Justinian the Great

“Justinian was born in Tauresium around 482. A native speaker of latin (possibly the last Roman emperor to be one), he came from a peasant family believed to have been of Illyro-Roman or Thraco-Roman origins. The cognomen Lustinianus, which he took later, is indicative of adoption by his uncle Justin” (1) When he grew up Justinian became the ruler over the Eastern part of the Roman Empire from 527 AD to 565 A.D.. Throughout his reign, Justinian attempted to restore Rome to its former greatness and to reconquer the overthrown Western half of the Empire Justinian was a pagan but that all changed when he was fighting a battle but he was losing so he prayed to God for victory and on that day he won the battle and became a Christian. It is significant that he joined the Catholic Church because most people went to the Aryan Church, the reason was because his wife was a Catholic.  Justinian has sometimes been called the “last Roman” in the modern study of ancient writings because of his restoration pursuit. Justinian’s general, Belisarius, quickly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. “Subsequently Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths. The prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula, establishing the province of Spania. These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire’s annual revenue by over a million solidi.” (2) In his reign Justinian defeated the Tzani, which were a people on the coast of the Black Sea that the Romans had never overcome before, even in their greatness. “His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture, and his building program yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia. A devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in the early 540s marked the end of an age of splendour. (3) Justinian was a powerful ruler and he

Bibliography: 1-3 Wikipedia Justinian the Great