The History of the Roman Empire and Its Enemies - Report Example

Introduction Flevious Petrus Sabastius Justinianus/Justinian also known as Last of the Romans is was one of the greatest emperors of the Eastern Roman empire. He reigned between antiquity and the middle ages. This is between A.D 527 to A.D 565 . The Benzityne empire is the name traditionally given to his eastern half (Luke) Life Justinian was born Taurasium Dadania (Now Yugoslavia) in 483. He later adopted the name Justinian a name given to him by his uncle. This uncle who was childless had become an emperor in A.D 518 and adopted Justinian. He attained his education at Costantinople and knew Latin before Greek. It is alleged that he always spoke Greek with Barbarialn accent (Luke). He did not come from a well off family. (Gill) notes that his wifes family social status was even worse. Theodora, his wife is said to have been the daughter of a bear keeper father and an acrobat mother. The wife is said to have been very supportive to him in all his actions. Career when Justinian took over the reigns of power his main focus was to recover part of the Roman empire to the west snatched away by other empires. This he did as he strengthened his grip and consolidated his control to the East. He owes his rise to become an emperor to his uncle Justine who made him his Co-Emperor in the year 527 and made his wife Theodora an Augusta. Then when his uncle died on August 1 527 Justinian went from joint to sole emperor (Luke). Accomplishment It is said that the Bynzantine empire thrived and hit its peak during the reign of Justinian and his wife. Among the thinks that they are best remembered for is that developed Benzintyne religion and law. They constructed the Hagia Sophia the largest and the most beautiful church in the empire (Gill). Justinian is famous for various achievements at the Roman empire. Among them included the following. Firstly, emperor Justinian envisaged a central empire. This required a uniform legal system. He came up with a commission headed by jurist Trebonianius. The commission was mandated to systemise existing Roman law. Their work was incorporated in enormous Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) also called Justinian Code (Luke). This is said to have been kept up to date. This later on became the benchmark for crafting of most of the present European nations laws. Justinian took over the reins of power when the Roman empire was still experiencing conflicts with the Persians. His commander then, Belsarius fought to obtain a peace treaty in 1531. Belsarius apart from being sent to Africa and Europe, was sent to deal with a broken truce. Justinian is celebrated for helping renounce monophysitism. Before he took over the reigns of power he had tried to induce his uncle the then co-empor to help convince those states in Europe that cling on to monophysitism to change to orthodox way of thinking. A great part of Syria and Asia Minor and a considerable minority even in Contantinople clung to monophysitism (Luke). This involves a society seeing only one nature of Christ, the human nature. This nature is different from the orthodox view that the world see Him today. Both as human and also divine. when he took over power he summoned of the leaders of the monophysitism. When this failed he ejected suspected prelates and persecuted them for disobeying him. The religious nature of the monophysytes (whom Justinians wife the Empress Theodora ) supported conflicted with the accepted christian doctrine (Luke). discovering later that he was fighting a losing battle. He himself gave in to heresy. Accepting the doctrine that the earthly body of Christ was incorruptible, insensible to the weakenesss of the Flesh (Luke). He used an edict enforcing this view. He forced all the religious leaders in the empire to subscribe to this. Those who opposed were relieved of their duties including the very senior church officials.Justinian is said to have renewed his hard stance with laws on both the monopolysites and the normal christians being strengthened. This resulted in forcible baptism of over 70000 people in Asia Minor. Paganism however continued to soar in Greece and Syria. Justinia expelled teachers of paganism from the academy in Athens (Gill). At Athens phylosophers who taught in the schools hallowed by memories of Plato still openly professed what passed for paganism (Luke). Justinian being irked by what he perceived to be rebelion to his decrees decided to close down the university. His actions however led to majority of the people in the empire renouncing paganism to christianity, though pockets took to Islam in Syria and Egypt. Justinian expelled teachers of paganism from the academy in Athens closing the schools of Athens in A.D 529 (Gill). Justinian is also famous because of the wars he went into with his neighbours. Persians had constantly been at war with Byzantine. When he took over as an emperor he continued war with the Persians. The emperor was too much occupied with the west to adequately defend his Eastern frontier (Luke) . The Persian Emperor advanced into the Syria capturing Antioch the then greatest city. The Byzantine remained with the disputed territory but was however forced to pay 30,000 pieces of gold annually to the Persian emperor. In AD. 552 he went ahead and captured Italy and part North Africa for the Roman empire. Northern Africa was reorganized as part of the empire and now included Saridinia, Corsica, the Balearic and Septem (Luke). Justinian had a weakness when it came to spending. He was a spend thrift. He erected churches and palaces which were not economically viable as they did not pay in return. This burden was hence passed on to his subjects in taxes sometimes going to the extend of forcifully confisticating his subjects property on the pretext of disobedience to the empress. And propious goes so far as to allege the emperor made the practise of further recruiting his treasury by confisticating on slight or fictitous pretexts the property of persons who displeased Theodora (Luke). In a bid to save funds he had to do away with some offices much to the displeasure of the office holders of the offices affected. The most remarkable instance of this policy was the discontinuance of the office of the consul (Luke). He is however, said to have spent considerably in the public works building bridges, recting walls and repairing the broken and old ones and building churches. The most famous one being Sophia castantinople (modern day mosque). An interview From the interview I have come to learn that Justinian was a man who loved fame. He enjoyed having a big empire under his territory. He would go to any heights to ensure that the territory once snatched away from his empire was retaken back even if it meant over taxing his subjects to get funds to go to war. The money needed for these, for his wars and for buying off barbarians who threatened the frontiers had to be obtained by increasing the burdens of the people. (Luke). I find Justinian to be rather extravant and a spend thrift. He used a lot to build churches, public buildings, harbours and bridges which in themselves were not self sustaining and rather uneconomical to the Roman empire. From the wars he went into with the Persians one can say he is a brave soldier ready to die for his country and also to defend the interests of his territory. From the wars he had with the pagans, monosyte and orthordox believer, I can say he was a religous leader who acknowledged the existence of the supreme being. By persecuting the pagans and those who had a different religious belief it clearly shows how devoted he was to Christianity as a leader. He was a very ambitious man as he could not stomach the fact that part of his empire had been taken away. He would go to any heights to have the territory back. As an emperor Justinian is brought out as a man with authority. What he said had to be implemented failure to which one had to face harsh consequences. The persecution of the pagans and closure of schools that subscribed to this evidence. From the interview I learn that Justinian was brave intelligent and a man who achieved what he intended to achieve by going for it no matter what came his way. He would not waver or be cowed by any obstacle. Conclusion Justinian was a brave leader. From his stories we know of how the Roman empire came into being and its collapse after he died in 565. Indeed, he was a famous leader who would not sit back and see his empire taken away from him. He is a man who shaped the history of the Roman empire and his legacy lives on. Some of the building he constructed remains to date and some of the laws he came up with are being used to govern the world today. He was a famous and intelligent leader who the world will live to remember. The world today should emulate this famous emperor who transformed the fortunes of the Roman empire which had been taken away by his neighbor. He had tirelessly fought to reclaim its lost glory by recapturing its land back from its enemies. Work Citation Luke W. Journal of Ancient and Medieval History at Dickson College. Clio, 1998. N.S Gill. Flavius Justiniunas:Byzantine Roman Emperor Justinian. about.com Runciman Bynzatine Civilization. London: Methuen, 1961. Sherrad P. Byizantium London:Time Life,1967 Whitting P. An Introduction London: Basil Black wel, 1971 Read More