The History of Byzantium - Vol 1: The Rise of Justinian

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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] previously on the history of byzantium the eastern roman empire was enjoying its first spell of peace prosperity and relative calm in many a year under the rule of the elderly emperor anastasius known for his frugality the emperor had boosted the byzantine economy by issuing new coins and was slowly filling the treasury as he felt was his duty the emperor's monophysite beliefs began to cause problems towards the end of his reign with the bishop of antioch severus egging him on anastasius tampered with the liturgy in constantinople's churches setting off riots and a rebellion in thrace by one of the army commanders vitalian although vitalian was defeated when he marched on the capital he was not killed and remains at large then on the night of the 9th of july 5 18 anastasias died after a 27-year reign it's surprising to learn that the emperor so fastidious with much of imperial business had no succession plan in place some of the histories claim that he did have an illegitimate son but that he died during one of constantinople's major riots however anastasias did have three nephews probus pompeis and hypatius the latter we've already met he was sent out to put down vitalian after the initial revolt but was defeated captured and ransomed this setback can't have hurt hypatius's standing too much as by the time of the emperor's death he was serving as master of the soldiers in the east one of the most important jobs in the empire however hypatius was not to become emperor nor apparently can he have wanted to be after all a man who both had a legitimate claim to the throne and commanded the eastern army would surely have been in a position to press his case in fact hypatius and the other nephews continued to take official positions in service of the new regime although it's complete speculation on my part i wonder if anastasia's felt that he perhaps didn't have the right to begin a new dynasty of his own he was after all only chosen to become emperor by zeno's widow ariadne he might have felt that he was merely an imperial stop gap there were still relatives of the theodosian line alive and just maybe anastasia's felt the crown would return to them we'll never know of course but what we do know is that once the emperor was found dead the palace was gripped with the fever of ambition the chance to become head of the civilized world was up for grabs and with hypatia several hundred miles away the time to act was now the palace filled with senators and officials jockeying for position and the three key men were seller the master of offices amantius the imperial chamberlain and justin count of the excubitors the imperial bodyguard on the morning of the 10th of july seller began to hold discussions with the senate while news filtered around the capital and the hippodrome filled with an expectant crowd sensing an opportunity amantius who was a eunuch put forward one of his men theocritis as a candidate theocritis was not well known and so the chamberlain decided to oil the decision-making wheels by spreading some cash around he needed to secure the support of the imperial guards who would naturally have a key role in the proceedings and also wanted to get his bribes out to well-placed men outside of the palace he had to make sure that the crowds would not begin chanting anything embarrassing such as who is theocritis here amanteus made his big mistake he decided to hand the cash over to justin count of the excubitors who could be better to have on your side at this stage than the man commanding the best troops in the city of course justin upon receiving a bag full of cash asked himself the question who better to become the new emperor than well me justin dispersed the money as requested but instead of telling the recipients to support theocritus it was his name they were to acclaim the crowd in the hippodrome were becoming restless and the guards present in the imperial box began yelling out the names of potential candidates to much booing and cheering on the other side of the door leading from the box back to the palace the chamberlains refused to open up until they had word from the senators as to who they should deliver the imperial regalia to with pressure growing on cellar and the assembled senate the name of justin was dropped into the conversation here shortly was the best compromise candidate a fellow senator a well-respected if hardly noble man who the palace soldiers would happily support justin agreed and made his way through the passageway to the imperial box and emerged dressed in the robes of the emperor the excubitors lifted him on their shields and placed a gold chain on his head to many cheers justin promised good government and a donative to the troops of course before leading a procession to the hagia sofia and then back to the palace for a banquet of celebration the byzantines had a new emperor we don't know if that's exactly how it happened as the histories have slight variations in the order of events but what is in little doubt is that when an emperor dies with no successor the imperial bodyguard will more often than not have the final say flavius justines known to us in english as simply justin was around 66 when he became emperor he was born about 452 in the balkans his hometown was bedariana in the province of dardania he came from a family of peasant farmers and was probably a swine herd justin grew up in a changing world the western empire was still around just and his hometown was a place where the pope's influence on church life was strong and the people spoke latin rather than greek when he turned 20 justin and two friends walked all the way to constantinople to seek a better life he joined the army and was able to sign up for the new palace regiment the excubitors which had just been formed by the emperor leo he served with distinction in the isorian and persian wars and rose through the ranks to become the leader or count of the elite palace regiment if justin's story was the ultimate rags to rich's tale then his wife lupekina could claim to have topped him she was an ex-slave an ex-concubine slave who justin had purchased and then married now she was the empress and changed her name to the more imperial sounding euphemia at first glance the new emperor would seem distinctly lacking in pedigree a senator he may have been but educated he was not it's possible that he was illiterate he certainly had no formal education nor did he have any experience of governing he might have seemed to some a disastrous choice however justin had several important advantages which helped smooth over his less than aristocratic appearance the first was that he was uncompromisingly orthodox in his beliefs for those who had risen against monophysitism justin was a reassuring sight second he was well respected by the army one of the most important constituencies to please in these situations third justin was in his 60s older than anastasius had been when he donned the purple and he had no son if justin turned out to be a terrible administrator perhaps no one would have to suffer for very long of course if the emperor really was illiterate then he was going to need an educated colleague to help him manage the affairs of state and fortunately for justin he had an energetic ambitious and highly educated nephew named justinian a member of the palace guards at this stage we don't know what role justinian played in the elevation of his uncle but no one would be surprised if he had been wheeling and dealing with the best of them justinian was to prove himself a highly motivated campaigner for his uncle's interests and by extension his own while the older man was settling comfortably into the palace his wily nephew was building a political base of support to make sure that the new regime laid down firm roots i'll introduce justinian properly in the next episode but he was certainly involved in the administration from day one on day two justin got to work the first thing to do was to get rid of amanteus and theocritis if justin really had spectacularly defrauded the grand chamberlain he could hardly leave a bitter and vengeful rival just hanging around so amantius was accused of heresy and was executed along with theocritus while several of his domestics were exiled that was the only blood spilt initially at least many of anastasius's ministers were kept in place including marinus the man behind the most important financial reforms who now became praetorian prefect of the east anastasis nephews were assured of their safety too and then came the big moment vitalian was invited to come to constantinople and put a formal end to his rebellion while the message went out to the rogue general the ground was prepared in the capital justin let it be known that he would be happy if prussia was brought to bear on the patriarch to overturn anastasius's ecclesiastical policies a crowd soon gathered around the hajjiya sophia and began agitating for the patriarch john ii to restore the names of the patriarchs euphemius and macedonias who had been dismissed by the late emperor and to set a day when the council of chalcedon could be commemorated chalcedon of course being the ecumenical council which had defined orthodoxy against monophysitism the patriarch agreed amidst much excitement and chanting particularly of the trisagion with no monophysite alterations two days later john assembled the council of all the bishops he could find and began undoing much of the ecclesiastical legislation since the council of chalcedon in other words the henoticon was to be ignored and the monophysites were not to be appeased jesus had two natures one human and one divine and that was that so now justin's orthodox credentials were seen to be as impeccable as vitalians there was no need for more hostility the general should abandon his hideout and come home [Music] doubtless nervous about this invitation vitalian asked for some kind of concrete reassurance of his safety so justin justinian and vitalian exchanged oaths of allegiance and with that the general was welcomed back into the fold more than that justin greeted him warmly and appointed him commander of one of the pre-central armies for good measure justin of course wanted more than just the restoration of orthodoxy he wanted to put an end to the occasion schism and get the church back in communion with the pope growing up as a latin speaker in the western balkans it was anathema to justin and his countrymen to be cut off from their spiritual leader an embassy was sent to rome to begin negotiations though this was not as simple as it might sound one of the men who was not happy to see justin become emperor was theodoric over in italy now in his sixties the great ostrogoth knew that upon his death the byzantines might try to repudiate gothic rule in italy and take it back for the empire the roman clergy were not interested in any compromise with heretic monophysites so as long as the emperors were pushing compromises like the henoticon the italians might actually prefer to have goths guarding their churches however with a true champion of orthodoxy on the throne there was every likelihood that the italians would revert back to seeing the emperor as their true ruler and the goths as foreign interlopers sensitive to this situation justin wooed theodoric with two offers the first was that theodoric's chosen successor his son-in-law eutharic would share the consulship with justin himself the following year moreover justin would adopt euthoric according to german custom so not a legal adoption in roman law but still enough to assure his succession to the throne euthoric by accepting the adoption would also give formal submission of the gothic state to the empire with the diplomatic path cleared pope hormizdas could finally get what he wanted the henoticon was no more and the memories of acacius zeno and anastasius were all damned for their part in it they weren't erased from history as augustus had once tried to do to mark anthony their names would just no longer be remembered by the orthodox church during its annual celebrations the schism was at an end and justin set in motion a persecution of monophysite monks and clergy throughout the east men were asked to either accept the orthodox creed as laid out at the council of chalcedon or leave their posts this worked out adequately in the case of the bishops with only 55 reportedly refusing to accept however nothing was done about egypt whose monophysite majority were too firmly entrenched to be easily removed justin left the patriarch of alexandria timothy alone to guard his flock which by now included the agitators severus who had fled antioch upon justin's secession bishops were one thing monks were another the reason zeno had come up with the henoticon was because attempts to force monophysites to change their views had conspicuously failed half a century later and their beliefs were as firmly held as ever jesus had warned his followers that there would be pain in store and so the brave or the pious now became martyrs for them and off-site beliefs one monastic community at a media were driven from their home but were still campaigning to be reinstated a decade later some monks were forced to live amongst the people once more but of course continued to practice and preach their beliefs in some cases converting citizens who would otherwise have remained orthodox the persecutions would rumble on for some time and we will return to them again as i mentioned earlier we will deal with justinian's rapid political rise in the next episode but by 5 20 he had been given command of the other precental army so that he and vitalian would be comrades at meetings in the palace an interesting aspect of vitalian's revolt was that he had not done what practically every other rebellious soldier in roman history had he had not declared himself emperor he had simply styled himself as the defender of orthodox belief and had never stated officially his desire to replace anastasius vitalian had therefore become a powerful figure his cause had won the day even if he had not been personally victorious he was made consul for the year and his position at court seemed assured but things were not as they might seem in july of 520 on his way to dinner at the palace vitalian was ambushed and killed gibbon reports that he was stabbed 17 times no official verdict was given on who was responsible but the fact that the deed was done near the palace and that justinian was the one who most benefited from his death the verdict of historians is unanimous vitalian had rebelled against an emperor and could not be trusted and now there was no longer any serious rival to justin or his nephew [Music] [Applause] [Music] last time we introduced the man who became emperor after anastasius justin a balkan peasant turned soldier whose first acts upon securing the throne were to reorient the imperial attitude toward christianity justin's firmly held orthodox beliefs led him to restore communion with rome and persecute those eastern monophysites who he could get his hands on the power behind the throne it has always been assumed was that of justin's nephew justinian it is he who we now need to introduce these next few podcasts are all going to feature fairly detailed introductions to the characters who will inhabit justinian's court some of the books on the period almost list off a dramatist personae like the program of a play to make sure you know who everyone is and how they relate to one another i'm trying to spread these introductions out amongst the narrative so you don't have to memorize too much all at once stay with me and future podcasts will be far more rewarding because of the work we put in now [Music] flavius petrus sabatius was born around 483 to justin's sister vigilantia and her husband sabatius they were a family of peasant farmers in the village of turisium not far from where justin had been born we know nothing of his early years but at some point while he was a teenager his family headed east at the invitation of uncle justin who now that he had become a respectable soldier in the capital was determined to find positions for his family this included justinian's sister also called vigilantia and germanus it was young petrus though who justin clearly favored as he formally adopted the boy and in gratitude flavius petrus sabatius added the name justinianus to his name and so is known to us in english as justinian it was that last name that he would be known as by his contemporaries and by history justinian's face is more familiar to us than perhaps any other roman emperor because of the survival of the famous mosaic in ravenna he was described as of medium height neither fat nor thin with a round shaved face a sharp nose and curly hair [Music] like many a poor man made good justin wanted to ensure that his adopted son had the kind of advantages that he didn't this meant that young justinian received the best roman education which money could buy this would of course have included the traditional liberal arts with grammar rhetoric law history and so on but by now this education would also involve plenty of religious instruction and some exposure to the neo-platonist philosophy which had tried to marry classical philosophy with christian theology some threads of this thought sought to identify the one true god with the concept of a transcendent realm where the conflicts of lower domains such as ours were reconciled historians have surmised that justinian's education helped shape the distinctive worldview he would later demonstrate and so a little speculation on what his education may have taught him could be valuable born in the west like his uncle justinian would have inherited his family's predisposition toward orthodoxy the pope and a nostalgia for the western empire once his education took hold he would have been steeped in the history of a people who throughout their writings saw their empire and their laws as upholding civilization against barbarity his philosophy teachers spoke of a realm where the one true god brought everything to peace and his religious education would have taught him that the job of the roman empire was now to mirror the kingdom of heaven on earth for justinian therefore an ideology may have been developing which saw the roman empire as needing to retake what was lost not just for civilization's sake but because it was what god willed the unity and peace of that higher realm should be brought to the earthly empire where all people should unite under one law and one belief in one god a little armchair psychology also gives us clues as to what drove the young man once power was within his grasp justinian was after all an outsider in constantinople he grew up on a farm in a latin speaking village that no one had ever heard of he stepped into a greek speaking world where many of his classmates would have had an intrinsic understanding of language and culture that he didn't it's easy to imagine in justinian an insecurity stemming from this disadvantage and a feverish desire to prove that he was as good if not better than others william rosen who writes very entertainingly about justinian suggests that he may have had a converts enthusiasm for constantinople and the circles he was now moving in it must all have seemed so exciting compared to the rural surroundings of his formative years to bring us back from speculation closer to the evidence the sources describe justinian as a good student bright alert and interested in multiple topics he would turn into a workaholic and insomniac as time went on contemporaries refer to him as being constantly at work and procopius reports stories of his late night fretting around the corridors of the palace we should note however that justinian was keen to emphasize this himself writing in some of his edicts about his tireless work to restore the empire there is little evidence to suggest otherwise though one law which justinian was directly involved in drafting concerns the regulation of the price that constantinople's small farmers could charge for fresh vegetables if there was something he could work on personally then he would we're also sure of his devotion to christianity procopius tells us that he took lent very seriously fasting for two days and then abstaining from wine for the rest of the season living off wild herbs dressed with oil and vinegar the personal writing of justinian which survives reveals frantic theological speculations on christian doctrine through this and the laws he passed we see a genuine concern for his faith and a real hostility to the enemies of the church this has been of course a far more thorough introduction than most emperors receive which as i pointed out last time is a reflection of both the length of his coming reign and the sheer amount of sources that have come down to us [Music] once his education was complete justinian was enrolled in various palace regiments simultaneously avoiding hard military campaigning while also gaining a good deal of insight into the politics and intrigue of court life justinian mayweal have used this knowledge to ensure that justin would emerge as anastasia's successor justinian was about 36 at the time of justin's accession and was one of the imperial guards two months later we get a pretty clear insight into how close nephew and uncle were when we find justinian himself writing to the pope inviting him not just to send representatives to constantinople but to come himself to end the schism clearly justinian felt confident in his uncle's support to make so bold adventure and he wasn't done there in 519 a group of monks from the province of scythia gained notoriety by formulating a new explanation of christ's nature that might be able to heal the rift between the orthodox and the monophysites this doctrine became known as the theopachite formula and argued that one of the trinity had been crucified this formula in theory could satisfy both sides of the theological divide basically there was a divine part of jesus and by occupying his human body it could be brought to suffer on the cross the key here was to keep the one nature of christ the mono nature of christ as divine to keep the monophocides happy while also showing that he did genuinely suffer in a human body to satisfy the orthodox the relevant point here for us is not really the theology but the politics the orthodox in constantinople were very wary of any doctrine that looked to be compromising what they had just celebrated the restoration of however the theophaschite formula received the support of vitalian whose orthodox credentials could not be doubted and the delegation of monks were encouraged to make their case to the papal delegates who had arrived to end the schism they were of course not in the capital to negotiate and turn the monks away the monks though determined in their beliefs headed for rome where they were to remain for 14 months irritating the pope until he could expel them in the meantime though justinian listened to them and wrote to the pope to oppose the new formula then a few days later after thinking it over he changed his mind and wrote again urging the pope to accept the proposal for the peace of the church of course the pope wasn't interested in any of this but it tells us several interesting things about justinian of course there is the sheer brazenness of the emperor's nephew writing to the vicar of christ to tell him his opinions on theological matters there is also some suspicion that justinian didn't want vitalian to be the man who had supported the formula which unified the church but perhaps less cynically we can see this incident as evidence of justinian's flexibility and genuine desire to unite the church despite the persecution that his uncle was unleashing on the monophysites justinian could already see the value in a formula which would allow the church to be brought back together one church of one empire worshipping one god justinian would not forget the potential he saw in the theoparsite formula and will return to it down the road by 519 justinian had been promoted to counter the domestics and a year later he was master of one of the pre-central armies from bodyguard to general in two years it's now that we catch up with the narrative from the last podcast and the verdict of history remains unanimous that justinian engineered vitalian's murder in order to secure his own position as heir presumptive however pious a christian he might be we can be sure that moral concerns didn't stand in the way of his ambitions justinian had risen from peasant to potential caesar and he wasn't about to let that slip from his grasp soon afterwards he gained the rank of patrician which paved the way for him to become a senator and in 521 he was made consul one of the few responsibilities left to this once great office was to host and pay for the consular games to be held at the start of the new year justinian was determined to win the favor of the crowds and also wanted to draw a contrast between the new regime and the prudish penny-pinching era of anastasius so he spent and spent and spent estimates suggest justinian splashed out about 4 000 pounds of gold on decorations stage machinery 20 lions 30 panthers and a number of other exotic beasts who were to be fought and killed in the hippodrome a certain amount was laid on in handouts and freebies for the people the games were intended to be the most lavish public spectacles that constantinople had ever seen and few claimed that they weren't the chariot races were said to be of such superb quality and caused such excitement that the final contest had to be cancelled for fear of serious public disturbances justinian handed out magnificent horses as prizes to the charioteers no expense was spared as the consul put anastasias treasure reserves to the kind of use that the deceased emperor would have thoroughly disapproved of the games were a success for justinian but he was still aware of his uncle's precarious position he was after all an upstart emperor with no political base of support beyond the palace guards so justinian decided to secure a base himself and the expense of the games had naturally endeared him to the dems emperors had tended to favor one of the factions over the other and although anastasius had tried to avoid the issue he had been associated with the greens justinian therefore sought out the blues here after all were a professional organization who could chant support for his uncle win races in his honor and provide a gang of street tufts to give him muscle should any opponents need reminding of who the new men in charge were justinian's covert and overt support for the blues became quite extraordinary over the next few years they took their new political support to mean that they had a licence to banditry and began assaulting their enemies extorting protection money or robbing people's houses some in positions of authority were attacked for reporting their crimes with justinian apparently looking the other way by 523 the blues were accused of openly murdering their opponents in daylight and respectable people everywhere were aghast at the abuses going on when a well-known citizen was killed inside the hagia sofia news reached justin who was furious it's not clear how much he knew about what his nephew was up to and he reacted firmly executing those involved and handing out strict punishments to other members of the deems justinian did not intervene and probably realized that he had let things get out of control he began to reign the blues in and by 527 issued a law which made it explicit that justice should be even-handed for rioters in the cities we'll leave domestic concerns until next episode and finish this week's installment with the foreign policy issues which justin had to deal with during the earlier part of his reign in the west relations with theodorix italy began to deteriorate soon after justin had smoothed over the reunion of the churches as you know theodoric's great fear was that the empire would want to reclaim direct rule over italy destroying the safe and favorable position which his people currently enjoyed a series of events conspired to make theodoric increasingly paranoid that his fears were coming true in 522 euthoric theodoric son-in-law died leaving only a four-year-old son as heir to the gothic throne a few months later and pope hormizdas a strong ally of theodorix also passed away his successor pope john was associated with the pro-imperial faction in rome and rumors began to swirl that senators were openly writing to the emperor to discuss how the goths could be removed from the equation soon an actual letter was found and a senator named albinus was accused by the goths of conspiring with justin a highly educated and respected senator named boethius attempted to defend his friend boethius argued that the letter was not a personal one from albinus but one expressing the views of the senate and merely keeping their lawful sovereign appraised of the situation in his province if you're going to punish albinus oethius argued then you might as well punish all of us unfortunately some of boethius's enemies at court took this to mean a confession of guilt and charged boethius with treason theodoric took personal charge of the case and condemned him to death seemingly to teach the senate a lesson the arrest and execution of such a popular figure took the other senators by surprise and doubtless pushed many of them into the pro-imperial camp boethius took revenge on theodoric with his pen and while waiting for his execution composed a book called the consolation of philosophy where he lashes out at gothic depravity revealing many of the injustices which the italians were feeling under the gothic yoke that fateful year of 522 saw things go from bad to worse for theodoric across the sea in carthage the vandal king thrasamont died he had been a strong ally of the goths and was married to theodoric sister amalafrida the new king was hilderick who was the son of huneric and eudocia the daughter of valentinian iii you may recall from the history of rome that she was carried off during the vandal sack of rome and had brought up her son to appreciate his roman heritage hilderick went further than that abandoning the arianism of his people and becoming a catholic hilderick was already on friendly terms with justin and justinian and upon his succession he put an immediate stop to all the anti-catholic policies of his predecessor and when amalafrida protested she was locked up and her gothic retinue were murdered as if this wasn't bad enough for the gothic king three years later the dutifully orthodox justin announced a new law banning arianism within the empire their churches would be closed and those refusing to recant would not be allowed to hold public office or serve in the army arianism was no longer a force within the empire but as with any sect it hadn't been wiped out completely the law was quite an affront to theodoric of course because he was a patrician within the empire and his people were aryan the law was calling into question whether he could rightfully rule the italian prefecture so in the autumn of 525 theodoric sent pope john to constantinople to argue his case not missing a trick though justinian rolled out the red carpet for the pontiff's arrival greeting him with all the splendor and dignity that could be afforded the pope's status as the highest patriarch in the empire was reaffirmed and justin even insisted that he be re-crowned by john personally the pope stayed in the capital for five months and celebrated christmas and easter in the hajjir sofia before returning to ravenna with some concessions in hand despite getting justin to agree to remove the harshest restrictions on the aryans theodoric was clearly unhappy with reports of just how friendly jon had been with the emperor upon his return in 526 he was imprisoned and died shortly afterwards although historians believe he was already ill and on his way out still when his body returned to rome there were protests and he was viewed as a martyr by the catholics who were looking with increasing suspicion at their gothic aryan king the new pope felix iv was chosen specifically for his sympathy to the gothic regime [Music] meanwhile in the east the news of anastasius's death prompted the persian king kavadh to send a note to the new emperor reminding him that he still wanted money to be paid to guard the passes through the caucus mountains and also that the new city of dara which anastasias had built was an illegal breach of the treaty between the two great empires justin was slow in responding to these requests which had after all been the pretext for war back in 502 so kavadh encouraged the lakmid arabs under their chief al-munthar to raid byzantine osrohini i should really say al-muntha ibn natman al-munthar's raid was a success and he managed to capture the local dukes and offer him for ransom to the byzantines justin now sent his reply a firm no to kavadh and negotiated for the return of the dukes and other prisoners in february 524. during the negotiations news came of yet another incident that would require justin's attention in 523 a new king had ascended to the throne of himyar which covers the area of the modern yemen the new king yusuf dunus was jewish and announced that all the christians in his kingdom should either convert or be killed this included the axomite or ethiopian garrison who lived in the city of zafar yusuf offered the troops safe passage home and once the terms were accepted and the gates were open he slaughtered them next he moved on to the city of nerjaran which had a large christian population this time he locked a couple of thousand christians in a church and set it on fire legend has it that a group of virgins upon hearing the news rushed down to the church to jump into the fire crying defiantly how sweet it was to breathe in the scent of burning priests news of these atrocities offended justin and worse youssef had hoped to stir up the pagan lakmints to join in their attacks on the followers of christ al-muntha had many christians amongst his followers and so wasn't having it and justin dispatched the patriarch of alexandria timothy to negotiate with the king of aksum about crushing this enemy of the faith caleb the king of aksum was happy to seek revenge and in the winter of 524 a byzantine fleet carried the axomite army to yemen it took two years to defeat him but as the ethiopian force descended on yusuf he accepted that his time was at an end and rode his horse into the sea although this incident is far from our usual field of operations it was seen as important in constantinople to encourage the spread of christianity as well as gain access to red sea ports which could help circumvent persian dominance of the trade routes from a longer term perspective i'm sure you can see the significance for our story of religious turmoil in the arabian desert [Music] before we introduce the woman who will become empress i think we should continue the narrative of justin's reign the foreign policy developments during these years continued a pace even as justinian was falling in love [Music] last time we saw how justin's obsession was greeted by demands from king kavadh over in persia for cash and the deconstruction of the fortress of dara when justin was slow to respond kavadh unleashed his attack dog al-munthar of the mid-arabs to raid byzantine territory and show the new emperor what saying no to the king of kings felt like these were the signs of lightning warning of the thunderstorm to come the kingdom of la zika which lay on the coast of the black sea just north of the fringes of the byzantine empire had been a persian protectorate for over 50 years by the time the 520s came around but bordering the christian kingdoms of byzantium and armenia the people had come to accept jesus as their savior of choice in 522 the last king passed away and his heir sath traveled to constantinople requesting baptism this was no simple religious ceremony it was an act of great political significance zath wanted to recognize christianity as his kingdom's official religion and switch allegiance from persia to byzantium justin was only too delighted to invest south with the position of king oversee his baptism and even find him a byzantine wife king kavadh was naturally angry about one of his border states seeking closer ties with his great rival and sent formal letters of protest the defiantly christian justin responded that it was impossible to prevent someone who wished to enter a better way from knowing the one true god [Music] instead of seeing this as an insult kavan decided that if justin wanted to go around protecting eastern kings then he might as well go all the way kavadh wrote back to justin and asked if he would formally adopt kavadh's own son cusro just as he had justinian the emperor and his nephew greeted the news with surprise and delight here was a chance to ensure peace with the great sasanian empire justinian and cusro could be brothers both destined to inherit their respective thrones and lead a golden age of peace between the two bulwarks of civilization so what exactly was going on here i thought kavadh wanted cash from the byzantines not dynastic intertwining well kevad was getting old the king was now in his 70s and had three sons his first two had followed their father's support for the proto-communist teachings of masdak the zoroastrian reformer who had stirred up the hatred of the traditional priesthood masdaq's work had rallied many disaffected elements behind kevard's throne but there was a problem love kavadh had fallen madly in love with one of his wives and she had given birth to his third son cusro young cusro was ruthless able and bold and cavad showed him the kind of naked favoritism that was leading toward a constitutional crisis if kusrow were named heir it would not only lead his elder brothers to turn on him but it would also undo much of the reforming work of kavadz reign you see cusro was an orthodox zoroastrian and had no interest in masdax's teaching kavadh was in a corner he had to choose between his favorite son and the policies which he felt were strengthening the persian state in the resolute figure of the emperor justin kavad thought perhaps he could find a solution if the emperor would adopt cusro then perhaps the traditional zoroastrian elite would be too fearful of a byzantine invasion to overthrow his beloved son everything seemed to be moving forward smoothly until justin's quiesto got involved the quiesto as you know was the highest legal officer in byzantium and the current incumbent of that office was a man named proclass an upright legalist proclus pointed out the obvious problem with adoption cusro might one day be the legal heir to the byzantine throne [Music] although there was much debate about how any succession might come about the solution seemed obvious justin could adopt cusro under a lesser custom than a formal father-son arrangement only a few years earlier after all justin had adopted eutharic under the german custom and surely he could now do the same for cusro unfortunately this idea did not sit well with the sasanid prince or his father enemies they may often have been but the persians and the romans had come to accept over the centuries that each was the keeper of civilization they should treat one another accordingly with gifts and ambassadors and an underlying respect all other peoples of course were barbarians no matter how militarily strong they were so to suggest that cusro in any way deserved the same treatment as a goth was deeply offensive to make matters worse in the meantime the christian king of iberia the neighbouring kingdom tula zika tried to follow his neighbor's example and switch political allegiance to the byzantines it was poor hypatius the nephew of anastasius who headed the delegation which had the delightful task of telling cusro the new adoption suggestion and to debate what to do about a state that ordered persia itself asking for a byzantine garrison [Music] kosro was of course outraged and cavad launched a retaliatory invasion of iberia in spring 525 the small byzantine force which had recently arrived quickly retreated in the face of a full persian army and kavadh annexed the country demanding that the people adopt zoroastrianism as their official religion [Music] the iberian king gorgon fled to constantinople with his family while the byzantines took up defensive positions by 528 though the persians had the better of the fighting and had captured key thoughts on the approaches to le zika meanwhile in persia itself kavadh supported his son as kusrow began a brutal suppression of the mazdakites the renewed war in the east was not going to be good for the byzantines as much as justin embraced the christian conversion of the caucas peoples it was pulling the empire into a war which they hadn't wanted meanwhile in the west theodoric the great ostrogothic king died on the 30th of september 526 christian sources delight in the suggestion that he was struck down for his poor treatment of pope john but he was in his seventies so natural causes are entirely plausible [Music] theodora had probably been the most successful of all the germanic figures who had tried to hold roman imperial titles during the era when the west fell he had led his people away from the fallout of attila's empire he had crushed the enemies of zeno in exchange for italy he had peacefully settled his people there and prevented the resentments of each side from overwhelming their pact often great figures in history are seen as such because of what unravels once they are gone this is one such case theodoric's heir and grandson athalaric was only eight years old and so his mother amala suntha became regent amala suntha had been given a roman education and was encouraged by her father to maintain good relations between goth and italian and of course goth and byzantine her first act was to restore the property of boethius and the other senators who had been caught up in the conspiracy trials as a sign of good will her fellow gothic nobles were less sure about her though she wanted athalaric to have a liberal education as she had had but her fellow goths disagreed insisting that he should spend his time with other gothic youths learning how to fight amala santa didn't feel she had the support to resist them and young atholaric was led into a life of debauchery which was said to have ruined his health while amalismtha held unsteady control of italy it's worth mentioning that theodoric's other grandson amilaric now became king of spain and southern gaul after a regency dominated by the ostrogothic noble theudus an adult he may have been but amilaric was young and untested and don't think for a second that the sons of clovis weren't licking their lips waiting to add another layer of territory to the realm of the franks [Music] back in constantinople you'll recall that justinian had spent the early part of the 520s cultivating the blues and allowing their thuggery to go unprosecuted until they crossed a line which justin could no longer overlook doubtless during this time justinian did his fair share of socializing with his new blue friends and we assume that it was through them that he met theodora the woman he would fall swiftly in love with and make his wife already the new imperial dynasty were an unlikely royal family justin and justinian were peasant farmers who through the army had found their way into the palace while the augusta eufemia was a freed slave who had been her previous masters concubine theodora would top them all today if you attend a professional sports event like basketball you will be used to the idea of half-time entertainment and in the hippodrome at constantinople things were not so different a day at the chariot races could mean 25 separate contests and so as you can imagine the crowd needed entertaining while the next set of competitors were getting ready or i suppose any fallen charioteers were being carried off the entertainment was the responsibility of the dems the blues and greens would employ troops of jugglers acrobats and animal trainers and theodora's father acacious looked after animals for the greens and provided for his wife and three children from his work at the hippodrome he died when theodora was about eight and his wife married another animal trainer hoping to quickly secure the same life for her young family at some time around 505 she marched out onto the hippodrome floor with her three daughters and presented them before the box where the green faction leaders sat unfortunately the greens had already settled on another candidate and said no possibly just despite their hated rivals the leaders of the blues took her up on the offer ensuring her family's continued employment and earning the lifelong loyalty of theodora [Music] by the time she was 11 theodora had followed her older sister kamito into the burlesque theatres of the capital to play in low knockabout comedy and farce actors were considered along with gladiators and slaves to be the lowest classes in society once you get to christian byzantium this social stigma was coupled with moral disapproval of the titillating pantomime dancing which theodora apparently excelled at [Music] you may recall that the emperor anastasias attempted to ban this licentious dancing and certainly by justin's day it was much reduced in frequency main source for theodora's teenage years and beyond is procopius's secret history this was the book where he poured the scorn of the well-to-do classes on the peasant emperor and his prostitute empress yes by the age of 16 theodora was working as a courtesan the word actress was synonymous with prostitute in the ancient world and procopius claims that theodora was a popular mime act and beautiful and so was much sought after company she was described as short oval-faced with brown hair and a quick wit by the time she was 18 she had quite a reputation and had potentially had two children already we are pretty confident that theodora led this life procopius goes on at such length about her exploits that it seems more than just his prudish imagination later in life john of ephesus a bishop and friend of theodora refers to her in his writings as theodora from the brothel with no malice intended however what procopius writes about theodora's youth is x-rated stuff and doubtless wildly exaggerated and i won't recount it here you can certainly find it in any good book on the period in her early twenties theodora began a relationship with an imperial diplomat named hekabolus and accompanied him on his posting as governor of the province of libya superior they soon fell out however and she made her way round the coast to alexandria which was by now a haven for monophysites who were fleeing justin's persecutions it seems like she underwent a religious conversion at this point and was most impressed by the patriarch timothy the same timothy who was sheltering severus and last episode negotiated with aksum over the invasion of yemen by 522 theodora was back in constantinople and out of the courtesan business falling back in with the blues she caught the eye of justinian and soon the 40 year old heir to the throne and the beautiful 25 year old monophysite were living together in the hormisdas palace evidently in love again it's possible that she bore him a child which didn't survive there were two obstacles to any marriage though the first was a law which forbid actresses from marrying members of the patrician class justinian immediately set about changing the law so that a penitent actress could apply for an imperial grant of marriage which justin was happy to grant [Music] the second obstacle was more difficult though as the augusta euphemia refused to agree to the union presumably feeling that she had to fight hard every day to overcome the stigma of being a freed slave the last thing she wanted to do was be publicly mocked for welcoming a known prostitute into the family euphemia passed away though in 524 and the following year justinian and theodora were married now why you might ask have i given such a detailed introduction to an augusta we've certainly met influential women in the history of rome before augustus listened to olivia's advice and trajan's wife pompeo platina may have had a big hand in hadrian's elevation but in terms of influence and authority theodora will outstrip them all no pun intended [Music] upon his accession to the imperial throne justinian insisted that they be crowned together emperor and empress a true imperial partnership provincial governors would soon be asked to swear allegiance to emperor and empress for the first time and justinian would certainly seek her advice on matters of state and treat her as a valued advisor in fact countless decrees he issued refer to theodora as our most pious consort given us by god love letters in the form of imperial legislation the marriage was a successful partnership justinian was more introverted than his wife and preferred to stay in the palace working theodora was used to public attention and was happy to make the appearances required of a sovereign we are quite sure that the couple were loyal to one another in part because if there had been any rumors of infidelity you can bet procopius would have told us all about them and while he is happy to paint the pair as demonic he doesn't suggest that they weren't happy together of course procopius was not alone in being horrified at the rise of theodora and looked down on the imperial regime with undisguised snobbery [Music] for members of the senatorial class it must have seemed like a brood of peasants and actresses were taking the reins of their government as justin had done theodora brought her existing family into the new respectable world of court life finding husbands for her sisters and her friends her elder sister kamito was married to one of justinian's former bodyguards sitas who will feature in our story again [Music] there is of course the issue of theodora's monophysitism it tells us quite a lot about justinian's attitude toward religious issues that he wasn't bothered by his bride's beliefs and as we shall see down the road it's possible that justinian saw this as an opportunity to unite the church by the example of their successful union although justinian used the blue faction to make sure that the new regime had support on the streets he also knew that he needed to cultivate friends in the senate during justin's reign they kept promoting the old elite and made sure that imperial largesse was extended to influential men who he wanted to stay on good terms with this backroom politicking may not have been needed but it didn't hurt when justin suddenly fell ill in 527 without having named successor the senate begged the ailing emperor to crown justinian caesar so that he could rule while justin recovered the emperor ascented but was too ill to take part and so the patriarch epiphanius performed the ceremony in the triclinium of the 19 couches in the palace on april the 4th justin survived only until august when he succumbed to either an old war wound or some other illness he was about 74 or 75 years old and had ruled the empire for nine years in all the history books justin's reign is seen as a mere preamble to justinians part of why we think that is that we know a lot more about what happens next but i think it's fair to say that being emperor was beyond a dream come true for justin and he was happy simply to manage the machine he inherited from anastasius the most important part of justin's reign in hindsight probably is the time it gave justinian to familiarize himself with that machinery of state and make his plans to transform it [Music] justinian therefore became soul emperor on august 2nd 527 with theodora at his side he was about 45 years old and was so ready to get going the next few years saw an explosion of activity on all fronts as justinian let loose every idea he had for how to remake the roman empire into something worthy of its past its god and its new emperor the only way to keep track of this whirlwind is to split the next few episodes between different fronts and foreign and domestic affairs but i will try and keep the timeline straight if you will stay with me before i go though i should mention that in 526 a massive earthquake hit antioch devastating the city's buildings and killing thousands the earthquake was clearly huge as the nearby town of apomia was completely destroyed and the aftershocks were said to last for 18 months this was on the back of a terrible fire the year before and in 528 a second quake hit killing thousands more justin and then justinian sent generous financial aid and began reconstruction efforts however the traumatized citizens of antioch suggested renaming the place as theopolis the city of god to try and mollify his apparent wrath i'm afraid the tribulations of the people of antioch had only just begun [Music] you

Channel: Flash Point History

Views: 188,014

Keywords: History, Byzantium, podcast, robin, Pierson, audio, the history of Byzantium, The history of Byzantium podcast, roman, roman empire, eastern roman empire, eastern, byzantine, constantinople, justinian, justin, emperor, biography, documentary, video documentary, podcast documentary, audiocast, rise, persian, persia, late antiquity, fall of the roman empire, fall, western, the history of rome, rome, theodora, empress, history of the roman empire, documentary roman empire, documentary byzantine empire

Id: H2pQjfOebdI

Length: 72min 4sec (4324 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 10 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Surprise_Institoris]

Three episodes of the famous spiritual sequel to The History of Rome, covering the early life and rise of Justinian I, Justinian the Great. The History of Byzantium podcast by Robin Pierson, animated by Flashpoint History, with additional footage taken by Pierson on his tour of Istanbul.

Justinian, and his wife Theodora, oversaw the creation of a new legal code still partly in use today, the construction of the Hagia Sophia, and his generals Belisarius and Narses achieved the greatest reconquest of Roman territory for generations.

There was meant to be a question mark in the title, but it was sacrificed to try and appease the automod. Because while Justinian is often seen as one the greats, it's not that simple. Robin makes the point nicely that it was his successors who had to deal with the repercussions his reign.

[u/TheDude300]

Belisarius, his greatest general. Has a great series ongoing by Epic History.

https://youtu.be/QOBH7hMh2Xs

[u/Godzilla52]

I kind of feel like Justinian's legacy is mixed enough that it takes him out of the Imperial GOAT talks.

While he did expand the Empire, he basically drained it's treasury in the process and the soldiers he redeployed from the Eastern frontier allowed the Sassanid's to cause a lot of damage there before Belisarius showed up to clean up the mess. Additionally, the Vandals and Ostrogoths were very Romanized/Latinized by the time of his conquests. Him wiping both out and the Byzantines losing Italy and Africa within a century of Justinian's death actually translated to those territories getting significantly de-Romanized/Latinized and turned Italy from a rich/fertile country into a wasteland.

He also regularly under-provided his best general Belisarius with men and resources (even compared to other western armies at certain points) or consciously appointed officers who obstructed Belisarius, to the point that it made the reconquest of Italy more costly and more time consuming than it would have been otherwise, which arguably helped encourage the Sassanid's to invade in the first place.

Justinian's draining of economic and military resources arguably caused the Empire to lose most of it's territory by the 650s and 660s.

[u/Icthyocrat]

It's cool to see this with a visual component. I've been listening to the podcast for ages!

[u/316420]

For the average reader

[u/LCranstonKnows]

Really great with visuals! Also, man oh man I love this podcast!

[u/Woodrow-Wilson]

Real mvp for skipping those ads for me 👏👏👏

[u/thutruthissomewhere]

If you're into Justinian, you can also check out the book Justinian's Flea about the plague during his time.