JUSTINIAN AND RECONQUESTTransfi guration.^64 But defence was certainly vitally important in Justinian’s
overall programme and in some areas his building work took the form of
long walls, as at Thermopylae and the Isthmus of Greece.^65 Elsewhere it was
a question of fortifi ed refuges or, less often, actual fortresses.
Ambitious as it was, the scheme was unable to keep out the Huns from
threatening Greece and even Constantinople in 558–9, when the aged
Belisarius was recalled to confront them. Yet even allowing for exaggeration,
Justinian’s building programme represents an extraordinary outlay of resources,
even during the years of maximum military effort. Procopius makes it clear
time and time again that in the building programme, defensive and religious
aims went hand in hand. There were also works of social welfare such as
hospitals and hospices, and churches were built as often as forts, especially
in newly reconquered territory, where they could serve as demonstrations of
Roman power. Together with Justinian’s military policy went a determined
missionary activity. This can be seen in several areas; for instance, in Nubia
and in the case of King Tzath of Lazica, whose conversion was the price of
clientship; as Garth Fowden has shown, the eastern Mediterranean became
a network of Christian client states.^66 Justinian was even willing to entrust
the conversion of pagans in Asia Minor to a Syriac-speaking non-
Chalcedonian, John of Ephesus. Even in the case of the provinces which were
subject to military offensives, the wars were given the appearance of crusades
undertaken to restore orthodoxy, although the reality of the situation often
Figure 5.2 The walls of the monastery of St Catherine at the foot of Mt Sinai, built by Justin-
ian and described by Procopius. The fine mosaic in the apse of its church depicts the Trans-
figuration; the dedication to St Catherine dates from considerably later.