PolledHistory: Friday Special - Justinian and the 6th Century

 Hello! Today's Fridaily bonus history blog is about Justinian. Last time, we discussed the 3rd Century Crisis, and about 300 years after that is our topic.

Before we begin let's lookmat the background and connect it with the last topic. After Diocletian, whose reforms solved the crisis was the Tetrarchy - the rule of four co emperors, then Constantine reunited things, then Constantine's relatives would rule for the next forty years. Then Theodosius came out on top by the 380s AD, and after him was a divided empire - the Eastern and Western roman empire. 

The Western Roman Empire fell less than a hundred years after the division, but the Eastern Empire survived. In fact, the Eastern Roman Empire (publicly known as the Byzantine Empire) would survive another millenium after Theodosius' death.

After the Fall of Western Rome (476 ad), in the Eastern Roman Empire there was now a man called Justin I. He is not the main character in our story yet, but he would lead the way to the main story of today. He was of peasant origins and when he died, his nephew Justinian I succeeded hum as emperor of Rome, or "Byzantium" (it was called Byzantium because before Constantine's expansion of the city, Constantinople, modern day Istanbul, was called Byzantium. However, calling the Eastern Romans Byzantines often neglect that the Eastern Romans were also Roman).

Justinian's Eastern Roman Empire only held the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, the Levant, and Egypt - no longer did they hold the areas of Italy, North Africa, Spain or Gaul (France). They did not even hold the city of Rome itself.

Justinian was troubled by this and he wanted to reclaim the lost territories of the west. He enacted reforms, but just when he ascended to the throne, there were riots. The important riot we know are the Nika Riots, happening in the Hippodromes (horse racing arenas), where people rioted in discontent with the reforms of Justinian.

The rioters were killed. Though a brutal act, this was the beginning of Justinian's reign that was stable. He began the reconquests by sending the general Belisarius, who was both a skilled commander and one of the emperor's friends, to North Africa, in modern day Tunisia, to reclaim the Roman provinces of Africa (Africa here refers just to Tunisia, Carthage and Algeria). 

Belisarius defeated the Vandal kingdom, which a century ago had migrated from Europe to North Africa. Belisarius' tactical genius and superior Byzantine technology let him triumph over the Vandals under king Gelimer. Gelimer was caught by Belisarius and brough to Galatia (Turkiye in modern days).

Belisarius had scored a major victory and the city of Carthage had been taken as well as its surroundings. Justinian's mission, though, was not yet over - still, the Roman Empire did not have Rome itself, nor even Italy! So Justinian sent Belisarius to capture the land held by the Ostrogoths.

This began the brutal and lengthy Gothic War between the Eastern Roman empire and the Ostrogoths. It began with Belisarius' landings on Sicily, quickly taking over the island in just a few months. In Illyria (Crotia and Bosnia in modern terms), the Eastern Romans were also campaigning.

536 AD, the ninth year of emperor Justinian's long reign, was a disastrous year for the world. A volcano  erupted, causing a volcanic winter, where temperatures dropped and the sun hid. Yersinia Pestis, a bacteria causing the Plague, also was about to strike the empire which had spent much of its resources on the reconquests.

The Gothic Wars, the wars agains tthe Ostrogoths were brutal and though at first Byzantine successes were  quick and plentiful, once they reached the city of Rome, Ostrogothic resistance held them back. By 539 AD, the Byzantines occupied the entire Italian peninsula, but the prohress was soon to be lost because of Ostrogothic opposition.

And in the 540s AD, a disaster struck the world - the Plague of Justinian, named after the Byzantine emperor who ruled by the time the disease had came, had spread to Europe, taking the lives of tens of millions of people. Justinian, the emperor himself caught the disease and appeared to have died.

His wife, Theodora, assumed power after this and managed to keep the empire relatively stable. But suddenly, Justinian woke up out of a coma, and yet again he was emperor. In the 540s, much of the Italian Peninsula was lost by the Byzantines, until finally, Belisarius campaigned from the south, and Narses, another commander, from the north, from Illyria. 

 The Byzantines finally annexed Italy and the Ostrogothic kingdom by 553 AD. Some of Southern Spain was also taken from the Visigoths. The wars of reconquest lead by Belisarius and other commanders ended by 556 AD. The Roman Empire wss restored by a lot, but these victories were brittle. They were quite quickly lost and they spent the empire's resources. 

Justinian died by 565 AD, Belisarius around the same time, and Theodora more than a decade before. In the 600s AD, the Byzantines only ruled over half of Italy, but North Africa was still theirs. However, bu the 600s, the Caliphates came and invaded the Byzantine Levant and later North Africa. By the 700s AD, North Africa was no more. And by 800 AD, though they still held Southern Italy, not the city of Rome. The reconquests were very brittle.

That's all!

Next Friday Topic: Basil II's Reign and the Macedonian Dynasty