History of Byzantium - VOL 9 - Epilogue

[Music] thank you whenever an Emperor died during the history of Rome podcast Mike would sum up the importance of their time at the top in terms of whether they left the Empire better than they found it he would also analyze the significance of their reign and perhaps touch on where they rank in a theoretical list of great emperors I will continue in this tradition but as I mentioned last time I found this a tough task with Justinian and certainly impossible to do in a few sentences a related question came from a listener who asked why I've spent so much time covering Justinian's reign the answer to the latter question may help us with the former part of the answer has to do with me of course I only plan to take the podcast up to this point so I had no incentive to leave out any incident that I thought was interesting part of the answer has to do with procopius we would never have spent so long on the Nico riots the Battle of Dara the African campaign the siege of Rome or the plague if everyone's favorite 6th Century historian hadn't been there as an eyewitness [Music] so I thought you would appreciate me not skimping on the detail [Music] another part of the answer is of course how long Justinian reigned at 38 years he is the third longest serving Roman Emperor behind theodosius II and Augustus if you remember his close relationship with his uncle Justin then it's possible to see his influence over the state extending to almost half a century that sheer length of time meant that Justinian had a profound effect on the Empire and it was always going to take many episodes to sort through it all foreign Justinian's Reign doesn't fit neatly into the sweep of Roman history from the crisis of the third century to 476 A.D the Roman story was one of Decline and fall Mike was able to frame each Emperor's life during that period in the context of watching The Classical era Roman Empire morphing changing and collapsing into the states that would succeeded but the history of byzantium's first 25 episodes were about the Eastern Empire stabilizing and recovering Justinian actually began to reverse The Narrative of History by reclaiming provinces for the empire we need to place this apparent recovery in its proper context because just over a century after the emperor's Reign the Empire will be reduced to little more than just Anatolia Greece and a few other distant spots it would be all too easy to ignore the 6th century and just tell the story of how the Romans began their decline with Commodus and never stopped falling until 1453. and that's not the story as I understand it as you know the rise of Islam would unify the peoples of Arabia in a way which really couldn't be anticipated it's important therefore to assess Justinian without just assuming that the Romans were destined to fall and everything he did was swimming against the current so let's just get some obvious things out of the way shall we Justinian was intelligent capable and hard-working he took the business of being Emperor very seriously and never shirked his responsibilities as leader of a multinational state or as Defender and leader of worldwide Christianity he was an excellent judge of talent and inspired great loyalty from those who worked with him considering how many Emperors across history faced assassinations rebellions and uprisings this is a very underrated skill many of the things Justinian achieved were good for the Empire his codification of the law he's rebuilding of fortifications and his use of diplomacy to secure alliances the emperor understood many geopolitical situations far better than his ministers did he seems to have understood early on that kusro needed cash and that it would be cheaper and more beneficial to buy him off than fight him a lesson his successors did not learn similarly the expensive task of guarding the Syrian desert was far better handled by empowering the Christian gassanid Arabs then paying more Byzantine soldiers the ghasanids knew the terrain and fought tenaciously to protect their Christian Brothers another situation the emperor's successes would mishandle as I mentioned last episode the Roman empire under Justinian was the last time that the Empire would be a superpower in the Gathering of its laws the building of the ahia Sophia and the success of the reconquest we Glimpse the last gasp of Roman greatness but the reconquest is a controversial issue the historical headlines tend to say that the attempt to retake the West weakened the Empire so Gravely that its collapse was inevitable hopefully I've demonstrated that this was not the case although there was healthy luck involved Africa was retaken with ease and would go on to become a financial asset to the Empire while with a bit more luck Italy could have fallen quickly and also provided a boost until the disasters of 540 Justinian did not commit so many soldiers to these campaigns that his other fronts would be weakened and had Italy Fallen the treasuries of goth and Vandal would probably have paid for the expense of recapturing them but now we come to the Crux of Justinian's reign I've spent a year studying the emperor and the title of this episode sums up how I see him the True Believer I think Justinian believed in three things to a fault one that the Roman Empire was the Civilized world two that the Roman Empire was the god-approved realm of true Christianity and three that Justinian was a great emperor who should be remembered as such if you connect these three statements in a Venn diagram then somewhere in the intersection you would find Justinian's worldview there's nothing inherently wrong with any of those beliefs nor necessarily holding them all together but I think Justinian's particular combination led to the pursuit of ends which ultimately didn't benefit the empire so my conclusion about the man is that he was undoubtedly a great figure but not really a great emperor time and again we see him making mistakes which seem to be driven by his beliefs and desires rather than what was best for the empire did the ahia Sophia need to be built so quickly and at such great expense could it not have waited until after the invasion of Africa it seems obvious looking at the 530s that Justinian was gripped by a sense that if he didn't get cracking on his Grand projects then he might not be around to see their glorious conclusions and although he got away with pushing for both simultaneously it's what came next that really caused problems if belisarius had been left in Carthage for say five years then Africa would have had time to be properly reintegrated into the Empire's Financial administrative and Military structures instead the invasion of Italy was pressed immediately with far too small an army Africa was left to fend for itself which led to years of unproductive war with the tribes On the Border when peace would have released more men to fight elsewhere I won't reiterate the mistakes made in capturing Italy but remember that the Goths only ruled at the emperor's pleasure I doubt Justinian would have had to work hard to find a pretext for Invasion whenever he needed it instead he seized on a malasunter's murder and 20 years of pointless War commenced With These Foolish and self-serving decisions going against him on The Ledger we now encounter the plague when historians conclude that Justinian's Reign weakened the Empire it's very important that we all understand that it was yasinia that did the real damage if the plague hadn't come when it did it's likely that Justinian would have made peace with the Persians and swiftly dealt with totilla instead a decade was spent just binding the Empire's wounds historian Warren tredgold assesses the damage of the plague by estimating that the population of the Byzantine Empire was roughly the same in 565 as it was in 518 when Anastasia died the key point being that by 565 you have to include the populations of Spain Africa and Italy and yet the numbers are level the plague wiped out millions of people and its recurrent waves Made Real Recovery impossible but instead of the plague making me see Justinian as a victim of circumstance it only underlines his status as a True Believer the invasion of Spain provides us with the amusing image of 90 year old liberius trying to play Achilles while the attack of the kuttriggers on Constantinople allowed belisarius to strap on the armor one last time and say I'm getting too old for this well you get the idea but behind both moments are serious issues although the invasion of Spain was a surprise success at the time I can't help but see it as an inexcusable excess after the struggles to take Italy and the revolts in Africa surely Justinian should have learned his lesson the Empire needed time to heal and to expand further ignored the very real threats on the horizon such as the invasion of the cutriggers I've been mentioning raids on the Balkans throughout the history of Byzantium I know they might seem insignificant as they never lead to permanent change but I've included them all to give you the drip drip drip sense that the Danube border was not at all secure and if the Emperors didn't do something about it there could be real trouble Justinian had continued his rebuilding policy into the Balkans fortifying towns and watch posts that had been neglected to try and provide security for his citizens but the success of multiple raids including the apparent Siege skills of some of the Slavic Intruders should have raised alarm Bells to invade Spain when the enemy was literally at the gates shows a misunderstanding of the Empire's true situation out of step with Justinian's far-sighted decisions elsewhere the more I think about Spain the more I begin to wonder what would have happened if the reconquest of Italy had been easy and if the plague had never come it seems easy to imagine that Justinian would have pushed on and invaded Spain anyway the opportunity to free the last Catholics from Aryan rule would surely have been too tempting the Empire might have ended up overreaching and exhausting itself without yesinia playing the part that it did so in the end I have to conclude that Justinian was one of the most capable men to become emperor but one who put his own beliefs about himself and what the Empire should be above what was actually good for it without the plague I think Justinian would be remembered quite differently but when half the people in your Capital City lie dead in giant pits in front of you and you don't change your policy of expansion then you aren't being a good emperor I think a comparison with Hadrian is instructive when trajan died Hadrian inherited armies occupying the parthian Empire and determined that the new territories could not be held it was a pragmatic decision based on evidence rather than a fixed belief in what the Empire should look like Hadrian was of course the great traveling Emperor a man who visited every corner of his realm which may have aided his smart decision making when it came to ordering his borders by contrast Justinian almost never left Constantinople and probably rarely left the palace it's easy to imagine how this closeted daily life affected the emperor's Judgment of far away places what Justinian left to his successes was not a ruin but an Empire that was now much harder to defend than it had been before the Western provinces were only really accessible by sea and there is little evidence that the Imperial Navy had received much investment there were now nine field armies to pay for from A reduced and resentful tax base as Warren tredgold concludes the Empire now needed an Emperor as talented as Justinian to manage it and as you know the empire was not always blessed with such leaders by ruling for nearly 50 years Justinian certainly put a personal stamp on the Byzantine world in fact I think his Reign marks the clearest distinction between the late Antiquity of the Roman world and the beginning of a new medieval Byzantine age his attacks on what remained of pagan culture his attempts to convert neighboring peoples to Christianity and his dictation of ecclesiastical policy are all legacies which lead directly to the Orthodox Christian Empire of Byzantium that we will come to know and by building the giant Church of our here Sofia everyone would know that God lived in the center of the Empire and Justinian would be remembered for putting him there my final word on the age of Justinian him is that it provides one of the finest examples of a great man coming up against the forces of History I'm sure many of you listened to Dan Carlin's podcasts or have heard elsewhere of the debate about what drives history Great Men or the trends and forces which we are all subject to Justinian is unarguably one of those great men of history if Anastasia's nephew hypatious had become emperor there would have been no reconquest no law codification no I hear Sofia history would be quite different but then along comes yasinia pestis and the history has bent to the will of bacteria it's clear to see from our story how both forces shape history foreign [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Flash Point History

Views: 51,497

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: mYUPmbAolx4

Length: 17min 45sec (1065 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 10 2023