Justinian and the Byzantine Empire

During the Emperor Justinian’s reign, from 527 until 565, the Byzantine Empire expanded in wealth, power and prestige. Much of this was due to Justinian’s skilful rule. There were also periods of retrenchment and plague which often makes the period seem an unsuccessful one, although I believe these times showed his quality as an Emperor.

One reason that the Empire expanded under Justinian was because of his ability to pick exceptional advisors. The men that he gave power to owed this to him and so were very loyal. Despite many periods of financial and military crisis where the Empire faced threats from all sides it always managed to come through, often due to the talents of the Emperors advisors. One of the talented generals during Justinian’s reign was Belisarius. Belisarius was a former member of Justinian’s bodyguard whom the Emperor saw potential in. The general was with Justinian for much of his reign and had many victories against larger enemies. In 530, near the border fortress of Dara, he defeated a much larger Persian force, showing his talents as a commander. He was also in charge of the force that reconquered Africa by the end of 533, less than a year after he landed with an army of around 18,000 soldiers.

Another reason that the Byzantine Empire expanded in power under Justinian was the reconquest of North Africa and Italy. Having these two areas under its control meant that the Mediterranean was once again a Roman sea and the trade that was now available to the Empire would greatly increase its revenue. These two former Roman territories were still very important to the Eastern Empire. The conquest of Africa in 533 by Belisarius also increased the wealth of the Empire as the general took back the Vandal treasury, once plundered from the Romans. The mere fact that these two areas were back under Roman control, especially Italy as the home of the former capital of Rome, would have greatly increased Byzantium prestige among the other nations of the period. By the end of his reign Justinian’s empire stretched from the South-Eastern tip of Spain to modern day Turkey, encompassing much of North Africa, Italy, the Balkans and Greece. This was a huge increase from the beginning of his reign where the empires boundaries stopped at Greece and Egypt in North Africa.

Although some would say that this reconquest was unnecessary and detrimental to the empire in the long run I think that this is an unfair conclusion. Justinian is often called the last Roman Emperor. This is because of his wholly Roman education and the fact that he spoke Latin. No true Roman Emperor could be expected to relinquish control of whole provinces without a fight, especially Italy which was home to “old Rome”. Christians in these areas also asked the Emperor for assistance against rulers that were persecuting them because of their religion. As a devout Christian and protector of the faith Justinian had to answer these calls. The fact that he managed to reclaim these territories and rule over an empire that was at its largest since the time of Augustus, all the while dealing with threats on his Eastern and Northern frontiers and the ravaging effects of the Bubonic plague says a lot about his skill as an emperor.

During his reign Justinian also undertook great civil works that increased the prestige of the Empire. The first of these was the Justinian Code of 529. This was an immense work that took less than a year and which aimed to include every Roman law to date and eliminate anything that had been replaced. This was a huge task and was the first complete legal code in the empires history. This was followed by the Digest and the Institutes in 533 and finished with a new version of the Justinian Code in 534. These three legal works and the legislative Novels were known as the Corpus Juris Civilis, translated to the Body of Civil Law. The sheer size of these works and the amount of work that went into them would have made Byzantium an example of civilisation and order throughout the Middle Ages, and its prestige is increased by the fact that it was adopted by many of the Western Barbarian civilisations and is the basis for much of the world’s law