years after this exploit ( 532), Justinian embarked upon another, more worthy of praise--the
building of St. Sophia. I have never seen St. Sophia, but I have seen the beautiful contemporary
mosaics at Ravenna, including portraits of Justinian and his empress Theodora. Both were very
pious, though Theodora was a lady of easy virtue whom he had picked up in the circus. What is
even worse, she was inclined to be a Monophysite.
But enough of scandal. The Emperor himself, I am happy to say, was of impeccable orthodoxy,
except in the matter of the "Three Chapters." This was a vexatious controversy. The Council of
Chalcedon had pronounced orthodox three Fathers suspected of Nestorianism; Theodora, along
with many others, accepted all the other decrees of the council, but not this one. The Western
Church stood by everything decided by the Council, and the empress was driven to persecute the
Pope. Justinian adored her, and after her death in 548, she became to him what the dead Prince
Consort was to Queen Victoria. So in the end he lapsed into heresy. A contemporary historian
( Evagrius) writes: "Having since the end of his life received the wages of his misdeeds, he has
gone to seek the justice which was his due before the judgment-seat of hell."
Justinian aspired to reconquer as much as possible of the Western Empire. In 535 he invaded Italy,
and at first had quick success against the Goths. The Catholic population welcomed him, and he
came as representing Rome against the barbarians. But the Goths rallied, and the war lasted
eighteen years, during which Rome, and Italy generally, suffered far more than in the barbarian
invasion.
Rome was five times captured, thrice by Byzantines, twice by Goths, and sank to a small town.
The'same sort of thing happened in Africa, which Justinian also more or less reconquered. At first
his armies were welcomed; then it was found that Byzantine administration was corrupt and
Byzantine taxes were ruinous. In the end, many people wished the Goths and Vandals back. The
Church, however, until his last years, was steadily on the side of the Emperor, because of his
orthodoxy. He did not attempt the reconquest of Gaul, partly because of distance, but partly also
because the Franks were orthodox.
In 568, three years after Justinian's death, Italy was invaded by a new and very fierce German
tribe, the Lombards. Wars between them and the Byzantines continued intermittently for two
hundred years,