JUSTINIAN I, FLAVIUS ANICIUS JULIANUS (Flavius Anicius Iulianus Iustinianus), Emperor of the East (527-565). - One of the sovereigns who left the deepest mark on history: inspired by an almost mystical conception of Roman-Christian unity, he sought to rebuild the fabric of the Empire both through territorial reconquests over the Vandals, the Goths, and the Persians, and by promoting the reconciliation of the Churches, and by a general reorganization legislative and administrative. For even if the results were short-lived in the military sphere, and negative in the religious one, he, through his codification, saved and transmitted to posterity a treasure of materials and doctrine, whose inexhaustible richness has nourished and still nourishes the juridical thought of every country.
Born on May 11, 482 A.D. at Tauresium, a village in the Vardar valley, near Scupi (present-day Uskub), he belonged to a humble family, of Roman or Romanized Illyrian stock (that it was of Slavic stock is a legend invented in the 16th century), and the name Sabbatius had been imposed upon him. A maternal uncle of his, Justin, born in the same region at Bederiana, had enlisted, during the reign of Leo I (457-74), in the imperial guard and had risen to the dignity of comes excubitorum. Perhaps, even then, he had summoned his nephew to Constantinople, where he had him given a refined juridical and theological education. Later he had adopted him, thereby causing him to assume the name Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus (which we find in the consular diptychs), whence there later derived the imperial one of Imp. Caesar Flavius Iustinianus.
On the death of Anastasius (518 A.D.), Justin, having set aside the legitimate descendants of the deceased Emperor, succeeded through popular favor in ascending the throne: and he then raised his adopted son to the highest offices, availing himself of him as counselor and as guide. In these years J. had come to know Theodora, a circus dancer, whom he later (after Justin had abrogated the prohibition of marriage between senators and actresses) married and who, notwithstanding the scandalous accusations that we read in Procopius, we must consider to have been a woman of strong intelligence and firm will, qualities that she revealed in the most critical moments of her husband's long reign. The nuptials were celebrated on the very day on which J. was associated to the throne by his uncle (Apr. 1, 527); thus on the death of Justin (May 1, 527) J. and Theodora were acclaimed legitimate sovereigns.
The government program of the new Emperor aimed at the realization of a system constructed with rigor upon certain precise principles. The linchpin of it is the idea of the divine origin of political power, insofar as this is manifested in a universal monarchy: he who is invested with this is therefore a representative of God on earth, sole creator and interpreter of the law, indeed the living law himself. Universal monarchy is the respublica romana, which J. wishes to restore to its ancient greatness and power. But if the universal Empire willed by God is Roman and if the same universality is in the Church, the field of the latter and that of Romanity coincide. Therefore the task of the Emperor is the defense and exaltation of the one faith: wherever Roman law reaches, the rule of the universal Church must reach: both must be served by the same institutions, the same arms, the same art: the triumph of the one and of the other is the affirmation of a single principle, of an identical political conception.
The realization of this idea of absolute and universal monarchy by divine right has as its necessary presuppositions the reconstruction of the territorial unity of the Empire, the achievement of legislative and administrative uniformity, the founding of religious unity. This threefold, arduous design was tackled by J. with energy and without hesitation.
A few months after his accession to the throne, with the constitution Hace quae necessario (Feb. 13, 528) he began his legislative work, ordering the drafting of the first Codex, which was followed later by the other parts of the compilation, the Digesta and Institutiones, and finally by a second edition of the Codex (v. CORPUS IURIS CIVILIS).
At the same time J. began his reform of the administration, both by introducing greater rigor in fiscal exactions and by seeking to strike at the abuses of officials and above all at their venality, which had become customary. And in the religious field, with the aim of drawing closer to the Roman Church, he oriented his policy in a direction favorable to orthodoxy, also in order to prepare the ground for the planned reconquest of the West. With numerous constitutions, of the years 527 and 528, he sought to eliminate the last remnants of paganism, with severe sanctions against its adherents, to whom he left no other choice than between exile and conversion: in 529 he then ordered the closing of the school of Athens, considered a center of pagan propaganda. With other measures he introduced new penalties against heretics (Montanists, Manichaeans, Nestorians, Monophysites), who were removed en masse from public offices, while dissident bishops were deposed or exiled.
These measures, however, provoked a fierce reaction that gave rise to a veritable insurrection against the Emperor. Already on Jan. 11, 532 the circus factions, that is the "Greens" (Monophysites and supporters of Anastasius and his descendants) and the "Blues" (Orthodox, favored by J.) had come to blows. Since the Emperor had resolved to punish the leaders of both factions, these united against him, demanding the deposition of his ministers John of Cappadocia and Tribonian, held to be the inspirers of the measures in financial and religious matters. The appeals for calm addressed personally by J. remained unheeded by the rebels: who strengthened themselves within the hippodrome, which had become their headquarters, and proclaimed emperor Hypatius, nephew of Anastasius. After much hesitation, J., encouraged by Theodora, decided to repress the revolt by force, which was quelled by Narses after a bloody battle for the occupation of the hippodrome. Once Hypatius and the leaders of the revolution had been eliminated, and many senators killed or exiled, whose property was confiscated, peace returned to reign in the capital.
Having secured himself at home, J. could now give concrete form to his plan for the campaigns in the West, necessary both from the political point of view and from the religious one (the Catholic populations of the West were constantly threatened by the Arians), for one who proposed to restore the material and spiritual unity of the Empire.
These new enterprises had been preceded by intense diplomatic activity. In order to be able to dispose of a numerous army, J. had in 532 concluded peace with Persia: in Africa he hoped to be able to count on the support of Hilderic, deprived of the throne by King Gelimer: in Italy he had knotted, with cunning duplicity, relations both with Amalasuntha (in conflict with the leaders of the Goths because of her sympathies toward the Romans), who asked for his protection and promised him aid against the Vandals, and with Theodahad, an adversary of Amalasuntha, who, in order to obtain J.'s support against the latter, declared himself ready to renounce a part of the peninsula; in every region of the West he carried on intense propaganda against the barbarian rulers, appealing to religious beliefs.
Thus, notwithstanding the objections of the highest officials, the Western enterprise was decided upon. On June 22, 533 Belisarius set sail from Constantinople for Africa, where, having landed in Sept., he decisively engaged the adversaries, defeated them in the battles of Decimum and Tricamarum, and in 534 took Gelimer prisoner. Immediately J. provided for the reorganization of the administration of Africa, which, however, was often disturbed by the agitations of the subjected Vandals, supported by the restless Berber element.
In the following year, while he energetically continued the reform of the administration (Novellae 8 and 17 of 15 and 16 April 535), J. began the campaign against the strongest enemy, the Goths of Italy. Here too the first phase of the campaign was entrusted to Belisarius, who landed in Sicily in the summer of 535. The Goths, hard pressed from the south, threatened on the east by a Byzantine army concentrated in Dalmatia and on the west by Theudebert, king of the Franks, who had come to an agreement with J., asked to negotiate, declaring themselves willing to renounce sovereignty over Italy, provided they could remain as federates. Shortly afterwards, however, taking advantage of the absence of Belisarius, who had gone to Africa to suppress a rebellion there, they broke the truce and resumed the war, which lasted another four years, until the Byzantines, who had to fight their way back up from Calabria to the Po valley, succeeded in storming Ravenna.
Yet after these successes, J. had had to turn his attention to the East and recall part of his troops from Italy, in order to defend himself against the Persians, who had broken the treaty of 532 and begun an offensive, and to hold in check the hordes of Huns, Bulgars and Slavs who were ravaging Moesia, Thrace and Illyricum (the incursions were renewed in 544 and in the following years; particularly serious were those of the Huns in the years 550 and 558, which the second time reached as far as the suburbs of Constantinople). The war against the Persians lasted five years, until in 545 an armistice was reached, renewed several times until the peace of 562.
Meanwhile (544) in Italy the Goths, emboldened by the diminished pressure of the Byzantine troops, had resumed the counter-offensive under the leadership of Totila, favored by J.'s inability to satisfy the requests for men and money insistently addressed to him by his generals. Only in 550 was J., having secured himself on the Persian side, able to organize a new expedition under the command of Narses, who in 551 entered Italy from the eastern frontier, while a Byzantine fleet led by Artabanes reoccupied Sicily. The strategy of Narses, with the battles of Taginae and Mons Lactarius, led to the total defeat of the Goths, whose kings Totila and Teia fell heroically in combat. Italy, completely reoccupied, once again became the center of the prefecture, whose administration was to provide for healing the wounds inflicted on the country by the Gothic domination and the repeated wars. To this reconstruction the Pragmatic Sanction of 554 was largely devoted, which among other things extended to the reconquered regions the constitutions issued after the Justinianic compilation, previously sent to Italy.
Moreover, in the West, Gaul was still largely dominated by the Franks, as Spain was by the Visigoths. Against Gaul nothing was attempted. In Spain an expedition led by the patrician Liberius succeeded in reoccupying the south-eastern region (Cartagena, Málaga, Córdoba), but then had to halt before the tenacious resistance of the Visigoths. Nevertheless the result obtained was not contemptible: as a consequence of this occupation, which followed that of Africa and Sicily, the western Mediterranean had once again become a Roman sea: while the re-establishment of Byzantine lordship in Dalmatia and Italy and the maintained statu quo in the Balkans and in Asia Minor assured the Empire also of dominion over the eastern Mediterranean.
In the East, moreover, after the peace of 562 with Persia, Lazica (the region south of the Caucasus having as its center present-day Batum) returned to the Empire, in exchange for an annual tribute to be paid to Persia: the latter, however, granted freedom of worship to the Christians living within its borders, in return for the commitment on the part of Constantinople to renounce religious propaganda in Persian territory.
It is therefore unjust to assert that J.'s activity in the field of foreign and domestic policy failed in every respect. On the contrary, one must acknowledge the failure of the Emperor's efforts directed toward the religious unification of the Christian world, which was another of the plans contained in his program.
The Emperor, faithful to the orthodox creed, had at first hoped to be able to achieve his goal, insisting on agreement with the Church of Rome, recognized by him as caput omnium sanctarum ecclesiarum, and seeking to repress the activity of dissidents, pagans and heretics: and this attitude had been beneficial on the occasion of the reconquest of the West. But the monophysites resisted the measures tenaciously, especially numerous in Syria and Egypt, and ensconced also in the court, where they counted on powerful connections as well as on the protection of the empress Theodora. In a first attempt J., without renouncing his principles and without impairing the laws issued, believed he could conciliate the monophysites by softening the application of the measures of rigor and resorting to an expedient by which he hoped to induce them to accept the Chalcedonian formula. In 535, on the death of the patriarch of Constantinople Epiphanius, J. chose as his successor Anthimus, bishop of Trebizond, a secret sympathizer with the monophysites: the new patriarch, in turn, summoned to Constantinople the former patriarch of Antioch, Severus, spiritual head of the Jacobite Church, in order to concert with him a formula of compromise with the bishops of Syria and Egypt. But this maneuver was cut short by the intervention of Pope Agapetus who, having arrived in Constantinople in 536, excommunicated and deposed Anthimus. J., after having sought to save his own patriarch, had to yield and ratify the measure (agreement with the Pope was necessary to the Emperor for the planned expedition to Italy). Shortly afterwards a synod was convened in which the measures against the monophysite leaders were reaffirmed, measures moreover applied quite mildly.
The conflict therefore remained unresolved: and so J., certainly pressed by Theodora, thought of choosing another path, arranging for a less intransigent religious figure to be called to the pontificate.
After the death of Agapetus in Constantinople, and the deposition and exile (537) of Pope Silverius, because he was accused of having collaborated with the Goths, J. succeeded in having Vigilius elected, who had been nuncio in the East. But the new Pontiff proved no less rigid than his predecessors. Then the Emperor, inspired by a cunning prelate, Theodore Ascidas, thought that a way might be found to overcome orthodox intransigence by undermining the foundations of the Council of Chalcedon, without directly attacking its decrees. The expedient was the posthumous condemnation of three representatives of Antiochene theology, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Ibas of Edessa, a condemnation that invalidated the value of all the Chalcedonian decisions. This condemnation, issued at the end of 543 or the beginning of 544, gave rise to the so-called controversy of the Three Chapters (v.) and to a ten-year conflict between the papacy and the East. The measure, in any case, revealed in J. the intention of considering the Church as a subordinate entity and the claim to decide causae fidei by imperial edicts: and the content of the condemnation, which aroused so much opposition on the part of Rome, had moreover not even satisfied the monophysites.
The religious unity to which J. aspired had not been achieved: and the contrast between orthodox and monophysites constituted the torment of the last years of the Emperor's life, who allowed himself to be completely absorbed by the problems of religious policy: his last constitution of 26 March 565 deals only with ecclesiastical questions and is a profusion of citations from the Gospel and the Sts. Fathers.
J. passed away on 14 Nov. 565, after forty years of a most troubled reign, not only because of the events described, but because of continual concern over the disorder of the administration (see Nov. 134 which renewed the provisions of Nov. 8 and 17), because of the efforts rected toward promoting economic progress and especially that of agriculture (the introduction of silkworm breeding into Europe is due to him) and toward developing commerce between East and West, and by the fervor with which he had sought to stimulate artistic activity, to which we owe marvelous temples such as Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, San Vitale and Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna, and the cathedral of Parenzo. And one cannot deny that it was solely for his legislative work — whether the posterity that exalted his figure, like Dante (Par., V), and assigned him a very high position in the history of civilization, was right.
Bibliography10 works
Pietro de Francisci
JUSTINIAN SACRED BUILDINGS
During the 5th century and the first half of the 6th, the East had sought, beyond the refinement of the construction of basilicas (v., e.g., the basilica of St. Menas; the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem - second period -; basilica A of Philippi; churches in the form of a cross, such as the basilica of the Theologian (St. John at Ephesus; Kasawijjeh), various solutions of a central place of worship surmounted by a vault: alongside round and polygonal buildings (such as the round basilica at Scythopolis-Beisan; the church of St. Mary on Mount Gerizim; the churches of St. George at Esra) one also encounters combinations of basilicas with a dome, on the one hand with plans oriented toward the west and the dome to the east (thus at Högah Qal'esi; Meryemlik; Athens, basilica of the Ilissus), on the other in the scheme of barrel vault, dome and barrel vault (e.g., the Justinian church of St. Irene; the basilica of St. Mary at Ephesus - second period -; Qasr ibn Wardan), and finally also rectangular constructions with semicircular enlargement of the central parts of the sides (thus the church of Mount Horeb), which internally are characterized mostly by an arrangement of quadruple intersection of piers and columns (e.g., the cathedral of Bosra; the martyrium at Rusafah and at Antioch Pieriae). Now, all these elements of ancient and in part also Eastern forms reached their highest expression in the architectural activity of J. The types then created, however, were not further developed in the subsequent period, so that it is precisely in them that Hellenistic-Roman architecture culminates and ends.
Of the numerous churches erected on the commission of J., described in part quite in detail by Procopius (De aedificiis), only a few have remained preserved, among which, fortunately, however, are the most important. As foundations of J. the following constructions in pure basilical style have been ascertained: the church on Mount Sinai, the two churches at Zenobia-Halebijjeh and the basilica of Carthage-Dermesch, which very probably is identical with the church of St. Prima (Procopius, De aedificiis, VI, 5, 9). Among the centrally planned constructions is to be counted the church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, called the little (kütschük) Hagia Sophia at Constantinople (v.). Of a typically Constantinopolitan character - in comparison, e.g., with the Syrian octagons - is the careful equilibrium of the vault system, joined also to the vault of the ambulatory. The supports of the lower level are covered by a powerful architrave bearing the foundation inscription: the upper level, on the other hand, shows arcades. The architrave of the lower level accentuates the horizontal arrangement that will later be found again in the church of St. Sophia, while the Western example, St. Vitale at Ravenna, emphasizes the vertical line just as strongly. This latter construction, consecrated in 547 and erected probably with the support of J., preserves the octagon also in the exterior part and represents the definitive form of this type, in that it makes the arrangement of piers and columns lighter inside by means of the exedrae. The aforementioned vertical arrangement, which conceals nothing of the construction, creates a space of extraordinary structural compactness; a space which, although it is inconceivable without the Constantinopolitan model, nevertheless remains faithful to the Western-Roman conception of space.
The never-surpassed masterpiece of the era, whose design goes back to J. himself (Procopius, De aedificiis, I, 1, 70), is the Hagia Sophia, the patriarchal and imperial church, dedicated to the second person of the Most Holy Trinity.
While the Justinian church of St. Irene (the rebuilding of the year 740 extensively modified the roofing and the arrangement of the interior) probably followed the scheme of barrel vault, dome, barrel vaults and therefore the space had been concentrated in an unsuitable manner through the union of the contrasting elements of barrel and dome, in the church of St. Sophia, on the other hand, the barrel vaults were replaced by half-domes, so that, on entering, one immediately has the complete view of the whole interior up to the summit of the dome: the fusion of the longitudinal space with the central one is perfectly achieved and the mutual interpenetration of these elements apparently contrasting with one another confers on the environment its singular vitality.
The upper and lower side aisles are arranged in a completely independent manner, although they are connected by means of the openings alternating with the central space, which indeed receives light from them. The polychrome revetment of marbles and mosaics on a gold background conceals the skeleton of the construction and dissolves into color and light the materiality of the walls. To this effect of dissolution of matter is subordinated also the slight plastic relief of the cornices, which is nevertheless strong enough to obtain the horizontal effect of the building's structural scheme.
This horizontal line indeed accentuates, together with the upper and lower colonnades, the basilical character of the plan and continually leads the gaze back from the dome (which is the nucleus of the construction, from which the dynamic effect of the architecture proceeds) toward the front part, that is, toward the altar. The Emperor and his contemporaries were well aware of the exceptional singularity and the symbolic importance of this church, and posterity too recognized in it the « model of the dominion of the Romans » (Cantacuzenus, Hist., IV, 4).
Of a completely different character is the second monumental building of the era, the church of the Sts. Apostles, which is no longer preserved, but of which one can form an idea since the church of the Theologian at Ephesus is an imitation of it. Here we have a basilica of a more ancient type, built in the form of a cross, then transported into the architectural language of the Justinian era. It is true that this time the space did not find a central form, although the center of the transept (the dome is higher and illuminated by windows placed at its edge) is particularly prominent in comparison with the arms. In compensation, however, the arms are subdivided into individual rectangles surmounted by domes, while each of these spatial elements is clearly separated from the other by means of a rib. This, despite the effect of the space, is far more concentrated and homogeneous in comparison with the previous types of basilica, because the two-story ambulatories firmly join the various parts to one another. The columns placed between the individual squares accentuate even more the longitudinal and transverse direction of the plan, and confer, as in the church of St. Sophia, the effect of a diaphanous structure on the space of the dome. - See pl. LX.
Bibliography7 works
Antonio Maria Schneider