Justinian and Theodora -- The Price of an Empire Reborn

Justinian’s Time

Golden age for Byzantines

Justinian: Early Years

• Restless

• Imperial clique

• Anti-pagan laws and against Samaritans

• John — closest accomplice

• Codex Justinianus

Nika Revolt and Aftermath Building Program

• Circus/factions

• Due to emperor’s authoritarianism

• Had to rebuild structures after destruction

• “On Buildings”

• Hagia Sophia church, light, luxurious

• Anicia Juliana: aristocrat, used wealth to construct churches

Reconquest in the West

• Barbarians had control

• Justinian confidently tried to fight for it back

• Defeated vandals

• Then fighting Persians and in Italy

• Got control of a coastal strip in Spain

Theological Controversy

• Monothocytes still

• Theodora was in support of them

• Justinian tried to bridge the two sides but it was difficult

Later Years

• Plague

• Theodora died before Justinian

• Hagia Sophia fell

• Defeated Huns for the moment

Literature and Remembering

• John Lydos wrote about his time and PLANNING AND CALENDAR STUDIES

• Lots of poetry and etc

• Positive and negative

• People didn’t like his stubbornness and intolerance

• Secret History

Legal Reforms

• Most successful, still present now

• Ambitious, wanted clear laws for an orderly empire

  • Enforceable

  • Wants to be able to expand and needs domestic stability to do that

• Existing Latin law codes (legal language)

• New ideas in Greek

  • Increasing, spreading

• Tribonian: leader of creation

• Starting at Adrian (400 years before)

• Quickly created Codex Justinianus

  • Organized laws thematically

  • 12 volumes

  • 4,562 statues

  • OG done in 1 year

Orderly Emperor and More Laws

• Wanted consistency in streets

• Tribonian was very unpopular

• Digest/Pandects: How law has been interpreted over time

• Institutes: Handbook for law schools

• Novels: Laws from Justinian going forward, Greek

  • 4 items: Corpus Juris Civilis (broad impact)

• Solidifying his efforts, such as allowing actresses to marry

  • Theodora’s friend Antonina was able to marry

  • Next empress’ mother was an actress

Foreign Affairs and Money

• War with Persia draining treasury

  • $ were necessary for imperialism

• New Praetorian Prefect of East

  • Chief tax collector

  • John of Capedosia, effective, goes hard to get $ from everyone…dishonest

• Theodora was not happy with John

• John: most hated in the empire

Order?

• Blues and Greens — Stabilizing force

• Street brawl between them, got in trouble for innocent deaths

  • Execution failed…God? Taken to a monastery for refuge

• Blues and Greens came together for the two men

  • Riots when Justinian didn’t do anything

  • Rebelling against other things like imperial officials

• Chaos with mobs, attacking all

• Captain of imperial guard did not want to defend him against mobs

• Hardly anyone supported Justinian

Belasarius

• Supported Justinian with some loyal men

• 1,000 of his vs 100,000 against Justinian

• Didn’t work

Attempting to Put Down Rebellion

• All advisors at a council

• Including Theodora and her Eunic advisor Nareces

  • Eunics were super diverse, 3rd gender?

• Belasarius thought Justinian should leave

• Others wanted to leave with him

• Theodora wanted to stay and die as an empress

  • Against exile and ending “purple” experience

  • Based on upbringing/past

• Justinian allowed Nareces to come up with a plan to end riots

  • Give out tons of coins, tell each side who they’re backed by (emperor for greens and empress for blues)

  • Paying people off again…

  • Military surrounded rioters and massacred about 30,000

• Able to end rebellion, showing Justinian’s strength and vengenance

Population Reaction to End of Rebellion

• Justinian is not a monster

• Applauded

• Violence had to be stopped in their eyes

• Working classes especially grateful

Reconstructing: Aftermath

• Power structure around Justinian: Theodora, Nareces, Belasarius

• Theodora as co-leader

• Rebuilding ruined city

Reconstructing: Hagia Sophia

• Rebuilding bigger and better

• Isador and Athemius

• Gold, purple

• Only took 5 years to build largest church at the time

• Later mosaic of Mary and Jesus

• Intricate, by hand columns

• Spectacular to see sunlight during the day

• 100s of candles at night, like being between Earth and Heaven

  • People’s conversion

  • Lasting power

• Now a mosque — major Christian upset, showing memory in area

• Justinian’s greatest architectural achievement

  • Center of Constantinople

Reconstructing: Persian Negotiation

• Bribe to end fighting

• Little land exchange

• Treaty

• Supposed to be lasting peace, only 6-8 years as usual

Reconstructing: Money

• Efforts cost a lot

• Reinstalled John

• He travelled with bodyguard because of how much Theodora hated him

  • Didn’t trust him

• Theodora and Antonina decided to attack John through daughter Euphemia

  • Said they needed to have a meeting with John about “overthrowing Justinian”

• Theodora and Nareces gave evidence of John being disloyal to Justinian

• Exiled but didn’t kill him

• Theodora threatened to kill him if he came back

  • #nevercrosstheodora

  • Contrast to forgiving Justinian

  • Theodora didn’t even listen to people

Theodora’s Qualities

• Devoted monothocyte

• Devoted wife

• Build personal wealth

• Used for refuge for women trapped into being actresses like her

• Monastery of repentence, helped a ton of women find new hope

• Only Secret History disagreed that she was benefitting women

Reconquest

• Vandals in North Africa first

• “Pirates,” Ostrogoths and Visigoths didn’t like them

• Justinian as leader said he’d fight

Prokopius: Secret History

• It’s very gossipy sounding, “I heard”

• Saying that Justinian and Theodora were actually not good under the surface

• Borderline pornographic

• Pretty much opposite to how they were perceived by everyone else

• Seems like Prokopios had some other motives

Prokopius: Other Works

• Triumphant march (On the Wars)

• Wrote about how Justinian stopped the Nika Revolts, Theodora’s role

• Plague was a very dark experience, thought it was brought on by God

• Silk creation

• De Aedificis: beauty of Hagia Sophia (the Great Church)

Agapetus’ Points of Advice to Justinian

• Emperor and God

• Emperor’s responsibility to obey laws — injustice hurts whole empire

• Equal and leader

Justinian’s Obligation to Recover Territory

• Libya

• Wanting to end “barbarian” rule

The Magister Officiorum

• Master of offices

• Responsibility

Training a Bureaucrat

• Education in ancient classics necessary

• Senate/other bureaucrats have to approve

Plan of the Digest

• 4 law writings

• Looking at all the laws

Institutes

• Talking about how to divide and organize the books

• Importance of laws

Justinian Demotes the Senate

• Became less important

• “Imperial absolutism”

Novella VI: Imperial Authority over the Church

• Emperor as “vicar of God”

• Administering the church

5th Ecumenical Council

• Rejecting idea of one will inside two natures

• Jesus is holy

Byzantine Racing Factions

• Blues and Greens roles

• Not necessarily political

• At imperial hippodrome ceremonies

• At rivalries 

• Served as militia

Greens and Blues

• Justinian favoring a group?

• Problems with Calopodios

Constantinople’s Urban Problems

• Not enough living space for large population

• Poor struggled the most

The Nika Riot

• Procopios

• Explaining what happened

Byzantine trade with the Far East

• Indies area

• Diverse

Gregory of Tours on the “Syrian” Merchants

• Byzantines: “Syrians”

• Praising

Nomisma in the Far East

Merchants universally accepted the Byzantine gold coin

Theodora’s Checkered Past

• Gambling

• Secret History was hostile to that

Fun and Games with Theodora

• Secret History

• Saying she had no shame

• Joking

• Very revealing