JUSTINIAN AND RECONQUESTTheodoret of Cyrrhus and Ibas of Edessa), and was raging throughout the
later 540s, just when the war in the east and in Italy was going badly.^44 The
emperor was again attempting to fi nd a formula acceptable to the easterners,^45
but his decree roused strong opposition from the North Africans (see below)
and in Italy. Pope Vigilius was summoned to Constantinople, but made slow
progress and arrived only in the winter of 546–47; under pressure, he con-
demned the Three Chapters in 548 but then withdrew his condemnation and
agreed to a new council in Constantinople. These upheavals coincided with
the general political diffi culties which Justinian was experiencing, and which
are graphically recorded in book VII of Procopius’s Wars. Finally the attitudes
of the Roman population in Italy to Justinian’s military intervention were
by no means straightforward. Members of the senatorial class found their
lands devastated by the war and their personal safety threatened, especially by
the repeated sieges of Rome. After 540 a number of them, including Cassi-
odorus, found their way to Constantinople, where their presence constituted
an important lobby and added to the number of Latin-speakers in the capital.
The eastern government represented the Italian war as a war of liberation, but
it was not obvious that it was regarded in the same way by the Romans in Italy
themselves. When the war fi nally ended, the formerly prosperous Italy was
left in a dire condition.^46
Given all these problems and adverse factors, it is less surprising that the
military campaigns ran into diffi culties than that they could actually be sus-
tained for so long; this can only be explained in terms of the generally prosper-
ous and healthy condition of the eastern empire when Justinian came to the
throne in the early sixth century. On the other hand, as we shall see, indicators
of urban change begin to become apparent from the end of Justinian’s reign
(Chapters 7 and 8); if his ambitious programme of military reconquest and
imperial reconstruction was not actually a contributory factor in that process,
it certainly added to these diffi culties.
The cost of reconquest: North AfricaThe speedy capture of North Africa from the Vandals provides a striking
example of the continuing cost of conquest after the initial fi ghting was over.
Already in April 534, before Belisarius’ return, Justinian had confi dently leg-
islated for the future civil and military government of the newly reconquered
territory.^47 Africa was placed under a praetorian prefect with seven provinces
and soon had its own magister militum. The law looked back to the days of
Roman rule in Africa, and showed no realization of the current importance of
the local tribal groups, who were relegated to the role of enemies.^48 In Con-
stantinople much was made of the victory. In a grandiose imitation of earlier
Roman triumphs, Gelimer, the last Vandal king, was taken to Constantinople
to walk in chains in Belisarius’ procession, while Belisarius himself walked
to the Hippodrome and prostrated himself before Justinian, who sat in the
imperial box wearing the special triumphal garment known as the loros, to