Byzantium. Justinian I the Great

Justin was an Illyrian peasant by origin. Under Emperor Leo I (), in order to get rid of poverty, he, along with two brothers, reached Constantinople on foot and entered the military service. Procopius writes that upon their arrival in the city they had nothing but goat coats and breadcrumbs taken from them at home, but here the brothers were immediately lucky: since they were distinguished by their excellent physique, they were selected for court guards. Subsequently, under Anastasia I (), Justin participated in the Isaurian war. Then he gradually reached great power and was placed in charge of the court guards. (Procopius: "The Secret History"; 6). Justin received imperial power beyond any expectation, because there were many noble and rich people who were related to the deceased Anastasius and had more rights to appropriate such great power. At that time, Amantius, the overseer of the imperial beds, was a very strong man. As an eunuch, he himself could not rule by law, but he wanted to put the crown of autocratic power on Theocritus, a man devoted to him. To this end, he summoned Justin, gave him a large amount of money and ordered them to be distributed to people who were especially fit for such a business and could clothe Theocritus in purple. But Justin, either because he bribed the people with this money, or because he won the favor of the so-called bed-keepers with them, - this is told in two, - he acquired royal power for himself and after that took the life of both Amantius and Theocritus with some other people.

Justin called to Constantinople Vitalian, who lived in Thrace, who had once attempted to deprive Anastasius of supreme power, because he was afraid of his strength and his militancy, about which rumors rushed everywhere. To inspire confidence in him, Justin declared him the head of part of the army and then promoted him to consul. In the rank of consul, Vitalian appeared in the palace and was treacherously put to death at one of the palace doors. (Evagrius: 4; 1.3). Unlike the previous emperors Zeno () and Anastasia, Justin professed strict Orthodoxy. He ordered the deposition of about fifty Syrian Monophysite bishops and raised persecution against adherents of all heretical trends. (Dashkov: “Justin the First”). Justin even wanted to seize and cut off the tongue of the Antiochian primate of the North for blaspheming the Council of Chalcedon. (Evagrius: 4; 4).

According to Procopius, Justin was a stranger to any learning and did not even know the alphabet, which the Romans had never had before. And at a time when it was customary for the emperor to put his own hand to the letters containing his decrees, he was not able to either issue decrees or be involved in what was happening. But someone who happened to be with him in the position of quaestor, named Proclus, did everything himself at his own discretion. But in order to have evidence of the emperor's own signature, those who were entrusted with this business came up with the following. Having cut on a small smooth board the outline of four letters, meaning in Latin "read", and dipping the pen in colored ink, which emperors usually write, they handed it to Justin. Then, placing the above-mentioned tablet on the document and taking the hand of the emperor, they traced the outline of these four letters with a pen so that it passed through all the cuts in the tree.

Justin lived with a woman named Luppikina. A slave and a barbarian, she was bought by him in the past and was his concubine. And together with Justin, in her declining years, she reached imperial power. This woman was not distinguished by any virtues, she remained ignorant of state affairs. In the palace, she did not appear under her own name (it was too funny), but became known as Euphemia. Justin himself was unable to make his subjects either good or bad, for he was extremely weak-minded and truly like a pack donkey, able only to follow those who pull him by the bridle, and now and then shake his ears. He was distinguished by simplicity, did not know how to speak fluently, and in general was very masculine. In extreme old age, having weakened his mind, he became a laughing stock for his subjects, and everyone treated him with complete disdain, because he did not understand what was happening. His nephew Justinian, while still young, began to manage all state affairs and was the source of many misfortunes for the Romans. (Procopius: "The Secret History"; 6,8,9).

The west of the Roman Empire, captured by the Germans, who divided it into barbarian kingdoms, lay in ruins. Only islets and fragments of the Hellenistic civilization survived there, by that time already transformed by the light of the Gospel. The German kings - Catholic, Arian, pagan - still had reverence for the Roman name, but the center of gravity for them was no longer a dilapidated, devastated and depopulated city on the Tiber, but New Rome, created by the creative act of St. Constantine on the European shore of the Bosphorus, cultural superiority which over the cities of the West was an indisputable evidence.

The primordially Latin-speaking, as well as Latinized inhabitants of the German kingdoms, assimilated the ethnonyms of their conquerors and masters - Goths, Franks, Burgundians, while the Roman name has long become familiar to the former Hellenes, who lost their original ethnonym, which fed their national pride in the past, to the small in the east empires to the pagans. Paradoxically, later in Rus', at least in the writings of learned monks, pagans of any origin, even Samoyeds, are called “Greeks”. Romans, or, in Greek, Romans, called themselves immigrants from other peoples - Armenians, Syrians, Copts, if they were Christians and citizens of the empire, which was identified in their minds with the ecumene - the Universe, not because, of course, they imagined on its borders, the edge of the world, but because the world that lies beyond these borders was deprived of its full value and self-worth in their minds and in this sense belonged to pitch darkness - meon, in need of enlightenment and communion with the blessings of Christian Roman civilization, in need of integration into a genuine ecumene, or, what is the same, to the Roman Empire. Since then, newly baptized peoples, regardless of their real political status, by the very fact of baptism were considered included in the imperial body, and their rulers from barbarian sovereigns became tribal archons, whose powers stem from the emperors, in whose service they are, at least symbolically , acted, honoring ranks from the palace nomenclature as a reward.

In Western Europe, the era from the 6th to the 9th century is the dark ages, and the East of the empire experienced during this period, despite crises, external threats and territorial losses, a brilliant flowering, the reflections of which were cast to the west, and therefore not overturned as a result of the barbarian conquest into the maternal womb of prehistoric existence, as happened in due time with the Mycenaean civilization, destroyed by the invaders from Macedonia and Epirus, conditionally called Dorians, who invaded its borders. The Dorians of the Christian era - the Germanic barbarians - stood no higher than the ancient conquerors of Achaia in terms of their cultural development, but, once within the empire and turning the conquered provinces into ruins, they fell into the field of attraction of the fabulously rich and beautiful world capital - New Rome, which withstood the blows of human elements and learned to appreciate the bonds that bound their peoples to him.

The era ended with the assimilation of the Frankish king Charles the imperial title, and more precisely and definitely - with the failure of attempts to settle relations between the newly proclaimed emperor and the successor emperor - Saint Irene - so that the empire remained united and indivisible if it had two rulers with the same title, as it happened many times happened in the past. The failure of the negotiations led to the formation of a separate empire in the West, which, from the point of view of political and legal traditions, was an act of usurpation. The unity of Christian Europe was undermined, but not completely destroyed, for the peoples of the East and West of Europe remained for another two and a half centuries in the bosom of a single Church.

The period, which lasted from the 6th to the turn of the 8th-9th centuries, is called early Byzantine after the anachronistic, but still sometimes used in these centuries in relation to the capital - and never to the empire and the state - the ancient toponym Byzantium, reanimated by historians of modern times, for which it began to serve as a name both the state and civilization itself. Within this period, its most brilliant segment, its acme and apogee was the era of Justinian the Great, which began with the reign of his uncle Justin the Elder and ended with the turmoil that led to the overthrow of the legitimate emperor Mauritius and the coming to power of the usurper Phocas. The emperors who ruled after St. Justinian until the rebellion of Phocas were directly or indirectly related to the dynasty of Justin.

Reign of Justin the Elder

After the death of Anastasius, his nephews, the Master of the East, Hypatius, and the consulars of Probus and Pompey, could claim supreme power, but the dynastic principle in itself meant nothing in the Roman Empire without reliance on real power and the army. The nephews, having no support from the excuvites (life guards), did not seem to have any claim to power. The eunuch Amantius, who enjoyed special influence on the late emperor, would put the sacred bedchamber (a kind of minister of the court), the eunuch Amantius, tried to install his nephew and bodyguard Theocritus as emperor, for which, according to Evagrius Scholasticus, having called on the committee of excuvites and senator Justin, “transferred to him great wealth, ordering to distribute them among people, especially useful and able (to help) Theocritus to put on purple clothes. Having bribed with these riches either the people, or the so-called excuvites ... (Justin himself) seized power. According to John Malala, Justin conscientiously fulfilled the order of Amantius and distributed money to the excuvites subordinate to him so that they would support Theocritus's candidacy, and "the army and the people, having taken (the money), did not want to make Theocritus king, but by the will of God they made Justin king" .

According to another and quite convincing version, which, however, does not contradict the information about the distribution of gifts in favor of Theocritus, at first the traditionally rival guard units (the technology of power in the empire provided for a system of balances) - excuvites and schols - had different candidates for supreme power. The excuvites raised to the shield the tribune John, a companion of Justin, who soon after the acclamation of his chief emperor became a cleric and was appointed metropolitan of Heraclea, and the scholia proclaimed the emperor of the master militum praesentalis (the army stationed in the capital) Patricius. The threat of civil war that arose in this way was averted by the decision of the Senate to install the elderly and popular commander Justin as emperor, who shortly before the death of Anastasius defeated the rebellious troops of the usurper Vitalian. The excuvites approved this choice, and the scholas agreed with it, and the people gathered at the hippodrome greeted Justin.

On July 10, 518, Justin ascended the hippodrome box together with Patriarch John II and the highest dignitaries. Then he stood on the shield, campiduktor Godila put a golden chain - hryvnia - on his neck. The shield was raised to the salutatory acclamations of the warriors and the people. The banners flew up. The only innovation, according to J. Dagron, was the fact that the newly proclaimed emperor after acclamation "did not return to the triclinium of the lodge in order to receive insignia", but the soldiers lined up "tortoise" to hide him "from prying eyes" while "the patriarch laid a crown on his head" and "dressed him in a mantle". Then the herald, on behalf of the emperor, announced a welcoming address to the troops and people, in which he called for Divine Providence to help in his service to the people and the state. Each warrior was promised 5 gold coins and a pound of silver as a gift.

There is a verbal portrait of the new emperor in the "Chronicle" of John Malala: "He was short, broad-chested, with gray curly hair, with a beautiful nose, ruddy, handsome." The historian adds to the description of the appearance of the emperor: “experienced in military affairs, ambitious, but illiterate.”

At that time, Justin had already approached the 70-year mark - at that time it was the age of old age. He was born around 450 into a peasant family in the village of Bederian (located near the modern Serbian city of Leskovac). In this case, he, and therefore his more famous nephew Justinian the Great, comes from the same Inner Dacia as Saint Constantine, who was born in Naissus. Some historians find Justin's homeland in the south of the modern Macedonian state - near Bitola. Both ancient and modern authors denote the ethnic origin of the dynasty in different ways: Procopius calls Justin an Illyrian, while Evagrius and John Malala call him a Thracian. The version of the Thracian origin of the new dynasty seems less convincing. Despite the name of the province where Justin was born, Inner Dacia was not the true Dacia. After the evacuation of the Roman legions from real Dacia, its name was transferred to the province adjacent to it, where the legions were redeployed at one time, leaving Dacia conquered by Trajan, and not the Thracian, but the Illyrian element prevailed in its population. In addition, within the Roman Empire, by the middle of the 1st millennium, the process of Romanization and Hellenization of the Thracians had already been completed or was being completed, while one of the Illyrian peoples, the Albanians, had successfully survived to this day. A. Vasiliev definitely considers Justin an Illyrian; in one way or another he was, of course, a Romanized Illyrian. Despite the fact that his native language was the language of his ancestors, he, like his fellow villagers and all the inhabitants of Inner Dacia, as well as neighboring Dardania, at the very least knew Latin. In any case, Justin should have mastered it in military service.

For a long time, the version of the Slavic origin of Justin and Justinian was seriously considered. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Vatican librarian Alemann published a biography of Justinian, attributed to a certain abbot Theophilus, who was named his mentor. And in this biography, Justinian adopted the name "Administration". In this name, the Slavic translation of the Latin name of the emperor is easily guessed. The seepage of the Slavs through the imperial border into the central part of the Balkans took place in the 5th century, although at that time it was not of a massive nature and did not yet appear to be a serious danger. Therefore, the version of the Slavic origin of the dynasty was not rejected from the threshold. But, as A.A. Vasiliev, "the manuscript used by Alemann was found and studied at the end of the 19th century (1883) by the English scientist Bryce, who showed that this manuscript, being compiled at the beginning of the 17th century, is of a legendary nature and has no historical value" .

In the reign of Emperor Leo, Justin, together with his fellow villagers Zimarch and Ditivist, went to military service to get rid of poverty. “They reached Byzantium on foot, carrying goat coats over their shoulders, in which, upon arrival in the city, they had nothing but crackers taken from home. Enlisted in the soldier's lists, they were selected by the basileus for the court guard, for they were distinguished by their excellent physique. The imperial career of a poor peasant, fantastically unthinkable in medieval Western Europe, was an ordinary phenomenon and even typical of the late Roman and Roman Empire, just as similar metamorphoses were repeated more than once in the history of China.

Being in the service of the guard, Justin acquired a concubine, later taken by him as his wife - Lupicina, a former slave, whom he bought from her master and cohabitant. After becoming empress, Lupicina changed her common name to an aristocratic one. According to the caustic remark of Procopius, “she did not appear in the palace under her own name (it was too funny already), but began to be called Euphemia.”

Possessing courage, common sense, diligence, Justin made a successful military career, rising to the rank of officer, and then the rank of general. In the service field, he also had breakdowns. One of them has been preserved in the annals, because after the rise of Justin it received a providential interpretation among the people. The story of this episode is included by Procopius in his Secret History. During the suppression of the rebellion of the Isaurians during the reign of Anastasius, Justin was in the army, commanded by John, nicknamed Kirt - "Humpbacked". And for some unknown offense, John arrested Justin in order to “put him to death the next day, but he was prevented from doing this ... a vision ... In a dream, someone of enormous growth appeared to him ... And this vision ordered him to release her husband, whom he ... threw into prison » . John at first did not attach importance to the dream, but the dream was repeated the next night and then a third time; the husband who appeared in the vision threatened Kirt “to prepare for him a terrible fate if he does not fulfill what was ordered, and at the same time added that later ... he would urgently need this man and his relatives. That was how Justin managed to stay alive,” Procopius sums up his anecdote, possibly based on the story of Kirt himself.

Anonymous Valesia tells another story, which, according to popular rumor, foreshadowed Justin, when he was already one of the dignitaries close to Anastasius, the supreme power. Having reached a ripe old age, Anastasius thought about which of his nephews should become his successor. And then one day, in order to divine the will of God, he invited all three of them to his chambers and, after supper, left them to spend the night in the palace. “At the head of one bed, he ordered to put the royal (sign), and by whoever of them chooses this bed for rest, he will be able to determine who to give power to subsequently. One of them lay down on one bed, while the other two, out of brotherly love, lay down together on the second bed. And ... the bed where the royal sign was hidden turned out to be unoccupied. When he saw this, on reflection, he decided that none of them would rule, and began to pray to God that He would send him a revelation ... And one night he saw in a dream a man who said to him: “The first one about whom you will be informed tomorrow in the chambers, and will take over after you power. It so happened that Justin ... as soon as he arrived, he was sent to the emperor, and he was the first to report on him ... he would oppose. Anastasius, according to Anonymous, “praised gratitude to God for showing him a worthy heir,” and yet, humanly, Anastasius was upset by what had happened: “Once, during the royal exit, Justin, in a hurry to pay respect, wanted to bypass the emperor from the side and involuntarily stepped on his mantle. To this, the emperor only said to him: “Where are you in a hurry?”

In climbing the career ladder, Justin was not hindered by his illiteracy, and according to the probably exaggerated certification of Procopius, illiteracy. The author of The Secret History wrote that, even after becoming emperor, Justin found it difficult to sign the issued edicts and constitutions, and so that he could still do this, a “small smooth plate” was made, on which was cut “the contour of four letters, meaning in Latin "Read" (Legi. - prot. V.Ts.); dipping a pen in colored ink, with which the basileus usually write, they handed it to this basileus. Then, putting the mentioned tablet on the document and taking the hand of the basileus, they traced the outline of these four letters with a pen. With a high degree of barbarization of the army, illiterate military leaders were put at the head more than once. This does not mean at all that they were mediocre generals, on the contrary, in other cases, illiterate and illiterate generals turned out to be outstanding commanders. Turning to other times and peoples, one can point out that Charlemagne, although he loved to read and highly valued classical education, could not write. Justin, who became famous under Anastasia for his successful participation in the war with Iran and then, shortly before his ascension to the top of power, for suppressing the rebellion of Vitalian in the decisive naval battle near the walls of the capital, was at least a capable military leader and a sensible administrator and politician, which is eloquent says popular rumor: Anastasius thanked God when it was revealed to him that it was he who would become his successor, and therefore Justin does not deserve the contemptuous characteristics of Procopius: “He was very simple (hardly so, probably only in appearance, in manners. - prot. V.Ts.), did not know how to speak fluently and was generally very masculine”; and even: “He was extremely weak-minded and truly like a pack donkey, capable only of following the one who pulls him by the bridle, and now and then shake his ears.” The meaning of this swearing philippic is that Justin was not an independent ruler, that he was manipulated. Such an ominous, in the view of Procopius, a manipulator, a kind of "gray eminence", turned out to be the emperor's nephew Justinian.

He really surpassed his uncle both in abilities, and even more so in education, and willingly helped him in matters of state government, enjoying his complete confidence. Another assistant to the emperor was the prominent jurist Proclus, who from 522 to 526 held the position of quaestor of the sacred court and headed the imperial office.

The first days of Justin's reign were stormy. Amantius and his nephew Theocritus, whom he intended as Anastasia's heirs, will not put up with the sacred bedchamber, not resigning himself to an unfortunate defeat, with the failure of his intrigue, “thought, according to Theophanes the Confessor, to make an outrage, but paid with their lives.” The circumstances of the conspiracy are unknown. Procopius presented the execution of the conspirators in a different form, unfavorable for Justin and especially Justinian, whom he considers the main culprit of what happened: “Not even ten days have passed since he reached power (meaning the proclamation of Justin emperor. - prot. V.Ts), how he killed, along with some others, the head of the court eunuchs, Amantius, without any reason, except for the fact that he said a rash word to the bishop of the city, John. The mention of Patriarch John II of Constantinople sheds light on the possible spring of the conspiracy. The fact is that Justin and his nephew Justinian, unlike Anastasius, were adherents, and they were burdened by the break in Eucharistic communion with Rome. They considered the overcoming of the schism, the restoration of church unity between the West and the East, as the main goal of their policy, especially since Justinian the Great saw the prospect of restoring the Roman Empire to its former fullness in achieving this goal. Their like-minded person was the newly appointed primate of the Metropolitan Church, John. It seems that in his desperate attempt to replay the already played game by eliminating Justin, the priest wanted to rely on those dignitaries who, like the late emperor, gravitated towards Monophysitism and who were little bothered by the break in canonical communion with the Roman See. According to the Monophysite John of Nikius, who refers to the emperor as Justin the Cruel, after coming to power, he “put to death all the eunuchs, regardless of their degree of guilt, since they did not approve of his accession to the throne.” Monophysites, obviously, were other eunuchs in the palace, in addition to the head of the sacred bedchamber who commanded over them.

Vitalian tried to rely on adherents of Orthodoxy in his rebellion against Anastasius. And in the new situation, despite the fact that he himself played a decisive role in defeating the rebel, Justin now, perhaps - on the advice of his nephew, decided to bring Vitalian closer to him. Vitalian was appointed to the highest military post of commander of the army stationed in the capital and its environs - magister militum praesentalis - and even awarded the title of consul for 520, which in that era was usually worn by the emperor, members of the imperial house with the titles of Augustus or Caesars, and only the most high-ranking dignitaries from persons who do not belong to the number of close relatives of the autocrat.

But already in January 520, Vitalian was killed in the palace. At the same time, he was inflicted 16 dagger wounds. Byzantine authors find three main versions regarding the organizers of his assassination. According to one of them, he was killed by order of the emperor, because he knew that he "planned to raise a rebellion against him." This is the version of John of Nikius, in whose eyes Vitalian was especially odious, because, close to the emperor, he insisted that the tongue of the Monophysite Patriarch Severus of Antioch be curtailed for his "sermons, full of wisdom and accusations against the emperor Leo and his vicious faith" , in other words, against the Orthodox diaphysite dogma. Procopius of Caesarea in The Secret History, written with a fury obsessed with hatred for St. Justinian, calls him the culprit of Vitalian's death: autocratically ruling in the name of his uncle, Justinian at first "hurriedly sent for the usurper Vitalian, having previously given him a guarantee in his safety", but " soon, suspecting him of having offended him, he unreasonably killed him in the palace along with his relatives, not at all considering the terrible oaths he had previously taken as an obstacle to this. More credible, however, is the version set out much later, but probably based on non-surviving documentary sources. So, according to Theophan the Confessor, a writer at the turn of the 8th-9th centuries, Vitalian was "killed in an insidious way by those of the Byzantines who were angry with him for the extermination of so many of their compatriots during his uprising against Anastasius" . The reason to suspect Justinian of a conspiracy against Vitalian could be given by the fact that after his assassination, he took the post of master of the army, which became vacant, although in reality the emperor’s nephew undoubtedly had more direct and irreproachable paths to the highest posts in the state, so that a serious argument this circumstance cannot serve.

But to what act of the emperor his nephew was really touched was the restoration of Eucharistic communion with the Roman Church, broken in the reign of Zeno in connection with the publication of the notorious Enoticon, the initiative of which belonged to Patriarch Akakios, so that this break itself, which continued for 35 years old, in Rome received the name "Akakian schism." On Pascha 519, after extremely difficult negotiations conducted by the papal legates in Constantinople, a divine service was celebrated in the church of Hagia Sophia with the participation of Patriarch John and the papal legates. Justinian was moved to this step not only by the same commitment to the Chalcedon Oros, but also by the concern to remove obstacles (among which one of the most difficult was the church schism) for the implementation of the grandiose plan he had already outlined to restore the integrity of the Roman Empire.

Various circumstances distracted the government from the implementation of this plan, among them the renewed war on the eastern border. This war was preceded by a phase that rarely happened in the history of relations between Iran and Rome, not only peaceful, but also directly friendly phase, which was established in the first years of Justin's reign. From the end of the 5th century, Iran was shaken by opposition caused by the teachings of Mazdak, who preached utopian social ideas similar to chiliasm that had grown on Christian soil: about universal equality and the abolition of private property, including the introduction of the community of wives; he received massive support from the common people and that part of the military aristocracy, which was burdened by the religious monopoly of the Zoroastrian magicians. Among the enthusiasts of Mazdakism were also persons belonging to the Shah's dynasty. Shah Kavad himself was fascinated by Mazdak's preaching, but later he became disillusioned with this utopia, seeing it as a direct threat to the state, turned away from Mazdak and began to persecute both himself and his supporters. Being already old, the shah took care that after his death the throne would go to his youngest son Khosrov Anushirvan, who was closely connected with the circles of zealous adherents of traditional Zoroastrianism, bypassing the eldest son Kaos, whose upbringing Kavad at the time of his enthusiasm for Mazdakism handed over to the adherents of this teaching, and he , unlike his father, who changed his views, remained a Mazdakit according to his convictions.

In order to purchase an additional guarantee of the transfer of power to Khosrow, Kavad decided to enlist support in the event of a critical turn of events from Rome and sent Justin a message that, in the retelling of Procopius of Caesarea (not in his Secret History, but in the more reliable book War with the Persians) ) looks like this: “The fact that we suffered injustice from the Romans, you yourself know, but I decided to completely forget all the insults against you ... However, for all this I ask you for one favor, which ... would be able to give us in all the blessings of the world abound. I suggest that you make my Khosrov, who will be the successor of my power, your adopted son. It was an idea that mirrored the situation of a hundred years ago, when, at the request of Emperor Arcadius, Shah Yazdegerd took Arcadius's minor successor Theodosius II under his guardianship.

The message of Kavad delighted both Justin and Justinian, who did not see a trick in it, but the quaestor of the sacred court Proclus (whom Procopius does not skimp on praises in the history of wars, and in the Secret History, where he contrasts him with another outstanding jurist Tribonian and Justinian himself as an adherent of existing laws and an opponent of legislative reforms) saw in the Shah's proposal a danger to the Roman state. Turning to Justin, he said: “I am not accustomed to putting my hand on what smacks of innovation ... knowing full well that the desire for innovation is always fraught with danger ... In my opinion, we are now discussing nothing more than how to under a plausible pretext to transfer the state of the Romans to the Persians ... For ... this embassy from the very beginning aims to make this Khosrov, whoever he may be, the heir of the Roman basileus ... By natural law, the property of the fathers belongs to their children. Proclus managed to convince Justin and his nephew of the danger of Kavad's proposal, but, on his own advice, it was decided not to deny him his request directly, but to send envoys to him to negotiate a peace - until then only a truce was in effect, and the question of the boundaries were not settled. As for the adoption of Khosrov by Justin, the ambassadors will have to declare that it will take place, “as it happens with the barbarians”, and “the barbarians make the adoption not with the help of letters, but with the delivery of weapons and armor” . The highly experienced and overly cautious politician Proclus and, as can be seen, the cunning Levantine Procopius, who was quite sympathetic to his incredulity, were hardly right in their suspicion, and the first reaction to the proposal of the shah from the rulers of Rome, who came from the Illyrian rural hinterland, could be more adequate. , but they changed their minds and followed the advice of Proclus.

The nephew of the late emperor, Anastasia Hypatius, and the patrician Rufin, who had friendly relations with the shah, were sent for negotiations. From the Iranian side, high-ranking dignitaries Seos, or Siyavush, and Mevod (Mahbod) took part in the negotiations. Negotiations were conducted on the border of the two states. When discussing the terms of the peace treaty, the country of the Lazians, which in ancient times was called Colchis, turned out to be a stumbling block. From the time of Emperor Leo, it was lost by Rome and was in the sphere of influence of Iran. But shortly before these negotiations, after the death of the king of the Laz Damnaz, his son Tsaf did not want to apply to the shah with a request to grant him the royal title; instead, he went to Constantinople in 523, was baptized there, and became a vassal of the Roman state. At the talks, the envoys of Iran demanded the return of Lazika to the supreme power of the Shah, but this demand was rejected as insulting. In turn, the Iranian side considered it an "intolerable insult" to propose that Khosrov be adopted by Justin according to the rite of the barbarian peoples. Negotiations reached an impasse, nothing could be agreed upon.

The response to the failure of negotiations on the part of Kavad was repressions against the Iberians, closely related to the Laz, who, according to Procopius, “Christians and better than all the peoples known to us keep the statutes of this faith, but from ancient times ... are subordinate to the Persian king. Kavad decided to forcibly convert them to his faith. He demanded from their king Gurgen that he perform all the rituals that the Persians adhere to, and, among other things, in no case bury the dead, but throw them all to be eaten by birds and dogs. King Gurgen, or, in other words, Bakur, turned to Justin for help, and he sent the nephew of the emperor Anastasius, the patrician Prov, to the Cimmerian Bosporus, so that the ruler of this state would send his troops against the Persians to help Gurgen for a monetary reward. But Prov's mission did not bring results. The ruler of the Bosporus refused to help, and the Persian army occupied Georgia. Gurgen, together with his family and the Georgian nobility, fled to Lazika, where they continued to resist the now invading Persians in Lazika.

Rome went to war with Iran. In the country of the Lazes, in the powerful fortress of Petra, located near the modern village of Tsikhisdziri, between Batum and Kobuleti, a Roman garrison was stationed, but the main theater of hostilities was the region familiar to the wars of the Romans with the Persians - Armenia and Mesopotamia. The Roman army entered Perso-Armenia under the command of the young commanders Sitta and Belisarius, who had the rank of Justinian's spearmen, and troops led by the master of the army of the East, Livelarius, moved against the Mesopotamian city of Nisibis. Sitta and Belisarius acted successfully, they devastated the country into which their armies entered, and, "capturing many Armenians, retired to their own borders." But the second invasion of the Romans into Perso-Armenia under the command of the same commanders turned out to be unsuccessful: they were defeated by the Armenians, whose leaders were two brothers from the noble family of Kamsarakans - Narses and Aratius. True, soon after this victory, both brothers betrayed the Shah and went over to the side of Rome. Meanwhile, the army of Livelarius during the campaign suffered the main losses not from the enemy, but because of the exhausting heat and was eventually forced to retreat.

In 527, Justin dismissed the unlucky commander, appointing his nephew Anastasius Hypatius as the master of the army of the East, and Belisarius as dux of Mesopotamia, who was entrusted with the command of the troops that retreated from Nisibis and stationed in Dara. Speaking about these movements, the historian of the war with the Persians did not fail to remark: “Then Procopius was appointed to him as an adviser” - that is, he himself.

During the reign of Justin, Rome provided armed support to the distant Ethiopian kingdom with its capital in Aksum. The Christian king of Ethiopia, Kaleb, waged war with the king of Yemen, who patronized the local Jews. And with the help of Rome, the Ethiopians managed to defeat Yemen, restoring the dominance of the Christian religion in this country, located on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. A.A. Vasiliev remarks on this: “At the first moment, we are surprised to see how the Orthodox Justin, who ... launched an offensive against the Monophysites in his own empire, supports the Monophysite Ethiopian king. However, outside the official borders of the empire, the Byzantine emperor supported Christianity in general ... From a foreign policy point of view, the Byzantine emperors considered each conquest for Christianity as an important political and, possibly, economic conquest. In connection with these events in Ethiopia, a legend later acquired an official status, which was included in the book “Kebra Negast” (“Glory of the Kings”), according to which two kings - Justin and Kaleb - met in Jerusalem and divided the whole land among themselves, but with thus the worst part of her went to Rome, and the best to the king of Aksum, because he has a more noble origin - from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and his people are therefore God's chosen New Israel - one of the many examples of naive messianic megalomania.

In the 520s, the Roman Empire suffered from several earthquakes that destroyed large cities in different parts of the state, among them Dyrrhachium (Durres), Corinth, Anazarb in Cilicia, but the earthquake that befell the metropolis of Antioch with about 1 million inhabitants was the most detrimental in its consequences. . As Theophanes the Confessor writes, on May 20, 526, “at the 7th hour of the day, during the consulate in Rome of Olivria, the great Syrian Antioch, through the wrath of God, suffered an unspeakable disaster ... Almost the entire city collapsed and became a tomb for the inhabitants. Some, being under the ruins, became victims of the fire that came out of the ground while still alive; another fire fell from the air in the form of sparks and, like lightning, burned everyone it met; while the earth shook for a whole year. Up to 250,000 Antiochians, led by their patriarch Euphrasius, fell victim to the natural disaster. The restoration of Antioch required enormous expenditures and continued for decades.

From the very beginning of his reign, Justin relied on the help of his nephew. On April 4, 527, the deeply aged and seriously ill emperor appointed Justinian as his co-ruler with the title of August. Emperor Justin died on August 1, 527. Before his death, he experienced excruciating pain from an old wound in his leg, which in one of the battles was pierced by an enemy arrow. Some historians retroactively give him a different diagnosis - cancer. In his best years, Justin, although he was illiterate, was distinguished by considerable abilities - otherwise he would not have made a career as a military leader and, moreover, would not have become an emperor. “In Justin,” according to F.I. Uspensky, - one should see a person who was fully prepared for political activity, who brought certain experience and a well-thought-out plan to management ... The main fact of Justin's activity is the end of a long church dispute with the West ", which in other words can be described as the restoration of Orthodoxy in the east of the empire after long-term dominance of monophysitism.

Justinian and Theodora

After the death of Justin, his nephew and co-ruler Justinian, who at that time already bore the title of August, remained the only emperor. The beginning of his sole and in this sense monarchical rule did not cause confusion either in the palace, or in the capital, or in the empire.

The future emperor before the rise of his uncle was called Peter Savvaty. He named himself Justinian in honor of his uncle Justin, having then adopted for himself, having already become emperor, as his predecessors did, the family name of the first Christian autocrat Constantine - Flavius, so that in the consular diptych of 521 his name is read as Flavius ​​Peter Savvatius Justinian. He was born in 482 or 483 in the village of Taurisia near Bederiana, the native village of his maternal uncle Justin, into a poor peasant family, Savvatius and Vigilancia, of Illyrian, according to Procopius, or, less likely, of Thracian origin. But even in the rural outback of Illyricum at that time, in addition to the local language, Latin was used, and Justinian knew it from childhood. And then, once in the capital, under the patronage of his uncle, who made a brilliant general career during the reign of Anastasius, Justinian, who possessed extraordinary abilities, inexhaustible curiosity and exceptional diligence, mastered the Greek language and received a thorough and comprehensive, but mostly, as can be concluded from the circle of his later studies and interests, legal and theological education, although he was also well-versed in mathematics, rhetoric, philosophy and history. One of his teachers in the capital was the outstanding theologian Leontius of Byzantium.

Not having a penchant for military affairs, in which Justin remarkably succeeded, he developed as a cabinet and book man, equally well prepared for both academic and state activities. Nevertheless, Justinian began his career under Emperor Anastasius as an officer in the palace school of the Excuvites under his uncle. He enriched his experience by spending several years at the court of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great as a diplomatic agent of the Roman government. There he got to know the Latin West, Italy and the barbarian Arians better.

During the reign of Justin, becoming his closest assistant and then co-ruler, Justinian was awarded honorary titles and titles of senator, committee and patrician. In 520 he was appointed consul for the following year. The festivities held on this occasion were accompanied by “the most costly games and performances at the hippodrome that Constantinople has ever known. At least 20 lions, 30 panthers and an unknown number of other exotic animals were killed in a large circus. At one time Justinian held the post of master of the army of the East; in April 527, shortly before the death of Justin, he was proclaimed August, becoming not only de facto, but now also de jure co-ruler of his uncle, who was already dying. This ceremony was held modestly, in the private chambers of Justin, "from where a serious illness no longer allowed him to leave," "in the presence of Patriarch Epiphanius and other high dignitaries."

We find a verbal portrait of Justinian in Procopius: “He was not big and not too small, but of medium height, not thin, but slightly plump; his face was round and not devoid of beauty, for even after two days of fasting a blush played on it. In order to give an idea of ​​his appearance in a few words, I will say that he was very similar to Domitian, the son of Vespasian ”, - whose statues have been preserved. This description can be trusted, especially since it corresponds not only to miniature relief portraits on coins, but also to the mosaic images of Justinian in the Ravenna churches of St. Apollinaris and St. Vitalius and the porphyry statue in the Venetian church of St. Mark.

But it is hardly worth trusting the same Procopius when he is in The Secret History (otherwise called "Anecdote", which means "Unpublished", so that this conditional title of the book, due to its peculiar content, subsequently came into use as a designation of the corresponding genre - biting and caustic, but not necessarily reliable stories) characterizes the temper and moral rules of Justinian. At the very least, his malicious and biased assessments, which are in such contrast with other statements, already panegyric in tone, with which he abundantly equipped his history of wars and in particular the treatise On Buildings, should be taken critically. But, given the extreme degree of irritable hostility with which Procopius writes about the personality of the emperor in The Secret History, there is no reason to doubt the validity of the characteristics placed in it, representing Justinian from the best side, regardless of whether in what - positive, negative or dubious - light they were seen by the author himself with his special hierarchy of ethical values. “With Justinian,” he writes, “every business went easily ... because he ... did without sleep and was the most accessible person in the world. People, even if they were not noble and completely unknown, had every opportunity not only to come to the tyrant, but also to have a secret conversation with him”; “in the Christian faith, he ... was firm”; “he, one might say, almost did not feel the need for sleep and never ate or drank to his full, but it was enough for him to barely touch the food with his fingertips to stop the meal. As if this seemed to him a matter of secondary importance, imposed by nature, for he often remained without food for two days, especially when it was time for the eve of the celebration of the so-called Easter. Then often ... he remained without food for two days, content with a small amount of water and wild plants, and after sleeping, God forbid, an hour, he spent the rest of the time in constant pacing.

Procopius wrote in more detail about the ascetic asceticism of Justinian in the book “On Buildings”: “He constantly got up from his bed at dawn, awake in the care of the state, always directing state affairs personally both in deed and in word, both during the morning and at noon, and often all night long. Late at night he lay down on his bed, but very often got up at once, as if angry and indignant at the soft bedding. When he took to food, he did not touch either wine, or bread, or anything else that is edible, but ate only vegetables, and at the same time coarse, aged for a long time in salt and vinegar, and served as a drink for him. pure water. But even with this he was never satisfied: when dishes were served to him, he, having only tasted from those that he ate at that time, sent the rest back. His exceptional devotion to duty is not hidden in the libelous "Secret History": "What he wanted to publish in his own name, he did not instruct to be compiled by someone who had the position of quaestor, as was customary, but considered it permissible to do this for the most part himself ". Procopius sees the reason for this in the fact that in Justinian "there was nothing of royal dignity, and he did not consider it necessary to observe it, but he was like a barbarian in language, appearance, and way of thinking." In such conclusions, a measure of the author's conscientiousness is characteristically revealed.

But are the accessibility of Justinian noted by this hater of the emperor, his incomparable diligence, which obviously stemmed from a sense of duty, an ascetic lifestyle and Christian piety, with a highly original conclusion about the demonic nature of the emperor, in support of which the historian refers to the evidence of unnamed courtiers? who “felt that instead of him they saw some unusual diabolical ghost”? In the style of a real thriller, Procopius, anticipating medieval Western fantasies about succubi and incubi, reproduces or rather still composes stunning gossip about “that his mother ... used to tell someone close that he was not born from her husband Savvaty and not from any person. Before she became pregnant with him, a demon visited her, invisible, but left her with the impression that he was with her and had intercourse with her as a man with a woman, and then disappeared as in a dream. Or about how one of the courtiers “told how he ... suddenly got up from the royal throne and began to wander back and forth (he was not used to sitting in one place for a long time), and suddenly Justinian’s head suddenly disappeared, and the rest of the body seemed , continued to make these long movements, he himself (who saw this) believed (and, it seems, quite sensibly and soberly, if all this is not an invention of pure water. - prot. V.Ts.) that his eyesight was blurred, and he stood shocked and depressed for a long time. Then, when the head returned to the body, he thought in embarrassment that the gap he had before (in vision) was filled.

With such a fantastic approach to the image of the emperor, it is hardly worth taking seriously the invectives contained in such a passage from The Secret History: full of lies, and at the same time he easily succumbed to those who wanted to deceive him. There was in him some unusual mixture of unreasonableness and depravity of character ... This basileus was full of cunning, deceit, was distinguished by insincerity, had the ability to hide his anger, was two-faced, dangerous, was an excellent actor when it was necessary to hide his thoughts, and knew how to shed tears not from joy or sorrow, but artificially calling them up at the right time as needed. He lied all the time." Some of the traits listed here seem to relate to the professional qualities of politicians and statesmen. However, as is known, it is common for a person to notice his own vices in his neighbor with special vigilance, exaggerating and distorting the scale. Procopius, who wrote the History of Wars with one hand and the book On Buildings, which was more than complimentary to Justinian, and the Secret History with the other, presses with particular energy on the insincerity and duplicity of the emperor.

The reasons for the partiality of Procopius could be and, obviously, were different - perhaps some episode of his biography that remained unknown, but also, probably, the fact that for the famous historian the feast of the Resurrection of Christ was "the so-called Easter"; and, perhaps, another factor: according to Procopius, Justinian “forbade sodomy by law, subjecting to inquiry cases that took place not after the publication of the law, but concerning those persons who were seen in this vice long before it ... Those exposed in this way were deprived of their shameful members were led around the city anyway ... They were also angry at astrologers. And ... the authorities ... subjected them to torment for this reason alone and, having severely whipped them on the back, put them on camels and drove them around the city - they, people who were already elderly and in all respects respectable, who were accused only of wanting to become wise in the science of the stars."

Be that as it may, in view of such disastrous contradictions and inconsistencies found in the notorious "Secret History", it follows from b O more confidence in the characteristics that the same Procopius gives him in his published books: in the History of Wars and even in the book On Buildings written in a panegyric tone: “In our time, the emperor Justinian appeared, who, having taken power over the state , shaken by unrest and brought to shameful weakness, increased its size and brought it to a brilliant state ... Finding faith in God in the old days unsteady and forced to follow the paths of various confessions, erasing from the face of the earth all paths that led to these heretical hesitations, he achieved this so that she now stands on one solid foundation of true confession ... Himself, on his own impulse, forgiving in And filling us with riches to satiety and thus overcoming a humiliating unfortunate fate for them, he ensured that the joy of life reigned in the empire ... Of those whom we know from rumors, they say, the best sovereign was the Persian king Cyrus ... If someone carefully looks at the reign of our emperor Justinian ... this person admits that Cyrus and his state were a toy compared to him.

Justinian was granted a wonderful bodily strength, excellent health, inherited from his peasant ancestors and hardened by the unpretentious, ascetic way of life that he led in the palace, being at first the co-ruler of his uncle, and then the sovereign autocrat. His amazing health was not undermined by sleepless nights, during which, as in the daytime hours, he indulged in the affairs of state government. In old age, when he was already 60 years old, he fell ill with the plague and successfully recovered from this deadly disease, then living to a ripe old age.

A great ruler, he knew how to surround himself with assistants of outstanding abilities: these were the generals Belisarius and Narses, the outstanding lawyer Tribonian, the brilliant architects Isidore from Miletus and Anthimius from Thrall, and among these luminaries his wife Theodora shone as a star of the first magnitude.

Justinian met her around 520 and became infatuated with her. Like Justinian, Theodora was of the humblest, though not so ordinary, but rather exotic origin. She was born in Syria, and according to some, less reliable information, in Cyprus at the end of the 5th century; the exact date of her birth is unknown. Her father Akakiy, who moved with his family to the capital of the empire, found a kind of income there: he became, according to Procopius, which is repeated by other Byzantine historians, “an overseer of the animals of the circus”, or, as he was also called, “bear cub”. But he died early, leaving orphans three young daughters: Komito, Theodora and Anastasia, the eldest of whom was not yet seven years old. The widow of the "bear cub" got married a second time in the hope that her new husband would continue the craft of the deceased, but her hopes were not justified: in the Dima of the Prasins, another replacement was found for him. The mother of the orphaned girls, however, according to the story of Procopius, did not lose heart, and "when ... the people gathered in the circus, she, having put wreaths on the heads of three girls and giving each of them garlands of flowers in both hands, put them on their knees with a plea for protection". The rival circus party of the Veneti, probably for the sake of moral triumph over rivals, took care of the orphans and took their stepfather to the position of animal overseer in their faction. Since then, Theodora, like her husband, has become an ardent fan of venets - blue.

When the daughters grew up, their mother placed them on the stage. Procopius, characterizing the profession of the eldest of them, Komito, calls her not an actress, as it should be with a calm attitude to the topic, but a hetero; later, in the reign of Justinian, she was given in marriage to the master of the army, Sitta. At the time of her childhood, spent in poverty and need, Theodora, according to Procopius, “dressed in a tunic with sleeves ... accompanied her, serving her in everything.” When the girl grew up, she became an actress of mimic theater. “She was unusually graceful and witty. Because of this, everyone was delighted with her. ” One of the reasons for the delight in which the young beauty led the audience, Procopius considers not only her inexhaustible ingenuity in witticisms and jokes, but also the lack of shame. His further account of Theodore is replete with shameful and dirty fantasies bordering on sexual delirium, which speaks more about the author himself than about the victim of his libelous inspiration. Is there any truth in this game of inflamed pornographic imagination? The historian Gibbon, famous in the age of "enlightenment", who set the tone for the Western fashion for Byzanthophobia, willingly believes Procopius, finding a compelling argument in favor of the reliability of the anecdotes he told in their very improbability: Meanwhile, street gossip could serve as the only source of information on this part of Procopius, so that the real way of life of the young Theodora can only be judged on the basis of the biographical outline, the characteristics of the artistic profession and the mores of the theatrical environment. The modern historian of Norwich, touching on this subject, rejects the reliability of Procopius' pathological insinuations, but, taking into account the rumor from which he could draw some of his anecdotes, he notes that "yet, as you know, there is no smoke without fire, therefore there is no doubt about The fact that Theodora, as our grandmothers used to say, had a “past”. Whether she was worse than others at the same time - the answer to this question remains open. The famous byzantologist S. Diehl, touching on this sensitive topic, wrote: “Some psychological features of Theodora, her concern for poor girls who died in the capital more often from need than from depravity, the measures taken by her to save them and free them“ from the yoke of shameful slavery ”... as well as the somewhat contemptuous cruelty that she always showed to men, to a certain extent confirm what is said about her youth ... But is it possible to believe, as a result of this, that Theodora’s adventures produced that terrible scandal that Procopius describes, that she was really out of the ordinary courtesan? .. It should not be overlooked that Procopius likes to represent the depravity of the faces he depicts in almost epic sizes ... I ... would be very inclined to see in her ... the heroine of a more banal story - a dancer who behaved in the same way as they behave at all times women of her profession.

In fairness, it should be noted that the unflattering characteristics addressed to Theodora came from a different side, however, their essence remains unclear. S. Dil expresses annoyance at the fact that the Monophysite historian Bishop John of Ephesus, “who knew Theodora closely, out of respect for the greats of this world, did not tell us in detail all the insulting expressions with which, in his own words, the pious monks reviled the Empress - people known with its brutal frankness.

When, at the beginning of the reign of Justin, the hard-to-get theatrical bread became bitter Theodore, she changed her way of life and, becoming close to a native of Tire, possibly her countryman, Hekebol, who was then appointed ruler of the province of Pentapolis, located between Libya and Egypt, left with him to his place. services. As Theodora S. Diel commented on this event in the life of Theodora, “Finally tired of fleeting connections, and, having found a serious person who provided her with a strong position, she began to lead a decent life in marriage and piety.” But her family life did not last long, ending in a break. Theodora left a young daughter. Abandoned by Hekebol, whose later fate is unknown, Theodora moved to Alexandria, where she settled in a hospice belonging to the Monophysite community. In Alexandria, she often talked with the monks, from whom she sought consolation and guidance, as well as with priests and bishops.

There she met the local Monophysite Patriarch Timothy - at that time the Orthodox throne of Alexandria remained vacant - and with the Monophysite Patriarch Severus of Antioch, who was in exile in this city, respectful attitude towards whom she kept forever, which in a special way encouraged her when she became a powerful assistant her husband, seek reconciliation between diaphysites and monophysites. In Alexandria, she took up her education in earnest, read the books of the Church Fathers and external writers, and, possessing extraordinary abilities, an unusually penetrating mind and a brilliant memory, in time became, like Justinian, one of the most erudite people of her time, a competent connoisseur of theology. Life circumstances prompted her to move from Alexandria to Constantinople. Contrary to everything that is known about Theodora’s piety and impeccable behavior from the time when she left the stage, Procopius, losing a sense of not only proportion, but also reality and plausibility, wrote that “after passing through the whole East, she returned to Byzantium. In every city she resorted to a craft, which, I think, a person cannot name without losing the grace of God "- this expression is given here to show the price of the writer's testimony: in other places of his pamphlet, he, without fear of "forfeiting the grace of God" , enthusiastically names the most shameful of the exercises that actually existed and invented by his inflamed imagination, which he falsely attributes to Theodora.

In Constantinople, she settled in a small house on the outskirts. In need of funds, she, according to legend, set up a spinning workshop and wove yarn herself in it, sharing the labors of hired workers. There, under circumstances that remain unknown, around 520 Theodora met the emperor's nephew Justinian, who became infatuated with her. At that time, he was already a mature person, approaching the 40-year milestone. Frivolity was never characteristic of him. Apparently, in the past he did not have a rich experience of relationships with women. He was too serious and picky for that. Having recognized Theodora, he fell in love with her with amazing devotion and constancy, and this later, at the time of their marriage, was expressed in everything, including his activities as a ruler, which Theodora influenced like no other.

Possessing rare beauty, a penetrating mind and education, which Justinian knew how to appreciate in women, brilliant wit, amazing self-control and strong character, Theodora managed to captivate the imagination of her high-ranking chosen one. Even the vindictive and vindictive Procopius, who seems to be painfully offended by some of her caustic jokes, but harboring resentment and splashing it out on the pages of his “Secret History” written “on the table”, pays tribute to her external attractiveness: “Theodora was beautiful in face and besides she is full of grace, but short in stature, pale-faced, but not quite white, but rather yellowish-pale; her gaze from under her frowning brows was menacing. This is a kind of lifetime verbal portrait, all the more reliable because it corresponds to that of her lifetime, but already a mosaic image, which has been preserved in the apse of the Ravenna church of St. Vitaly. A successful description of this portrait of her, referring, however, not to the time of her acquaintance with Justinian, but to a later period of her life, when old age was already ahead, was made by S. Diel: “Under the heavy imperial mantle, the camp seems higher, but less flexible; under the diadem that hides the forehead, a small delicate face with a somewhat thinner oval, a large straight and thin nose looks solemn, almost sad. Only one thing remained on this withered face: under the dark line of fused eyebrows, beautiful black eyes ... still illuminate and seem to destroy the face. The exquisite, truly Byzantine grandeur of Augusta's appearance on this mosaic is emphasized by her regal clothes: “The long, purple purple mantle that covers her below shimmers with lights in the soft folds of an embroidered gold border; on her head, surrounded by a halo, is a high diadem of gold and precious stones; her hair is intertwined with pearl threads and threads studded with precious stones, and the same jewelry falls in sparkling streams on her shoulders.

Having met Theodora and fell in love with her, Justinian asked his uncle to grant her the high title of patrician. The co-ruler of the emperor wanted to marry her, but faced two obstacles in this intention. One of them was of a legal nature: the senators, to whose estate the nephew of the autocrat was naturally ranked, were forbidden by the law of the holy emperor Constantine to marry former actresses, and the other came from the resistance of the thought of such a misalliance on the part of the wife of the emperor Euphemia, who loved her nephew her husband and sincerely wishing him every good, even though she herself, in the past called not by this aristocratic, but by the common name of Lupicina, which Procopius finds ridiculous and absurd, had the most modest origin. But such fanabery is just a characteristic feature of suddenly exalted persons, especially when they are characterized by innocence combined with common sense. Justinian did not want to go against the prejudices of his aunt, to whose love he responded with grateful affection, and did not rush into marriage. But time passed, and in 523 Euthymia departed to the Lord, after which Emperor Justin, alien to the prejudices of the late wife, repealed the law prohibiting unequal marriages for senators, and in 525, in the church of Hagia Sophia, Patriarch Epiphanius married the senator and patrician Justinian to the patrician Theodora.

When Justinian was proclaimed August and Justin's co-ruler on April 4, 527, his wife Saint Theodora was next to him and received proper honors. And henceforth, she shared with her husband his government work and honors, which befitted him as an emperor. Theodora received ambassadors, gave audiences to dignitaries, and statues were erected to her. The state oath included both names - Justinian and Theodora: I swear "by the almighty God, His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the holy glorious Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, the four Gospels, the holy archangels Michael and Gabriel, that I will well serve the most pious and holy sovereigns Justinian and Theodora, the wife of his imperial majesty, and to work without hypocrisy for the sake of the prosperity of their autocracy and government.

War with the Persian Shah Kavad

The most important foreign policy event of the first years of Justinian's reign was the renewed war with Sasanian Iran, described in detail by Procopius. In Asia, four mobile field armies of Rome were stationed, constituting b O most of the armed forces of the empire and designed to defend its eastern borders. Another army was in Egypt, two corps were in the Balkans - in Thrace and Illyricum, covering the capital from the north and west. The personal guard of the emperor, which consisted of seven scholas, consisted of 3,500 selected soldiers and officers. There were also garrisons in strategically important cities, especially in fortresses located in the border zone. But, as can be seen from the above description of the composition and deployment of the armed forces, Sasanian Iran was considered the main adversary.

In 528, Justinian ordered the head of the garrison of the border city of Dara, Belisarius, to begin building a new fortress at Mindon, near Nisibis. When the walls of the fortress, on the construction of which many workers worked, rose to a fair height, the Persians became worried and demanded that the construction be stopped, seeing in it a violation of the agreement concluded earlier, under Justin. Rome rejected the ultimatum, and the redeployment of troops to the border began on both sides.

In the battle between the Roman detachment led by Kutsey and the Persians near the walls of the fortress under construction, the Romans were defeated, the survivors, including the commander himself, were captured, and the walls, the construction of which served as the fuse of the war, were razed to the ground. In 529 Justinian appointed Belisarius to the highest military post of Master, or, in Greek, Stratilates, of the East. And he made an additional set of troops and moved the army towards Nisibis. Next to Belisarius at the headquarters was Hermogenes, sent by the emperor, who also had the rank of master - in the past he was Vitalian's closest adviser when he rebelled against Anastasius. The Persian army under the command of Mirran (commander-in-chief) Peroz was advancing towards them. The Persian army at first consisted of up to 40 thousand cavalry and infantry, and then reinforcements of 10 thousand people came up. They were opposed by 25 thousand Roman soldiers. Thus, the Persians had a twofold superiority. On both front lines were troops of different tribes of the two great powers.

Correspondence took place between the military leaders: Mirran Peroz, or Firuz, from the Iranian side and Belisarius and Hermogenes from the Roman side. The Roman generals offered peace, but insisted on the withdrawal of the Persian army from the border. Mirran wrote in response that the Romans could not be trusted, and therefore only war could resolve the dispute. The second letter to Peroz, sent by Belisarius and his companions, ended with the words: “If you are so eager for war, then we will oppose you with the help of God: we are sure that He will help us in danger, condescending to the peacefulness of the Romans and angry at the boasting of the Persians, who decided to go to war against us, who offered you peace. We will march against you, attaching to the tops of our banners before the battle what we mutually wrote to each other. Mirran's answer to Belisarius was filled with insulting arrogance and bragging: “And we do not go into battle without the help of our gods, with them we will go against you, and I hope that tomorrow they will lead us into Dara. Therefore, let a bathhouse and dinner be ready for me in the city.

The general battle took place in July 530. Peroz began it at noon with the expectation that “they will attack the hungry,” because the Romans, unlike the Persians, who are accustomed to dine at the end of the day, eat until noon. The battle began with a skirmish with bows, so that the arrows rushing in both directions blocked the sunlight. The Persians had a richer supply of arrows, but eventually they ran out. The Romans were favored by the wind that blew in the face of the enemy, but there were losses, and considerable ones, on both sides. When there was nothing more to shoot, the enemies entered into hand-to-hand combat with each other, acting with spears and swords. During the battle, more than once, the superiority of forces was found on one side or the other in different parts of the line of contact. A particularly dangerous moment for the Roman army came when the Persians, standing on the left flank under the command of the one-eyed Varesman, together with a detachment of "immortals", "swiftly rushed at the Romans standing against them", and "they, unable to withstand their onslaught, fled", but then there was a turning point that decided the outcome of the battle. The Romans, who were on the flank, hit the side of the rapidly advancing detachment and cut it in two. The Persians, who were ahead, were surrounded and turned back, and then the Romans, who had fled from them, stopped, turned around and hit the warriors who had been pursuing them earlier. Having fallen into the enemy’s ring, the Persians desperately resisted, but when their commander Varesman fell, thrown off his horse and killed by Sunica, they rushed to flee in a panic: the Romans overtook them and beat them. Up to 5,000 Persians perished. Belisarius and Hermogenes finally ordered the pursuit to stop, fearing surprises. “On that day, the Romans,” according to Procopius, “managed to defeat the Persians in battle, which has not happened for a long time.” For Mirran's failure, Peroz was subjected to a humiliating punishment: “the king took away from him the jewelry of gold and pearls, which he usually wore on his head. Among the Persians, this is a sign of the highest dignity after the royal.

The victory of the Romans at the walls of Dara did not end the war with the Persians. Sheikhs of Arab Bedouins intervened in the game, wandering near the borders of the Roman and Iranian empires and plundering the border cities of one of them in agreement with the authorities of the other, but, above all, in their own interests - for their own benefit. One of these sheikhs was Alamundar, a highly experienced, resourceful and resourceful robber, not without diplomatic skills. In the past, he was considered a vassal of Rome, received the title of Roman patrician and king of his people, but then went over to the side of Iran, and, according to Procopius, “for 50 years he exhausted the strength of the Romans ... From the borders of Egypt to Mesopotamia, he devastated all areas, stole and took away everything in a row, burned buildings that came across to him, enslaved many tens of thousands of people; most of them he immediately killed, others he sold for a lot of money. The protege of the Romans from among the Arab sheikhs, Aref, in skirmishes with Alamundar, invariably failed or, Procopius suspects, "acted treacherously, as most likely should be allowed." Alamundar came to the court of Shah Kavad and advised him to move around the province of Osroene with its numerous Roman garrisons through the Syrian desert to the main outpost of Rome in the Levant - to the brilliant Antioch, whose population is distinguished by special carelessness and cares only about entertainment, so that the attack will be for him a terrible surprise for which they will not be able to prepare in advance. And as for the difficulties of the campaign through the desert, Alamundar suggested: "Do not worry about the lack of water or anything, for I myself will lead the army, as I think best." Alamundar's proposal was accepted by the shah, and he placed at the head of the army, which was to storm Antioch, the Persian Azaretes, next to whom Alamundar was supposed to be, "showing him the way."

Having learned about the new danger, Belisarius, who commanded the Roman troops in the East, moved a 20,000-strong army towards the enemy, and he retreated. Belisarius did not want to attack the retreating enemy, but militant moods prevailed in the troops, and the commander failed to calm his soldiers. On April 19, 531, on the day of Holy Easter, a battle took place on the banks of the river near Kallinikos, which ended in defeat for the Romans, but the victors, who forced the army of Belisarius to retreat, suffered enormous losses: when they returned home, the dead and captured were counted. Procopius tells how this is done: before the campaign, the soldiers each throw one arrow into the baskets placed on the parade ground, “then they are stored, sealed with the royal seal; when the army returns ... then each soldier takes one arrow from these baskets. When the troops of Azaretes, returning from a campaign in which they failed to take either Antioch or any other city, although they won the battle at Kallinikos, marched in front of Kavad, taking out arrows from baskets, then, “as in baskets left a lot of arrows ... the king considered this victory a shame for Azareth and subsequently kept him among the least worthy.

Another theater of war between Rome and Iran was, as in the past, Armenia. In 528, a Persian detachment invaded Roman Armenia from Perso-Armenia, but was defeated by the troops stationed there, commanded by Sitta, after which the Shah sent a larger army there under the command of Mermeroi, the backbone of which was Savir mercenaries numbering 3 thousand horsemen. And again the invasion was repulsed: Mermeroy was defeated by troops under the command of Sitta and Dorotheus. But, having recovered from the defeat, having made an additional set, Mermeroy again invaded the boundaries of the Roman Empire and camped near the city of Satala, located 100 kilometers from Trebizond. The Romans unexpectedly attacked the camp - a bloody stubborn battle began, the outcome of which hung in the balance. The decisive role in it was played by the Thracian horsemen who fought under the command of Florence, who died in this battle. After the defeat, Mermeroy left the empire, and three prominent Persian commanders, originally from Armenians: the brothers Narses, Aratius and Isaac, from the aristocratic family of Kamsarakans, who successfully fought the Romans during the reign of Justin, went over to the side of Rome. Isaac surrendered to his new owners the fortress of Bolon, located near Theodosiopolis, on the border, the garrison of which he commanded.

On September 8, 531, Shah Kavadh died of paralysis on the right side, which befell him five days before his death. He was 82 years old. His successor was, on the basis of his will, the youngest son Khosrov Anushirvan. The highest dignitaries of the state, led by Mevod, stopped the attempt of the eldest son of Kaos to take the throne. Shortly thereafter, negotiations began with Rome for a peace treaty. From the Roman side, Rufinus, Alexander and Thomas participated in them. The negotiations were difficult, interrupted by breaks in contacts, threats from the Persians to resume the war, accompanied by the movement of troops towards the border, but in the end, in 532, an agreement on "perpetual peace" was signed. In accordance with it, the border between the two powers remained basically unchanged, although Rome returned to the Persians the fortresses Farangia and Volus taken from them, the Roman side also undertook to transfer the headquarters of the commander of the army stationed in Mesopotamia, further from the border - from Dara to Constantine. In the course of negotiations with Rome, Iran earlier, and this time, put forward a demand for the joint defense of the passes and passages through the Greater Caucasus Range near the Caspian Sea to repel the raids of nomadic barbarians. But, since this condition was unacceptable for the Romans: a military unit located at a considerable distance from the Roman borders would be in an extremely vulnerable position there and completely dependent on the Persians, an alternative proposal was put forward - to pay Iran money in compensation for its costs for the defense of the Caucasian passes. This proposal was accepted, and the Roman side undertook to pay Iran 110 centinaries of gold - a centinary was 100 libra, and the weight of a libra is approximately one third of a kilogram. Thus, Rome, under the plausible cover of compensation for the costs of joint defense needs, undertook to pay an indemnity of about 4 tons of gold. At that time, after the multiplication of the treasury under Anastasius, this amount was not particularly burdensome for Rome.

The situation in Lasik and Iveria was also the subject of negotiations. Lazika remained under the protectorate of Rome, and Iberia - of Iran, but those Iverians, or Georgians who fled from the Persians from their country to neighboring Lazika, were given the right to stay in Lazika or return to their homeland of their own free will.

Emperor Justinian agreed to conclude peace with the Persians, since he was developing at that time a plan for conducting military operations in the West - in Africa and Italy - with the aim of restoring the integrity of the Roman Empire and for the sake of protecting the Orthodox Christians of the West from the discrimination that they were subjected to by the Arians who dominated them. But the dangerous development of events in the capital itself kept him from carrying out this plan for a while.

Rebellion "Nika"

In January 532, a rebellion broke out in Constantinople, the instigators of which were members of circus factions, or dims, prasins (green) and venets (blue). Of the four circus parties, by the time of Justinian, two - Levki (white) and Rus (red) - disappeared, leaving no noticeable traces of their existence. “The original meaning of the names of the four parties,” according to A.A. Vasiliev, is unclear. Sources of the VI century, that is, the era of Justinian, say that these names correspond to four elements: earth (green), water (blue), air (white) and fire (red). Dimas, similar to those in the capital, bearing the same names for the colors of the clothes of circus drivers and carriages, also existed in those cities where hippodromes were preserved. But the dims were not only communities of fans: they were endowed with municipal duties and rights, they served as a form of organizing a civil militia in case of a siege of the city. Dimas had their own structure, their own treasury, their leaders: these were, according to F.I. Uspensky, “democrats, of which there were two - the dimocrats of the Venets and the Prasins; both of them were appointed by the king from the highest military ranks with the rank of protospafarius. In addition to them, there were also dimarchs, who used to be headed by the dimarchs of the Levks and Russ, who actually died out, but retained the memory of themselves in the nomenclature of ranks. Judging by the sources, the remnants of the Dimalevks were absorbed by the Venets, and the Rusians by the Prasins. There is no complete clarity regarding the structure of dims and the principles of division into dims due to insufficient information in the sources. It is only known that the dimas, led by their dimocrats and dimarchs, were subordinate to the prefect, or eparch, of Constantinople. The number of Dims was limited: at the end of the 6th century, during the reign of Mauritius, there were one and a half thousand Prasins and 900 Venets in the capital, but much more numerous supporters joined the formal members of the Dims.

The division into dimas, like modern party affiliation, to a certain extent reflected the existence of different social and ethnic groups and even different theological views, which in New Rome served as the most important indicator of orientation. More affluent people predominated among the Veneti - landowners and officials; natural Greeks, successive diaphysites, while the Dim Prasin united mainly merchants and artisans, there were many immigrants from Syria and Egypt, among the Prasins the presence of Monophysites was also noticeable.

Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora were supporters, or, if you like, fans of the Veneti. The characterization of Theodora as a supporter of the Prasins found in the literature is based on a misunderstanding: on the one hand, on the fact that her father at one time was in the service of the Prasins (but after his death, the Prasins, as mentioned above, did not take care of his widow and orphans, in while the Veneti showed generosity to the orphaned family, and Theodora became a zealous "cheerleader" of this faction), and on the other hand, on the fact that she, not being a Monophysite, provided patronage to the Monophysites at a time when the emperor himself was looking for a way to reconcile them with the diaphysites, meanwhile, in the capital of the empire, the Monophysites concentrated around the Dima Prasins.

Not being recognized as political parties, performing, in accordance with their place in the hierarchy of metropolitan institutions, rather a representative function, the Dima nevertheless reflected the moods of various circles of urban residents, including their political desires. Back in the days of the principate and then the dominance, the hippodrome became the focus of political life. After the acclamation of the new emperor in the military camp, after the church blessing on the reign, after his approval by the senate, the emperor appeared at the hippodrome, occupied his box there, which was called the kathisma, and the people - the citizens of New Rome - performed the legally significant act of his election as emperor with their cries of welcome, or, closer to the real state of affairs, recognition of the legitimacy of an earlier election.

From a real-political point of view, the participation of the people in the election of the emperor was of an exclusively formal, ceremonial nature, but the traditions of the ancient Roman Republic, torn apart in the time of the Gracchi, Maria, Sulla, the triumvirates by the struggle of parties, made their way in the rivalry of circus factions, which went beyond the limits of sports excitement. As F.I. Ouspensky, “the hippodrome provided the only arena, in the absence of a printing press, for the loud expression of public opinion, which was sometimes binding on the government. Here public affairs were discussed, here the population of Constantinople expressed, to a certain extent, their participation in political affairs; while the ancient political institutions, through which the people expressed their sovereign rights, gradually fell into decay, unable to get along with the monarchical principles of the Roman emperors, the city hippodrome continued to be an arena where free opinion could be expressed with impunity ... The people politicized on the hippodrome , censured both the tsar and the ministers, sometimes mocked unsuccessful policies. But the hippodrome with its dimes served not only as a place where the masses could criticize the actions of the authorities with impunity, it was also used by groups or clans surrounding the emperors, holders of government powers in their intrigues, served as a tool for compromising rivals from hostile clans. Taken together, these circumstances turned dimas into a risky weapon, fraught with riots.

The danger was aggravated by the extremely impudent criminal mores that reigned among the Stasiotes, who formed the core of the Dims, something like avid fans who did not miss the races and other performances of the hippodrome. About their manners, with probable exaggerations, but still not fantasizing, but relying on the real state of affairs, Procopius wrote in The Secret History: the Venetian stasiotes “openly carried weapons at night, but during the day they hid small double-edged daggers at their hips. As soon as it began to get dark, they huddled together and robbed those who (looked) more decent, throughout the agora and in the narrow streets ... Some, during the robbery, they considered it necessary to kill, so that they would not tell anyone about what happened to them . Everyone suffered from them, and among the first were those Veneti who were not Stasiotes. Their dapper and frilly attire was very colorful: they trimmed their clothes with “a beautiful border ... The part of the chiton that covered the arm was tightly pulled together near the wrist, and from there it expanded to an incredible size up to the shoulder. Whenever they were in the theater or on the hippodrome, shouting or cheering (the charioteers) ... waving their arms, this part (tunic) naturally swelled, giving the fools the impression that they had such a beautiful and strong body that they had to clothe it in similar robes ... Capes, wide trousers, and especially shoes, both in name and in appearance, were Hunnic. The stasiotes of the Prasins who competed with the Veneti either went over to the enemy gangs, “swept by the desire to participate in crimes with complete impunity, while others, having fled, took refuge in other places. Many, overtaken there, died either at the hands of the enemy, or subjected to persecution by the authorities ... Many other young men began to flock to this community ... They were motivated to this by the opportunity to show strength and audacity ... Many, seducing them with money, pointed out to the Stasiotes their own enemies and immediately they destroyed them." The words of Procopius that “no one had the slightest hope that he would remain alive in such an unreliable life” is, of course, only a rhetorical figure, but the atmosphere of danger, anxiety and fear was present in the city.

Thunderstorm tension was discharged by a riot - an attempt to overthrow Justinian. The rebels had different motives for taking risks. Adherents of the nephews of Emperor Anastasius lurked in palace and government circles, although they themselves did not seem to aspire to supreme power. They were mainly dignitaries who adhered to the Monophysite theology, of which Anastasius was an adherent. Dissatisfaction with the tax policy of the government accumulated among the people, the closest assistants to the emperor, the praetorian prefect John of Cappadocia and Quaestor Tribonian, were seen as the main culprits. Rumor accused them of extortion, bribes and extortion. The Pracines resented Justinian's overt preference for the Veneti, and the Stasiotes of the Veneti were unhappy that the government, contrary to what Procopius wrote about condoning their banditry, nevertheless took police measures against the particularly obvious criminal excesses that they committed. Finally, there were still pagans, Jews, Samaritans, as well as heretics Arians, Macedonians, Montanists and even Manicheans in Constantinople, who rightly saw a threat to the very existence of their communities in the religious policy of Justinian, focused on supporting Orthodoxy with all the power of law and real power. So the combustible material in the capital accumulated in a high degree of concentration, and the hippodrome served as the epicenter of the explosion. It is easier for people of our time, captured by sports passions, than it was in previous centuries, to imagine how easily the excitement of fans, charged at the same time with political allegiances, can result in riots that threaten insurrection and coup, especially when the crowd is skillfully manipulated.

The beginning of the rebellion was the events that took place at the hippodrome on January 11, 532. In the interval between races, one of the prasins, apparently prepared in advance for the performance, on behalf of his dim addressed the emperor who was present at the races with a complaint about the spafarius of the sacred bedchamber of Kalopodia: “For many years, Justinian - August, win! - they offend us, the only good one, and we are not able to bear it any longer, God is my witness! . The representative of the emperor, in response to the accusation, said: "Kalopodiy does not interfere in the affairs of government ... You converge on spectacles only to insult the government." The dialogue became more and more tense: “Whatever it was, and who offends us, that part will be with Judas.” “Silence, Jews, Manichaeans, Samaritans!” “Are you slandering us as Jews and Samaritans? Mother of God, be with us all!..” – “Not joking: if you don’t stop, I will order everyone to cut off their heads” – “Order to kill! Please punish us! Already the blood is ready to flow in streams ... It would be better if Savvaty had not been born than to have a son as a murderer ... (This was already an openly rebellious attack.) So in the morning, outside the city, under Zeugma, a murder took place, and you, sovereign, at least look at it! There was a murder in the evening too.” The representative of the gay faction answered this: “The killers of this whole stage are only yours ... You kill and rebel; you only have stage killers.” The representative of the greens turned directly to the emperor: “Who killed the son of Epagaf, autocrat?” - "And you killed him, and you blame it on the blues" - "Lord, have mercy! Truth is being abused. Therefore, it can be argued that the world is not controlled by God's Providence. Where does such evil come from? “Blasphemers, theomachists, when will you shut up?” - “If it pleases your power, I willy-nilly keep silent, triaugust; I know everything, but I keep silent. Farewell justice! You are already speechless. I go to another camp, I will become a Jew. God knows! It is better to become a Hellenic than to live with the gays. Having challenged the government and the emperor, the greens left the hippodrome.

A quarrel with him at the hippodrome, insulting to the emperor, served as a prelude to the rebellion. The eparch, or prefect, of the capital, Evdemon, ordered the arrest of six people suspected of murders from both dims - green and blue. An investigation was conducted, and it turned out that seven of them were indeed guilty of this crime. Evdemon pronounced a verdict: four criminals beheaded, and three - crucified. But then something incredible happened. According to the story of John Malala, “when they ... began to hang, the pillars collapsed, and two (the condemned) fell; one was blue, the other green. A crowd gathered at the place of execution, monks from the monastery of St. Konon came and took with them the thwarted criminals sentenced to execution. They ferried them across the strait to the Asian shore and gave them asylum in the Church of the Martyr Lawrence, which had the right of asylum. But the prefect of the capital, Evdemon, sent a military detachment to the temple in order to prevent them from leaving the temple and hiding. The people were outraged by the actions of the prefect, because in the fact that the hanged broke loose and survived, they saw the miraculous effect of God's Providence. A crowd of people went to the prefect's house and asked him to remove the guards from the church of St. Lawrence, but he refused to fulfill this request. Dissatisfaction with the actions of the authorities grew in the crowd. The conspirators took advantage of the murmuring and indignation of the people. The staciots of the Venets and the Prasins agreed on a solidarity revolt against the government. The password of the conspirators was the word "Nika!" (“Win!”) - the exclamation of the spectators at the hippodrome, with which they cheered the competing drivers. The uprising went down in history under the name of this victorious cry.

On January 13, at the capital's hippodrome, equestrian competitions were again held, timed to coincide with the ides of January; Justinian sat on the imperial kathisma. In the intervals between the races, the Veneti and Prasins agreed to ask the emperor for mercy, for the forgiveness of those sentenced to death and miraculously freed from death. As Ioan Malala writes, “they continued to shout until race 22, but did not receive an answer. Then the devil inspired them with a bad intention, and they began to praise each other: “Many years to the merciful prasins and venets!” instead of greeting the emperor. Then, leaving the hippodrome, the conspirators, together with the crowd that had joined them, rushed to the residence of the prefect of the city, demanded the release of those sentenced to death and, not receiving a favorable answer, set fire to the prefecture. This was followed by new arson, accompanied by the killing of warriors and everyone who tried to counteract the rebellion. According to John Malala, “the Copper Gate burned down to the very scholia, and the Great Church, and the public portico; The people continued to rage." A more complete list of buildings destroyed by fire is given by Theophanes the Confessor: “The porticos from Kamara itself on the square to Halka (stairs), silver shops and all the buildings of Lavs burned down ... they entered houses, robbed property, burned the palace porch ... the premises of the royal bodyguards and the ninth part of Augustus ... They burned the Alexandrov baths and Sampson's large hospice with all his patients. Cries were heard in the crowd demanding to install "another king."

The equestrian competitions scheduled for the next day, January 14, were not cancelled. But when the flag was hoisted at the hippodrome, the rebellious prasins and venets, shouting “Nika!”, began to set fire to places for spectators. A detachment of Heruli under the command of Mund, whom Justinian ordered to pacify the rebellion, could not cope with the rebels. The emperor was ready to compromise. Having learned that the rebellious Dimas demanded the resignation of the dignitaries especially hated by them, John the Cappadocian, Tribonian and Eudemona, he complied with this demand and dismissed all three. But this resignation did not satisfy the rebels. Arson, killings and looting continued for several days, covering a large part of the city. The plan of the conspirators definitely leaned towards the removal of Justinian and the proclamation of one of Anastasius' nephews - Hypatius, Pompey or Probus - as emperor. In order to accelerate the development of events in this direction, the conspirators spread a false rumor among the people that Justinian and Theodora fled from the capital to Thrace. Then the crowd rushed to the house of Probus, who left it in advance and disappeared, not wanting to be involved in the riot. In anger, the rebels burned down his house. They also did not find Hypatius and Pompey, because at that time they were in the imperial palace and there they assured Justinian of their devotion to him, but, not trusting those to whom the instigators of the rebellion were going to hand over the supreme power, fearing that their presence in the palace could induce wavering bodyguards to treason, Justinian demanded that both brothers leave the palace and go to his home.

On Sunday, January 17, the emperor made another attempt to extinguish the rebellion by reconciliation. He appeared at the hippodrome, where the crowd involved in the rebellion had gathered, with the Gospel in his hands and with an oath promised to release the criminals who had escaped by hanging, and also to grant amnesty to all participants in the rebellion if they stopped the rebellion. In the crowd, some believed Justinian and greeted him, while others - and they, obviously, were the majority among those gathered - insulted him with their cries and demanded that his nephew Anastasius Hypatius be appointed emperor. Justinian, surrounded by bodyguards, returned from the hippodrome to the palace, and the rebellious crowd, having learned that Hypatius was at home, rushed there to proclaim him emperor. He himself feared the fate that lay ahead of him, but the rebels, acting aggressively, took him to the forum of Constantine to perform a solemn acclamation. His wife Maria, according to Procopius, “a sensible woman and known for her prudence, kept her husband and did not let him in, groaning loudly and crying out to all those close to him that they were leading him to death,” but she was unable to prevent the intended action. Hypatius was brought to the forum and there, in the absence of a diadem, they placed a golden chain on his head. The senate, which met on an emergency basis, approved the perfect election of Hypatius as emperor. It is not known whether there were many senators who avoided participating in this meeting, and which of the senators present acted out of fear, considering Justinian's position hopeless, but it is obvious that his conscious opponents, probably mainly from among adherents of Monophysitism, were also present in the Senate earlier, before the rebellion. Senator Origen offered to prepare for a long war with Justinian, however, the majority, however, spoke in favor of an immediate assault on the imperial palace. Hypatius supported this proposal, and the crowd moved towards the hippodrome, adjacent to the palace, in order to launch an attack on the palace from there.

Meanwhile, a meeting of Justinian was held in it with his closest assistants, who remained faithful to him. Among them were Belisarius, Narses, Mund. Saint Theodora was also present. The current state of affairs, both by Justinian himself and by his advisers, was characterized in an extremely gloomy light. It was risky to rely on the loyalty of the soldiers from the capital's garrison, who had not yet joined the rebels, even on the palace schols. The plan for the evacuation of the emperor from Constantinople was seriously discussed. And then Theodora took the floor: “In my opinion, flight, even if it ever brought salvation and, perhaps, will bring it now, is unworthy. It is impossible for one who has been born not to die, but for one who once reigned, being a fugitive is unbearable. May I not lose this purple, may I not live to see the day when the people I meet do not call me mistress! If you wish to save yourself by flight, basileus, it is not difficult. We have a lot of money, and the sea is nearby, and there are ships. But see that you who have been saved do not have to choose death over salvation. I like the ancient saying that royal power is a beautiful shroud. This is the most famous of the sayings of St. Theodora, presumably - authentically reproduced by her hater and flatterer Procopius, a man of extraordinary intelligence, who was able to appreciate the irresistible energy and expressiveness of these words that characterize her herself: her mind and amazing gift of speech, with which she once shone on stage, her fearlessness and self-control, her excitement and pride, her steel will, hardened by everyday trials, which she has undergone in abundance in the past - from early youth to marriage, which raised her to an unprecedented height, from which she did not want to fall, even if on the life of both herself and her husband, the emperor, was at stake. These words of Theodora wonderfully illustrate the role that she played in Justinian's inner circle, the extent of her influence on public policy.

Theodora's statement marked a turning point in the course of the rebellion. “Her words,” according to Procopius, “inspired everyone, and, regaining their lost courage, they began to discuss how they should defend themselves ... The soldiers, both those who were entrusted with the protection of the palace, and everyone else, did not show loyalty to the basileus , but also did not want to explicitly take part in the case, waiting for what the outcome of events would be. At the meeting, it was decided to immediately begin to suppress the rebellion.

A key role in restoring order was played by the detachment that Belisarius brought from the eastern border. German mercenaries acted with him under the command of their commander Mund, who was appointed general of Illyricum. But before they attacked the rebels, the palace eunuch Narses entered into negotiations with the rebellious Venets, who were previously considered reliable, since Justinian himself and his wife Theodora were on the side of their blue dima. According to John Malala, he “secretly left (from the palace), bribed some (members) of the Veneti party, distributing money to them. And some who rose from the crowd began to proclaim Justinian king in the city; people divided and went against each other. In any case, the number of rebels decreased as a result of this division, and yet it was large and inspired the most alarming fears. Convinced of the unreliability of the capital’s garrison, Belisarius lost heart and, returning to the palace, began to assure the emperor that “their cause was lost,” but, being under the spell of the words spoken by Theodora at the council, Justinian was now determined to act in the most energetic way. He ordered Belisarius to lead his detachment to the hippodrome, where the main forces of the rebels were concentrated. There, seated on the imperial kathisma, was Hypatius, proclaimed emperor.

The detachment of Belisarius made their way to the hippodrome through the charred ruins. Having reached the portico of the Veneti, he wanted to immediately attack Hypatius and seize him, but they were separated by a locked door, which was guarded from the inside by Hypatius' bodyguards, and Belisarius feared that "when he finds himself in a difficult position in this narrow place", the people will attack the detachment and because of his small number will kill all his warriors. So he chose a different direction of attack. He ordered the soldiers to attack the unorganized crowd of many thousands that had gathered at the hippodrome, catching it by surprise with this attack, and “the people ... seeing warriors dressed in armor, famous for their courage and experience in battles, who struck with swords without any mercy, turned to flight.” But there was nowhere to run, because through the other gates of the hippodrome, which were called the Dead (Nekra), the Germans under the command of Mund broke into the hippodrome. A massacre began, more than 30 thousand people fell victim to it. Hypatius and his brother Pompey were captured and taken to the palace to Justinian. In his defense, Pompey said that "the people forced them against their own desire to take power, and then they went to the hippodrome, not having malicious intent against the basileus" - which was only a half-truth, because from a certain moment they ceased to oppose the will of the rebels . Hypatius did not want to justify himself to the winner. The next day they were both killed by soldiers, and their bodies were thrown into the sea. All the property of Hypatius and Pompey, as well as those senators who participated in the rebellion, was confiscated in favor of the fiscus. But later, for the sake of establishing peace and harmony in the state, Justinian returned the confiscated property to their former owners, without depriving even the children of Hypatius and Pompey - these unlucky nephews of Anastasius. But, on the other hand, Justinian, shortly after the suppression of the rebellion, which shed more blood, but less than could have been shed if his opponents succeeded, who would have plunged the empire into civil war, annulled the orders made by him as a concession to the rebels: the closest assistants of the emperor Tribonian and John were returned to their former posts.

(To be continued.)

Together with Justinian I (April 1 - August 1) Predecessor Anastasius I Successor Justinian I Birth OK.
presumably Bederian (province of Macedonia Salutaris). Death August 1(0527-08-01 )
Constantinople Genus Justinian (founder) Spouse Euphemia Religion Orthodoxy Justin I at Wikimedia Commons

Origin and military career

The future emperor began serving in the army in the reign of Leo as a simple legionary soldier. According to numerous sources, he did not learn to write until the end of his life. In the first years of his reign, Anastasia participated in the suppression of the Isaurian rebellion. During the Persian campaign Anastasia 502-505. commanded a detachment. During the Vitalian rebellion of 514-515. participated in the defense of Constantinople and the breakthrough of the naval blockade of the city. By the end of his reign, Anastasia had risen to the rank of committee of excuvites - the head of the palace guard.

Ascension to the throne

Emperor's election

Immediately after the death of the old emperor Silenciary sent a message to the master of offices Koehler and Justin, the head of the palace guards. Both arrived along with their subordinate guards, Koehler summoned his subordinates scholarians, and Justin excuvites, after which the official announcement of the death of the emperor was made. The next morning, the demos gathered at the Hippodrome, holding an acclamation demanding a new emperor. At this time, senior officials and Patriarch John II gathered in the palace for negotiations, but could not reach an agreement. As the negotiations dragged on, the demes at the Hippodrome proclaimed emperor one of the officers of the Excuvites, a certain John, who later became Bishop of Heraclea, and raised him to the shield. However, the Veneti did not support this and a clash between the factions began, in which several people died. The scholarii then proclaimed one of their officers emperor, which caused further clashes. An attempt was also made to elect Justinian, but he refused.

Perhaps the conspiracy had a religious basis. At the very least, Marcellinus Comite speaks of the conspirators as "Manichaeans", which was a common practice regarding opponents of the Council of Chalcedon at the time. In the 6th-century Syriac chronicle of Zechariah of Mytilene, as well as in other Syriac sources, Amantius is declared a martyr for the freedom of his faith.

Not entirely clear circumstances of the conspiracy and conflicting descriptions in the sources have made this conspiracy the object of numerous studies.

General characteristics of the board

Procopius, characterizing Justin, writes that he did nothing good and nothing bad for the country, remaining a peasant peasant on the throne. The Secret History states that he did not even know the alphabet and resorted to trickery to sign decrees - the courtiers cut a stencil from the board, and Justin simply circled the letters. In fact, Justin did not manage the country at all, giving power to the quaestor Proclus, who ruled at his own discretion. With such a weak emperor, it was not difficult for Justinian, even during the life of his uncle, to begin to lay his hands on the future inheritance.

Domestic politics

Having gained support in the election and successfully suppressed the Amantian conspiracy, the new government, whose main force was Justinian, decided to return those who had been unjustly exiled in the previous reign. Among the most famous exiles of the chronicle are the patrician Apion, the senators Diogenianus and Philoxenus, and others. All of them were returned to the capital to their former positions, and then promoted. Apion was appointed prefect of the Praetorium of the East, Diogenianus led the troops in the east, and Philoxenus (lat. Flavius ​​Theodorus Philoxenus Soterichus Philoxenus) became consul of the West in 525.

However, the most influential was the return of Vitalian, the powerful military leader who, in his post as committee of the federates, nearly overthrew Anastasius and whom Justin had recently fought. Despite the fact that Vitalian's troops were defeated, he still remained the main force in the Balkans. Since Vitalian's differences with the former government were outwardly religious in nature, and the new dynasty supported Orthodoxy, Vitalian and Justin met and swore allegiance to each other. Evagrius directly says that, returning Vitalian, Justin was afraid of his strength and suspected of wanting to seize the throne. Vitalian agreed to take over as head of the so-called permanent troops(lat. in praesenti), and in 520 he became consul. This led to the expected consequences, and the Balkans were calmed, however, being a much more experienced politician than the aged Justin and the young Justinian, Vitalian was a constant danger to them.

After the death of Vitalian, Justinian took over his post as commander of the permanent troops.

With the accession of Justin, a new dynasty appeared in Byzantium, traditionally called by the name of its second representative. At the moment of his election, Justin was able to gain the support of the highest aristocracy and the Veneti party that sympathized with it. The reasons for this were their expectations of strengthening their influence under a weak emperor, as well as the commonality of religious views. In the first years of the new reign, these hopes could be considered justified. John Malala reports unrest provoked by the Veneti in 519 in all major cities of the empire. Significant were the riots at Antioch in Syria, forcing the cancellation of the local Olympic Games in the early 520s. The unrest did not begin to subside until 523 after drastic measures were taken.

Religious policy

The accession of Justin meant a new era in the religious policy of the empire. Two previous emperors, Zeno and Anastasius, followed the Monophysite direction. After Zeno issued his Enoticon in 482, designed to be a compromise between the warring parties, relations between Constantinople and Rome were interrupted until a turn to strict Chalcedonism took place in 518. Relations were restored with

Justinian I the Great (lat. Iustinianus) (c. 482 - November 14, 565, Constantinople), Byzantine emperor. Augustus and co-emperor of Justin I from 1 April 527, reigned from 1 August 527.

Justinian was a native of Illyricum and a nephew; According to legend, he is of Slavic origin. He played a prominent role in the reign of his uncle and was proclaimed August six months before his death. The epochal reign of Justinian was marked by the implementation of the principles of imperial universalism and the restoration of a unified Roman Empire. The whole policy of the emperor was subordinated to this, which was truly world-wide in nature and made it possible to concentrate huge material and human resources in his hands. For the sake of the greatness of the empire, wars were fought in the West and East, legislation was improved, administrative reforms were carried out, and issues of church dispensation were resolved. He surrounded himself with a galaxy of talented advisers and commanders, remaining free from extraneous influences, inspired in his actions solely by faith in a single state, single laws and a single faith. “By the breadth of his political plans, clearly conscious and strictly carried out, by the ability to use circumstances, and most importantly, by the art of determining the talents of those around him and giving everyone a job corresponding to his abilities, Justinian was a rare and wonderful sovereign” (F. I. Uspensky).

The main military efforts of Justinian were concentrated in the West, where colossal forces were thrown. In 533-534 his best commander Belisarius defeated the state of the African vandals, in 535-555 the state of the Ostrogoths in Italy was destroyed. As a result, Rome itself and many of the western lands in Italy, North Africa, and Spain, which had been settled by Germanic tribes for a hundred years, returned under the rule of the Roman state. These territories, with the rank of provinces, were reunited with the empire, and the effect of Roman legislation was again extended to them.

The successful course of affairs in the West was accompanied by a difficult situation on the Danube and eastern borders of the state, deprived of reliable protection. For many years (528-562, intermittently) there were wars with Persia over disputed territories in Transcaucasia and influence in Mesopotamia and Arabia, diverting huge funds and not yielding any results. During the entire reign of Justinian, the tribes of Slavs, Germans, Avars ravaged the Transdanubian provinces with their invasions. The emperor sought to compensate for the lack of defensive resources by the efforts of diplomacy, making alliances with some peoples against others and thus maintaining the necessary balance of forces on the borders. However, such a policy was critically assessed by contemporaries, especially since the ever-increasing payments to the allied tribes excessively burdened the already upset state treasury.

The cost of the brilliant "age of Justinian" was the most difficult internal situation of the state, especially in the economy and finances, which bore the burden of colossal expenses. The lack of funds became a real scourge of his reign, and in search of money, Justinian often resorted to measures that he himself condemned: he sold positions and introduced new taxes. With rare frankness, Justinian declared in one of his decrees: "The first duty of subjects and the best way for them to thank the emperor is to pay public taxes in full with unconditional selflessness." Severity in the collection of taxes reached its limit and had a disastrous effect on the population. In the words of a contemporary, "a foreign invasion seemed less dreadful to the taxpayers than the arrival of fiscus officials."

For the same purpose, Justinian sought to profit from the trade of the empire with the East, setting high customs duties on all goods imported into Constantinople, and also turning entire industries into government monopolies. It was under Justinian that silk production was mastered in the empire, which gave huge revenues to the treasury.

Urban life under Justinian was characterized by the struggle of the parties of the circus, the so-called. dimov. The suppression of the uprising of Nike 532 in Constantinople, provoked by the rivalry of the Dimas, destroyed the opposition to Justinian among the aristocracy and the population of the capital, and strengthened the authoritarian nature of the imperial power. In 534, the Code of Civil Law (Corpus juris civilis or Codex Justiniani, see Justinian's Code) was published, which gave a normative presentation of Roman law and formulated the foundations of imperial statehood.

The church policy of Justinian is marked by the desire to establish the unity of religion. In 529, the Academy of Athens was closed, and the persecution of heretics and pagans began, which filled the entire reign of Justinian. The persecution of the Monophysites, up to the opening of hostilities, devastated the eastern provinces, especially Syria and the environs of Antioch. The papacy under him completely submitted to the imperial will. In 553, on the initiative of Justinian, the Fifth Ecumenical Council was convened in Constantinople, at which the so-called. "dispute about three chapters" and, in particular, condemned Origen.

The reign of Justinian is marked by a huge scale of construction. According to Procopius, the emperor "multiplied fortifications throughout the country, so that every landed property was turned into a fortress or a military post was located near it." The temple of St. Sophia (built in 532-37), which played a great role in the formation of the special character of Byzantine worship and did more to convert the barbarians than wars and embassies. The mosaics of the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, which has just been reunited with the empire, have preserved to us magnificently executed portraits of the Emperor Justinian himself, the Empress Theodora and the dignitaries of the court.

For 25 years, the burden of power was shared with the emperor by his wife Theodora, who had a strong will and statesmanship. The influence of this "great ambitious woman" and "faithful empress" was not always beneficial, but Justinian's entire reign was marked by him. She was given official honors on a par with the emperor, the subjects were henceforth given a personal oath to both royal spouses. During the revolt of Nike, Theodora saved the throne for Justinian. The words she said went down in history: “Who once put on a diadem, he should not experience her death ... As for me, I adhere to the old saying: purple is the best shroud!”

Within 10 years of Justinian's death, many of his conquests were brought to naught, and the idea of ​​a universal empire became a rhetorical figure for a long time. Nevertheless, the reign of Justinian, who is called "the last Roman and the first Byzantine emperor", was an important stage in the formation of the phenomenon of the Byzantine monarchy.

And such a marriage provoked a protest from Empress Euphemia. In addition, Theodora showed a clear inclination towards Monophysitism. However, Justinian did not give up. After the death of Euphemia in or year, Emperor Justin did not resist his adopted son. He issued a decree on marriage, which allowed, in particular, a repentant hypocrite, who had abandoned her former occupation, to enter into legal marriage even with high-born persons. Thus the wedding took place.

From the beginning of the reign of Justinian, Thrace began to be subjected to more and more destructive raids by the "Huns"-Bulgars and "Scythians"-Slavs. In the year the commander Mund successfully repelled the onslaught of the Bulgars in Thrace.

From the time of Justin, Justinian inherited a policy of persecuting the Monophysite monasteries and clergy in northern Syria. However, there was no widespread persecution of Monophysitism in the empire - the number of its adherents was too great. Egypt, the stronghold of the Monophysites, constantly threatened to disrupt the supply of bread to the capital, which is why Justinian ordered even to build a special fortress in Egypt to protect the grain collected in the state granary. Already in the early 530s, Empress Theodora used her influence with her husband to start negotiations and attempts to reconcile the position of the Monophysites and the Orthodox. In the year a delegation of Monophysites arrived in Constantinople and was sheltered by the royal couple in the palace of Hormizd. Since then, here, under the patronage of Theodora and with the tacit consent of Justinian, there was a haven for the Monophysites.

Uprising "Nika"

However, this agreement was in fact a victory for the Monophysites and the hierarch Pope Agapitus, sent by the Ostrogothic king Theodahad to Constantinople as a political ambassador, persuaded Justinian to turn away from the false world with Monophysitism and take the side of the Chalcedonian decisions. In place of the deposed Anfim, the Orthodox saint Mina was erected. Justinian compiled a confession of faith, which Saint Agapit recognized as completely Orthodox. Around the same time, the emperor compiled the Orthodox prayer book "Only Begotten Son and Word of God", which was included in the order of the Divine Liturgy. On May 2, a Council was opened in Constantinople in the presence of the emperor for the final trial of the case of Anthima. During the Council, a number of Monophysite leaders were condemned, among them Anfim and Severus.

However, at the same time, Theodora persuaded the emperor to agree to the appointment of the deceased Pope Agapit, who showed a readiness for compromise, the deacon Vigilius, as heir. His elevation to the papal throne by imperial will took place on March 29 of the year, despite the fact that Silverius had already been elected to the primatial see in Rome in the same year. Considering Rome as his city, and himself as the highest authority, Justinian easily recognized the supremacy of the Roman popes over the Patriarchs of Constantinople, and just as easily installed the popes at his own discretion.

The troubles of 540 and their consequences

In internal administration, Justinian adhered to the previous line, but paid much less attention to attempts at legislative reforms - after the death of the lawyer Tribonian in the year, the emperor issued only 18 documents. In the same year, Justinian abolished the consulate in Constantinople, declaring himself consul for life, at the same time stopping expensive consular games. The king did not back down from his construction endeavors - for example, in the year a huge “New Church” was completed in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos on the ruins of the Jerusalem temple.

Theological disputes of the 540s and 550s

From the early 540s, Justinian began to delve deeper into matters of theology. The desire to overcome Monophysitism and end discord in the Church did not leave him. Meanwhile, Empress Theodora continued to patronize the Monophysites and in the year, at the request of the Arab-Ghassanid sheikh al-Harith (al-Harith), contributed to the formation of the Monophysite hierarchy through the appointment of the itinerant Monophysite bishop Jacob Baradei. Justinian at first tried to catch him, but this failed, and the emperor subsequently had to come to terms with the activities of Baradei on the outskirts of the empire. Although the Empress Theodora died in the year having reconciled with the Orthodox Church, there is a version according to which she bequeathed to the emperor not to persecute the prominent Monophysites, who had been hiding all this time in the Hormizda Palace of Constantinople. One way or another, the Orthodox emperor did not intensify the persecution of the Monophysites, but tried to gather believers in a single Church by condemning other false teachings.

Around the early 540s, the emperor raised the issue of a formal condemnation of Origen. Having charged him with 10 heresies in a letter to St. Mina, in the year the emperor convened a Council in the capital, which condemned Origen and his teachings.

At the same time, the imperial theological adviser Theodore Askida proposed to condemn some of the writings of the blessed Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Willow of Edessa and Theodore of Mopsuet, which expressed Nestorian errors. Although the authors themselves, already long dead, were respected in the Church, a conciliar condemnation of their erroneous views would deprive the Monophysites of the opportunity to slander the Orthodox, accusing them of Nestorianism. In the year Justinian published an edict against the so-called. "Three Chapters" - non-Orthodox writings of the three above-mentioned teachers. However, instead of the reconciliation of the Monophysites with the Church, this caused a protest in the West, where the condemnation of the "Three Heads" was seen as an attempt on Orthodoxy. Patriarch Saint Mina of Constantinople signed the imperial decree, but Pope Vigilius did not agree for a long time and even went to break communion with the Church of Constantinople.

The empire fought for a long time against the troops that rebelled in Africa, who hoped for a redistribution of the newly conquered lands among themselves. Only in a year was it possible to successfully suppress the rebellion, after which North Africa firmly became part of the empire.

In the late 540s, Italy seemed lost, but the pleas of Pope Vigilius and other noble Roman refugees in Constantinople convinced Justinian not to give up and he again decided to send an expedition there in the year. The numerous troops gathered for the campaign first moved to Thrace, from where, thanks to this, the outrageous Slavs left. Then, in the year, a large Roman force finally arrived in Italy under Narses and defeated the Ostrogoths. Soon the peninsula was cleared of pockets of resistance, and in the year some lands north of the Po River were also occupied. After many years of debilitating struggle, a bloodless Italy, with an administrative center in Ravenna, was nevertheless returned to the empire. In the year Justinian issued a "Pragmatic Sanction" that canceled all the innovations of Totila - the land was returned to its former owners, as well as the slaves and columns freed by the king. The emperor, not trusting the competence of the imperial administrators, entrusted the management of the social, financial and educational systems in Italy to the bishops, since the Church remained the only moral and economic force in the ruined country. In Italy, as in Africa, Arianism was persecuted.

Considerable success was the importation of silkworm eggs from China for about a year, which until then had strictly kept the secret of silk production. According to legend, the emperor himself persuaded the Persian Nestorian monks to deliver him a precious cargo. From that time on, Constantinople began to manufacture its own silk, on which a state monopoly was established, which brought large incomes to the treasury.

Heritage

Prayers

Troparion, tone 3

Desiring beauty of the glory of God, / in the earth [life] Thou didst please him / and, having worked well the entrusted titan’s talent, aggravated thou, / for him and striving righteously. who sing to you, Justinian.

Kontakion, tone 8

The champion of piety is all-round / and the champion of the truth is not shameful, / honestly and for a long time people praise you, God-wise, / but as if having boldness towards Christ God, / ask you who glorify humility, yes we call you: // pa sulk, Justinians of everlasting memory.

Sources, literature

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• Procopius of Caesarea, About buildings.
• Procopius of Caesarea, secret history

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Used materials

• History portal page Chronos:
• http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_yu/yustinian1.php - used stt. TSB; encyclopedias The world around us; from the book of Dashkov, S. B., Emperors of Byzantium, M., 1997; historical calendar-almanac Holy Rus'.
• Evans, James Allan, "Justinian (527-565 A.D.)," An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors, St. Petersburg, Noah Publishing House, 1994, 25-44:, and "Flavius" is a sign of belonging to the imperial family.

  The word is missing in the original. Probably omitted by mistake.