secret History; John of Ephesus simply notes that "she came from a brothel". Despite the opinion of some scholars that all these claims are unreliable and exaggerated, the generally accepted point of view generally agrees with the description of the events of Theodora's early career given by Procopius. Justinian's first meeting with Theodora took place around 522 in Constantinople. Then Theodora left the capital, spent some time in Alexandria. How their second meeting took place is not known for certain. It is known that wanting to marry Theodora, Justinian asked his uncle to give her the rank of patrician, but this caused strong opposition from the empress, and until the death of the latter in 523 or 524, the marriage was impossible.
Probably, the adoption of the Law “On Marriage” (lat. De nuptiis), who repealed the law of Emperor Constantine I, which forbids a person who has reached the rank of senatorial to marry a harlot.
After marriage, Theodora completely broke with her turbulent past and was a faithful wife.
Foreign policy
Directions of diplomacy
Main article: Byzantine diplomacy
In foreign policy, the name of Justinian is associated primarily with the idea of "restoring the Roman Empire" or "reconquest of the West." There are currently two theories regarding the question of when this goal was set. According to one of them, now more common, the idea of the return of the West existed in Byzantium since the end of the 5th century. This point of view proceeds from the thesis that after the rise of the barbarian kingdoms professing Arianism, there must have been preserved social elements that did not recognize the loss of Rome's status as a great city and capital of the civilized world and did not agree with the dominant position of the Arians in the religious sphere.
An alternative point of view, which does not deny the general desire to return the West to the bosom of civilization and orthodox religion, attributes the emergence of a program of concrete actions after successes in the war against the vandals. Various indirect signs speak in favor of this, for example, the disappearance from the legislation and state documentation of the first third of the 6th century of words and expressions that somehow mentioned Africa, Italy and Spain, as well as the loss of Byzantine interest in the first capital of the empire.
Wars of Justinian
Domestic politics
State power structure
The internal organization of the empire in the era of Justinian was basically laid down by the transformations of Diocletian, whose activities were continued under Theodosius I. The results of this work are presented in the famous monument Notitia dignitatum dating back to the beginning of the 5th century. This document is a detailed list of all the ranks and positions of the civil and military departments of the empire. It gives a clear understanding of the mechanism created by the Christian monarchs, which can be described as bureaucracy.
The military division of the empire did not always coincide with the civil one. The supreme power was distributed among certain military commanders, the magistri militum. In the eastern empire, according to Notitia dignitatum, there were five of them: two at court ( magistri militum praesentales) and three in the provinces of Thrace, Illyria and Vostok (respectively, magistri militum per Thracias, per Illyricum, per Orientem). The next in the military hierarchy were the duks ( duces) and commits ( comites rei militares), equivalent to vicars of civil authority, and having the rank spectabilis, but managing districts that are inferior to dioceses in size.
Government
The basis of Justinian's government was made up of ministers, all bearing the title glorious who ruled over the entire empire. Among them, the most powerful was Prefect of the Praetorium of the East, who ruled the largest of the regions of the empire, also determined the position in finance, legislation, public administration, and legal proceedings. The second most important was Prefect of the City- manager of the capital; then head of services- manager of the imperial house and office; quaestor of the Sacred Chambers- Minister of Justice, committee of sacred bounties- imperial treasurer committee of private property and committee of patrimonies- managed the property of the emperor; finally three presented- the head of the city police, who were in command of the city garrison. The next most important were senators- whose influence under Justinian was increasingly reduced and committees of the sacred consistory- members of the imperial council.
Ministers
Among the ministers of Justinian, the first should be called quaestor of the Sacred Chambers-Tribonius, Minister of Justice and Head of the Chancellery. His name is inextricably linked with the case of Justinian's legislative reforms. He was originally from Pamphilus and began serving in the lower ranks of the office and, thanks to his diligence and sharp mind, quickly reached the position of head of the office department. From that moment on, he was involved in legal reforms and enjoyed the exclusive favor of the emperor. In 529, he was appointed to the post of palace quaestor. Tribonius is entrusted with the responsibility of chairing the committees that edit the Digest, the Code, and the Institutions. Procopius, admiring his intelligence and gentleness of treatment, nevertheless accuses him of greed and bribery. Nicus's rebellion was largely caused by the abuses of Tribonius. But even in the most difficult moment, the emperor did not leave his favorite. Although the questura was taken away from Tribonius, they gave him the post of chief of services, and in 535 he was again appointed quaestor. Tribonius retained the office of quaestor until his death in 544 or 545.
Another culprit in the Nika revolt was the praetorian prefect John of Cappadocia. Being of humble origin, he came to the fore under Justinian, thanks to natural insight and success in financial enterprises, he managed to win the favor of the king and get the position of imperial treasurer. He was soon elevated to the dignity illustrations and received the position of prefect of the province. Possessing unlimited power, he stained himself with unheard-of cruelty and atrocities in the matter of extorting the subjects of the empire. His agents were allowed to torture and kill in order to achieve the goal of increasing the treasury of John himself. Having reached unprecedented power, he made himself a court party and tried to claim the throne. This brought him into open conflict with Theodora. During the Nika uprising, he was replaced by the prefect Phoca. However, in 534, John regained the prefecture. In 538, he became a consul and then a patrician. Only Theodora's hatred and unusually increased ambition led him to fall in 541.
Among other important ministers of the first period of Justinian's reign, one should mention Hermogenes the Hun by origin, the head of services (530-535); his successor Basilides (536-539) quaestor in 532, besides the comites of the sacred bounties of Constantine (528-533) and Strategy (535-537); also comita of private property Florus (531-536).
John of Cappadocia was succeeded in 543 by Peter Barsimes. He began as a silver merchant, who quickly became rich thanks to merchant dexterity and trade machinations. Entering the office, he managed to win the favor of the empress. Theodora began to promote the favorite in the service with such energy that it gave rise to gossip. As prefect, he continued John's practice of illegal extortion and financial abuse. Speculation in grain in 546 led to a famine in the capital and popular unrest. The emperor was forced to depose Peter despite Theodora's protection. However, through her efforts, he soon received the position of imperial treasurer. Even after the death of the patroness, he retained influence and in 555 returned to the prefects of the praetoria and retained this position until 559, merging it with the treasury.
Another Peter served for many years as the head of the services and was one of Justinian's most influential ministers. He was originally from Thessalonica and was originally a lawyer in Constantinople, where he became famous for his eloquence and legal knowledge. In 535, Justinian assigned Peter the task of negotiating with the Ostrogoth king Theodates. Although Peter negotiated with exceptional skill, he was imprisoned in Ravenna and returned home only in 539. The returning ambassador was showered with awards and received a high post of chief of services. Such attention to the diplomat gave rise to gossip about his involvement in the murder of Amalasuntha. In 552, he received a questura, continuing to be the head of the services. Peter held his office until his death in 565. The position was inherited by his son Theodore.
Among the top military leaders, many combined military duty with government and court posts. The commander Sitt successively held the positions of consul, patrician and finally reached a high position magister militum praesentalis. Belisarius, in addition to military posts, was also a committee of the sacred stables, then a committee of bodyguards and remained in this position until his death. Narses performed a number of positions in the inner chambers of the king - he was a cubicular, spatarius, chief of the chambers - having won the exclusive trust of the emperor, he was one of the most important keepers of secrets.
Favorites
Among the favorites, first of all, it is necessary to include Markell - a committee of the emperor's bodyguards from 541. A fair man, extremely honest, in devotion to the emperor reaching self-forgetfulness. Influence on the emperor, he had almost limitless; Justinian wrote that Markell never leaves his royal person and his commitment to justice is surprising.
Also a significant favorite of Justinian was the eunuch and commander Narses, who repeatedly proved his loyalty to the emperor and never fell under his suspicion. Even Procopius of Caesarea never spoke ill of Narses, calling him a man too energetic and bold for a eunuch. Being a flexible diplomat, Narses negotiated with the Persians, and also during the Nika uprising he managed to bribe and recruit many senators, after which he received the position of preposite of the sacred bedchamber, a kind of first adviser to the emperor. A little later, the emperor entrusted him with the conquest of Italy by the Goths. Narses managed to defeat the Goths and destroy their kingdom, after which he was appointed to the post of Exarch of Italy.
Another special one, which cannot be forgotten, is the wife of Belisarius, Antonina - chief chamberlain and friend of Theodora. Procopius writes about her almost as badly as about the queen herself. She spent her youth stormy and shameful, but, being married to Belisarius, she was repeatedly at the center of court gossip because of her scandalous adventures. Belisarius's passion for her, which was attributed to witchcraft, and the condescension with which he forgave all the adventures of Antonina, causes universal surprise. Because of his wife, the commander was repeatedly involved in shameful, often criminal deeds that the empress did through her favorite.
Construction activity
The destruction that took place during the revolt of Nika allowed Justinian to rebuild and transform Constantinople. The emperor left his name in history by building a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture - Hagia Sophia.
Conspiracies and uprisings
Nika Rebellion
The party scheme in Constantinople was laid down even before the accession of Justinian. The “green” supporters of Monophysitism were favored by Anastasius, the “blue” supporters of the Chalcedonian religion intensified under Justin, and they were patronized by the new Empress Theodora. The vigorous actions of Justinian, with the absolute arbitrariness of the bureaucracy, constantly growing taxes fueled the discontent of the people, inflaming the religious conflict. On January 13, 532, the speeches of the "greens", which began with the usual complaints to the emperor about harassment by officials, developed into a violent rebellion demanding the deposition of John of Cappadocia and Tribonian. After the emperor's unsuccessful attempt to negotiate and the dismissal of Tribonian and two of his other ministers, the spearhead of the rebellion was already directed at him. The rebels tried to overthrow Justinian directly and install Senator Hypatius, who was the nephew of the late emperor Anastasius I, as head of state. The "blues" joined the rebels. The slogan of the uprising was the cry "Nika!" (“Win!”), which cheered circus wrestlers. Despite the continuation of the uprising and the beginning of riots in the streets of the city, Justinian, at the request of his wife Theodora, remained in Constantinople:
Based on the hippodrome, the rebels seemed invincible and actually besieged Justinian in the palace. Only by the joint efforts of the combined troops of Belisarius and Mundus, who remained loyal to the emperor, was it possible to drive the rebels out of their strongholds. Procopius says that up to 30,000 unarmed citizens were killed at the hippodrome. At the urging of Theodora, Justinian had Anastasius' nephews executed.
Artaban's conspiracy
During the uprising in Africa, Prejeka, the niece of the emperor, the wife of the deceased governor, was captured by the rebels. When, it seemed, there was no deliverance, the savior appeared in the person of the young Armenian officer Artaban, who defeated Gontaris and freed the princess. On the way home, an affair arose between the officer and Preyekta, and she promised him her hand in marriage. Upon returning to Constantinople, Artabanus was graciously received by the emperor and showered with awards, appointed governor of Libya and commander of the federates - magister militum in praesenti comes foederatorum. In the midst of preparations for the wedding, all the hopes of Artaban collapsed: his first wife appeared in the capital, whom he had long forgotten about, and who did not think about returning to her husband while he was unknown. She appeared to the empress and urged her to break off the engagement of Artaban and Prejeka and demand the reunion of the spouses. In addition, Theodora insisted on the imminent marriage of the princess with John, the son of Pompey and the grandson of Hypanius. Artabanus was deeply hurt by the situation and even regretted his service to the Romans.
Argyroprat conspiracy
Main article: Argyroprat conspiracy
Position of the provinces
AT Notitia dignatotum civil power is separated from the military, each of them is a separate department. This reform dates back to the time of Constantine the Great. Civilly, the entire empire was divided into four regions (prefectures), headed by the praetorian prefects. The prefectures were subdivided into dioceses, governed by deputy prefects ( vicarii praefectorum). Dioceses, in turn, were divided into provinces.
Sitting on the throne of Constantine, Justinian found the empire in a very truncated form - the collapse of the empire, which began after the death of Theodosius, was only gaining momentum. The western part of the empire was divided by barbarian kingdoms; in Europe, Byzantium held only the Balkans, and then without Dalmatia. In Asia, she owned all of Asia Minor, the Armenian Highlands, Syria to the Euphrates, Northern Arabia, Palestine. In Africa, it was possible to hold only Egypt and Cyrenaica. In general, the empire was divided into 64 provinces united in two prefectures - East (51 provinces1) and Illyricum (13 provinces). The situation in the provinces was extremely difficult. Egypt and Syria showed a tendency to secede. Alexandria was a stronghold of the Monophysites. Palestine was shaken by disputes between supporters and opponents of Origenism. Armenia was constantly threatened with war by the Sassanids, the Balkans were disturbed by the Ostrogoths and the growing Slavic peoples. Justinian had a huge job ahead of him, even if he was only concerned with maintaining the frontiers.
Constantinople
Armenia
Main article: Armenia within Byzantium
Armenia, divided between Byzantium and Persia and being the arena of struggle between the two powers, was of great strategic importance for the empire.
From the point of view of military administration, Armenia was in a special position, evident from the fact that during the period under review in the Pontic diocese with its eleven provinces there was only one dux, dux Armeniae, whose power extended to three provinces, to Armenia I and II and Polemonian Pontus. At the dux of Armenia there were: 2 regiments of horse archers, 3 legions, 11 cavalry detachments of 600 people, 10 infantry cohorts of 600 people. Of these, the cavalry, two legions and 4 cohorts stood directly in Armenia. At the beginning of the reign of Justinian, a movement against the imperial authorities intensified in Inner Armenia, which resulted in an open uprising, main reason which, according to Procopius of Caesarea, consisted in burdensome taxes - the ruler of Armenia Akakiy made illegal requisitions and imposed an unprecedented tax on the country up to four centinaries. To remedy the situation, an imperial decree was adopted on the reorganization of the military administration in Armenia and the appointment of Sita as the military head of the region, giving it four legions. Upon arrival, Sita promised to petition the emperor to cancel the new taxation, but as a result of the actions of the displaced local satraps, he was forced to fight the rebels and died. After the death of Sita, the emperor sent Vuza against the Armenians, who, acting energetically, forced them to seek protection from the Persian king Khosrow the Great.
During the entire reign of Justinian, intensive military construction was carried out in Armenia. Of the four books of the treatise "On Buildings" one is completely devoted to Armenia.
As a follow-up to the reform, several decrees were issued aimed at reducing the role of the traditional local aristocracy. Edict " On the order of succession among the Armenians” abolished the tradition that only men could inherit. Novella 21 " About the Armenians to follow the Roman laws in everything” repeats the provisions of the edict, specifying that the legal norms of Armenia should not differ from the imperial ones.
African provinces
Balkans
Italy
Relations with Jews and Samaritans
Questions devoted to the status and legal features of the position of the Jews in the empire are devoted to a significant number of laws issued in previous reigns. One of the most significant pre-Justinian collections of laws, the Code of Theodosius, created during the reigns of the emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III, contained 42 laws specifically dedicated to the Jews. The legislation, while limiting the ability to promote Judaism, granted rights to Jewish communities in the cities.
From the first years of his reign, Justinian, guided by the principle "One state, one religion, one law", limited the rights of representatives of other faiths. Novella 131 established that church law is equal in status to state law. The novel of 537 established that Jews should be subject to full municipal taxes, but could not hold official positions. Synagogues were destroyed; in the remaining synagogues it was forbidden to read the books of the Old Testament from the ancient Hebrew text, which was to be replaced by a Greek or Latin translation. This caused a split in the environment of the Jewish priesthood, conservative priests imposed a dick on the reformers. Judaism, according to the code of Justinian, was not regarded as a heresy and was among the Lat. religious licitis, however, Samaritans were included in the same category as pagans and heretics. The code forbade heretics and Jews to testify against Orthodox Christians.
At the beginning of Justinian's reign, all these oppressions caused an uprising in Palestine of the Jews and the Samaritans, who were close to them in faith, under the leadership of Julian ben Sabar. With the help of the Ghassanid Arabs, the uprising was brutally suppressed in 531. During the suppression of the uprising, more than 100 thousand Samaritans were killed and enslaved, whose people almost disappeared as a result. According to John Malala, the 50,000 survivors fled to Iran for help from Shah Kavad.
At the end of his reign, Justinian again turned to the Jewish question, and published in 553 novel 146. The creation of the novel was caused by the ongoing conflict between Jewish traditionalists and reformers over the language of worship. Justinian, guided by the opinion of the Church Fathers that the Jews distorted the text of the Old Testament, banned the Talmud, as well as his commentaries (Gemara and Midrash). Only Greek texts were allowed to be used, punishments for dissidents were increased.
Religious policy
Religious views
Perceiving himself as the heir to the Roman Caesars, Justinian considered it his duty to recreate the Roman Empire, while wishing that the state had one law and one faith. Based on the principle of absolute power, he believed that in a well-ordered state, everything should have been subject to imperial attention. Understanding the importance of the church for state administration, he made every effort to ensure that she carried out his will. The question of the primacy of the state or religious interests of Justinian is debatable. It is known, at least, that the emperor was the author of numerous letters on religious subjects addressed to popes and patriarchs, as well as treatises and church hymns.
In accordance with his desire, Justinian considered it his right not only to resolve issues related to the leadership of the church and its property, but also to establish a certain dogma among his subjects. What religious direction the emperor adhered to, his subjects had to adhere to the same direction. Justinian regulated the life of the clergy, replaced the highest hierarchical positions at his own discretion, acted as an intermediary and judge in the clergy. He patronized the church in the person of its ministers, contributed to the construction of temples, monasteries, and the multiplication of their privileges; finally, the emperor established religious unity among all the subjects of the empire, gave the latter the norm of orthodox teaching, participated in dogmatic disputes and gave the final decision on controversial dogmatic issues.
Such a policy of secular predominance in religious and ecclesiastical affairs, down to the recesses of a person's religious convictions, especially vividly manifested by Justinian, has received the name of caesaropapism in history, and this emperor is considered one of the most typical representatives of this direction.
Modern researchers distinguish the following fundamental principles religious views of Justinian:
Relations with Rome
Relations with the Monophysites
In religious terms, the reign of Justinian was a confrontation diphysites or Orthodox, if they are recognized as the dominant denomination, and Monophysites. Although the emperor was committed to Orthodoxy, he was above these differences, wanting to find a compromise and establish religious unity. On the other hand, his wife sympathized with the Monophysites.
During the period under review, Monophysitism, which was influential in the eastern provinces - in Syria and Egypt, was not united. At least two large groups stood out - non-compromising akefaly and those who accepted Zeno's Enoticon.
Monophysitism was declared heresy at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. The Byzantine emperors who preceded Justinian and the 6th century, Flavius Zeno and Anastasius I, had a positive attitude towards Monophysitism, which only strained religious relations between Constantinople and the Roman bishops. Justin I reversed this trend and confirmed the Chalcedonian doctrine openly condemning Monophysitism. Justinian, who continued religious policy his uncle Justin, tried to impose absolute religious unity on his subjects, forcing them to accept compromises that would satisfy all parties. Towards the end of his life, Justinian became tougher on the Monophysites, especially in the case of Aphtharodocetism, but he died before he could pass legislation that increased the value of his dogmas.
Defeat of Origenism
Around the teachings of Origen, Alexandrian spears were broken starting from the 3rd century. On the one hand, his works met with favorable attention from such great Fathers as John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, on the other hand, such major theologians as Peter of Alexandria, Epiphanius of Cyprus, Blessed Jerome smashed the Origenists, accusing them of paganism. Confusion in the controversy surrounding the teachings of Origen was introduced by the fact that they began to attribute to him the ideas of some of his followers who gravitated towards Gnosticism - the main accusations leveled against the Origenists were that they allegedly preached the transmigration of souls and apocatastasis. Nevertheless, the number of Origen's supporters grew, including such great theologians as the martyr Pamphilus (who wrote the Apology to Origen) and Eusebius of Caesarea, who had Origen's archive at his disposal.
The case with the defeat of Origenism dragged on for a whole 10 years. The future pope Pelagius, who visited Palestine in the late 530s, passing through Constantinople, told Justinian that he did not find heresy in Origen, but that the Great Lavra needed to be put in order. After the death of Saint Sava the Sanctified, Saints Cyriacus, John the Hesychast, and Barsanuphius acted as defenders of the purity of monasticism. The New Lavra Origenists very quickly found influential supporters. In 541, they, led by Nonnus and Bishop Leontius, attacked the Great Lavra and beat its inhabitants. Some of them fled to the Patriarch of Antioch Ephraim, who at the council of 542 condemned the Origenists for the first time.
With the support of Bishops Leontius, Domitian of Ancyra and Theodore of Caesarea, Nonnus demanded that Patriarch Peter of Jerusalem delete the name of Patriarch Ephraim of Antioch from the diptychs. This demand caused great excitement in the Orthodox world. Fearing the influential patrons of the Origenists and realizing the impossibility of fulfilling their demand, Patriarch Peter of Jerusalem secretly summoned the archimandrites of the Great Lavra and the monastery of St. The Patriarch sent this essay to the emperor Justinian himself, attaching to it his personal message, in which he described in detail all the evils and iniquities of the Origenists. Patriarch Mina of Constantinople, and especially the representative of the Pope Pelagius, warmly supported the appeal of the inhabitants of the Lavra of St. Sava. On this occasion, in 543, a council was held in Constantinople, at which Domitian of Ancyra, Theodore Askida and the heresy of Origenism as a whole were condemned. .
Fifth Ecumenical Council
The conciliatory policy of Justinian in relation to the Monophysites caused discontent in Rome and Pope Agapit I arrived in Constantinople in 535, who, together with the orthodox party of Akimites, expressed a sharp rejection of the policy of Patriarch Anfim, and Justinian was forced to yield. Anfim was removed, and a staunch Orthodox presbyter Mina was appointed in his place.
Having made a concession on the question of the patriarch, Justinian did not give up further attempts at reconciliation with the Monophysites. To do this, the emperor raised the well-known question about the “three chapters”, that is, about the three church writers of the 5th century, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Yves of Edessa, regarding which the Monophysites reproached the Council of Chalcedon with the fact that the above-named writers, despite their Nestorian way of thinking , were not convicted on it. Justinian admitted that in this case the Monophysites were right and that the Orthodox should make a concession to them.
This desire of the emperor aroused the indignation of the Western hierarchs, since they saw in this an encroachment on the authority of the Council of Chalcedon, after which a similar revision of the decisions of the Council of Nicaea could follow. The question also arose whether it was possible to anathematize the dead, because all three writers had died in the previous century. Finally, some representatives of the West were of the opinion that the emperor, by his decree, commits violence against the conscience of the members of the church. The latter doubt was almost non-existent in the Eastern Church, where the interference of the imperial power in resolving dogmatic disputes was fixed by a long-term practice. As a result, the decree of Justinian did not receive general church significance.
In order to influence a positive resolution of the issue, Justinian summoned the then Pope Vigilius to Constantinople, where he lived for more than seven years. The original position of the pope, who upon his arrival openly rebelled against the decree of Justinian and excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Mina, changed and in 548 he issued a condemnation of three chapters, the so-called ludicatum, and thus added his voice to the voice of the four eastern patriarchs. However, the western church did not approve of Vigilius' concessions. Under the influence of the Western Church, the pope began to waver in his decision and took back ludicatum. In such circumstances, Justinian decided to resort to convening an ecumenical council, which met in Constantinople in 553.
The results of the council turned out to be, on the whole, in accordance with the will of the emperor.
Relations with pagans
Steps were taken by Justinian to finally eradicate the remnants of paganism. In 529 he closed the famous philosophical school in Athens. This had a predominantly symbolic meaning, since by the time of the event this school had lost its leading position among educational institutions empire after the University of Constantinople was founded in the 5th century under Theodosius II. After the closure of the school under Justinian, the Athenian professors were expelled, some of them moved to Persia, where they met an admirer of Plato in the person of Khosrow I; school property was confiscated. John of Ephesus wrote: “In the same year in which St. Benedict destroyed the last pagan national sanctuary in Italy, namely the temple of Apollo in the sacred grove on Monte Cassino, and the stronghold of ancient paganism in Greece was also destroyed. Since then, Athens has completely lost its former importance as a cultural center and turned into a remote provincial city. Justinian did not achieve the complete eradication of paganism; it continued to hide in some inaccessible areas. Procopius of Caesarea writes that the persecution of the pagans was carried out not so much out of a desire to establish Christianity, but out of a thirst to seize the gold of pagan temples.
reforms
Political views
Justinian succeeded to the throne without dispute, having managed in advance to skillfully eliminate all prominent rivals and acquire the favor of influential groups in society; the church (even the popes) liked him for his strict Orthodoxy; he lured the senatorial aristocracy with the promise of support for all its privileges and carried away with a respectful caress of treatment; with the luxury of festivities and the generosity of distributions, he won the affection of the lower classes of the capital. The opinions of contemporaries about Justinian were very different. Even in the assessment of Procopius, who serves as the main source for the history of the emperor, there are contradictions: in some works (“Wars” and “Buildings”) he praises the excellent successes of Justinian’s broad and bold conquests and bows before his artistic genius, while in others (“Secret history") sharply blackens his memory, calling the emperor an "evil fool" (μωροκακοήθης) . All this greatly complicates the reliable restoration of the spiritual image of the king. Undoubtedly, mental and moral contrasts were inharmoniously intertwined in the personality of Justinian. He conceived the most extensive plans for the increase and strengthening of the state, but did not have sufficient creative forces to build them completely and completely; he claimed to be a reformer, but he could only assimilate well ideas that he did not develop. He was simple, accessible and temperate in his habits - and at the same time, due to the conceit that grew out of success, he surrounded himself with the most pompous etiquette and unprecedented luxury. His frankness and well-known good-heartedness were gradually distorted by the deceit and deceitfulness of the ruler, who was forced to constantly defend the successfully seized power from all kinds of dangers and attempts. The benevolence towards people, which he often showed, was spoiled by frequent revenge on enemies. Generosity towards the distressed classes was combined in him with greed and promiscuity in the means of obtaining money to ensure representation corresponding to his notions of his own dignity. The desire for justice, about which he constantly spoke, was suppressed by an exorbitant thirst for domination and arrogance growing on such soil. He claimed unlimited authority, and his will in dangerous moments was often weak and indecisive; he fell under the influence not only of the strong character of his wife Theodora, but sometimes even of insignificant people, revealing even cowardice. All these virtues and vices were united little by little around a prominent, pronounced inclination towards despotism. Under its influence, his piety turned into religious intolerance and was embodied in cruel persecution for deviating from the faith he recognized. All this led to results of very mixed worth, and by them alone it is difficult to explain why Justinian is ranked among the "great" ones, and his reign acquired such great significance. The fact is that, in addition to these properties, Justinian possessed remarkable perseverance in carrying out the accepted principles and a positively phenomenal ability to work. He wanted every smallest order concerning the political and administrative, religious and intellectual life of the empire to come from him personally and every controversial issue in the same areas returned to him. The best interpretation of the historical figure of the tsar is the fact that this native of the dark mass of the provincial peasantry was able to firmly and firmly assimilate to himself two grandiose ideas bequeathed to him by the tradition of the great world past: Roman (the idea of a world monarchy) and Christian (the idea of the Kingdom of God). The combination of both into one theory and the implementation of the latter through the medium of a secular state constitutes the originality of the concept, which became the essence of the political doctrine of the Byzantine Empire; the case of Justinian is the first attempt to formulate a system and to enforce it in life. A world state created by the will of an autocratic sovereign - such was the dream that the tsar cherished from the very beginning of his reign. With weapons he intended to return the lost old Roman territories, then to give a general law that would ensure the well-being of the inhabitants, and finally to establish a faith that would unite all peoples in worship of the one true God. These are the three foundations on which Justinian hoped to build his power. He unshakably believed in him: "there is nothing higher and holier than imperial majesty"; "the creators of law themselves said that the will of the monarch has the force of law"; “Who can interpret the mysteries and mysteries of the law, if not the one who alone can create it?”; “he alone is able to spend days and nights in labor and wakefulness in order to think about the welfare of the people.” Even among the noble emperors, there was no person who, to a greater extent than Justinian, would have a sense of imperial dignity and admiration for the Roman tradition. All his decrees and letters are filled with memories of Great Rome, in the history of which he drew inspiration.
Justinian was the first to clearly oppose the "grace of God" to the people's will as the source of supreme power. Since his time, the theory of the emperor, as "equal to the apostles" (ίσαπόστολος), receiving grace directly from God and standing above the state and above the church, was born. God helps him to defeat his enemies, to issue just laws. The wars of Justinian already acquire the character of crusades (wherever the emperor is master, the right faith will shine). He puts every act of his “under the patronage of St. Trinity." Justinian is, as it were, a forerunner or founder of a long chain of "God's anointed ones" in history. Such a construction of power (Roman-Christian) breathed a wide initiative into Justinian's activity, made his will an attractive center and a point of application of many other energies, thanks to which his reign achieved really significant results. He himself said: “Never before the time of our reign, God gave the Romans such victories ... Give thanks to heaven, inhabitants of the whole world: in your days a great deed has been accomplished, which God recognized as unworthy of the entire ancient world.” Justinian left many evils uncured, many new disasters were generated by his policy, but nevertheless, his greatness was glorified almost during his time by a folk legend that arose in various areas. All countries that subsequently took advantage of his legislation exalted his glory.
State reforms
Simultaneously with military successes, Justinian engaged in strengthening the state apparatus and improved taxation. These reforms were so unpopular that they led to the Nika rebellion, which nearly cost him the throne.
Administrative reforms were made:
- Combination of civil and military positions.
- the prohibition of paying for positions, the increase in salaries for officials testify to his desire to limit arbitrariness and corruption.
- The official was forbidden to buy land where he served.
For the fact that he often worked at night, he was nicknamed the "sleepless sovereign" (Greek. βασιλεύς άκοιμητος ).
Legal reforms
One of Justinian's first projects was a large-scale legal reform initiated by him a little more than six months after his accession to the throne.
Using the talent of his minister Tribonian, in the city of Justinian he ordered a complete revision of Roman law, aiming to make it as unsurpassed in formal legal terms as it had been three centuries earlier. The three main components of Roman law - the Digesta, the Code of Justinian and the Institutions - were completed in r.
Economic reforms
Memory
Often referred to in older literature as [ by whom?] Justinian the Great. The Orthodox Church is considered a saint, also revered by some [ who?] Protestant churches.
Board results
Emperor Justin II tried to characterize the result of his uncle's reign
“We found the treasury ruined by debts and brought to extreme poverty, and the army to such an extent upset that the state was left to incessant invasions and raids of the barbarians”
According to Dil, the second part of the emperor's reign was marked by a serious weakening of his attention to state affairs. The turning points in the life of the king were the plague, which Justinian suffered in 542, and the death of Theodora in 548. However, there is also a positive view on the results of the Emperor's reign.
Image in literature
Panegyrics
Literary works written during the life of Justinian have survived to our time, in which either his reign as a whole or his individual achievements were glorified. Usually these include: "Exhorting Chapters to the Emperor Justinian" by deacon Agapit, "On Buildings" by Procopius of Caesarea, "Ekphrasis of St. Sophia" by Paul Silentiary, "On Earthquakes and Fires" by Roman the Melodist and the anonymous "Dialogue on Political Science".
In "The Divine Comedy"
Other
- Nikolay Gumilyov. "Poisoned Tunic". Play.
- Harold Lamb. "Theodora and the Emperor". Novel.
- Nun Cassia (T. A. Senina). "Justinian and Theodora". Story.
- Mikhail Kazovsky "The Stomp of the Bronze Horse", historical novel (2008)
- Kay, Gaius Gavriel, dilogy "Sarantia Mosaic" - Emperor Valery II.
- V. D. Ivanov. "Original Russia". Novel. Screen adaptation of this novel - film