5
JUSTINIAN AND
RECONQUEST
The reign of Justinian (527–65) deserves treatment in its own right, as one of
the most important and also the best-documented periods in late antiquity. It
is also a key period for any consideration of the Mediterranean world and of
the later Roman empire. Justinian’s codifi cation of the law, achieved within
a few years of his accession (Institutes, 533; Digest, 533; Codex Justinianus, 534)
gave him a place in Catholic European history as a great Christian legislator,
and his reign also saw a dramatic intervention in the west – an attempt by
the east, at fi rst spectacularly successful, to recover the lost territories of the
western empire. This was the so-called ‘reconquest’, which began with the
dispatch of a triumphantly successful expedition against Vandal Africa in 533
under the general Belisarius, and continued for over twenty years of military
action and many vicissitudes until the settlement known as the ‘Pragmatic
Sanction’ of 554 signalled the hoped-for return of Ostrogothic Italy to Roman
rule. But unlike the North African campaign, the war in Italy proved to be
costly and diffi cult, while the security of the Balkans had to be addressed at
the same time; moreover, the recovery of North Africa from the Vandals
brought with it a need for military, administrative and building investment.
While Justinian’s armies were engaged in the west, war was waged simultane-
ously in the east against the Sasanians. Again, this was at fi rst successful, but
then, under the new king Chosroes I, it became far more diffi cult, and the
peace treaty signed in 561 was very costly to Constantinople.
Justinian is also renowned for the building of the present church of St
Sophia in Istanbul, and for scores of other churches and fortifi cations around
the empire (even if, as seems to be the case, some attributed to him in con-
temporary panegyric had been achieved or were already under way under his
predecessor Anastasius). His wife Theodora was one of the most famous and
notorious of Byzantine empresses; together they had built the church of Sts
Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople and they directed policy together.
They are both depicted in the mosaics of San Vitale in Ravenna (547, the year
before Theodora’s death) and their names appear on the apse of the church of
the monastery on Mt Sinai (later named after St Catherine), built by Justinian
and originally dedicated to the Transfi guration. Justinian survived a very seri-
ous insurrection (the ‘Nika’ revolt, 532) and a dangerous visitation of plague