History of Byzantium - Vol 3 - Nika Riots / Vandal War / Hagia Sophia

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curiositystream.com flashpoint and use the promo code flashpoint you'll be helping out my channel and will get an additional 25 off so that's now down to 15 a year so do yourself a favor if you are a fan of learning hit that link and start your journey today and now folks for the video you've been waiting for [Music] in the last three episodes we've seen the discontent stirred up by the policies of justinian a discontent that had spread through every echelon in society [Music] as january of 532 arrives it feels like the history of byzantium as well as the reign of justinian has reached a critical moment the new year was usually a time for races in constantinople the consular games took place in the first week and by the second it was time for games to mark the ides of january around the 10th of the month the greens and blues ended up in yet another fight during the races and several people were killed justinian sent soldiers in to restore order and by sunday the 11th the city prefect eudaimon sentenced seven members of the dems to death these were known violent criminals and they were a mixture of greens and blues so justinian probably didn't think anything unusual was taking place since becoming emperor he'd abandoned his favoritism toward the blues and conspicuously dealt even-handed justice to the deems despite this though little had changed in their attitude toward him the greens were still resentful of their mistreatment in the previous decade and the blues still assumed that they had friends in high places five of the executions were carried out efficiently but something went wrong with the final two men their hanging was botched and both fell to the ground still alive the execution site stood next to the monastery of saint conan and some monks who were watching gathered up the fallen men and rode them across the golden horn to the church of saint lawrence when he heard what had happened eudaimon sent guards to retrieve the escapees but the principle of a church being a place of sanctuary had already taken hold in christian byzantium and the gods had to wait outside and aim to starve the men out one of them was a blue and the other a green the guards would not move on monday as the leadership of the deems asked for them to be released and by tuesday tensions were running high as the hippodrome filled for the races to mark the ides justinian was present in the imperial box or cathy's ma and both factions said loud prayers begging him to be lenient and release the two men these calls for indulgences from the emperor were clearly a common part of city life and considering justinian's stance of impartiality it seemed likely to the crowd that he would grant freedom to the two men and please both sides to their dismay though no positive word came back from the imperial officials the blues seem to have been particularly angered by this refusal perhaps realizing that the emperor really had turned his back on them the leadership of both factions had clearly conferred by the time of the 22nd race of the day as an organized cry went up of long live the merciful blues and greens perhaps together their clamour would convince the emperor by the end of the races the dems began to chant as one the word nika meaning victory or conquer usually one faction would be chanting about their victory in the races taunting the other side now justinian looked down on thousands of people chanting as one and pointing at him nika nika nika it must have been a deeply unnerving sight and sound the emperor retired to the palace but the crowd's blood was up and a mob descended on the praetorium where the city prefect worked they demanded the release of their compatriots from st lawrence's the officials inside could give no answer and so the crowd stormed the building killing several people releasing all the criminals who were being held inside and then setting fire to it thrilled with their success the crowd now raced to the august stay on to further demonstrate their anger they targeted the palace gate the chalk and set it on fire the fire burnt and the gate began to crumble but the august stay on was not a large courtyard and a wind blew north spreading the flames across to the senate house and to the hajjiya sophia by the next morning both had burnt to the ground the church was the cathedral of the city and had been built by theodosius ii over a century earlier as devastating as that might sound fires were a common occurrence in constantinople and for that matter so were riots justinian was alarmed but not seriously so the blues and greens were always at each other's throats their alliance wouldn't last 24 hours and then things would return to normal on the wednesday morning the emperor gave instructions that the races should continue and hopefully the competition between colors would help restore the status quo however the crowd which appeared in the hippodrome was angry to see that no concessions were forthcoming and soon the north end of the great stadium was set alight the augusteon was targeted again with its porticoes being badly burnt and the fires soon began to spread this time their victims included the giant baths of succipus which stood between the hippodrome and the palace rioters and palace officials alike looked on in horror as the baths collapsed into a great smoldering heap the baths were much older than the hajjiya sophia and had been adorned by constantine himself with beautiful sculptures from across the empire carved mosaics and around 80 statues of major figures from the greco-roman past were all gone forever justinian now began to realize the extent of the unfolding rebellion his officials arrived soon after with messages from the leadership of the now united green blues their demands had moved on from the simple release of their fellow deemsmen now they wanted the removal from office of three senior officials eudaimon the city prefect was an obvious target but interestingly the other two names were trebonian and john the cappadocian this was the first hint to those in the palace that the rioters were receiving input from other sources the deems were known to take issue with local law enforcement but it was unusual that they would attempt to remove the praetorian prefect or the quiestor those with real bones to pick with john and travonian were the senators or the impoverished provincials who had headed to the capital in the face of the new tax schemes regardless of his suspicions as to who might be involved justinian was seriously spooked and agreed to replace all three men their successes were announced instantly each a deliberately popular choice including a certain focus who was renowned throughout the city for his honesty and probity however instead of appeasing the leadership of the revolt these concessions fed their ambitions the rebels decided to crown their own emperor the natural candidates for the job were the nephews of anastasius it had only been 14 years since he passed away and all three men lived in the capital hypatius and pompeius were safely out of reach up in the palace a large group of senators had fled there after the initial disturbance and so the choice fell on the remaining nephew probus however when the crowds reached his home they were informed that he had very wisely left the city when he saw which way the wind was blowing his house was burned down by the frustrated rebels justinian grew increasingly restless up in the palace historians have surmised that some of the senators taking refuge with him were secretly sending messages to the leadership of the green blues promising money and encouraging them to unseat the upstart sovereign as we saw last episode justinian and his officials were deeply unpopular with the rich and this was a golden opportunity for them to harness the anger of the crowds to get themselves a ruler more to their liking justinian had more to worry about than his house guests though he had little faith in the palace regiments the scolaris and the excubitors he had done little to engender their loyalty and had sold off posts in the guard to raise cash he was increasingly surrounded by men he suspected might throw him to the wolves outside there were a number of men he felt he could trust though obviously john and tribonian whose fate was now linked to his but also belisarius who was in the city waiting reassignment and mundus the gepid prince who was passing through on his way back to the balkans belisarius had his buccalari eye with him and mundus's retinue included a company of heralds between them they probably had about 1500 men who now stood at the gates protecting those in the palace from the mob outside the next day thursday belisarius led the assaulted soldiers out to confront the crowds outside the gates and bitter fighting took place around the august stay on the professional soldiers inflicted nasty casualties on the rioters but didn't have the strength to cow the far greater numbers belisarius was forced to return to the palace leaving the rebels further enraged by their emperor more buildings were burnt down as the city's clergy made futile attempts to restore order for the next three days the city was engulfed in street fights and arson on friday the mob set fire to the praetorium again as it had only been partly burned by the initial fire whether by accident or design soon the baths of alexander were destroyed then the hospice of yubelus the church of hajiya irene and the hospice of samson many private houses and apartments went up in smoke too business had stopped taking place smoke hung in the air those who had somewhere to go fled the city some point justinian gave orders for boats to be manned and prepared should he need to flee by saturday some more troops arrived by ship from local cities with his numbers bolstered belisarius set out from the palace again and made battle with the mob in the quarters of the chalk operator near the basilica the mob had occupied a nearby building known as the octagon which was also set on fire during the fighting the flames spread south this time destroying the palace of laosis the palace was filled with treasures which were consumed or melted down and the church of saint theodor sphoracious went next the fire raged along the mise towards the form of constantine destroying everything in its path the colonnades the shops the church of saint aquilina by saturday night the complex of palace buildings was effectively isolated by the rioters justinian was being besieged and his paranoia was understandably growing once night fell he gave the order for all the senators in the palace to leave and return to their homes before they left hypatius and pompeous swore to justinian that they were loyal to him and had had nothing to do with the rebellion after years of faithful service to the new regime justinian probably believed them on sunday morning it was time to gamble justinian may well have been present on that amazing day when anastasius took off his diadem and offered to resign in the hippodrome he saw the way the crowd's anger subsided in the realization of what they might lose while not going quite that far he attempted his own theatrical stunt by appearing before the crowds in the kathisma and swearing on a copy of the gospel offering a general amnesty for any crimes committed in the last week and promising to listen to the demands of his people but what had worked for anastasius did little for justinian no one believed him a few cheers were soon drowned out with booze and catcalls some smart aleck asked whether the oath justinian was swearing was worth the same as the one he'd given battalion less witty cries of liar went up amongst the general uproar and then some cries of long live hypatias news that anastasia's nephews had left the palace had now filtered out the rebels rushed to hypatius's home and dragged him to the forum of constantine crowning him with a gold chain his wife was along objecting all the way commenting that the chain was more noose than crown hypatius probably felt the same way but now met with other senators who advised him to occupy one of the minor palaces and wake justinian out the other option was to just storm the palace and kill all those inside but fears of the casualties that would ensue led to some debate the green blues were impatient and hypatias himself favored a swift end to the affair in the end a mob raised hypatius up on their shoulders bore him to the hippodrome and lifted him into the carthisma much to the delight of the crowd who loudly hailed him emperor and continued to yell abuse at justinian and theodora the excubitors sensing the end of the conflict was at hand entered the box to protect hypatias from attack from the palace entrance on hearing this justinian decided it was time to leave the consensus amongst his advisers was to make for heraclea on the european coast nearby in trace the men seemed broadly in agreement until the empress theodora intervened although the speech which comes down to us is undoubtedly fictitious the sentiment seems entirely plausible the former prostitute was determined not to lose the status she had so amazingly won for herself she pointed out how intolerable exile would be for those who once ruled the empire and questioned if death was not preferable to going on the run she closed with the line that the imperial purple would make the finest burial shroud either convinced by her argument or shamed by the boldness of a woman justinian and his men remained turning to the two options available to him justinian gathered a large bag of cash and handed it to a trusted armenian eunuch named narses and told him to seek out the leaders of the blues narses was instructed to remind them that anastasius had always favored the greens and so surely hypatius would too what would stop their new emperor from leaving the blues out in the cold in his new regime justinian clearly trusted narses a lot remember that justin only came to power because he had been handed a bag of bribes and used them to his advantage on the last occasion that there had been a crisis of succession narses though was worthy of the emperor's trust and the seemingly frail man slipped unnoticed from the palace and located the leaders of the blues he seems to have been successful as a number of blues appear to have abandoned the rebellion around this time the other option the military one was now exercise 2. justinian ordered belisarius to attack the crowds while they were gathered in the hippodrome belisarius initially wanted to use the passageway to the cathyisma and simply snatch hypatius away however the excubitors were unmoved and so he had to make his way to the hippodrome floor climbing through rubble and smoldering ruins there again he was blocked entering through the west side belisarius could see that if he tried to force his way up the spiral staircase which led to the imperial box his men would have to turn their backs on the crowd who would surely fall on them so instead he gave the order to attack from the other side of the hippodrome mundus led his men in through the dead gate so called because it was the place where fallen charioteers were taken the hippodrome was 117 metres wide by 500 meters long but plenty of that space was taken up by the seating the crowd which numbered somewhere between 30 and 50 000 were mostly on the arena floor in close ranks 500 armed men could make a line four or five deep across the width of that floor once inside they began to attack indiscriminately it was a massacre as the crowd was caught between two sets of armed killers marching slowly toward them the majority of people were unarmed some of the greens were said to be wearing armor but in the press of panicking and hysterical rioters there was little they could do as the disciplined soldiers methodically cut them down procopius reports that thirty thousand lay dead at the end of the day other sources say more though it's not clear whether the estimates are based on the merely wounded or the actual dead either way the casualties were enormous the stench was terrible the ground covered in gore the city silent with a population of around 500 000 people everyone in constantinople was touched by the toll [Music] hypatias and pompeis were brought before the emperor justinian probably knew that they were innocent of any real crime but at the prompting of theodora and common sense he couldn't allow them to live in case they became rallying points for another rebellion they were executed the next day and their bodies thrown into the sea their families were left unharmed but their estates were confiscated 18 other senators were similarly disinherited and banished for their part in what had happened some years later when feeling secure on the throne justinian actually restored some of the property to those families but for now they were gone and justinian's position was much strengthened effective opposition to his regime was silenced over the next few years justinian's projects would gather pace in such a way that he may have viewed the nika revolt as it would become known as confirmation of his destiny the center of constantinople was of course in ruins one eyewitness says that the city was uninhabitable because of dust smoke and stench of materials being reduced to ashes striking pathetic dread in those who beheld it justinian looked at the charred ruins of the city in a different light the great builder had just been handed the chance to remodel the capital of his empire to his own specifications an ironic consequence of the revolt was to actually give justinian the opportunity to cement his legacy in stone for future generations to see the city prefect would be in charge of reconstructing houses and minor buildings but for the most important structures that had fallen justinian would direct the architects personally and re-imagine the city on a grander scale one fitting of the greatness of the roman empire the christian roman empire of course only 40 days after it had fallen workmen were preparing the ground for a new hagia sophia one justinian had clearly already been dreaming of as i said at the start of the podcast the nika revolt marks a turning point in the history of byzantium contemporaries like procopius bemoaned that justinian had destroyed the last vestiges of romaness from the empire ushering in an eastern style autocracy while it's certainly true that the dems would never again unite in rebellion it's highly debatable if they represented anything to do with the kind of republican virtues that procopius and his ilk like to celebrate where procopius may be onto something though is the way in which senatorial influence and privilege had begun to disappear during the last century the emperors had been so concerned with gaining the upper hand over goths and disorients that senators had been able to enjoy rather loose reigns of government between the new taxes tightening restrictions and the attack on pagan learning it's clear why the old greco-roman aristocracy would feel that nika represented the end of an era for the rest of his days justinian's power went unchallenged by the elite and he was free to remake the empire without worrying about treading on their toes of course the revolt was a horrible scarring incident contemporary historians were very critical of justinian for the slaughter he ordered many people were heartbroken widowed or destitute the emperor too was left with a permanent reminder that those who kissed his robes might one day stick a knife through them [Music] within a year john the cappadocian and tribonian were both back at their posts however justinian reigned in john's tax regime and kept an eye on tribonian's legislation he had been given a warning about the excesses of his regime and was not likely to forget how close he came to losing everything for mundus narses and belisarius though promotion awaited they had all been there when the emperor needed them and he would reward them with important duties [Music] last time we saw the center of constantinople reduced to blood and ashes in the nika revolt having successfully put down a serious challenge to his rule the emperor justinian felt certain that it was his duty his destiny to push on and restore the roman empire to its former glory only a year after belisarius slaughtered rioters in the hippodrome justinian handed him the responsibility of recapturing the province of africa africa at this point meant essentially modern tunisia and a slice of algeria as you all know by now the german tribe of the vandals had captured carthage in 439 and had then used the fleet they found in its harbour to conquer sardinia corsica and the balearics before sacking rome and raiding greece [Music] peace had then been established by treaty during the reign of zeno but tensions had remained between byzantium and the vandal kingdom beyond the obvious geopolitical concerns it was the issue of religion which had been the most frequent cause of angry letters the majority of vandals were aryan christians and not only maintained their faith but actively persecuted their catholic roman subjects i should perhaps pause for a second to clarify what i mean by catholic the term catholic comes from a greek word meaning universal so in the time of justinian if someone had used the word catholic they would have meant the mainstream legitimate imperially backed church this is the same church that i mean when i refer to believers who were orthodox i know this may be confusing because of our modern distinction between greek orthodox christians and roman catholics but in the 530s we are a long way from those descriptions so when i talk about catholics i mean all christians who weren't aryans or nestorians or some other definitive sect the reason i keep using the term orthodox is only to differentiate those who subscribed to the belief system as laid out at the council of chalcedon with the monophysites who questioned it but at this stage a monophysite was still a catholic because despite all the arguing they had not been condemned as heretical i hope that all makes sense successive vandal rulers had changed their official position as regards their catholic subjects some persecuted some tolerated the part roman king hilderick had made such pro-catholic overtures that his fellow vandals feared that he might lead their kingdom back to the empire his cousin gelimer seized power in 530 imprisoned hilderick and told justinian to mind his own business this was a red rag to an emperor who was determined to both restore the former boundaries of the roman empire and bring one christian doctrine to all his people adding to the demand for action were the community of african refugees now resident at constantinople many had fled during the persecutions and some bore scars or mutilations as a result once the dust had settled on the nika revolts justinian gathered his advisors and told them of his plans to retake africa procopius tells us that the majority of justinian's cabinet were opposed to any military campaign the eternal peace with persia had just been signed and it wasn't cheap the city was in ruins and to rebuild it would also cost a huge amount most of the consistory were afraid of contradicting the emperor's wishes but john the cappadocian so favored for his outspokenness voiced their concerns as praetorian prefect and essentially justinian's treasurer he pointed out the obvious a campaign against the vandals was likely to fail cause further conflict with an angry vandal kingdom as a result and would of course be massively expensive he reminded everyone of the emperor leo's disastrous armada of 468 which had seen so much blood and treasure sunk without a trace however justinian would not be moved he was not insensible to the concerns raised though and prepared an expedition far smaller than the all-out assault which leo had ordered around 16 000 troops were assembled far smaller than the anticipated size of vandal forces with 10 000 infantry and 6 000 cavalry including huns and heralds belisarius had shown at the battle of dara that he could defeat a much larger force with well-trained men and some deft tactics now he would be tested on a grander scale he was given overall command of not just the army but the fleet which would transport them five hundred ships were prepared to carry men and supplies guarded by 92 dromens the smallest class of warships manned by twenty thousand sailors as the fleet gathered outside constantinople many looked on fearing that they would never see these men again but three facts were unknown to the residents of the city which were about to play right into justinian's hands the first was a revolt in tripolitania fermented by imperial messages which threw off the vandal government this was the area east of carthage modern tripoli in libya the area was thinly populated and so may not have seemed immediately important to the vandal king however it meant that the invasion fleet would be able to land on a friendly shore before gelimer could react though a second revolt blew up on the island of sardinia the governor proclaimed himself independent of carthage and offered submission to the emperor in hope of some aid he wouldn't get any but he did provide the perfect distraction galimer hadn't learnt of justinian's plans and dispatched 120 ships and 5 000 men to bring the island back under his control the third fact was that the vandals were no longer the force they had once been over half a century of enjoying their lush african estates and the warm sun had loosened their grip on power the men of fighting age was spread out across their towns and their fighting style hadn't developed since the days when they had driven out the romans the stars seemed to be aligning for justinian he was still on friendly terms with amala santa regent for the young king of the goths in italy she placed the harbours of sicily at the emperor's disposal leaving the path to carthage open for assault in june 533 the fleet stood ready and received a blessing from the patriarch on board with belisarius were his wife antonina and procopius whose first-hand accounts once again give us a fascinating insight into what happened next things didn't get off to the best start as two drunken huns killed another soldier and belisarius was forced to hang them the fleet then had to put in at methone in southern greece because john the cappadocian economizing all the way and supplied bread to the army which had been baked using one of the bath house furnaces rather than a proper bakery the moldy dough caused 500 soldiers to fall ill by september the fleet had reached sicily belisarius had been anxious throughout the journey expecting the vandals to attack them at any moment once safely ashore he was amazed to learn that the vandal fleet was in sardinia and that galimer seemed completely unaware of his approach seizing the opportunity he immediately pushed the fleet to land at kaput vada something like 140 miles to the east of carthage upon reaching the shore some men pillaged the local farms for food again belisarius had to discipline them he told them that they were in africa to liberate the roman people from galama an army of 15 000 would need 30 tons of grain 13 tons of fodder and about 30 000 gallons of water a day belisarius told them that they were going to buy the supplies they needed from the locals at a fair price and that way ensure their goodwill toward the invading army it was about 14 days journey to carthage and so the army moved slowly along the coast with the fleet following beside at the first town they came to belisarius's policy paid dividends as he was quickly welcomed by the roman africans who offered to sell their goods to the hungry soldiers belisarius also distributed a letter from justinian declaring that the purpose of the invasion was simply to restore hilderick and liberate the people from the tyrant gelimer the diplomatic campaign worked well as the army made steady progress along the coast road scouts were sent ahead under john the armenian while the company of huns protected the flanks by now news had reached galima who was away from carthage at the time he quickly sent word to his brother amartus at carthage giving instructions to kill hilderick and the other prisoners and bring all the troops in the city south to stop the invasion the vandals could probably muster thirty thousand soldiers and they were largely a cavalry force who fought in the traditional vandal manner lightly armored with lance and sword they were not skilled with bow or javelin as the byzantines were and of course 5 000 of these troops were away in sardinia but gelimer could certainly match if not outnumber the invasion force the king set a trap for the byzantines correctly predicting that they would stick to the coast road and aiming to catch them in a valley at the 10th milestone from carthage ad decimum on one side were rocky hills on the other assault plane gellama instructed his brother to meet the byzantines head-on once they entered the pass he would sweep down on their rear and one of his nephews would lead another two thousand men across the salt plains the plan required good timing to succeed though belisarius had no idea he was about to be trapped but fortunately for him amartus arrived at the pass early presumably to scout the location he was surprised to find john the armenian's advanced guard already there john's far better cavalry won the skirmish killing amartus and routing his men the fleeing soldiers caused chaos in the badly organized army that was marching out from carthage who were then soon set upon by jon's pursuing cavalry the troops sent round to the salt plains fared just as badly they now ran into the huns guarding the byzantine flank although they were outnumbered three to one the huns still slaughtered the vandals and put them to flight the vandals simply had no defense against the composite bow gelimer mistimed his arrival too reaching the pass before belisarius did another byzantine scouting party was easily driven off and if gelimer had charged headlong after these scouts it's possible he could have swept belisarius from the field as his attack would have caught the rest of the byzantines unaware or if the vandals had turned back to carthage they would have cut off john's forces and possibly captured the byzantine fleet which had been separated from the army by the rocky hills around adecima instead though when gelimer reached the valley he found the dead body of his brother and wept he stopped his army there and aimed to bury a martus nearby the byzantine scouts had quickly found their commander and belisarius seized on the chance to attack the stationary gelimer the vandals were not lined up ready for battle when the byzantines arrived and put them to flight they didn't make for carthage either but fled into the countryside a large part of the vandal army survived but the road to their capital was now open the victory had been won by the cavalry alone belisarius had not kept his army together and the infantry only arrived after the action was complete it was around the middle of september when the victorious byzantines entered carthage once again belisarius's major concern was to keep his men from looting the city once discipline was secure he led his men in to meet the cheering citizens the catholics inside took the opportunity to kick the aryan clergy out and reoccupy their churches belisarius gave orders for ditches to be dug and for repairs to be made to the city's walls and once his day's labors were complete he was able to seat himself on gelimer's throne surrounded by his officers and enjoy a feast that had been prepared for the vandal king belisarius's smaller army could now rest easy behind carthage's walls and plan their next move although their victory owed much to the superior training and skills of the cavalry there was a good deal of luck involved too galima's plan was a good one but it had been poorly executed and the king himself had made blunder after blunder which played into his enemies hands it's interesting to speculate what would have happened if hill derek hadn't been executed gelimer had naturally killed his rival so that he couldn't be restored to power however imagine if belisarius had marched into carthage and hilderick was there waiting for him technically the byzantines would have restored the rightful king and would either have had to fight for him or leave perhaps gelimer would have been overthrown and the vandals reunited as a people it seems pretty clear that justinian didn't commit precious resources just to protect hilderick's right to rule so it sure would have been awkward if belisarius reached the throne room only to be told by hilderick thanks for all you've done but i'll take it from here out in the countryside gellama restored order to his fleeing army and moved west by december he had reunited with his other brother zazo who had returned from successfully quelling the rebellion in sardinia they marched to carthage and cut the aqueducts the vandals didn't feel they had the strength to besiege the city but they were determined to make life as difficult as possible for belisarius by preventing supplies coming in by land galima also sent men into the city to make contact with sympathetic citizens who he hoped could persuade the aryan troops in the byzantine army to desert although none of them did belisarius became aware that his company of huns could not be trusted their loyalty was highly questionable and it seemed like they might switch sides should the vandals gain the upper hand galamar camped some 20 miles west of carthage at tricamaron the camp included a lot of those who had fled from the byzantines along with their property wives and children by mid-december belisarius decided that it was time to attempt battle he felt a decisive blow could scatter the vandals and had decided that he would prefer to deal with mutinous soldiers out in the field rather than letting them spend their days eyeing the city gates again though belisarius didn't keep his forces together and allowed his cavalry to get far ahead of the infantry battle was therefore joined without full force [Music] but again the superior byzantine cavalry was too much for the vandals clad in chain mail and firing volley after volley of arrow into the enemy center the vandals had no comeback zazzo was killed and his men could only attempt meager sorties before being driven back on the third occasion that the byzantines made a charge at them the vandals broke and fled as they did so the huns finally joined the battle and helped cut down some of the fleeing men as the vandals scattered the byzantines came across their camp after months of self-denial the army engorged itself on the people and treasure they found there procopius notes with alarm that discipline was abandoned and had the vandals managed to rally and return belisarius's men would have been cut to pieces but that didn't happen gelimer was a broken man and rode away as fast as he could his men followed suit with many fleeing for the sanctuary of churches once again belisarius had been handed victory by a combination of superior troops and his opponents blunders of course victory is all that would matter back in constantinople and news of the success thrilled justinian belisarius led his army to the city of hippo where they collected the vandal royal treasury which modern estimates guess would have paid for the whole campaign other towns were easily secured as you may recall the vandals had destroyed the city walls of every other major town to prevent rebellion the islands of the mediterranean were scooped up too by the imperial fleet and the byzantine navy also took possession of two important forts on the african coast near the straits of gibraltar the interior of modern-day morocco was beyond recovery justinian was also about to discover that restoring all of roman africa would be far harder than just kicking the vandals out the moorish tribes had long enjoyed freedom from imperial rule and had improved on that position during the vandal occupation they weren't going to bow the knee to justinian either and prepared to further harass the settled communities meanwhile gelimer fled to mount papua where he and his supporters could hide from the byzantines at the foot of the mountain faras and his heralds that we met at the battle of dara waited him out the cold winter months didn't improve the mood of either side and faras sent a note to gelimer urging him to give up gelimer wouldn't do it but he did ask for a sponge a loaf of bread and a liar this odd request was granted so that gelimer could bathe his swollen eyes eat some baked bread and compose a song to his tribulations by march he finally surrendered after being assured of his honorable treatment many of his soldiers were offered the same deal and were told that they would be shipped back to constantinople and enrolled in the imperial armies despite his total victory belisarius was not popular amongst some of his sub-commanders along with the messages justinian received about the war came a secret note from a cabal of officers telling him that belisarius was planning to set himself up as king of africa justinian didn't believe these claims but left belisarius a small test by writing to him offering him the choice of returning to constantinople or staying in the recovered province belisarius wisely chose to go home it's worth speculating why belisarius was able to command the respect of his soldiers but not his officers if you'll recall the same problems were present after the battle of dara during the defeat at kalanicom the suspicion of procopius is that it was belisarius's wife antonina who was the problem she was at least 10 years older than her husband and like theodora had been a performer in the theater while her exploits were not as colorful as those of the empress she had had a number of children before she married belisarius and unlike theodora she seems not to have changed her promiscuous ways after the wedding but belisarius clearly loved her and took her on campaign with him perhaps to keep an eye on her she was clearly a woman of strong opinion and procopius credits her for ordering extra water to be stored on the ships during the voyage to africa however it's possible that other officers look down on belisarius for his attitude to his wife the suggestion being that a man who can't control his woman was not fit to lead men it's also possible that belisarius's favored position in the army incited jealousy or that his strict discipline had irritated those who had seen plenty of opportunities for plunder for now though belisarius was the second man in the empire and in the spring of 534 he returned to constantinople as a conquering hero justinian's desire to restore roman traditions led him to grant his general an honor which had been the preserve of emperors for five centuries a roman triumph the procession began at his home rather than the city gates and he was not allowed to ride a chariot through the streets but simply walked instead behind him though were the most attractive vandal captives along with gelimer in his kingly robes and beside them were cart loads of loot brought back from africa the prize find being the famous menorah taken by titus from the temple of jerusalem in ad70 which the vandals had seized during the sack of rome in 455. to the relic loving byzantines this was a great moment and confirmation of god's support for his people justinian would eventually allow the menorah to be handed over to the jews and taken back to jerusalem the thought that the three cities which had once housed it had now all fallen may have lingered in his mind back to the triumph though and belisarius now entered the hippodrome to the adulation of the crowds before reaching the kathisma where justinian and theodora looked down galima's robes were torn from his shoulders then he the other prisoners and belisarius all prostrated themselves before the imperial couple galima is said to have quoted a line from ecclesiastes upon seeing the spectacle of imperial majesty vanity of vanities all is vanity [Music] galema actually had a good deal to be grateful for his ancestors would surely have been executed for invading roman lands but he was now a foreign king who had simply broken a treaty the byzantines kept their word and he was given estates in galatia where he and his remaining family and friends could live out their lives in peace the few thousand vandal soldiers who remained were now enlisted on the roles of the eastern army where they would be known as justinians vandals i think it's worth making two points about the reconquest of africa which are often discussed in the history books the first is that it's often taken for granted that the roman empire had reached some sort of natural point of dissipation when the west fell in the broad sweep of history i think it's fair to say that the idea persists that the empire was on its last legs and that if the goths franks and vandals hadn't invaded then someone else would have the ease with which justinian retook africa suggests something different with its political stability secured the east had by now made a full recovery from all the blights which the third and fourth centuries had brought with them the professional byzantine army had learnt new techniques from attila's huns as roman armies had always done and now with one army justinian was able to push the vandals out and retake a major province what that suggests to me is that one of the major reasons the west fell was all the little political dislocations which the history of rome podcast chronicled the empire didn't collapse simply because of long-term forces working against it all those short-term problems which stillico or etius dealt with were key to the way things turned out if the lesson we take from this is that a key battle or leader here or there really can change history then it's worth saying that if gelimer had made better choices or had a little more luck he might have crushed belisarius and justinian probably would have abandoned his dreams of retaking the west speaking of which the other point i'd like to make is on the question of whether that was justinian's plan all along i have no doubt that justinian wanted to reconquer the west i think if he'd had the men he'd have asked them to march all the way to hadrian's wall as later episodes will make clear but the real question is if gelimer hadn't imprisoned hilderick would justinian have invaded africa it's hard to imagine the pretext for doing so and perhaps justinian would have attempted to make africa a client kingdom and pushed for closer trade cultural and religious policies what seems clear is that belisarius's swift victories fed the emperor's ambitions and if he wasn't thinking of starting a war of reconquest before the african campaign he certainly was now belisarius was made consul for the next year and justinian already had a new assignment in mind for him [Music] [Music] do [Music] imperial majesty should not only be graced with arms but armed with laws so that good government may prevail in time of war and peace alike the head of the roman state can then stand victorious not only over enemies in war but also over troublemakers driving out their wickedness through the paths of the law and can triumph as much by his devotions to the law as for his conquests in battle long hours of work and careful planning have with god's help given us success in both these fields barbarian nations brought beneath our yoke know the scale of our exertions in war africa and countless other provinces restored to roman jurisdiction and brought back within our empire after so long an interval bear witness to the victories granted to us by the will of heaven however it is laws that we have already managed to enact and collect that all our peoples are ruled so said justinian in the preface to the institutes a handbook for law students issued in 533 it's a clear statement of the emperor's belief in the importance of the law in regulating the lives of his people while also showing us his pride in retaking africa and one of the ways he used that conquest to boost his own image as a great and worthy emperor [Music] last time we saw africa fall to belisarius and the vandals swept away back in constantinople justinian must have been ecstatic he had emerged unscathed from the nika revolt and now his plan to restore the roman empire seemed to have been given divine approval the emperor pushed on his reforming zeal unleashed on the world two of his achievements stand above all others for their lasting impact we begin with the law you'll recall that in 529 the code of justinian had been published the revised and edited collection brought together all existing roman laws into one set of books an immense accomplishment in itself but it was only the beginning the quiestor tribonian was then appointed chairman of a second law commission who began work soon after and were in the middle of their labors when the neca revolt broke out fortunately for them their endeavors were not reduced to ashes and by 533 they were able to publish two more important legal works the digest was an anthology of legal commentaries while the institutes were an official textbook for law students these might sound like more humdrum administrative reforms but their story is far more significant than that roman law developed in two forms statutes written by legislators and precedents decided by judges the legislators were initially the senate of republican rome and then of course the emperors these statutes edicts and laws had all been gathered up into the code of justinian however the precedence as decided by judges in individual cases and lawsuits were far harder to gather as of course there were so many of them we might tend to think about criminal cases when we think of the law publius stole a loaf of bread theft is against the law so publius is guilty and should be punished however in practice those cases are rarer than say publius's will is contested or publius's prized apple tree fell into his neighbor's garden and the damage has to be paid for or publius is refusing to honor a contract because he claims the terms have been rendered null and void in lawsuit crazy rome thousands upon thousands of cases had been brought before the urban prater who would then have to write the complaints up into a form that would allow them to be easily understood by whoever was judging the case be it an actual magistrate a jury or some other mutually agreeable citizen the sheer amount of legal decisions and opinion became too large for one person to remember by the dying days of the republic a lawyer like cicero could make a fortune by constructing sophisticated arguments based on legal precedents during the early imperial centuries several prominent jurists had attempted to summarize whole bodies of legal opinion into a digestible form by justinian's day the four jurists whose work dominated this field were julian papinian gaius and opien a quote from alpian helps demonstrate their collective skill at summarizing complex ideas with the phrase the commandments of the law are these live honorably harm nobody and give everyone his due tribonian's law commission were given the gargantuan task of summarizing the work of these four jurists and others from over two thousand books of legal advice into a practical written form as chief legal minister trebonian would also need to make judgments about the decisions of the past as the jurists did not always agree and then to bring them into line with christian principles and the mood of justinian's administration the commission was made up of six law professors and 11 lawyers and amazingly they only needed three years to complete the task and the commissioners were not allowed to devote their lives entirely to the digest many of them were still working for the praetorian prefect and were needed to help settle existing cases when completed the digest ran to more than eight hundred thousand words in fifty books it's worth noting that trebonian committed fraud in order to create the digest it was important to justinian that he be seen to be restoring the roman past and acting upon the authority of established judicial precedent so to make the law say what justinian would wanted to say trebonian needed to make the great jurists of the past agree in a case where alpian disagreed with julian on something trebonian would simply rewrite what one of them had said the result was a far more efficient digest with all inconsistencies eliminated but it was not an accurate reflection of the convoluted past the digest was swiftly followed by the institutes which would provide guidance for law students on how to learn and interpret the law the following year 534 saw a revised and corrected version of the code of justinian with all the laws of the past five years included together they formed the corpus juris civilis or the code of civil law they were intended to be the sole source of law with no reference needed to the works of the past no more would a canny lawyer unearth some obscure ruling which supported his case all the answers were in the code the completion of the whole code in less than 10 years has been called one of the most brilliant feats of organization in the history of civil administration it's clear that trebonian was a man of rare talent who had matched the depth of ambition of his master in bringing his project to a successful conclusion he was to remain justinian's quiesto until his death in the next decade [Music] the laws show us the continued christianization of the empire as many words are spent on the organization of clerical and monastic life this included important protections for church property which was never to be sold and encouraged the serfdom of those who worked its lands bishops were encouraged to help run their local towns and enforce laws against gambling and other local sins and interestingly divorce was not made impossible on the grounds that to do so would only increase the instance of poisoning we can also see the influence of the greek east on roman law the patriarchal preference of the romans was now diluted as laws concerning family inheritance and marriage were all changed to improve the position of women as well as that of freed slaves it's possible that theodora had some influence on these changes and one can well imagine that she was in justinian's thoughts when he approved the statement that mutual affection creates marriage rather than a dowry another modern innovation was trebonian's suggestion that gospels be kept in courtrooms for the swearing of oaths for contemporaries the code certainly simplified legal procedures and became the basis of byzantine law going forward however the code was written in latin and despite trebonian's best efforts to simplify the language the vast majority of those in the east spoke greek latin was by now only the language of law once you moved east of constantinople and even most law students during this time would only learn passable latin so almost immediately it was the greek translations of the code or even the greek commentaries on it which came into practical use justinian was aware of this issue and during the rest of his reign he legislated more often than not in greek a later collection of his laws the novels were written in greek and were added to the code the growing canon law of church courts was also written in greek and those out in the provinces would more often than not seek arbitration for their legal disputes with their local priest who it was doubtful had ever read the code however if the code's immediate impact was less emphatic than we might expect it would go on to have a surprising second life justinian's own attempts to restore the roman empire are not destined to succeed but copies of the code will be issued to italy soon enough at some point during the 11th century a huge portion of the code was found in a monastery in pisa it was taken to the great medieval university in bologna where it began to disseminate amongst interested scholars soon both western courts and the catholic church were mining the code for arguments to support their authority the code provided a model for contracts rules of procedure family law and wills that began to be given the force of law initially spreading through the italian city-states where a written law was needed to govern increasingly complex commercial relationships the use of the code then began to spread across the continent at the heart of the code was a way to justify the divine right of kings an important legal pillar for medieval royal families the roman and byzantine emperors were after all autocrats trebonian's work had elaborated on the concept that the will of the prince has the force of law to make sure that justinian's authority was absolute the emperor's insecurity and centralizing instincts had led him to make explicit the fact that any decision the emperor gave was to be considered legally binding he justified it not only through his edited version of the roman past but also by the fact that he was appointed by god to protect his people centuries later this handed the kings of europe a way to legally establish their own rights [Music] the legal thinking behind the code would even survive beyond the end of feudalism and serve as the backbone to the napoleonic code the largest law reform of the modern age because justinian's code presented a well-organized collection of laws covering almost every dispute imaginable many of its principles were simply absorbed or built upon the civil law tradition which flowed from this and which napoleon and others codified is the basis of the majority of countries legal systems today it was very influential on the european continent and then of course during the era of colonialism those same principles were taken out to south america africa and asia the defining principle of civil law was one established by justinian's code in any dispute about law the institution which drafted the statute prevails in other words the laws as laid down in a legal code is what will guide a judge's decision justinian's legal works thus came closer to governing the world than even his wildest propaganda could have claimed by condensing centuries of roman law into one body that could be read and understood and which survived the emperor and his quiesto left a sizable legacy for world civilization when james madison and his commission asked for a list of acquisitions for use by the first continental congress the first thing he asked for was the corpus juris civilis today in the u.s house of representatives 20 cameos hang on the walls representing the greatest lawgivers in history and alongside images of napoleon and thomas jefferson are tribonian and justinian other great legacy is perhaps easier to immediately grasp largely because it still stands in istanbul today after the nika revolt downtown constantinople was in ruins the rebuilding work began immediately and justinian directed affairs he rebuilt the senate house on a smaller scale and constructed new baths of zuccipus with a mournful plaque describing the statues that had occupied its predecessor the church of hajjia irene the hospice of samson and other public buildings including the porticos of the messi were also reconstructed from the ground up justinian took the opportunity to add to the palace as well the rebuilt chalk gate now led into a domed entranceway on whose ceiling elaborate mosaics were created showing justinian and theodora standing triumphant over the vandals inside the palace the emperor made sure that if he were ever besieged again he would have the necessary supplies to survive as he added an additional water supply a bakery and granary to the already massive complex building as we've already seen was something justinian took a keen interest in churches were of particular interest because they combined the pr need to demonstrate imperial worthiness with his religious desire to honor his celestial benefactor only forty days after the dust had settled on nika the ground was being prepared for a new cathedral church a new hajjiya sophia to rise up in the place of the one which had been destroyed it seems obvious from the speed that justinian had already been planning to construct a massive church in his capital as no architects could have drawn up plans so quickly historians suspect that justinian may have ordered plans to be drawn up back in 527 when he became emperor for in that same year the largest church in the capital at the time had just been completed the church of saint paul yuktus built near the aqueduct of valence was a construction ordered by anitzia juliana anitzia was the granddaughter of the emperor valentinian iii and daughter of elibrius who had briefly been western emperor her impressive imperial pedigree made her a natural rival to justinian a man with no ancestors to speak of doubtless many of venezia's friends were involved or at least sympathetic to the nika revolts inside saint polyutas was a large inscription comparing its sponsor to constantine and theodosius ii great builders and of course distant relatives the comparisons continued on to solomon the great jewish king whose famous temple was an inspiration to christian church builders whether any part of juliana's church was really intended as a dig at the peasant emperor we don't know nor whether justinian's new church was a repost it's not as if the emperor was shy about starting new projects however it's an interesting bit of context to nika and to the new hajiya sophia justinian's bold designs would have had to find a new spot in the city if the riots hadn't intervened now he could build a new church at the very center of constantinople [Music] we should just pause for a word about the name hajjiya sophia the church is not dedicated to any saint sophia as many history books shorten it too instead hajiya sophia translates as holy wisdom was an important philosophical idea to greek thinkers for centuries before christianity many attempts were made to incorporate elements of greek philosophy into the mystical traditions of judaism and one such effort saw the concept of wisdom as one of the ways god related to man the wisdom of god had been linked to the word of god at the beginning of john's gospel where the word is that part of god that becomes flesh in the form of jesus before we drift too far down any alleyways of theological speculation just note that the full name of the church in greek should read shrine of the holy wisdom of god the neighboring church of hajiya irene was dedicated to god's holy peace the shortening of the name comes from sophia being the latin phonetic spelling of the greek word of course in english the name looks like it should be said hajiya sophia but we lack the soft g sound which you would find in greek and we use the letter h which they do not in modern greek the pronunciation should be a year sophia i'm not entirely sure how the byzantines would have pronounced it and i don't want to confuse new listeners by attempting an accurate modern greek translation all of the time especially when i've been using a lot of anglicized and latinized names during this period i'll see how i go and certainly as the empire becomes more greek so will my pronunciations the design of the new church was entrusted to two of the finest architects of the day anthimius of trales and iziodor of melatus both were academic mathematicians and had written famous works on engineering but neither was an experienced architect the way we would think of that profession today certainly they had never attempted a building on the scale that justinian was envisioning the emperor gave the two men carte blanche over the design and cost of the building on two conditions the church should be of unparalleled magnificence and it should be constructed in the shortest time possible the emperor was already 50 and wanted to make sure he was still alive to see his most important construction christian churches of the time tended to adopt one of two styles those in the west were built in the shape of basilicas originally a public building and then increasingly a feature of palaces a basilica would generally have a central isle or nave leading to an abs at one end the building suited the christian service with a priest at the front and congregation sitting in the nave or side isles in the east an alternative style had developed which allowed the congregation to sit in the round sometimes because the church was built around a shrine or the tomb of a martyr the decision was taken to allow the new church to accommodate both styles of worship politically it was valuable to have both because it meant that important citizens could be seated in a circle where they could witness the emperor at worship however by also having a long central isle the liturgical need for regular processions could be accommodated to accomplish this anthemias and izidor decided to build a huge dome the largest anyone had ever seen which would cover the basilica shape and allow in adequate light roman architects had created domed buildings before of course such as the pantheon but those domes were built on circular buildings to accommodate the huge dome over a rectangular shape an architectural innervation was needed this was the pendentive an inverted triangle which could carry the weight of the dome above by transferring all the strain into their thin bottom point which could then be placed on top of sturdy piers below [Music] with two semi-domes arches and buttresses holding the dome in place those piers would need to be pretty sturdy although anthemias and isiador did their best there were problems in their rush to meet justinian's schedule they didn't allow sufficient time for the mortar to set around the giant piers that they had sunk into the city's bedrock three years into the project the peers began to give way the architects scrambled to secure their construction changing the shape of their arches and adding stone projections to help strengthen the building and although this worked for 20 years by 558 the structural weaknesses would tell and the dome collapsed iziador the younger either the nephew or son of the original architect would raise the dome by about 20 feet to its current height back in the 530s though and the whole empire was raided for the materials needed to decorate the interior ten thousand labourers worked every day to bring in the marble and porphyry which would provide floor wall and column of different colors and hues the interior of the dome and ceiling were to be coloured gold along with decorative patterns of red blue and green there were no figurative mosaics which most churches would have been adorned with instead there were endlessly repeated images of the cross amongst the gold this may have been a practical decision to speed the building process or because the surfaces were too high for mosaics to be seen as procopius discovered the effect was that the eye sweeps around the whole of the interior rather than focusing on one area as figurative images would encourage at the base of the dome were 40 windows giving the dome the appearance of being suspended from heaven by a golden chain the light would then flow in illuminating the gold and bouncing down to the coloured surfaces below the light would also bounce off the chains suspended from the gold which held thousands of lamps in candelabra for evening services [Music] the decorations were elaborate too of course a 50-foot icon stasis made of silver a high altar encrusted with gold and precious stones the patriarch's throne was made of gilded silver and dozens of gold lamps surrounded the building estimates suggest that justinian lavished 320 000 pounds of gold on the church and whatever we might think of that amount justinian got exactly what he wanted it took 35 years to build saint paul's cathedral in london with near-modern engineering methods the ahir sofia was ready for its inauguration only five years ten months and four days after construction had begun an extraordinary speed on december 27th 537 menas the patriarch and justinian led a procession down the messi to hold the first service although he probably didn't say it the sentiment seems apt as justinian viewed his creation and uttered the words solomon i have outdone you the emperor was not the only one blown away by the church the architectural genius astounded contemporaries evagrius an ecclesiastical historian said it was incomparable and surpassed all powers of description paul the cylentiary who worked for justinian said the golden stream of glittering rays pours down and strikes the eyes of men so that they can scarcely bear to look at it it is as if one were to gaze upon the midday sun in spring recopius describes the building as seeming to soar up to heaven and rise above surrounding buildings like a huge ship anchored among them it's important to remember that for contemporaries it was easily the largest building they had ever seen for someone who didn't live in constantinople and wasn't used to big structures at all the site would have been overwhelming it would be the largest christian church in the world for a thousand years even with modern construction it still sits in the top 20. it certainly served as an inspiration for those which have surpassed it including saint paul's in london and saint peter's in rome it's hard to quantify the importance of the idea sophia to byzantium it is only a building and its effects on human psychology cannot be judged by numbers or some other measurable criteria certainly the emperors would not have been able to boast as convincingly that they were god's vice regent on earth without a building to honor him that no other kingdom could match as the tide of islam swept the east and western kingdoms would grow in prominence visitors from all corners of the globe would still marvel at the site of constantinople's most impressive building to its citizens it became a focal point of worship and celebration and the admiration of the byzantines never wavered germanos a patriarch from the 8th century said the church is an earthly heaven where the super celestial god dwells and walks about a century later and another patriarch photios calls the church christ's bride even the final patriarch in residence before the city fell in 1453 calls it the handiwork of god a marvelous and worthy work the delight of the entire earth to medieval visitors it was such an awesome spectacle that legends grew up to explain its construction such as how angels aided the builders or the wood from noah's ark was needed for the doors in celebrated legend the ahir sofia would later so impress russian invoice that they convinced their king to adopt the orthodox christian faith justinian couldn't have asked for more of his architects than the creation of such an enduring monument yet despite the building's unqualified magnificence there were visible mistakes unpolished stone faces slabs of marble simply butted together rather than assembled with meted edges the dome that would collapse one of justinian's modern biographers james evans says that the building puts justinian's personality flaws on record impatient and eager that his church should exhibit his worthiness as god's emperor he refused the builders time for their mortar to set properly contributing to the structure's instability an analogy for his emperorship perhaps [Music] you

Channel: Flash Point History

Views: 129,773

Keywords: History, Byzantium, podcast, robin, Pierson, audio, the history of Byzantium, The history of Byzantium podcast, roman, roman empire, eastern roman empire, eastern, byzantine, justinian, justin, emperor, biography, documentary, video documentary, audiocast, persia, fall of the roman empire, western, the history of rome, rome, history of the roman empire, documentary roman empire, documentary byzantine empire, belisarius, battle, Nika, riots, Hagia sophia, creation, vandal, war, gelimer, ad decimum, code

Id: VYvc71OPzuo

Length: 92min 33sec (5553 seconds)

Published: Mon May 16 2022