Emperor Justinian. Mosaic in Ravenna. VI century

The future emperor of Byzantium was born around 482 in the small Macedonian village of Taurisium into the family of a poor peasant. He came to Constantinople as a teenager at the invitation of his uncle Justin, an influential courtier. Justin did not have his own children, and he patronized his nephew: he called him to the capital and, despite the fact that he himself remained illiterate, gave him a good education, and then found a position at court. In 518 The senate, guard and residents of Constantinople proclaimed the elderly Justin emperor, and he soon made his nephew his co-ruler. Justinian was distinguished by a clear mind, a broad political outlook, determination, perseverance and exceptional efficiency. These qualities made him the de facto ruler of the empire. His young, beautiful wife Theodora also played a huge role. Her life took an unusual turn: the daughter of a poor circus performer and a circus performer herself, she, as a 20-year-old girl, went to Alexandria, where she fell under the influence of mystics and monks and was transformed, becoming sincerely religious and pious. Beautiful and charming, Theodora had an iron will and turned out to be an indispensable friend to the emperor in difficult times. Justinian and Theodora were a worthy couple, although evil tongues were haunted by their union for a long time.

In 527, after the death of his uncle, 45-year-old Justinian became autocrat - autocrat - of the Roman Empire, as the Byzantine Empire was then called.

He gained power at a difficult time: only the eastern part of the former Roman possessions remained, and barbarian kingdoms were formed on the territory of the Western Roman Empire: the Visigoths in Spain, the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Franks in Gaul and the Vandals in Africa. The Christian Church was torn by disputes about whether Christ was a “God-man”; dependent peasants (colons) fled and did not cultivate the land, the arbitrariness of the nobility ruined the common people, the cities were shaken by riots, the finances of the empire were in decline. The situation could only be saved by decisive and selfless measures, and Justinian, alien to luxury and pleasure, a sincerely believing Orthodox Christian, theologian and politician, was perfectly suited for this role.

Several stages clearly stand out in the reign of Justinian I. The beginning of the reign (527-532) was a period of widespread charity, distribution of funds to the poor, tax reduction, and assistance to cities affected by the earthquake. At this time, the position of the Christian Church in the fight against other religions strengthened: the last stronghold of paganism, the Platonic Academy, was closed in Athens; limited opportunities for openly practicing the cults of other believers - Jews, Samaritans, etc. This was a period of wars with the neighboring Iranian Sassanid power for influence in South Arabia, the goal of which was to gain a foothold in the ports of the Indian Ocean and thereby undermine Iran's monopoly on the silk trade with China. It was a time of struggle against the tyranny and abuses of the nobility.

The main event of this stage is legal reform. In 528, Justinian established a commission of experienced jurists and statesmen. The main role in it was played by the legal specialist Trebonian. The commission prepared a collection of imperial decrees - the Justinian Code, a set of works by Roman lawyers - the Digests, as well as a guide to the study of law - the Institutions. Carrying out legislative reform, we proceeded from the need to combine the norms of classical Roman law with the spiritual values ​​of Christianity. This was expressed primarily in the creation of a unified system of imperial citizenship and the proclamation of the equality of citizens before the law. Moreover, under Justinian, the laws related to private property inherited from Ancient Rome took their final form. In addition, Justinian's laws no longer considered the slave as a thing - a “speaking instrument”, but as a person. Although slavery was not abolished, many opportunities opened up for a slave to free himself: if he became a bishop, entered a monastery, became a soldier; It was forbidden to kill a slave, and the murder of someone else's slave entailed cruel execution. In addition, according to the new laws, the rights of women in the family were equal to the rights of men. Justinian's laws prohibited divorce, which was condemned by the Church. At the same time, the era could not help but leave its mark on the law. Executions were frequent: for commoners - crucifixion, burning, devouring to wild animals, beating with rods to death, quartering; nobles were beheaded. Insulting the emperor, even damaging his sculptural images, was punishable by death.

The emperor's reforms were interrupted by the Nika popular uprising in Constantinople (532). It all started with a conflict between two parties of fans in the circus: the Veneti (“blue”) and the Prasin (“green”). These were not only sports, but partly also socio-political unions. Political grievances were added to the traditional struggle of fans: the Prasins believed that the government was oppressing them and patronizing the Veneti. In addition, the lower classes were dissatisfied with the abuses of Justinian's "Minister of Finance" - John of Cappadocia, while the nobility hoped to get rid of the upstart emperor. The Prasin leaders presented their demands to the emperor, and in a very harsh form, and when he rejected them, they called him a murderer and left the circus. Thus, an unheard-of insult was inflicted on the autocrat. The situation was complicated by the fact that when, on the same day, the instigators of the clash from both parties were arrested and sentenced to death, two of the convicts fell from the gallows (“were pardoned by God”), but the authorities refused to release them.

Then a single “green-blue” party was created with the slogan “Nika!” (circus cry “Win!”). An open riot began in the city, and arson was committed. The emperor agreed to concessions, dismissing the ministers most hated by the people, but this did not bring peace. An important role was also played by the fact that the nobility distributed gifts and weapons to the rebellious plebs, inciting rebellion. Neither attempts to suppress the uprising by force with the help of a detachment of barbarians, nor the public repentance of the emperor with the Gospel in his hands yielded anything. The rebels now demanded his abdication and proclaimed the noble senator Hypatius emperor. Meanwhile, the fires became more and more numerous. “The city was a pile of blackening ruins,” wrote a contemporary. Justinian was ready to abdicate, but at that moment Empress Theodora declared that she preferred death to flight and that “the emperor’s purple is an excellent shroud.” Her determination played a big role, and Justinian decided to fight. Troops loyal to the government made a desperate attempt to regain control over the capital: a detachment of the commander Belisarius, the conqueror of the Persians, entered the circus, where a stormy meeting of the rebels was taking place, and carried out a brutal massacre there. They said that 35 thousand people died, but Justinian’s throne survived.

The terrible catastrophe that befell Constantinople - fires and deaths - did not, however, plunge either Justinian or the townspeople into despondency. In the same year, rapid construction began using treasury funds. The pathos of restoration captured wide sections of the townspeople. In a sense, we can say that the city rose from the ashes, like the fabulous Phoenix bird, and became even more beautiful. The symbol of this rise was, of course, the construction of a miracle of miracles - the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It began immediately, in 532, under the leadership of architects from the province - Anthemia of Thrall and Isidore of Miletus. Externally, the building had little to amaze the viewer, but the real miracle of transformation took place inside, when the believer found himself under a huge mosaic dome, which seemed to hang in the air without any support. A dome with a cross hovered above the worshipers, symbolizing the divine cover over the empire and its capital. Justinian had no doubt that his power had divine sanction. On holidays, he sat on the left side of the throne, and the right side was empty - Christ was invisibly present on it. The autocrat dreamed that an invisible cover would be raised over the entire Roman Mediterranean. With the idea of ​​​​restoring the Christian empire - the "Roman house" - Justinian inspired the entire society.

When the dome of Constantinople Sophia was still being erected, the second stage of Justinian’s reign (532-540) began with the Great Liberation Campaign to the West.

By the end of the first third of the 6th century. The barbarian kingdoms that arose in the western part of the Roman Empire were experiencing a deep crisis. They were torn apart by religious strife: the main population professed Orthodoxy, but the barbarians, Goths and Vandals were Arians, whose teaching was declared a heresy, condemned in the 4th century. at the I and II Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church. Within the barbarian tribes themselves, social stratification was occurring at a rapid pace, discord between the nobility and the common people was intensifying, which undermined the combat effectiveness of the armies. The elite of the kingdoms were busy with intrigues and conspiracies and did not care about the interests of their states. The indigenous population waited for the Byzantines as liberators. The reason for the outbreak of war in Africa was that the Vandal nobility overthrew the legitimate king - a friend of the empire - and placed his relative Gelizmer on the throne. In 533, Justinian sent a 16,000-strong army under the command of Belisarius to the African shores. The Byzantines managed to secretly land and freely occupy the capital of the Vandal kingdom of Carthage. The Orthodox clergy and Roman nobility solemnly greeted the imperial troops. The common people also reacted sympathetically to their appearance, since Belisarius severely punished robberies and looting. King Gelizmer tried to organize resistance, but lost the decisive battle. The Byzantines were helped by an accident: at the beginning of the battle, the king’s brother died, and Gelizmer left the troops to bury him. The Vandals decided that the king had fled, and panic gripped the army. All of Africa fell into the hands of Belisarius. Under Justinian I, grandiose construction began here - 150 new cities were built, close trade contacts with the Eastern Mediterranean were restored. The province experienced economic growth throughout the 100 years it was part of the empire.

Following the annexation of Africa, a war began for the possession of the historical core of the western part of the empire - Italy. The reason for the outbreak of the war was the overthrow and murder of the legitimate queen of the Ostrogoths, Amalasunta, by her husband Theodatus. In the summer of 535, Belisarius with a detachment of eight thousand landed on Sicily and in a short time, experiencing almost no resistance, occupied the island. The next year, his army crossed to the Apennine Peninsula and, despite the enemy’s huge numerical superiority, recaptured its southern and central parts. The Italians greeted Belisarius everywhere with flowers; only Naples offered resistance. The Christian Church played a huge role in such support of the people. In addition, chaos reigned in the Ostrogoth camp: the murder of the cowardly and treacherous Theodat, a riot in the troops. The army chose Viti-gis, a brave soldier but a weak politician, as the new king. He, too, was unable to stop the advance of Belisarius, and in December 536 the Byzantine army occupied Rome without a fight. The clergy and townspeople arranged a solemn meeting for the Byzantine soldiers. The population of Italy no longer wanted the power of the Ostrogoths, as evidenced by the following fact. When in the spring of 537 Belisarius's five-thousandth detachment was besieged in Rome by the huge army of Witigis, the battle for Rome lasted 14 months; Despite hunger and disease, the Romans remained loyal to the empire and did not allow Witigis into the city. It is also significant that the king of the Ostrogoths himself printed coins with the portrait of Justinian I - only the power of the emperor was considered legal. In the deep autumn of 539, the army of Belisarius besieged the barbarian capital of Ravenna, and a few months later, relying on the support of friends, the imperial troops occupied it without a fight.

It seemed that Justinian's power knew no bounds, he was at the apogee of his power, plans for the restoration of the Roman Empire were coming true. However, the main tests were still awaiting his power. The thirteenth year of the reign of Justinian I was a “black year” and began a period of difficulties that only the faith, courage and steadfastness of the Romans and their emperor could overcome. This was the third stage of his reign (540-558).

Even when Belisarius was negotiating the capitulation of Ravenna, the Persians violated the “Eternal Peace” they had signed ten years ago with the empire. Shah Khosrow I invaded Syria with a huge army and besieged the capital of the province - the richest city of Antioch. The residents bravely defended themselves, but the garrison was unable to fight and fled. The Persians took Antioch, plundered the flourishing city and sold the inhabitants into slavery. The next year, the troops of Khosrow I invaded Lazika (Western Georgia), allied with the empire, and a protracted Byzantine-Persian war began. The thunderstorm from the East coincided with the Slavic invasion of the Danube. Taking advantage of the fact that the border fortifications were left almost without garrisons (there were troops in Italy and in the East), the Slavs reached the capital itself, broke through the Long Walls (three walls stretching from the Black Sea to Marmara, protecting the outskirts of the city) and began to plunder the suburbs of Constantinople. Belisarius was urgently transferred to the East, and he managed to stop the Persian invasion, but while his army was not in Italy, the Ostrogoths revived there. They chose the young, handsome, brave and intelligent Totila as king and, under his leadership, began a new war. The barbarians enlisted fugitive slaves and colonists into the army, distributed lands of the Church and the nobility to their supporters, and recruited those who had been offended by the Byzantines. Very quickly, Totila's small army occupied almost all of Italy; Only the ports remained under the control of the empire, which could not be taken without a fleet.

But, probably, the most difficult test for the power of Justinian I was the terrible plague epidemic (541-543), which killed almost half the population. It seemed that the invisible dome of Sophia over the empire had cracked and black whirlwinds of death and destruction poured into it.

Justinian understood well that his main strength in the face of a superior enemy was the faith and unity of his subjects. Therefore, simultaneously with the ongoing war with the Persians in Lazica, the difficult struggle with Totila, who created his fleet and captured Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, the emperor’s attention was increasingly occupied by issues of theology. It seemed to some that the elderly Justinian had lost his mind, spending days and nights in such a critical situation reading the Holy Scriptures, studying the works of the Church Fathers (the traditional name for the figures of the Christian Church who created its dogma and organization) and writing his own theological treatises. However, the emperor understood well that it was in the Christian faith of the Romans that their strength lay. Then the famous idea of ​​the “symphony of the Kingdom and Priesthood” was formulated - the union of church and state as a guarantee of peace - the Empire.

In 543, Justinian wrote a treatise condemning the teachings of the mystic, ascetic and theologian of the 3rd century. Origen, denying the eternal torment of sinners. However, the emperor paid the main attention to overcoming the schism between the Orthodox and Monophysites. This conflict has tormented the Church for more than 100 years. In 451, the IV Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon condemned the Monophysites. The theological dispute was complicated by the rivalry between the influential centers of Orthodoxy in the East - Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople. The split between supporters of the Council of Chalcedon and its opponents (Orthodox and Monophysites) during the reign of Justinian I became especially acute, since the Monophysites created their own separate church hierarchy. In 541, the activities of the famous Monophysite Jacob Baradei began, who, dressed as a beggar, went around all the countries inhabited by Monophysites and restored the Monophysite church in the East. The religious conflict was complicated by a national one: the Greeks and Romans, who considered themselves the ruling people in the Roman Empire, were predominantly Orthodox, and the Copts and many Arabs were Monophysites. For the empire, this was all the more dangerous because the richest provinces - Egypt and Syria - contributed huge sums to the treasury and much depended on the support of the government by the trade and craft circles of these regions. While Theodora was alive, she helped mitigate the conflict by patronizing the Monophysites, despite the criticism of the Orthodox clergy, but in 548 the empress died. Justinian decided to bring the issue of reconciliation with the Monophysites to the V Ecumenical Council. The emperor's plan was to smooth out the conflict by condemning the teachings of the enemies of the Monophysites - Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Willow of Edessa and Feodor of Mopsuet (the so-called "three chapters"). The difficulty was that they all died in peace with the Church. Is it possible to judge the dead? After much hesitation, Justinian decided that it was possible, but Pope Vigilius and the overwhelming majority of Western bishops did not agree with his decision. The Emperor took the Pope to Constantinople, kept him almost under house arrest, trying to achieve agreement under pressure. After a long struggle and hesitation, Vigilius surrendered. In 553, the V Ecumenical Council in Constantinople condemned the “three heads.” The pope did not participate in the work of the council, citing indisposition, and tried to oppose its decisions, but in the end he signed them.

In the history of this council, one should distinguish between its religious meaning, which consists in the triumph of the Orthodox dogma that divine and human nature are united in Christ, inseparably and inseparably, and the political intrigues that accompanied it. Justinian's direct goal was not achieved: reconciliation with the Monophysites did not occur, and there was almost a break with the Western bishops, dissatisfied with the decisions of the council. However, this council played a big role in the spiritual consolidation of the Orthodox Church, and this was extremely important both at that time and for subsequent eras. The reign of Justinian I was a period of religious upsurge. It was at this time that church poetry, written in simple language, began to develop, one of the most prominent representatives of which was Roman Sladkopevets. This was the heyday of Palestinian monasticism, the time of John Climacus and Isaac the Syrian.

There was also a turning point in political affairs. In 552, Justinian equipped a new army for a campaign in Italy. This time she set off by land through Dalmatia under the command of the eunuch Narses, a brave commander and cunning politician. In the decisive battle, Totila's cavalry attacked the troops of Narses, formed in a crescent, came under cross-fire from archers from the flanks, took to flight and crushed their own infantry. Totila was seriously wounded and died. Within a year, the Byzantine army restored its dominance over all of Italy, and a year later Narses stopped and destroyed the hordes of Lombards pouring into the peninsula.

Italy was saved from terrible plunder. In 554, Justinian continued his conquests in the Western Mediterranean, attempting to capture Spain. It was not possible to do this completely, but a small area in the southeast of the country and the Strait of Gibraltar came under the rule of Byzantium. The Mediterranean Sea once again became the "Roman Lake". In 555 Imperial troops defeated a huge Persian army at Lazika. Khosrow I first signed a truce for six years, and then peace. It was also possible to cope with the Slavic threat: Justinian I entered into an alliance with the nomadic Avars, who took upon themselves the protection of the Danube border of the empire and the fight against the Slavs. In 558 this treaty came into force. The long-awaited peace came for the Roman Empire.

The last years of the reign of Justinian I (559-565) passed quietly. The finances of the empire, weakened by a quarter-century of struggle and a terrible epidemic, were restored, the country healed its wounds. The 84-year-old emperor did not abandon his theological studies and hopes of ending the schism in the Church. He even wrote a treatise on the incorruptibility of the body of Christ, close in spirit to the Monophysites. For resisting the emperor's new views, the Patriarch of Constantinople and many bishops ended up in exile. Justinian I was at the same time a continuer of the traditions of early Christians and the heir of the pagan Caesars. On the one hand, he fought against the fact that only priests were active in the Church, and the laity remained only spectators, on the other hand, he constantly interfered in church affairs, removing bishops at his discretion. Justinian carried out reforms in the spirit of the Gospel commandments - he helped the poor, alleviated the situation of slaves and colonists, restored cities - and at the same time subjected the population to severe tax oppression. He tried to restore the authority of the law, but was never able to eliminate the corruption and abuse of officials. His attempts to restore peace and stability in the territory of the Byzantine Empire turned into rivers of blood. And yet, despite everything, Justinian's empire was an oasis of civilization surrounded by pagan and barbarian states and captured the imagination of his contemporaries.

The significance of the great emperor's deeds goes far beyond his time. Strengthening the position of the Church, the ideological and spiritual consolidation of Orthodoxy played a huge role in the formation of medieval society. The Code of Emperor Justinian I became the basis of European law in subsequent centuries.

He was born in 482 or 483 in Illyricum (Procopius names his birthplace as Taurisium near Bedrian) and came from a peasant family. Already in the late Middle Ages, a legend arose that Justinian allegedly had Slavic origin and bore the name Upravda. When his uncle, Justin, rose to prominence under Anastasia Dikor, he brought his nephew closer to him and managed to give him a comprehensive education. Capable by nature, Justinian little by little began to acquire a certain influence at court. In 521 he was awarded the title of consul, giving magnificent spectacles to the people on this occasion.

In the last years of the reign of Justin I, “Justinian, who had not yet been enthroned, ruled the state during the life of his uncle... who was still reigning, but was very old and incapable of state affairs” (Prov. Kes.,). April 1 (according to other sources - April 4) 527 Justinian was declared Augustus, and after the death of Justin I remained the autocratic ruler of the Byzantine Empire.

He was short, white-faced and considered handsome, despite a certain tendency to be overweight, early bald patches on his forehead and gray hair. The images that have come down to us on coins and mosaics of the churches of Ravenna (St. Vitaly and St. Apollinaris; in addition, in Venice, in the Cathedral of St. Mark, there is a porphyry statue of him) fully correspond to this description. As for the character and actions of Justinian, historians and chroniclers have the most opposite descriptions of them, from panegyric to downright evil.

According to various testimonies, the emperor, or, as they began to write more often since the time of Justinian, the autokrator (autocrat) was “an extraordinary combination of stupidity and baseness... [was] an insidious and indecisive person... full of irony and pretense, deceitful, secretive and two-faced, knew how not to show his anger, perfectly mastered the art of shedding tears not only under the influence of joy or sadness, but at the right moments as necessary. He always lied, and not only by accident, but by making the most solemn notes and oaths when concluding contracts and this even in relation to their own subjects" (Prov. Kes., ). The same Procopius, however, writes that Justinian was “gifted with a quick and inventive mind, tireless in carrying out his intentions.” Summing up a certain result of his achievements, Procopius in his work “On the Buildings of Justinian” speaks simply enthusiastically: “In our time, the Emperor Justinian appeared, who, having assumed power over the state, shaken [by unrest] and reduced to shameful weakness, increased its size and led it into a brilliant state, having expelled from it the barbarians who raped it. The emperor, with the greatest skill, was able to provide for himself entire new states. In fact, he subjugated a number of areas that were already alien to the Roman power to his power and built countless cities that were not previously.

Having found faith in God unsteady and forced to follow the path of various faiths, having wiped out from the face of the earth all the paths that led to these fluctuations, he ensured that it now stood on one solid foundation of true confession. In addition, realizing that the laws should not be unclear due to their unnecessary multiplicity and, clearly contradicting each other, destroy each other, the emperor, clearing them of the mass of unnecessary and harmful chatter, with great firmness overcoming their mutual divergence, preserved the correct laws. He himself, of his own volition, forgave the guilt of those who were plotting against him, filling those in need of means of living to the point of satiation with wealth, and thereby overcoming the unfortunate fate that was humiliating for them, and ensured that the joy of life reigned in the empire.”

“Emperor Justinian usually forgave the mistakes of his erring superiors” (Prov. Kes.,), but: “his ear... was always open to slander” (Zonara,). He favored informers and, through their machinations, could throw his closest courtiers into disgrace. At the same time, the emperor, like no one else, understood people and knew how to acquire excellent assistants.

Justinian's character amazingly combined the most incompatible properties of human nature: a decisive ruler, he sometimes behaved like an outright coward; both greed and petty stinginess, and boundless generosity were available to him; vengeful and merciless, he could seem and be magnanimous, especially if this increased his fame; Possessing tireless energy to implement his grandiose plans, he was nevertheless capable of suddenly despairing and “giving up,” or, on the contrary, stubbornly pursuing clearly unnecessary undertakings to completion.

Justinian had phenomenal efficiency, intelligence and was a talented organizer. With all this, he often fell under the influence of others, primarily his wife, Empress Theodora, a no less remarkable person.

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The emperor was distinguished by good health (c. 543 he was able to endure such a terrible disease as the plague!) and excellent endurance. He slept little, doing all sorts of government affairs at night, for which he received the nickname “sleepless sovereign” from his contemporaries. He often took the most unpretentious food, and never indulged in excessive gluttony or drunkenness. Justinian was also very indifferent to luxury, but, fully understanding the importance of external things for the prestige of the state, he spared no expense for this: the decoration of the capital's palaces and buildings and the splendor of the receptions amazed not only the barbarian ambassadors and kings, but also the sophisticated Romans. Moreover, here the basileus knew when to stop: when in 557 many cities were destroyed by an earthquake, he immediately canceled the magnificent palace dinners and gifts given by the emperor to the capital's nobility, and sent the considerable money saved to the victims.

Justinian became famous for his ambition and enviable tenacity in exalting himself and the very title of Emperor of the Romans. By declaring the autocrat an “apostle,” i.e. “equal to the apostles,” he placed him above the people, the state and even the church, legitimizing the inaccessibility of the monarch to either human or church courts. The Christian emperor could not, of course, deify himself, so “apostle” turned out to be a very convenient category, the highest level accessible to man. And if before Justinian, courtiers of patrician dignity, according to Roman custom, kissed the emperor on the chest when greeting him, and others dropped to one knee, then from now on everyone, without exception, was obliged to prostrate before him, seated under a golden dome on a richly decorated throne. The descendants of the proud Romans finally adopted the slave ceremonies of the barbaric East...

By the beginning of Justinian's reign, the empire had its neighbors: in the west - the virtually independent kingdoms of the Vandals and Ostrogoths, in the east - Sasanian Iran, in the north - the Bulgarians, Slavs, Avars, Antes, and in the south - nomadic Arab tribes. During his thirty-eight years of reign, Justinian fought with them all and, without taking personal part in any of the battles or campaigns, completed these wars quite successfully.

528 (the year of Justinian's second consulate, on the occasion of which, on January 1, consular spectacles unprecedented in splendor were given) began unsuccessfully. The Byzantines, who had been at war with Persia for several years, lost a great battle at Mindona, and although the imperial commander Peter managed to improve the situation, an embassy asking for peace ended in nothing. In March of the same year, significant Arab forces invaded Syria, but they were quickly escorted back. To top all the misfortunes, on November 29, an earthquake once again damaged Antioch-on-Orontes.

By 530, the Byzantines pushed back the Iranian troops, winning a major victory over them at Dara. A year later, a fifteen-thousand-strong Persian army that crossed the border was thrown back, and on the throne of Ctesiphon, the deceased Shah Kavad was replaced by his son Khosrov (Khozroes) I Anushirvan - not only a warlike, but also a wise ruler. In 532, an indefinite truce was concluded with the Persians (the so-called “eternal peace”), and Justinian took the first step towards the restoration of a single power from the Caucasus to the Strait of Gibraltar: using as a pretext the fact that he had seized power in Carthage back in 531, Having overthrown and killed Hilderic, a friend of the Romans, the usurper Gelimer, the emperor began to prepare for war with the kingdom of the Vandals. “We beg the holy and glorious Virgin Mary for one thing,” said Justinian, “that through her intercession the Lord would worthy me, his last slave, to reunite with the Roman Empire everything that was torn from it and to complete [this - author] the highest duty our" . And although the majority of the Senate, headed by one of the closest advisers to the vassileus - the praetorian prefect John the Cappadocian, remembering the unsuccessful campaign under Leo I, spoke out strongly against this idea, on June 22, 533, on six hundred ships, a fifteen thousand army under the command of Belisarius, recalled from the eastern borders (see) went out into the Mediterranean Sea. In September, the Byzantines landed on the African coast, in the autumn and winter of 533 - 534. under Decium and Tricamar, Gelimer was defeated, and in March 534 he surrendered to Belisarius. Losses among the troops and civilians of the Vandals were enormous. Procopius reports that “I don’t know how many people died in Africa, but I think that myriads of myriads died.” “Driving through it [Libya. - S.D.], it was difficult and surprising to meet at least one person there.” Upon his return, Belisarius celebrated a triumph, and Justinian began to solemnly be called African and Vandal.

In Italy, with the death of Theodoric the Great's infant grandson, Atalaric (534), the regency of his mother, the daughter of King Amalasunta, ended. Theodoric's nephew, Theodatus, overthrew and imprisoned the queen. The Byzantines provoked the newly-made sovereign of the Ostrogoths in every possible way and achieved their goal - Amalasunta, who enjoyed the formal patronage of Constantinople, died, and Theodat's arrogant behavior became the reason for declaring war on the Ostrogoths.

In the summer of 535, two small but superbly trained and equipped armies invaded the Ostrogothic state: Mund captured Dalmatia, and Belisarius captured Sicily. The Franks, bribed with Byzantine gold, threatened from the west of Italy. The frightened Theodat began negotiations for peace and, not counting on success, agreed to abdicate the throne, but at the end of the year Mund died in a skirmish, and Belisarius hastily sailed to Africa to suppress the soldiers' revolt. Theodat, emboldened, took into custody the imperial ambassador Peter. However, in the winter of 536, the Byzantines improved their position in Dalmatia, and at the same time Belisarius returned to Sicily, with seven and a half thousand federates and a four-thousand-strong personal squad there.

In the fall, the Romans went on the offensive, and in mid-November they took Naples by storm. Theodat's indecision and cowardice caused the coup - the king was killed, and the Goths elected the former soldier Witigis in his place. Meanwhile, Belisarius's army, meeting no resistance, approached Rome, whose inhabitants, especially the old aristocracy, openly rejoiced at their liberation from the rule of the barbarians. On the night of December 9-10, 536, the Gothic garrison left Rome through one gate, and the Byzantines entered the other. Vitigis' attempts to recapture the city, despite more than tenfold superiority in forces, were unsuccessful. Having overcome the resistance of the Ostrogothic army, at the end of 539 Belisarius besieged Ravenna, and the following spring the capital of the Ostrogothic power fell. The Goths offered Belisarius to be their king, but the commander refused. Suspicious Justinian, despite the refusal, hastily recalled him to Constantinople and, without even allowing him to celebrate a triumph, sent him to fight the Persians. The basileus himself accepted the title of Gothic. The gifted ruler and courageous warrior Totila became the king of the Ostrogoths in 541. He managed to gather the broken squads and organize skillful resistance to Justinian’s small and poorly equipped detachments. Over the next five years, the Byzantines lost almost all of their conquests in Italy. Totila successfully used a special tactic - he destroyed all captured fortresses so that they could not serve as a support for the enemy in the future, and thereby forced the Romans to fight outside the fortifications, which they could not do due to their small numbers. The disgraced Belisarius again arrived in the Apennines in 545, but without money and troops, almost certain death. The remnants of his armies were unable to break through to the aid of besieged Rome, and on December 17, 546, Totila occupied and plundered the Eternal City. Soon the Goths themselves left there (unable, however, to destroy its powerful walls), and Rome again fell under the rule of Justinian, but not for long.

The bloodless Byzantine army, which received no reinforcements, no money, no food and fodder, began to support its existence by robbing the civilian population. This, as well as the restoration of Roman laws that were harsh towards the common people in Italy, led to a massive flight of slaves and colons, who continuously replenished Totila’s army. By 550, he again captured Rome and Sicily, and only four cities remained under the control of Constantinople - Ravenna, Ancona, Croton and Otrante. Justinian appointed his cousin Germanus to replace Belisarius, providing him with significant forces, but this decisive and no less famous commander unexpectedly died in Thessalonica, before he could take office. Then Justinian sent an army of unprecedented size (more than thirty thousand people) to Italy, led by the imperial eunuch Armenian Narses, “a man of keen intelligence and more energetic than is typical for eunuchs” (Prov. Kes.,).

In 552, Narses landed on the peninsula, and in June of this year, at the Battle of Tagine, Totila's army was defeated, he himself fell at the hands of his own courtier, and Narses sent the king's bloody clothes to the capital. The remnants of the Goths, together with Totila's successor, Theia, retreated to Vesuvius, where they were finally destroyed in the second battle. In 554, Narses defeated a horde of seventy thousand invading Franks and Allemans. Basically, the fighting in Italy ended, and the Goths, who went to Raetia and Noricum, were conquered ten years later. In 554, Justinian issued the “Pragmatic Sanction”, which canceled all innovations of Totila - the land was returned to its former owners, as well as the slaves and colons freed by the king.

Around the same time, the patrician Liberius conquered the southeast of Spain with the cities of Corduba, Cartago Nova and Malaga from the Vandals.

Justinian's dream of reuniting the Roman Empire came true. But Italy was devastated, robbers roamed the roads of the war-torn regions, and five times (in 536, 546, 547, 550, 552) Rome, which passed from hand to hand, became depopulated, and Ravenna became the residence of the governor of Italy.

In the east, a difficult war with Khosrow was going on with varying success (from 540), then ending with truces (545, 551, 555), then flaring up again. The Persian wars finally ended only in 561-562. peace for fifty years. Under the terms of this peace, Justinian undertook to pay the Persians 400 libras of gold per year, and the same left Lazica. The Romans retained the conquered Southern Crimea and the Transcaucasian shores of the Black Sea, but during this war other Caucasian regions - Abkhazia, Svaneti, Mizimania - came under the protection of Iran. After more than thirty years of conflict, both states found themselves weakened, having received virtually no advantages.

The Slavs and Huns remained a disturbing factor. “From the time Justinian took power over the Roman state, the Huns, Slavs and Ants, making almost annual raids, did unbearable things to the inhabitants” (Proverb Kes.,). In 530, Mund successfully repelled the onslaught of the Bulgarians in Thrace, but three years later the army of the Slavs appeared in the same place. Magister militum Hillwood fell in battle, and the invaders devastated a number of Byzantine territories. Around 540, the nomadic Huns organized a campaign in Scythia and Mysia. The emperor's nephew Justus, who was sent against them, died. Only at the cost of enormous efforts did the Romans manage to defeat the barbarians and throw them back across the Danube. Three years later, the same Huns, attacking Greece, reached the outskirts of the capital, causing unprecedented panic among its inhabitants. At the end of the 40s. the Slavs ravaged the lands of the empire from the upper reaches of the Danube to Dyrrachium.

In 550, three thousand Slavs, crossing the Danube, again invaded Illyricum. The imperial military leader Aswad failed to organize proper resistance to the aliens, he was captured and executed in the most merciless manner: he was burned alive, having previously been cut into belts from the skin of his back. The small squads of the Romans, not daring to fight, only watched as the Slavs, having divided into two detachments, began robberies and murders. The cruelty of the attackers was impressive: both detachments “killed everyone, indiscriminately, so that the entire land of Illyria and Thrace was covered with unburied bodies. They killed those who came their way not with swords or spears or in any ordinary way, but by driving stakes firmly into the ground and having made them as sharp as possible, they impaled these unfortunates on them with great force, making the point of this stake enter between the buttocks, and then, under the pressure of the body, penetrate into the inside of a person. This is how they considered it necessary to treat us! Sometimes these barbarians, Having driven four thick stakes into the ground, they tied the hands and feet of the prisoners to them, and then continuously beat them on the head with sticks, thus killing them like dogs or snakes, or any other wild animals.The rest, along with bulls and small livestock , whom they could not drive into their father’s borders, they locked them in the premises and burned them without any regret” (Pr.Kes.,). In the summer of 551, the Slavs went on a campaign to Thessalonica. Only when a huge army, intended to be sent to Italy under the command of Herman, who had acquired formidable glory, received the order to take up Thracian affairs, the Slavs, frightened by this news, went home.

At the end of 559, a huge mass of Bulgarians and Slavs again poured into the empire. The invaders, who robbed everyone and everything, reached Thermopylae and Chersonese of Thracia, and most of them turned to Constantinople. From mouth to mouth, the Byzantines passed on stories about the savage atrocities of the enemy. The historian Agathius of Mirinea writes that the enemies even forced pregnant women, mocking their suffering, to give birth right on the roads, and they were not allowed to touch the babies, leaving the newborns to be devoured by birds and dogs. In the city, under the protection of whose walls the entire population of the surrounding area fled to the protection of the walls, taking the most valuable things (the damaged Long Wall could not serve as a reliable barrier to the robbers), there were practically no troops. The emperor mobilized everyone capable of wielding weapons to defend the capital, sending the city militia of circus parties (dimots), palace guards and even armed members of the Senate to the battlements. Justinian assigned Belisarius to command the defense. The need for funds turned out to be such that in order to organize cavalry detachments it was necessary to saddle the racing horses of the capital's hippodrome. With unprecedented difficulty, threatening the power of the Byzantine fleet (which could block the Danube and lock the barbarians in Thrace), the invasion was repelled, but small detachments of Slavs continued to cross the border almost unhindered and settle on the European lands of the empire, forming strong colonies.

Justinian's wars required the raising of colossal funds. By the 6th century almost the entire army consisted of mercenary barbarian formations (Goths, Huns, Gepids, even Slavs, etc.). Citizens of all classes could only bear on their own shoulders the heavy burden of taxes, which increased from year to year. The autocrat himself spoke openly about this in one of his short stories: “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.” A variety of ways were sought to replenish the treasury. Everything was used, including trading positions and damaging coins by cutting them off at the edges. The peasants were ruined by "epibola" - the forced assignment of neighboring empty plots to their lands with the requirement to use them and pay a tax for new land. Justinian did not leave rich citizens alone, robbing them in every possible way. “When it comes to money, Justinian was an insatiable man and such a hunter of other people’s things that he gave away the entire kingdom under his control, partly to rulers, partly to tax collectors, partly to those people who, without any reason, love to plot intrigues with others. Countless numbers of rich people, under insignificant pretexts, had Almost all property was taken away. However, Justinian did not save money..." (Evagrius, ). “Not saving” - this means he did not strive for personal enrichment, but used them for the benefit of the state - in the way he understood this “good”.

The emperor's economic activities boiled down mainly to complete and strict control by the state over the activities of any manufacturer or merchant. The state monopoly on the production of a number of goods also brought considerable benefits. During the reign of Justinian, the empire acquired its own silk: two Nestorian missionary monks, risking their lives, took silkworm grains from China in their hollow staves. The production of silk, having become a monopoly of the treasury, began to give it colossal income.

A huge amount of money was also consumed by extensive construction. Justinian I covered both the European, Asian and African parts of the empire with a network of renewed and newly built cities and fortified points. For example, the cities of Dara, Amida, Antioch, Theodosiopolis, and the dilapidated Greek Thermopylae and Danube Nikopol, destroyed during the wars with Khosro, were restored. Carthage, surrounded by new walls, was renamed Justiniana II (Taurisius became the first), and the North African city of Bana, rebuilt in the same way, was renamed Theodoris. At the order of the emperor, new fortresses were built in Asia - in Phenicia, Bithynia, Cappadocia. Against Slavic raids, a powerful defensive line was built along the banks of the Danube.

The list of cities and fortresses, one way or another affected by the construction of Justinian the Great, is huge. Not a single Byzantine ruler, either before or after him, carried out such volumes of construction activity. Contemporaries and descendants were amazed not only by the scale of military structures, but also by the magnificent palaces and temples that remained from the time of Justinian everywhere - from Italy to Syrian Palmyra. And among them, of course, the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople, which has survived to this day, stands out as a fabulous masterpiece (the Istanbol Mosque of Hagia Sophia, a museum since the 30s of the 20th century).

When in 532, during a city uprising, the church of St. Sophia, Justinian decided to build a temple that would surpass all known examples. For five years, several thousand workers were supervised by Anthimius of Trallus, "in the art of so-called mechanics and construction the most famous not only among his contemporaries, but even among those who lived long before him," and Isidore of Miletus, " in all respects a knowledgeable person" (Pr. Kes.), under the direct supervision of August himself, who laid the first stone at the foundation of the building, a building that still admires was erected. Suffice it to say that a larger diameter dome (at St. Sophia - 31.4 m) was built in Europe only nine centuries later. The wisdom of the architects and the carefulness of the builders allowed the gigantic building to stand in a seismically active zone for more than fourteen and a half centuries.

Not only with the boldness of its technical solutions, but also with its unprecedented beauty and richness of interior decoration, the main temple of the empire amazed everyone who saw it. After the consecration of the cathedral, Justinian walked around it and exclaimed: “Glory to God, who recognized me as worthy to perform such a miracle. I defeated you, O Solomon!” . During the course of the work, the Emperor himself gave several valuable pieces of advice from an engineering standpoint, although he had never studied architecture.

Having paid tribute to God, Justinian did the same for the monarch and the people, rebuilding the palace and hippodrome with splendor.

In implementing his extensive plans for the revival of the former greatness of Rome, Justinian could not do without putting things in order in legislative affairs. During the time that elapsed after the publication of the Code of Theodosius, a mass of new, often contradictory, imperial and praetorian edicts appeared, and in general, by the middle of the 6th century. the old Roman law, having lost its former harmony, turned into a confusing heap of the fruits of legal thought, providing a skillful interpreter with the opportunity to lead trials in one direction or another, depending on the benefit. For these reasons, the basileus ordered colossal work to be carried out to streamline the huge number of decrees of rulers and the entire heritage of ancient jurisprudence. In 528 - 529 a commission of ten jurists led by the jurists Tribonianus and Theophilus codified the decrees of the emperors from Hadrian to Justinian in twelve books of the Justinian Code, which came down to us in the revised edition of 534. Decrees not included in this code were declared invalid. Since 530, a new commission of 16 people, headed by the same Tribonian, began compiling a legal canon based on the most extensive material of all Roman jurisprudence. Thus, by 533, fifty Digest books appeared. In addition to them, “Institutions” were published - a kind of textbook for legal scholars. These works, as well as 154 imperial decrees (novels) published in the period from 534 to the death of Justinian, constitute the Corpus Juris Civilis 3) - “Code of Civil Law”, not only the basis of all Byzantine and Western European medieval law, but also a most valuable historical source. At the end of the activities of the mentioned commissions, Justinian officially banned all legislative and critical activities of lawyers. Only translations of the “Corpus” into other languages ​​(mainly Greek) and the compilation of brief extracts from there were allowed. From now on it was impossible to comment and interpret laws, and out of all the abundance of law schools, only two remained in the Eastern Roman Empire - in Constantinople and Verita (modern Beirut).

The attitude of the Apostle Justinian himself towards law was fully consistent with his idea that there is nothing higher and holier than the imperial majesty. Justinian's statements on this matter speak for themselves: “If any question seems doubtful, let it be reported to the emperor, so that he resolves it with his autocratic power, to which alone belongs the right to interpret the Law”; “the creators of the law themselves said that the will of the monarch has the force of law”; “God subordinated the very laws to the emperor, sending him to the people as an animated Law” (Novella 154, ).

Justinian's active policy also affected the sphere of public administration. At the time of his accession, Byzantium was divided into two prefectures - East and Illyricum, which included 51 and 13 provinces, governed in accordance with the principle of separation of military, judicial and civil powers introduced by Diocletian. During Justinian's time, some provinces were merged into larger ones, in which all services, unlike the provinces of the old type, were headed by one person - duka (dux). This was especially true in areas remote from Constantinople, such as Italy and Africa, where exarchates were formed a few decades later. In an effort to improve the power structure, Justinian repeatedly carried out “cleansing” of the apparatus, trying to combat the abuses of officials and embezzlement. But this struggle was lost every time by the emperor: the colossal sums levied in excess of taxes by the rulers ended up in their own treasuries. Bribery flourished despite harsh laws against it. Justinian reduced the influence of the Senate (especially in the first years of his reign) to almost zero, turning it into a body of obedient approval of the emperor’s orders.

In 541, Justinian abolished the consulate in Constantinople, declaring himself consul for life, and at the same time stopped expensive consular games (they cost 200 libras of government gold alone annually).

Such energetic activities of the emperor, which captured the entire population of the country and required exorbitant expenses, aroused discontent not only of the impoverished people, but also of the aristocracy, who did not want to bother themselves, for whom the humble Justinian was an upstart on the throne, and his restless ideas were too expensive. This discontent was realized in rebellions and conspiracies. In 548, a conspiracy by a certain Artavan was discovered, and in 562, the capital’s rich (“money changers”) Markellus, Vita and others decided to kill the elderly basileus during an audience. But a certain Aulavius ​​betrayed his comrades, and when Marcellus entered the palace with a dagger under his clothes, the guards seized him. Marcellus managed to stab himself, but the rest of the conspirators were detained, and under torture they declared Belisarius the organizer of the assassination attempt. The slander had an effect, Vepisarius fell out of favor, but Justinian did not dare to execute such a well-deserved man on unverified charges.

Things were not always calm among the soldiers either. For all their belligerence and experience in military affairs, the federates were never distinguished by discipline. United in tribal unions, they, violent and intemperate, often rebelled against the command, and managing such an army required considerable talent.

In 536, after Belisarius left for Italy, some African units, outraged by Justinian’s decision to annex all the lands of the Vandals to the fiscus (and not distribute them to the soldiers, as they had hoped), rebelled, proclaiming the commander of a simple warrior Stopa, “a brave and enterprising man "(Feof.,). Almost the entire army supported him, and Stots besieged Carthage, where the few troops loyal to the emperor locked themselves behind decrepit walls. The military leader eunuch Solomon, together with the future historian Procopius, fled by sea to Syracuse, to Belisarius. He, having learned about what had happened, immediately boarded a ship and sailed to Carthage. Frightened by the news of the arrival of their former commander, Stotsa's warriors retreated from the city walls. But as soon as Belisarius left the African coast, the rebels resumed hostilities. Stotsa accepted into his army slaves who had fled from their owners and Gelimer’s soldiers who had survived the defeat. Germanus, assigned to Africa, suppressed the rebellion by force of gold and weapons, but Stotsa with many supporters disappeared into Mauritania and for a long time disturbed Justinian’s African possessions until he was killed in battle in 545. Only by 548 was Africa finally pacified.

For almost the entire Italian campaign, the army, whose supply was poorly organized, expressed dissatisfaction and from time to time either flatly refused to fight or openly threatened to go over to the enemy’s side.

Popular movements did not subside either. With fire and sword, Orthodoxy, which was establishing itself on the territory of the state, caused religious riots on the outskirts. The Egyptian Monophysites constantly threatened to disrupt the supply of grain to the capital, and Justinian ordered the construction of a special fortress in Egypt to guard the grain collected in the state granary. The speeches of other religions - Jews (529) and Samaritans (556) - were suppressed with extreme cruelty.

Numerous battles between the rival circus parties of Constantinople, mainly the Veneti and Prasini (the largest - in 547, 549, 550, 559, 562, 563) were also bloody. Although sporting disagreements were often only a manifestation of deeper factors, primarily dissatisfaction with the existing order (dimes of different colors belonged to different social groups of the population), base passions also played a significant role, and therefore Procopius of Caesarea speaks of these parties with undisguised contempt: “Since ancient times, the inhabitants in each city they were divided into Veneti and Prasin, but recently, for these names and for the places in which they sit during spectacles, they began to waste money and subject themselves to the most severe corporal punishment and even shameful death.They start fights with their opponents, without themselves knowing why they were exposing themselves to danger, and being, on the contrary, confident that, having prevailed over them in these fights, they can expect nothing more than imprisonment, execution and death. and remains forever; neither kinship, nor property, nor ties of friendship are respected. Even siblings who adhere to one of these flowers are in discord among themselves. They have no need for either God's or human affairs, just to deceive their opponents. They do not care that either side turns out to be wicked before God, that laws and civil society are insulted by their own people or their opponents, for even at the very time when they need, perhaps, the most necessary things, when the fatherland is insulted in the most essential, they don’t worry about it at all, as long as they feel good. They call their accomplices a party... I can’t call it anything other than mental illness.”

It was with the battles of the warring dims that the largest uprising in the history of Constantinople, the Nika, began. At the beginning of January 532, during games at the hippodrome, the Prasins began to complain about the Veneti (whose party enjoyed greater favor at the court and especially the empress) and about harassment by the imperial official Spafarius Calopodium. In response, the “blues” began to threaten the “greens” and complain to the emperor. Justinian ignored all claims, and the “greens” left the spectacle with insulting cries. The situation became tense, and clashes between warring factions occurred. The next day, the eparch of the capital, Evdemon, ordered the hanging of several convicts convicted of participating in the riot. It so happened that two - one Venet, the other Prasin - fell from the gallows twice and remained alive. When the executioner began to put the noose on them again, the crowd, who saw a miracle in the salvation of the condemned, fought them off. Three days later, on January 13, during the festivities, the people began to demand that the emperor pardon “those saved by God.” The refusal received caused a storm of indignation. People rushed off the hippodrome, destroying everything in their path. The eparch's palace was burned, guards and hated officials were killed right in the streets. The rebels, leaving aside the differences of the circus parties, united and demanded the resignation of the prasin John the Cappadocian and the Veneti Tribonian and Eudaimon. On January 14, the city became ungovernable, the rebels knocked out the palace bars, Justinian displaced John, Eudaimon and Tribonian, but the people did not calm down. People continued to chant the slogans heard the day before: “It would be better if Savvaty had not been born, if he had not given birth to a murderer son” and even “Another basileus to the Romans!” The barbarian squad of Belisarius tried to push the raging crowds away from the palace, and in the resulting chaos, the clergy of the church of St. Sophia, with sacred objects in their hands, persuading citizens to disperse. What happened caused a new attack of rage, stones were thrown from the roofs of the houses at the soldiers, and Belisarius retreated. The Senate building and the streets adjacent to the palace burst into flames. The fire raged for three days, the Senate, the Church of St. Sophia, the approaches to the Augusteon palace square, and even the hospital of St. Samson, along with the patients in it, burned down. Lydia wrote: “The city was a heap of blackened hills, like on Lipari or near Vesuvius, it was filled with smoke and ash, the smell of burning that spread everywhere made it uninhabitable and its whole appearance instilled horror in the viewer, mixed with pity.” An atmosphere of violence and pogroms reigned everywhere, corpses littered the streets. Many residents in panic crossed to the other side of the Bosphorus. On January 17, the emperor’s nephew Anastasius Hypatius appeared to Justinian, assuring the basileus of his non-involvement in the conspiracy, since the rebels were already calling out Hypatius as emperor. However, Justinian did not believe him and drove him out of the palace. On the morning of the 18th, the autocrat himself came out with the Gospel in his hands to the hippodrome, persuading the residents to stop the riots and openly regretting that he did not immediately listen to the demands of the people. Some of those gathered greeted him with cries: “You are lying! You are taking a false oath, you ass!” . A cry swept through the stands to make Hypatius emperor. Justinian left the hippodrome, and Hypatia, despite his desperate resistance and the tears of his wife, was dragged out of the house and dressed in captured royal clothes. Two hundred armed prasins appeared to make way for him to the palace at his first request, and a significant part of the senators joined the rebellion. The city guard guarding the hippodrome refused to obey Belisarius and let his soldiers in. Tormented by fear, Justinian gathered a council in the palace from the courtiers who remained with him. The emperor was already inclined to flee, but Theodora, unlike her husband, retained her courage, rejected this plan and forced the emperor to act. His eunuch Narses managed to bribe some influential "blues" and dissuade part of this party from further participation in the uprising. Soon, having with difficulty made their way around through the burned-out part of the city, from the north-west to the hippodrome (where Hypatius was listening to hymns in his honor), a detachment of Belisarius burst in, and by order of their commander, the soldiers began to shoot arrows into the crowd and strike

right and left with swords. A huge but unorganized mass of people mixed up, and then through the circus “gate of the dead” (once through which the bodies of killed gladiators were carried out of the arena) soldiers of the three thousand-strong barbarian detachment Munda made their way into the arena. A terrible massacre began, after which about thirty thousand (!) dead bodies remained in the stands and arena. Hypatius and his brother Pompey were captured and, at the insistence of the empress, beheaded, and the senators who joined them were also punished. The Nika uprising is over. The unheard of cruelty with which it was suppressed frightened the Romans for a long time. Soon the emperor restored the courtiers dismissed in January to their former posts, without encountering any resistance.

Only in the last years of Justinian's reign did the discontent of the people again begin to manifest itself openly. In 556, at the festivities dedicated to the founding of Constantinople (May 11), residents shouted to the emperor: “Basileus, [give] abundance to the city!” (Feof.,). It happened under the Persian ambassadors, and Justinian, enraged, ordered the execution of many. In September 560, rumors spread throughout the capital about the death of the recently ill emperor. The city was gripped by anarchy, gangs of robbers and townspeople who joined them smashed and set fire to houses and bread shops. The unrest was calmed only by the quick thinking of the eparch: he immediately ordered that bulletins about the state of the basileus’s health be hung in the most prominent places and arranged a festive illumination. In 563, a crowd threw stones at the newly appointed city eparch; in 565, in the Mezentsiol quarter, the ancestors fought with soldiers and excuvites for two days, and many were killed.

Justinian continued the line begun under Justin of the dominance of Orthodoxy in all spheres of public life, persecuting dissidents in every possible way. At the very beginning of his reign, approx. In 529, he promulgated a decree prohibiting the employment of “heretics” in public service and the partial defeat of the rights of adherents of the unofficial church. “It is fair,” the emperor wrote, “to deprive the one who worships God incorrectly of earthly blessings.” As for non-Christians, Justinian spoke even more harshly in their regard: “There should be no pagans on earth!” .

In 529, the Platonic Academy in Athens was closed, and its teachers fled to Persia, seeking the favor of Prince Khosrow, known for his scholarship and love of ancient philosophy 9).

The only heretical direction of Christianity that was not particularly persecuted was the Monophysites - partly due to the patronage of Theodora, and the basileus was well aware of the danger of persecution of such a large number of citizens, who already kept the court in constant anticipation of rebellion. The V Ecumenical Council, convened in 553 in Constantinople (there were two more church councils under Justinian - local ones in 536 and 543) made some concessions to the Monophysites. This council confirmed the condemnation made in 543 of the teachings of the famous Christian theologian Origen as heretical.

Considering the church and the empire to be one, Rome as his city, and himself as the highest authority, Justinian easily recognized the primacy of the popes (whom he could appoint at his discretion) over the patriarchs of Constantinople.

The emperor himself from a young age gravitated towards theological debates, and in old age this became his main hobby. In matters of faith, he was distinguished by scrupulousness: John of Nius, for example, reports that when Justinian was offered to use a certain magician and sorcerer against Khosrow Anushirvan, the basileus rejected his services, exclaiming indignantly: “I, Justinian, the Christian emperor, will triumph with the help of demons? !" . He punished guilty clergymen mercilessly: for example, in 527, two bishops caught in sodomy, on his orders, were led around the city with their genitals cut off as a reminder to the priests of the need for piety.

Throughout his life, Justinian embodied the ideal on earth: one and great God, one and great church, one and great power, one and great ruler. The achievement of this unity and greatness was paid for by the incredible strain of the forces of the state, the impoverishment of the people and hundreds of thousands of victims. The Roman Empire was reborn, but this colossus stood on feet of clay. Already the first successor of Justinian the Great, Justin II, in one of his short stories lamented that he found the country in a terrifying state.

In the last years of his life, the emperor became interested in theology and turned less and less to the affairs of the state, preferring to spend time in the palace, in disputes with church hierarchs or even ignorant simple monks. According to the poet Corippus, “the old emperor no longer cared about anything; as if already numb, he was completely immersed in the expectation of eternal life. His spirit was already in heaven.”

In the summer of 565, Justinian sent the dogma on the incorruptibility of the body of Christ to the dioceses for discussion, but no results were forthcoming - between November 11 and 14, Justinian the Great died, “after filling the world with murmurs and unrest” (Evag.,). According to Agathius of Myrinea, he was “the first, so to speak, among all those who reigned [in Byzantium - S.D.] to show himself not in words, but in deeds as a Roman emperor” 10).

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

Justinian was a native of Illyricum and a nephew of; According to legend, he is of Slavic origin. He played a prominent role in the reign of his uncle and was proclaimed Augustus 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 entire policy of the emperor was subordinated to this, which was truly global in nature and made it possible to concentrate enormous 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 structure were resolved. He surrounded himself with a galaxy of talented advisers and commanders, remaining free from outside influences, inspired in his actions solely by faith in a single state, single laws and a single faith. “In the breadth of his political plans, clearly understood and strictly carried out, in his ability to take advantage of circumstances, and most importantly, in his art of identifying the talents of those around him and giving everyone a task appropriate to his abilities, Justinian was a rare and remarkable sovereign” (F. I. Uspensky).

Justinian's main military efforts were concentrated in the West, where colossal forces were sent. In 533-534, his best commander Belisarius defeated the state of the African Vandals, and 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 inhabited by Germanic tribes for a hundred years, returned to the rule of the Roman power. These territories, with the rank of provinces, were reunited with the empire, and Roman law was again extended to them.

The successful progress 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, with interruptions), there were wars with Persia over disputed territories in Transcaucasia and influence in Mesopotamia and Arabia, which diverted huge amounts of money and did not produce any fruit. During the entire reign of Justinian, the tribes of the Slavs, Germans, and Avars ravaged the Transdanubian provinces with their invasions. The emperor sought to compensate for the lack of defensive resources through the efforts of diplomacy, concluding alliances with some nations against others and thus maintaining the necessary balance of power 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 price of the brilliant “age of Justinian” was the difficult internal situation of the state, especially in the economy and finances, which bore the burden of colossal expenses. The lack of funds became the 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 candor, Justinian declared in one of his decrees: “The first duty of subjects and the best means for them to thank the emperor is to pay public taxes in full with unconditional selflessness.” The severity of tax collection reached its limit and had a disastrous effect on the population. According to a contemporary, “a foreign invasion seemed less scary to taxpayers than the arrival of fiscal officials.”

For the same purpose, Justinian sought to make a profit from the empire’s trade with the East, establishing high customs duties on all goods imported to Constantinople, as well as turning entire industries into government monopolies. It was under Justinian that silk production was mastered in the empire, which provided the treasury with huge revenues.

City life under Justinian was characterized by the struggle of circus parties, the so-called. Dimov. The suppression of the Nika 532 uprising in Constantinople, provoked by the rivalry of the Dims, destroyed opposition to Justinian among the aristocracy and 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 Codex Justiniani) was published, which gave a normative presentation of Roman law and formulated the foundations of imperial statehood.

Justinian's church policy was marked by a desire to establish religious unity. In 529, the Athenian Academy was closed, and the persecution of heretics and pagans began, which filled the entire reign of Justinian. The persecution of the Monophysites, right 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 V Ecumenical Council was convened in Constantinople, at which the so-called “the controversy of the three chapters” and, in particular, condemned Origen.

Justinian's reign was marked by a huge scale of construction. According to Procopius, the emperor “increased the fortifications throughout the country, so that every landholding was turned into a fortress or a military post was located near it.” The temple of St. became a masterpiece of architectural art in the capital. Sophia (built in 532-37), which played a great role in shaping 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 had 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 ambition” and “faithful empress” was not always beneficial, but the entire reign of Justinian was marked by it. She was given official honors on a par with the emperor, and subjects were henceforth given a personal oath to both royal spouses. During the uprising of Nike, Theodora saved the throne for Justinian. The words she said went down in history: “Whoever has once put on a diadem should not experience its 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 reduced to zero, and the idea of ​​a universal empire became a rhetorical figure for a long time. However, the reign of Justinian, who is called “the last Roman and first Byzantine emperor,” became the most important stage in the formation of the phenomenon of the Byzantine monarchy.

Emperor Justinian. Mosaic in Ravenna. VI century

The future emperor of Byzantium was born around 482 in the small Macedonian village of Taurisium into the family of a poor peasant. He came to Constantinople as a teenager at the invitation of his uncle Justin, an influential courtier. Justin did not have his own children, and he patronized his nephew: he called him to the capital and, despite the fact that he himself remained illiterate, gave him a good education, and then found a position at court. In 518 The senate, guard and residents of Constantinople proclaimed the elderly Justin emperor, and he soon made his nephew his co-ruler. Justinian was distinguished by a clear mind, a broad political outlook, determination, perseverance and exceptional efficiency. These qualities made him the de facto ruler of the empire. His young, beautiful wife Theodora also played a huge role. Her life took an unusual turn: the daughter of a poor circus performer and a circus performer herself, she, as a 20-year-old girl, went to Alexandria, where she fell under the influence of mystics and monks and was transformed, becoming sincerely religious and pious. Beautiful and charming, Theodora had an iron will and turned out to be an indispensable friend to the emperor in difficult times. Justinian and Theodora were a worthy couple, although evil tongues were haunted by their union for a long time.

In 527, after the death of his uncle, 45-year-old Justinian became autocrat - autocrat - of the Roman Empire, as the Byzantine Empire was then called.

He gained power at a difficult time: only the eastern part of the former Roman possessions remained, and barbarian kingdoms were formed on the territory of the Western Roman Empire: the Visigoths in Spain, the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Franks in Gaul and the Vandals in Africa. The Christian Church was torn by disputes about whether Christ was a “God-man”; dependent peasants (colons) fled and did not cultivate the land, the arbitrariness of the nobility ruined the common people, the cities were shaken by riots, the finances of the empire were in decline. The situation could only be saved by decisive and selfless measures, and Justinian, alien to luxury and pleasure, a sincerely believing Orthodox Christian, theologian and politician, was perfectly suited for this role.

Several stages clearly stand out in the reign of Justinian I. The beginning of the reign (527-532) was a period of widespread charity, distribution of funds to the poor, tax reduction, and assistance to cities affected by the earthquake. At this time, the position of the Christian Church in the fight against other religions strengthened: the last stronghold of paganism, the Platonic Academy, was closed in Athens; limited opportunities for openly practicing the cults of other believers - Jews, Samaritans, etc. This was a period of wars with the neighboring Iranian Sassanid power for influence in South Arabia, the goal of which was to gain a foothold in the ports of the Indian Ocean and thereby undermine Iran's monopoly on the silk trade with China. It was a time of struggle against the tyranny and abuses of the nobility.

The main event of this stage is legal reform. In 528, Justinian established a commission of experienced jurists and statesmen. The main role in it was played by the legal specialist Trebonian. The commission prepared a collection of imperial decrees - the Justinian Code, a set of works by Roman lawyers - the Digests, as well as a guide to the study of law - the Institutions. Carrying out legislative reform, we proceeded from the need to combine the norms of classical Roman law with the spiritual values ​​of Christianity. This was expressed primarily in the creation of a unified system of imperial citizenship and the proclamation of the equality of citizens before the law. Moreover, under Justinian, the laws related to private property inherited from Ancient Rome took their final form. In addition, Justinian's laws no longer considered the slave as a thing - a “speaking instrument”, but as a person. Although slavery was not abolished, many opportunities opened up for a slave to free himself: if he became a bishop, entered a monastery, became a soldier; It was forbidden to kill a slave, and the murder of someone else's slave entailed cruel execution. In addition, according to the new laws, the rights of women in the family were equal to the rights of men. Justinian's laws prohibited divorce, which was condemned by the Church. At the same time, the era could not help but leave its mark on the law. Executions were frequent: for commoners - crucifixion, burning, devouring to wild animals, beating with rods to death, quartering; nobles were beheaded. Insulting the emperor, even damaging his sculptural images, was punishable by death.

The emperor's reforms were interrupted by the Nika popular uprising in Constantinople (532). It all started with a conflict between two parties of fans in the circus: the Veneti (“blue”) and the Prasin (“green”). These were not only sports, but partly also socio-political unions. Political grievances were added to the traditional struggle of fans: the Prasins believed that the government was oppressing them and patronizing the Veneti. In addition, the lower classes were dissatisfied with the abuses of Justinian's "Minister of Finance" - John of Cappadocia, while the nobility hoped to get rid of the upstart emperor. The Prasin leaders presented their demands to the emperor, and in a very harsh form, and when he rejected them, they called him a murderer and left the circus. Thus, an unheard-of insult was inflicted on the autocrat. The situation was complicated by the fact that when, on the same day, the instigators of the clash from both parties were arrested and sentenced to death, two of the convicts fell from the gallows (“were pardoned by God”), but the authorities refused to release them.

Then a single “green-blue” party was created with the slogan “Nika!” (circus cry “Win!”). An open riot began in the city, and arson was committed. The emperor agreed to concessions, dismissing the ministers most hated by the people, but this did not bring peace. An important role was also played by the fact that the nobility distributed gifts and weapons to the rebellious plebs, inciting rebellion. Neither attempts to suppress the uprising by force with the help of a detachment of barbarians, nor the public repentance of the emperor with the Gospel in his hands yielded anything. The rebels now demanded his abdication and proclaimed the noble senator Hypatius emperor. Meanwhile, the fires became more and more numerous. “The city was a pile of blackening ruins,” wrote a contemporary. Justinian was ready to abdicate, but at that moment Empress Theodora declared that she preferred death to flight and that “the emperor’s purple is an excellent shroud.” Her determination played a big role, and Justinian decided to fight. Troops loyal to the government made a desperate attempt to regain control over the capital: a detachment of the commander Belisarius, the conqueror of the Persians, entered the circus, where a stormy meeting of the rebels was taking place, and carried out a brutal massacre there. They said that 35 thousand people died, but Justinian’s throne survived.

The terrible catastrophe that befell Constantinople - fires and deaths - did not, however, plunge either Justinian or the townspeople into despondency. In the same year, rapid construction began using treasury funds. The pathos of restoration captured wide sections of the townspeople. In a sense, we can say that the city rose from the ashes, like the fabulous Phoenix bird, and became even more beautiful. The symbol of this rise was, of course, the construction of a miracle of miracles - the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It began immediately, in 532, under the leadership of architects from the province - Anthemia of Thrall and Isidore of Miletus. Externally, the building had little to amaze the viewer, but the real miracle of transformation took place inside, when the believer found himself under a huge mosaic dome, which seemed to hang in the air without any support. A dome with a cross hovered above the worshipers, symbolizing the divine cover over the empire and its capital. Justinian had no doubt that his power had divine sanction. On holidays, he sat on the left side of the throne, and the right side was empty - Christ was invisibly present on it. The autocrat dreamed that an invisible cover would be raised over the entire Roman Mediterranean. With the idea of ​​​​restoring the Christian empire - the "Roman house" - Justinian inspired the entire society.

When the dome of Constantinople Sophia was still being erected, the second stage of Justinian’s reign (532-540) began with the Great Liberation Campaign to the West.

By the end of the first third of the 6th century. The barbarian kingdoms that arose in the western part of the Roman Empire were experiencing a deep crisis. They were torn apart by religious strife: the main population professed Orthodoxy, but the barbarians, Goths and Vandals were Arians, whose teaching was declared a heresy, condemned in the 4th century. at the I and II Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church. Within the barbarian tribes themselves, social stratification was occurring at a rapid pace, discord between the nobility and the common people was intensifying, which undermined the combat effectiveness of the armies. The elite of the kingdoms were busy with intrigues and conspiracies and did not care about the interests of their states. The indigenous population waited for the Byzantines as liberators. The reason for the outbreak of war in Africa was that the Vandal nobility overthrew the legitimate king - a friend of the empire - and placed his relative Gelizmer on the throne. In 533, Justinian sent a 16,000-strong army under the command of Belisarius to the African shores. The Byzantines managed to secretly land and freely occupy the capital of the Vandal kingdom of Carthage. The Orthodox clergy and Roman nobility solemnly greeted the imperial troops. The common people also reacted sympathetically to their appearance, since Belisarius severely punished robberies and looting. King Gelizmer tried to organize resistance, but lost the decisive battle. The Byzantines were helped by an accident: at the beginning of the battle, the king’s brother died, and Gelizmer left the troops to bury him. The Vandals decided that the king had fled, and panic gripped the army. All of Africa fell into the hands of Belisarius. Under Justinian I, grandiose construction began here - 150 new cities were built, close trade contacts with the Eastern Mediterranean were restored. The province experienced economic growth throughout the 100 years it was part of the empire.

Following the annexation of Africa, a war began for the possession of the historical core of the western part of the empire - Italy. The reason for the outbreak of the war was the overthrow and murder of the legitimate queen of the Ostrogoths, Amalasunta, by her husband Theodatus. In the summer of 535, Belisarius with a detachment of eight thousand landed on Sicily and in a short time, experiencing almost no resistance, occupied the island. The next year, his army crossed to the Apennine Peninsula and, despite the enemy’s huge numerical superiority, recaptured its southern and central parts. The Italians greeted Belisarius everywhere with flowers; only Naples offered resistance. The Christian Church played a huge role in such support of the people. In addition, chaos reigned in the Ostrogoth camp: the murder of the cowardly and treacherous Theodat, a riot in the troops. The army chose Viti-gis, a brave soldier but a weak politician, as the new king. He, too, was unable to stop the advance of Belisarius, and in December 536 the Byzantine army occupied Rome without a fight. The clergy and townspeople arranged a solemn meeting for the Byzantine soldiers. The population of Italy no longer wanted the power of the Ostrogoths, as evidenced by the following fact. When in the spring of 537 Belisarius's five-thousandth detachment was besieged in Rome by the huge army of Witigis, the battle for Rome lasted 14 months; Despite hunger and disease, the Romans remained loyal to the empire and did not allow Witigis into the city. It is also significant that the king of the Ostrogoths himself printed coins with the portrait of Justinian I - only the power of the emperor was considered legal. In the deep autumn of 539, the army of Belisarius besieged the barbarian capital of Ravenna, and a few months later, relying on the support of friends, the imperial troops occupied it without a fight.

It seemed that Justinian's power knew no bounds, he was at the apogee of his power, plans for the restoration of the Roman Empire were coming true. However, the main tests were still awaiting his power. The thirteenth year of the reign of Justinian I was a “black year” and began a period of difficulties that only the faith, courage and steadfastness of the Romans and their emperor could overcome. This was the third stage of his reign (540-558).

Even when Belisarius was negotiating the capitulation of Ravenna, the Persians violated the “Eternal Peace” they had signed ten years ago with the empire. Shah Khosrow I invaded Syria with a huge army and besieged the capital of the province - the richest city of Antioch. The residents bravely defended themselves, but the garrison was unable to fight and fled. The Persians took Antioch, plundered the flourishing city and sold the inhabitants into slavery. The next year, the troops of Khosrow I invaded Lazika (Western Georgia), allied with the empire, and a protracted Byzantine-Persian war began. The thunderstorm from the East coincided with the Slavic invasion of the Danube. Taking advantage of the fact that the border fortifications were left almost without garrisons (there were troops in Italy and in the East), the Slavs reached the capital itself, broke through the Long Walls (three walls stretching from the Black Sea to Marmara, protecting the outskirts of the city) and began to plunder the suburbs of Constantinople. Belisarius was urgently transferred to the East, and he managed to stop the Persian invasion, but while his army was not in Italy, the Ostrogoths revived there. They chose the young, handsome, brave and intelligent Totila as king and, under his leadership, began a new war. The barbarians enlisted fugitive slaves and colonists into the army, distributed lands of the Church and the nobility to their supporters, and recruited those who had been offended by the Byzantines. Very quickly, Totila's small army occupied almost all of Italy; Only the ports remained under the control of the empire, which could not be taken without a fleet.

But, probably, the most difficult test for the power of Justinian I was the terrible plague epidemic (541-543), which killed almost half the population. It seemed that the invisible dome of Sophia over the empire had cracked and black whirlwinds of death and destruction poured into it.

Justinian understood well that his main strength in the face of a superior enemy was the faith and unity of his subjects. Therefore, simultaneously with the ongoing war with the Persians in Lazica, the difficult struggle with Totila, who created his fleet and captured Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, the emperor’s attention was increasingly occupied by issues of theology. It seemed to some that the elderly Justinian had lost his mind, spending days and nights in such a critical situation reading the Holy Scriptures, studying the works of the Church Fathers (the traditional name for the figures of the Christian Church who created its dogma and organization) and writing his own theological treatises. However, the emperor understood well that it was in the Christian faith of the Romans that their strength lay. Then the famous idea of ​​the “symphony of the Kingdom and Priesthood” was formulated - the union of church and state as a guarantee of peace - the Empire.

In 543, Justinian wrote a treatise condemning the teachings of the mystic, ascetic and theologian of the 3rd century. Origen, denying the eternal torment of sinners. However, the emperor paid the main attention to overcoming the schism between the Orthodox and Monophysites. This conflict has tormented the Church for more than 100 years. In 451, the IV Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon condemned the Monophysites. The theological dispute was complicated by the rivalry between the influential centers of Orthodoxy in the East - Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople. The split between supporters of the Council of Chalcedon and its opponents (Orthodox and Monophysites) during the reign of Justinian I became especially acute, since the Monophysites created their own separate church hierarchy. In 541, the activities of the famous Monophysite Jacob Baradei began, who, dressed as a beggar, went around all the countries inhabited by Monophysites and restored the Monophysite church in the East. The religious conflict was complicated by a national one: the Greeks and Romans, who considered themselves the ruling people in the Roman Empire, were predominantly Orthodox, and the Copts and many Arabs were Monophysites. For the empire, this was all the more dangerous because the richest provinces - Egypt and Syria - contributed huge sums to the treasury and much depended on the support of the government by the trade and craft circles of these regions. While Theodora was alive, she helped mitigate the conflict by patronizing the Monophysites, despite the criticism of the Orthodox clergy, but in 548 the empress died. Justinian decided to bring the issue of reconciliation with the Monophysites to the V Ecumenical Council. The emperor's plan was to smooth out the conflict by condemning the teachings of the enemies of the Monophysites - Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Willow of Edessa and Feodor of Mopsuet (the so-called "three chapters"). The difficulty was that they all died in peace with the Church. Is it possible to judge the dead? After much hesitation, Justinian decided that it was possible, but Pope Vigilius and the overwhelming majority of Western bishops did not agree with his decision. The Emperor took the Pope to Constantinople, kept him almost under house arrest, trying to achieve agreement under pressure. After a long struggle and hesitation, Vigilius surrendered. In 553, the V Ecumenical Council in Constantinople condemned the “three heads.” The pope did not participate in the work of the council, citing indisposition, and tried to oppose its decisions, but in the end he signed them.

In the history of this council, one should distinguish between its religious meaning, which consists in the triumph of the Orthodox dogma that divine and human nature are united in Christ, inseparably and inseparably, and the political intrigues that accompanied it. Justinian's direct goal was not achieved: reconciliation with the Monophysites did not occur, and there was almost a break with the Western bishops, dissatisfied with the decisions of the council. However, this council played a big role in the spiritual consolidation of the Orthodox Church, and this was extremely important both at that time and for subsequent eras. The reign of Justinian I was a period of religious upsurge. It was at this time that church poetry, written in simple language, began to develop, one of the most prominent representatives of which was Roman Sladkopevets. This was the heyday of Palestinian monasticism, the time of John Climacus and Isaac the Syrian.

There was also a turning point in political affairs. In 552, Justinian equipped a new army for a campaign in Italy. This time she set off by land through Dalmatia under the command of the eunuch Narses, a brave commander and cunning politician. In the decisive battle, Totila's cavalry attacked the troops of Narses, formed in a crescent, came under cross-fire from archers from the flanks, took to flight and crushed their own infantry. Totila was seriously wounded and died. Within a year, the Byzantine army restored its dominance over all of Italy, and a year later Narses stopped and destroyed the hordes of Lombards pouring into the peninsula.

Italy was saved from terrible plunder. In 554, Justinian continued his conquests in the Western Mediterranean, attempting to capture Spain. It was not possible to do this completely, but a small area in the southeast of the country and the Strait of Gibraltar came under the rule of Byzantium. The Mediterranean Sea once again became the "Roman Lake". In 555 Imperial troops defeated a huge Persian army at Lazika. Khosrow I first signed a truce for six years, and then peace. It was also possible to cope with the Slavic threat: Justinian I entered into an alliance with the nomadic Avars, who took upon themselves the protection of the Danube border of the empire and the fight against the Slavs. In 558 this treaty came into force. The long-awaited peace came for the Roman Empire.

The last years of the reign of Justinian I (559-565) passed quietly. The finances of the empire, weakened by a quarter-century of struggle and a terrible epidemic, were restored, the country healed its wounds. The 84-year-old emperor did not abandon his theological studies and hopes of ending the schism in the Church. He even wrote a treatise on the incorruptibility of the body of Christ, close in spirit to the Monophysites. For resisting the emperor's new views, the Patriarch of Constantinople and many bishops ended up in exile. Justinian I was at the same time a continuer of the traditions of early Christians and the heir of the pagan Caesars. On the one hand, he fought against the fact that only priests were active in the Church, and the laity remained only spectators, on the other hand, he constantly interfered in church affairs, removing bishops at his discretion. Justinian carried out reforms in the spirit of the Gospel commandments - he helped the poor, alleviated the situation of slaves and colonists, restored cities - and at the same time subjected the population to severe tax oppression. He tried to restore the authority of the law, but was never able to eliminate the corruption and abuse of officials. His attempts to restore peace and stability in the territory of the Byzantine Empire turned into rivers of blood. And yet, despite everything, Justinian's empire was an oasis of civilization surrounded by pagan and barbarian states and captured the imagination of his contemporaries.

The significance of the great emperor's deeds goes far beyond his time. Strengthening the position of the Church, the ideological and spiritual consolidation of Orthodoxy played a huge role in the formation of medieval society. The Code of Emperor Justinian I became the basis of European law in subsequent centuries.