General Historical Background

In 527 ad a vigorous new ruler, Justinian, ascended the throne at Constantinople. Imbued with the Roman imperial tradition, Justinian directed all his energies to fulfilling his essential ambition: the restoration of the Roman Empire to its earlier grandeur.

After concluding a peace agreement with the Persian Empire in the East, Justinian mounted an expedition under general Belisarius against the Vandal kingdom of North Africa in ad 533. Within a year the Vandals were defeated and Africa was restored to its former position as a province of the empire. The invasion of Sicily in ad 535 marked the initiation of the reconquest of Italy. After a bitter struggle that endured for more than two decades, the Ostrogothic kingdom was overthrown and Rome, the empire’s ancient capital, was recaptured. In ad 554 Justinian’s ambitions directed him to the far western Mediterranean, where southern Spain was wrested from the Visigoths and adjoined to the empire. By exploiting the diplomatic isolation of his opponents in the West and assuming a defensive stance in the East, Justinian succeeded in converting the Mediterranean once more into an imperial lake. However, the reconquest of Africa, Italy and Spain entailed mixed blessings for their inhabitants; their initial acceptance of imperial rule was soon tempered by misgivings prompted by the obligations placed upon the population by the imperial authorities.

Within the empire, Justinian introduced a series of administrative reforms designed to protect his subjects against the rapacity of government officials and soldiers, and to curb the oppression of the rural population by powerful land barons. Moreover, he adopted measures devised to revitalize commerce and industry; embarked on an extensive architectural and artistic program, furnishing the empire with churches, public buildings and fortifications; and accomplished his ambitious tasks of codifying the law and transforming legal education.

Modern historians are generally divided as to their assessment of Justinian and his work. Some point to his authoritarianism and his ruthless suppression of all internal opposition, and to the fact that his reconquest of the West proved ephem­eral and exhausted the empire both economically and militarily (after his death in ad 568 renewed attacks by Germanic tribes reduced imperial authority in the West to a few strong points). Others draw attention to his undeniable military successes and to his tremendous internal achievements, notably in the fields of art and law. They point out that at a time when the ancient world was ending, Justinian did succeed in finally assembling and preserving for posterity the heritage of Roman law—an immense body of legal materials spanning hundreds of years of legal development.

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