That's so C.E. !!!: The age of Justinian I

On Wednesday, we briefly spoke about Byzantium, the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Byzantium continued much of the Catholic tradition, and about Justinian I, whose rule began in 527. I decided to blog about Justianian I because he was one of the most influential rulers of the Byzantium empire during it's rule.

Justinian was successful in conquering many former-held Roman territories, yet he also stirred up long battles of conflict with his empire's usual enemies, like Sassanid Persians, Slavs and Bulgars. Even though it required a large sum of annual gold payment, Justinian secured peace for the eastern Roman empire, by signing an eternal peace treaty with the Sassanid Persian King, Khosrau I, five years later.

Justinian had many western conquests in his rule, but his most ambitious was probably the reconquest of Italy, from the Ostrogoths, in 535. His victories were very succesful at first, tking major cities in Italy and even having the Ostrogoth king, Witiges, being brought before him in chains by one of his brilliant generals, Belisarius. The Ostrogoths however reorganized and were reunited as one and fought back. This exhausted most of the resoures of both the Byzantines and the Italiens. Just when the Byzantine Empire seemed to quite possibly be on the verge of losing all it had achieved in Italy, Justianian eventually gathered enough men to defeat the Italiens in 552. He actaully got 35,000 men, who mostly consisted of Asian and Germanic mercenaries. Following Justinian's resurgence of soldiers, the conquest of Italy was finally finito.

Khosrau I broke the "eternal" peace treaty that was made, possibly as early as 540. After all, sinec Justinian was conquering with much of his forces, he wasn't nearly as concentrated in protecting the eastern border, even though he did have strong forticiations. The only way Justinian could stop him would be to increase the annual gold payment. It mattered not, however. Many Slavs, as well as Kutrigur Bulgars, invaded the eastern empire, mostly in the Balkan area. Eventually, the Roman authority in the Balkans would be completely overwhelmed. Justinian I died in 565.

Even though his reign seemed to be partly falling apart in the end, Justinian I conquered many former Roman territories and fought back against the enemeies when all hope had seemed to vanish. He also did well in reestablishing Roman rule and reforming the administration and the law, It's interesting to note that Justianian was actually the son of a peasant. He was however adopted by Justin I, a former officer in the imperial army who had been chief of the guards to Anastasius I. After Anastasius died, Justin had been proclaimed emperor. So much for the lineage of royalty right?