History of Byzantium - VOL 8 - The Empire Strikes Back

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helping out my show as well so do yourself a favor hit the link in the description below and get your history on today again big thanks to ancient Treasures for sponsoring this video [Music] thank you last time we concluded the nightmare decade of the 540s with the worst ravages of the plague dying away and kusro happy to keep a truce in the East Justinian was able to gather an Army in illyricum which he hoped would finally end the now 16 year old war in Italy instead though the Army's Commander germanus died and a large Slavic Invasion spread out across the Balkans despite these final setbacks the 550s were set to be happier days for the emperor thanks to or in spite of his administrations the man and money had been found to push forward with his dreams of reconquest the men who would lead the Empire's armies though were a curious selection the man put in charge of ejecting the Slavs from the Balkans was scholasticus a palace eunuch with apparently no military experience the new commander of the Army in Italy was another eunuch our old friend Nazis the man who handed out bribes during Nika and then foolishly squabbled with belisarius during the first Italian campaign Nazis had at least that brief experience of military life to fall back on but he was now in his 70s and seemed as unlikely a conqueror as one could imagine finally the man sent to take over Affairs in lasika was bessus last seen not offering dalisarius much help during one of the sieges of Rome masses II was now at least 70 though he was an experienced General if not with the best reputation Justinian had begun to split his commands after hearing that belisarius had been offered the title of Western Emperor by the Goths this approach was doomed to failure and the emperor was quick to recognize that one overall commander was a necessity for successful operations but Justinian remained Forever on guard against usurpation shortly after Theodora's death a conspiracy against his life had come to light surrounding a couple of Armenian generals while not a serious incident it was clearly enough to push the emperor into only trusting old men or eunuchs those he could feel safe in promoting we should remember too that Justinian was now in his late 60s and showed no desire to slack in his workload so he probably felt that men in their seventh decade were perfectly capable of Leading Armies historian Tom Holland also points out that with the plague recurring in far-off places every year perhaps the emperor was choosing men who had survived their meeting with the arsenia and would not unexpectedly die out in the field whatever the determining Factor was the emperor's Judgment of talent and loyalty had not failed him Bess has brought the siege of Petra to a successful conclusion in Spring 551 and demolished the fortifications which might tempt the Persians to retake the coastal city and although kusro refused to give up his forts in the east of the country he did agree to an extension of the truce between the two empires this would be another five-year deal with a couple of thousand pounds of Byzantine gold as the price in the west scholasticus took command of the army of Thrace and after an initial setback was able to defeat the Slavic Raiders and drive them back across the Danube however the Gathering of Imperial forces in the Balkans began to worry the gepits who had enjoyed free reign on the northwest Danube for some time apparently it was they who incited a horde of kutrega bulgars to raid the Empire and distract the army that Nazis was putting together Justinian acted quickly to free his General from the burden of dealing with these latest Raiders he sent messages to the neighbors of the kuttriggers the uttigas also bulgars inviting them to attack their cousin's Homeland which they did and the kuttriggers withdrew Justinian was also quick to send word to the Lombards that he would happily switch his subsidies to them if they would attack the gapids this they did and finally the path was clear for Nazis to invade Italy the eunuch emerges from the histories as a man Justinian must have trusted more than any other remember that during Nika it was Nazis who was handed a bag of gold and sent out of the besieged palace to sow Discord amongst the blues and greens now General Nazis was given around 20 000 men and the back pay for the garrisons in Italy oh what belisarius would have given to lead such an army there were significant numbers of mercenary troops included as usual with Heralds Huns Persian deserters and nearly 6 000 Lombards in Italy totilla was aware that a storm was gathering and was working hard to improve his position so that he could bargain from a position of strength with the empire he had wisely invested in his Fleet knowing that ideally the byzantines would send reinforcements by sea during 551 he used it to cut off the Byzantine Garrison in Ancona on the East Coast so while Nazis was still Gathering recruits it was left to John the nephew of Italian to lead a relief Force across the Adriatic when they met the two fleets were of equal size but the Imperial Navy was far more experienced leading the Goths into a disastrous battle that saw practically their whole Fleet sunk meanwhile down in Sicily liberius was replaced by a more experienced commander who kicked the remaining Goths off the island the stage was set for the final invasion by Spring 552 nasi's Army was ready to March and crossed through Dalmatia into Italy the Overland route was a necessity for despite the recent Naval success the play could taken a heavy toll on the Imperial Navy and there just weren't enough experienced Sailors to man a fleet that large the March was more perilous than it might have been because the Crossing into Italy LED them close to the conflict between the Lombards and the gapids to the North and then once in Italy the Franks to the West when totilla had set up multiple sieges of Rome and crossed to Sicily he needed the bulk of his troops in the south of the country so he allowed the Franks to occupy most of the country north of the poe the you'll recall that the Franks had already invaded once during the first Italian campaign so Nazis hugged the coast as much as possible until he reached Ravenna once there he was able to gather reinforcements from the Byzantine Garrison and marched South with closer to 30 000 troops totilla amassed all the forces he could but was outnumbered probably with only fifteen thousand men to his side ignoring other Gothic garrisons Nazis made his way to the Via flaminia and the two sides met at buster galorem Nazis took up a strong defensive position with his infantry masked in the center and dared tortilla to attack he actually ordered many of his Cavalry to Dismount and stand with their lances ready like a makeshift phalanx on each Wing he placed his archers rather than just cavalry totilla decided to make use of his countrymen's greatest asset and ordered his Cavalry to make a ferocious charge to try and break the Imperial Army in one burst the disciplined Imperial infantry held their line though and The Archers poured volley after volley into the charging Horsemen when the Goths finally broke and fled they were mercilessly cut down apparently losing 6 000 men While others were taken prisoner using quite different tactics than belisarius would have done Nazis had crushed the core of Gothic resistance procopius was no longer on hand to describe the Gory details and so we get conflicting reports as to what became of totilla however it's generally agreed that he was injured either during the battle or in the route that followed and died with a few retainers by his side in a nearby Village he was hastily buried but someone tipped off the byzantines as to the location of his grave so that they could determine that he was indeed gone after the battle narcis hastily paid off and dismissed his hired Lombards who were looking a little too eager to pillage the Italian Countryside the general then moved on to crush what remained of the Goths The Garrison of Rome put up Little Resistance while the hastily chosen new king Taos executed the Roman senators and other hostages under his care and raced to Kumai where the gothic treasury now resided Nazis followed the new King's movements and trapped his forces in the foothills of mons lactarius not too far from the now long forgotten town of Pompeii before the Goths withdrew up the mountain for safety however after a day or so the Goths realized that there was no food available and so surprised the Byzantine Army Gathering to besiege them the two sides fought a frenzied infantry battle with no time or space to get into proper formation this was just man hacking away at other men in a desperate attempt to survive the battle went into a second day before taeus was killed and his men begged Nazis not just for peace but to let them leave Italy the Goths were finally done dealing with the empire Nazis let them go as his forces fanned out and retook the towns and forts of southern Italy however the country was not conquered yet waiting on the sidelines were the Franks and when news reached them of totilla's death they began preparations to move South of the poe and plunder Italy actually the king theodibald decided to play Things safely and maintain official neutrality while looking the other way and letting his al-amanai subjects loose on the Italians some Goths rallied to their banners but quickly realized that the host was not here to restore Gothic power but to carry off Italian wealth Nazis perhaps wisely led a year pass before engaging the invading Franks his army had been split up to Garrison the towns of the country the results for the Italians though were miserable as The Horde contained many pagans who had no Scruples about ransacking churches eventually though the two alemanai Chieftains divided their army one heading south along the east coast and the other the West this was to be their end one Chieftain was ambushed by a Byzantine Garrison losing most of his booty and when he retreated beyond the poe an outbreak of plague saw him off he while the other made a foolish stand at capua against Nazis who by now had brought the full Imperial Army down to bear on him and annihilated his half of the horde soon after the Frankish King himself died of disease the Franks still held bases north of the poe and it wouldn't be until the summer of 555 that the final strongholds gave in but for now Justinian considered Italy at last brought back into the empire he issued an edict canceling tortilla's actions and restoring property to their former owners Nazis would remain in the country from now on and take charge of its Administration and the subjugation of the territory north of the Poe while the emperor could finally rest easy in the knowledge that the former home province of the Roman Empire was back in the fold there was no joy in Italy for the Italians the last 20 years had been spent in constant and fairly pointless Warfare Milan had been destroyed Naples sacked Rome depopulated with thousands of Untold others dying of famine plague or because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time that old cliche about the Romans making a desert and calling it peace had now come back around to destroy their Homeland three years after Justinian's death Italy would be too weak to prevent yet another German invasion as the Lombards decided to make it their new home and it was those soldiers who Nazis hired for the campaign who were able to tell their Brethren of the Rich and pleasant Peninsula to the South it was in the summer of 552 while Nazis led the march from Dalmatia to Italy that A visigothic embassy arrived at Constantinople from Spain visigothic control of the former Roman provinces of hispania had never been strong even after their crushing defeat at the hands of the Franks the Visigoths maintained their capital in Gaul rather than Spain and the mountainous Peninsula really required a firm hand if it was going to keep the various regions all pulling in the same direction as you know theodoric essentially ruled from Italy until his death in 526. the young king amalaric then took power but suffered another defeat at the hands of the Franks leading to his former Guardian feudus to rule until 548. a series of assassinations followed before King Aguila took charge and faced multiple rebellions from those who had realized that power was being held by a shaky hand the city of Cordova in the South had declared itself independent of visigothic control and was now being ruled by essentially former Roman citizens when the city was able to repulse Aguila's attempt to retake it another visigothic Noble named Athen Guild based in nearby Seville also rebelled and it was Athen Guild's Embassy which asked the emperor to intervene and help settle a matter fact that Athen Guild would ask Justinian for help tells us much about confused political Fallout from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire but it's only been a century since the Empire controlled the whole of Spain surely any other emperor of the time would have refused to consider the matter after the decade he just endured the sensible option would surely have been polite refusal and to focus on completing the conquest of Italy while keeping a watchful eye on kusro in the east this was after all just the kind of situation that had led to the sack of Antioch but Justinian was a True Believer whether it was Rome the Christian God or his own legacy he was committed to achieving great things if the conquests of Africa and Italy had gone smoothly then it's entirely possible the emperor would have looked to retake hispania anyway so here was the chance to establish a beachhead for future endeavors Spain was the final area of the Western Empire being ruled over by Aryan Christians so the chance to bring Orthodoxy to the whole Mediterranean and put his borders back on the Atlantic was too tempting to resist the Empire couldn't spare many men but Justinian found about two thousand and ordered them to set sail immediately now the key question of course is who should lead these troops Spain was far away and a man of great skill and Leadership was needed but one who was unlikely to Rebel or set himself up as king of Spain should things go too well finally the punch line has arrived which Brave Conquistador did Justinian select why liberius of course but now probably 87 year old career bureaucrat whose only military experience was to hide behind the walls of Sicilian towns while the Goths raged outside there was simply no chance that liberius was going to threaten the emperor and to be fair to liberius he did a fine job it's doubtful he led any troops into battle but he coordinated the operation which saw the Byzantine troops land and link up with both the Roman rebels of Cordova and Athen Guild's men and defeat King Aguila in battle securing the southern portion of Spain for the unlikely Alliance [Music] liberius would return to his homeland Italy for a thoroughly well deserved retirement however the troops would stay behind and help Athen Guild conquer the rest of Spain with the ostrogoths in Italy On The Run Justinian found some reinforcements to send by 554 and by the following year the supporters of King Aguila sensing which way the wind was blowing killed him and proclaimed Athen Guild King and Guild tried to thank and dismiss the Byzantine troops but they refused to leave joining with the Roman rebels of Cordova they held on to about a fifth of the peninsula along the south and east coasts the king left them beef and now and concentrated on securing the rest of his realm the Spanish campaign puts Justinian's career in a nutshell a foolish Endeavor on the surface swimming against the tide of History which might have diverted men and money from where they were most needed and yet the campaign was a success and proved once more that the organized structures of the Roman Empire could still overcome disparate kingdoms it's the largest the Byzantine Empire would ever be and it won't look like that for long in lasika war rumbled on for a few more years after the capture of Petra kusro still hoped to somehow gain the upper hand but became increasingly distracted by the chance to finally deal with the half the lights by 557 Castro agreed to extend his truce with Justinian without asking for any gold and he included lasika in the deal ambassadors were now regularly crossing the border to establish a permanent Treaty of peace between the two great Empires this relative calm allowed Justinian to turn his mind back to the monophysites we dealt briefly last time with the Pope vigilius's delaying tactics as he tried to not sign up to the emperor's condemnation of the three chapters or the three theologians who had taken part in the Council of chalcedon with the dispute going nowhere Justinian called for an ecumenical council to meet in 553 in Constantinople it had been over a century since the last one chalcedon of course and the Gathering of all the Empire's Bishops was Justinian's best chance of forcing a solution on them and that's very much what he intended to do an ecumenical council was meant to be a sacred Gathering whose pronouncements would gain extra legitimacy not only by the presence of all those senior churchmen but because the Holy Spirit was meant to attend their pronouncements however it was clear to all the Bishops gathering in the capital that the only invisible power guiding them on this occasion would be the emperors most of the Italian and African Bishops did not attend and neither did the Pope the remaining bishops from the East accepted the condemnation of the three theologians it was a relatively small thing to accept and the emperor was so vehement in his desires that it was always likely to be approved even Pope vigilius was eventually pressured into accepting it after being briefly condemned by the council the result of the Council of Constantinople was not what Justinian intended as usual the reworded statement of faith did nothing to change the monophysite objection to the claim that Jesus had two natures the monophysites felt they believed something different to the Orthodox and what they believed was true even as the council was meeting Jacob barodius and men like him were Leading the People of the East through monophysite Services which explicitly put them at odds with those in the West and although this might seem like Groundhog Day to you yet another Imperial attempt at Unity failing it does have long-term significance the history of the Christian Church up to this point had been one of constant debate and scholarship men from Alexandria Antioch and Constantinople responding and discussing different aspects of the religion they all stridently believed in but the debate had ground to a halt around the monophysite issue and Justinian turned out to be the last man who could have done something about it those within the church had made their arguments and dug in their heels and from now on no serious theological attempt would be made to bring them together Justinian was a clever man and though his three chapters idea seemed like it had Merit it was actually the final failure in a long process future Emperors would continue to look for political Solutions but from now the two branches of Eastern Christianity were fairly fixed in official ideology Justinian had ordered a solution from on high and in a way he got what he asked for debate over Orthodoxy was now done the statement of faith laid out at his Council would remain as it was and the monophysites would go their own way this calcification of theology was not Apparent at the time of course Justinian remained hopeful that somehow the monophosites would come around as he Grew Older the emperor spent more and more of his time with a small group of theologians debating and studying Doctrine he never lost his passion for theological speculation and would continue to hope that somewhere in the gospels and the commentaries on them there was a way to bring all his people together [Music] last time we left Justinian triumphant as Italy was finally annexed kusro asked for permanent peace and Byzantine troops took control of southern Spain as you know this happy sounding situation was far from it misery follows War as does famine and economic depression the Byzantine Empire had recovered enough of its strength to provide Justinian with the resources he needed to finally make his reconquest stick but the Empire had little else to give throughout our story I've hinted at the discontent many people felt with Justinian's rule his oppressive laws and tax policy his unpopular Wars his bullying attitude toward religion so much muck was hurled at the emperor behind his back the procopius calls him a demon sent to destroy the Roman world in his secret history those who had seen the plague as a sign of divine displeasure would often point to the Emperor as the obvious culprit a series of natural disasters in the 550s would further cement this point of view the first arrived in 551 when a catastrophic earthquake struck near Beirut in modern Lebanon the city of beirutus and its famous law school were destroyed and the Quake caused a tsunami which then washed miles Inland adding to the destruction and dislocation of many Coastal settlements a contemporary estimate was that 30 000 people died in Beirut alone of course there were Imperial relief efforts but there was little that could be done such was the devastation in 558 another earthquake rocked Constantinople while not comparable to the one which hit Beirut it did cause extensive damage and death for many miles around a few months later its After Effects became apparent when the Dome of the yahia Sophia collapsed the repairs would have to wait though because as the citizens of the capital were recovering from their seismic shake-up the plague returned to their streets the death toll was less catastrophic than its previous visitation but only by comparison again the streets filled with the dead and there was mass Mourning those watching in horror noted that the young were disproportionately affected we know why now yasinia was working its way slowly around Europe waiting for the Next Generation to grow up without the acquired immunity to fight back once the outbreaks settled down Justinian had to accept that he had done his last bit of conquering any recovery and population in the last 17 years had been wiped out and along with it the tax revenues Peter bassemies had to be called on to become praetorian prefect again and returned to gouging the rich to make up any shortfalls there would be no reinforcements to send to Spain from now on and it also took five years to repair the Dome of the ahia Sophia when during the boom of the 530s it had taken only six to build the whole thing the earthquake also damaged the long wall since race which would soon lead to trouble the Danube Frontier had been quiet for most of the decade but with news of the plague's return the bulgars got ready for another raid they crossed in the spring of 559 along with some Slavs and a group of cutrigo bulgars with the army of a lyricum no longer distracted by the Italian campaign the majority of the Invaders were driven back once they reached Thrace however around 7 000 cut triggers headed for Constantinople to raid the suburbs when they defeated a Detachment of Imperial troops Justinian became concerned although the theodosian walls were unlikely to be breached there were technically no troops available to man them Beyond The Palace regiments it was also a humiliation for a man bragging about his control of everything from the Atlantic to Mesopotamia to have his own Capital threatened by a barbarian horde Panic began to spread in Constantinople as refugees from the thracian plane came pouring through the gates the emperor had to do something and in a story which sounds like it was made for TV Justinian called for belisarius the retired General now in his 50s was asked to lead the defense of the city he gathered a small army of volunteers veterans and Guardsmen and devised one of his old strategies to deal with the threat he marched out to meet the Invaders and built a camp for his men before they came into contact with the Enemy he lit as many fires as he could to give the impression of leading a much larger Force and the next day as the country girls approached he gave his most inexperienced men the instruction to bang on their Shields and make as loud a noise as possible again to mislead the approaching Horsemen meanwhile the few experienced troops he had were given javelins and arrows and hidden in the surrounding woods so that when the bulgar Riders charged straight toward the exposed infantry they would be taken by surprise sure enough accoutrega's approached belisaros's position and were assaulted on both sides while a very loud infantry Force marched toward them spooked and losing men the cutriggers Turned and Left instead of hailing belisarius as Victor though Justinian made one of his rare trips out of the city to take command of the situation he sent envoys to pay off the cutriggers in order to get them to release their captives and leave the Balkans the emperor also sent word and money to the Utica bulgas again encouraging them to attack their neighbors and the conflict which followed would end up in feebling both tribes perhaps paying them off was a wise move under the circumstances but as he returned to the capital Justinian rewarded himself with a triumphal procession leaving some to wonder if the old jealousy of belisarius had been his real motivation in leaving the city some would argue though that Justinian deserved his Triumph he had certainly achieved a lot and one of his pressing concerns was now to secure a lasting peace with the sassanids so that his conquests would not be threatened from the East the process of negotiation took many years with ambassadors traveling hundreds of miles back and forth to discuss every Last Detail the final agreement was signed in 562 and will sound quite familiar to you as it involved all the issues that have provoked war between the two powers during the history of Byzantium one the Persians were to guard the Caspian Gates and Dariel passes to prevent Barbarians from entering either Empire through the caucus mountains 2. the gasanid and lakhmed Arabs were to abide by the peace this was particularly important since the outbreak of the plague both Persian and Byzantine border forces had been allowed to dwindle and the tribes had taken it upon themselves to escalate their conflict in the last episode we heard how harith the gassan in Chief lost a son to mundir the chief of the lakhmeds in 554 Harris got revenge when he cut off a raid by mundir and killed him it was around this time that harith's followers began to see themselves as Defenders of the Christian faith rather than just Federated allies of the Byzantine Empire the idea began to spread amongst the garsonids that those killed defending the Christian Empire were Martis to be accorded special status 3. trade was to only take place at the established custom posts like nisbus 4. Dara was now accepted by the Persians as a legitimate Byzantine stronghold but neither side was to build any new fortifications 5. the Persians would leave lasika and accept the country as a Byzantine protectorate six Persian Christians would not be persecuted but would also not convert any more Persians there were several other Clauses to deal with damage caused on the borders or Barbarian Merchants who tried to carry out black market trading and so on and the final Clause invoke the one true God whoever he might be to bless those who kept the peace and cursed those who broke it the signing of the treaty gives us a nice glimpse into the Diplomatic realities of the ancient world the agreement was written in Persian and Greek side by side and then translated into the other's language and compared to make sure everything was stated equally if the emphasis of a word was wrong then it had to be haggled over you won't try to keep out Barbarian Merchants you will strive to every little detail was examined to stop the other side from getting one over on you for example the treaty was for 50 years and explicitly excluded leap years don't try any of your weird astrological tricks on me Justinian and chrisrow both had to send letters saying they approved of the treaty before the final copies were sealed with wax to maintain a 50-year piece the byzantines were to send yet more cash this would amount to 30 000 gold pieces a year the first seven years up front and then the final three years worth to be paid in the eighth year Justinian was happy to secure peace on these terms but the details were very unpopular in Constantinople although the Romans had long made payments to tribes beyond the Frontiers many felt that paying the Persians amounted to Tribute and a recognition of Persian superiority we have reports of the disgust felt by some at the Persian Ambassador and his Entourage being allowed to walk around Constantinople with no chaperone as if they owned the place grumbling about foreign policy wasn't the only domestic trouble that the emperor saw in his final years the deems quiet for so long began to fight with one another again the post-nika generation had now grown up without the scarring memory of that occasion several disturbances accompanied shortages of bread or water in the capital in one alarming incident a bad drought set in in the summer of 563 which led to men being murdered at the water fountains there are two more incidents from Justinian's Reign that we need to cover before we can finally put him to rest the first concern silt one of the Empire's long-term concerns was the amount of gold they sent East each year in return for Chinese silk the Romans loved their silk and couldn't grow it themselves remaining largely ignorant of the process by which the Chinese extracted the thread from silkworms that lived on mulberry bushes Justinian knew that most of the gold heading east was ending up in sassanid rather than Chinese hands and that was the real threat from his point of view the emperor knew how important it was to maintain parity with the Persians and to overcome this trade imbalance was one of his desires the byzantines intervened in the Yemen to help the Christians of Aksum take control of the country from its Jewish King Justinian hoped that friendly relations with Aksum would help circumvent Persian Traders and bring silk into the Empire via the sea rather than the so-called Silk Road this tactic didn't work though as the Persians had Representatives at the various Indian ports where such a deals would have to be made but by the late 550s the emperor had found another way the story that comes down to us is that two Christian monks smuggled silkworm eggs in a hollow cane across the Silk Road and brought them to Justinian historians question whether this could possibly be true but however it happened the emperor was able to set up a native Byzantine silk industry although the silk produced in Europe was never quite the same quality as the Chinese meaning the trade with the East didn't cease it did help balance the scales and by making the new industry a state Monopoly the emperor added more assets to the Imperial Ledger this Monopoly involved the Takeover of some existing cloth manufacturers yet another source of discontent about the emperor's interference in the private business of wealthy citizens the second incident will have a much larger impact on the history of Byzantium going forward often the step lands to the north and east of the Empire another convulsion took place around the 560s there's no point in me wading into events we know little about but it did involve the fall of the hefterlights and the rise of turkic Nomads who worked with the Persians to bring their enemies down The Fallout of this conflict led to yet another group of horse Archer step Nomads moving West into the orbit of Byzantium the new people have come down to us as the avars as usual we have little idea of their ethnic makeup and social structures until they come more fully into contact with the empire but at this point the byzantines didn't see a lot of difference between them and the Huns who would come before them and the results were eerily similar as the avar swept West they were told of the rich Empire to the South and of the Emperor who was known to pay tribes or give them lands to settle avar envoys made the long journey to Constantinople to demand just such treatment and made quite an impression on the people of the capital the men who arrived were large outlandish looking with their hair hanging down their backs in Long ponytails if you have an image of Carl Drogo in your mind then I'm right there with you Justinian knew little of the avars but wanting to be on friendly terms indicated that subsidies would come if the avars could subdue the Empire's enemies on their northern border the emperor did not realize quite how effective the avos would be within a few years they had subdued the cutriggers the utigas and large groups of Slavs and bulgars enrolling them into the avos state in much the same way the Huns had done by 562 the avars received their subsidies as they sat menacingly on the Danube although they hadn't subdued all of the tribes in the region they soon would and would recreate the Menace that had contributed so greatly to the fall of the Western Empire but now we come to the end as I mentioned last episode as Justinian moved from his 70s into his 80s he became increasingly concerned with theology Above All Else clearly the emperor's mind could not rest until he had United the church by 564 he had come across another theological angle with which he hoped to bring them an office sites back in line but the doctrine he announced his support for was an extreme monophysite position which he had somehow convinced himself would bring General agreement it seems like Justinian had finally lost touch with reality the Bishops of the East fretted awkwardly over how to oppose a Doctrine they considered heretical without causing massive ructions within the church fortunately for everyone Justinian died before he could press the issue the emperor had lived a long life the only one of his contemporaries who outlived him was narcis who was still organizing Italy for his master even belisarius a much younger man died a few months before Justinian the emperor passed away peacefully on November the 14th 565. he was 83 years old and had ruled the empire for 38 very memorable years [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Flash Point History

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Keywords: History of Byzantium, podcast, robin, pierson, Byzantium Podcast, byzantine, history, roman, roman history, eastern, eastern roman history, documentary, biography, justinian, theodora, battle, persian, rise of justinian, emperor, audiocast, history of the roman empire, empire, the history of rome, audio, byzantium, renovatio, imperii, Great, persia, khosrow, belisarius, general, italian, rome, sack, death of theordora, death, empress, empress theodora, death of justinian, spain, italy, campagin, narses, totila

Id: zrsqiF4F88Q

Length: 45min 17sec (2717 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 08 2023