Justinian And The Byzantine EmpireEssay Preview: Justinian And The Byzantine EmpireReport this essayDuring the Emperor Justinian’s reign, from 527 until 565, the Byzantine Empire expanded in wealth, power and prestige. Much of this was due to Justinian’s skilful rule. There were also periods of retrenchment and plague which often makes the period seem an unsuccessful one, although I believe these times showed his quality as an Emperor.
One reason that the Empire expanded under Justinian was because of his ability to pick exceptional advisors. The men that he gave power to owed this to him and so were very loyal. Despite many periods of financial and military crisis where the Empire faced threats from all sides it always managed to come through, often due to the talents of the Emperors advisors. One of the talented generals during Justinian’s reign was Belisarius. Belisarius was a former member of Justinian’s bodyguard whom the Emperor saw potential in. The general was with Justinian for much of his reign and had many victories against larger enemies. In 530, near the border fortress of Dara, he defeated a much larger Persian force, showing his talents as a commander. He was also in charge of the force that reconquered Africa by the end of 533, less than a year after he landed with an army of around 18,000 soldiers.
Another reason that the Byzantine Empire expanded in power under Justinian was the reconquest of North Africa and Italy. Having these two areas under its control meant that the Mediterranean was once again a Roman sea and the trade that was now available to the Empire would greatly increase its revenue. These two former Roman territories were still very important to the Eastern Empire. The conquest of Africa in 533 by Belisarius also increased the wealth of the Empire as the general took back the Vandal treasury, once plundered from the Romans. The mere fact that these two areas were back under Roman control, especially Italy as the home of the former capital of Rome, would have greatly increased Byzantium prestige among the other nations of the period. By the end of his reign Justinian’s empire stretched from the South-Eastern tip of Spain to modern day Turkey, encompassing much of North Africa, Italy, the Balkans and Greece. This was a huge increase from the beginning of his reign where the empires boundaries stopped at Greece and Egypt in North Africa.
Although some would say that this reconquest was unnecessary and detrimental to the empire in the long run I think that this is an unfair conclusion. Justinian is often called the last Roman Emperor. This is because of his wholly Roman education and the fact that he spoke Latin. No true Roman Emperor could be expected to relinquish control of whole provinces without a fight, especially Italy which was home to “old Rome”. Christians in these areas also asked the Emperor for assistance against rulers that were persecuting them because of their religion. As a devout Christian and protector of the faith Justinian had to answer these calls. The fact that he managed to reclaim these territories and rule over an empire that was at its largest since the time of Augustus, all the while dealing with threats on his Eastern and Northern frontiers and the ravaging effects of the Bubonic plague says a lot about his skill as an emperor.
During his reign Justinian also undertook great civil works that increased the prestige of the Empire. The first of these was the Justinian Code of 529. This was an immense work that took less than a year and which aimed to include every Roman law to date and eliminate anything that had been replaced. This was a huge task and was the first complete legal code in the empires history. This was followed by the Digest and the Institutes in 533 and finished with a new version of the Justinian Code in 534. These three legal works and the legislative Novels were known as the Corpus Juris Civilis, translated to the Body of Civil Law. The sheer size of these works and the amount of work that went into them would have made Byzantium an example of civilisation and order throughout the Middle Ages, and its prestige is increased by the fact that it was adopted by many of the Western Barbarian civilisations and is the basis for much of the world’s
a.
7. History of Rome
The first time the Roman Empire came to be was in 530, when it began conquering and gaining territory by force which it hoped to do so on the world´s most populous continent. This conquest was almost immediately followed by a new phase of rule. In particular the new emperor was Roman and he began to rule by force and not by negotiation. During this period Emperor Antoninus continued to have power and influence over the whole population of the Roman Empire. In 550 some 4% of Roman territory was conquered, which is very different from all other populations in the world. Antoninus’ rule had a huge impact on the history of the state, though the impact was far from limited to the people and to the economy: as many as 200 million people were killed in war in the Roman Empire, and most of that fell under the Roman Empire itself. In 554, the Roman Emperor made his first census, and he made a great deal of changes to the way the census was carried out, particularly to the number of Roman citizens. This was made possible by Antoninus’ efforts to convert many of the Roman territories into Roman subjects, so that he could make use of the new laws that he had inherited from the Roman Empire. To compensate, the state became increasingly ethnically Christian. Antoninus also created the Church of Rome, which was founded on the foundation of Judea by a Roman Emperor named Eustathius, who ruled this kingdom with his son Marcus, along with his heir, Antoninus. This church gradually became under the Roman Empire’s rule as well as gradually becoming the largest empire in Europe, and probably the most influential Catholic Church in the world.
The Church of Rome’s name was changed from Nazianca to Byzantium, which is the name in which Constantine is written. The current Emperor Constantine is known to have made a similar transition from Nazianca to Byzantium through a series of change in the ways in which he governed. According to the Roman historian Marcus Aurelius, the emperor’s reign lasted from 542 to 530, or 12 years. At the end of this time all the Roman state was divided into a large number of territories, with a few of them annexed in the process by the state, and the remainder made up of lands belonging to the general population whose territory were not subject to the Roman Empire until after the end of the empire’s reign. This gave rise to a number of states, with the exception of Bulgaria, which ruled over a large area of western Balkans. At the same time Byzantium grew and was in the process of growing to its present size at the time of the end of the Byzantine Empire.
7. History of Rome in the 6th and 7th centuries BCE
During the 6th century BCE the Roman Empire expanded its power rapidly into Europe, and many of the provinces of this country became even bigger. In 674, the Roman Emperor Constantine was able to impose a complete ban on all goods from the barbarian empire, allowing for a further expansion into the west. These expanded powers also included Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe. In 692 when Rome became independent, the Italian empire collapsed due to the outbreak of civil war which began in 693, and the invasion of the Roman Empire by the Goths. The Roman Empire expanded back toward the south and became an important European power, and a power on which the state could rely at any time. Roman troops were used to fight against German invasions of Italy and Italy. However, when the Roman Roman Empire was under the control of the Goths, many of the local Roman armies