The Survival of the Empire in the East
While the Western Roman empire was being replaced by Germanic kingdoms, the empire in the East was able to survive the crisis with its institutions and frontiers intact.
The emperors at Constantinople succeeded in maintaining their territory in Asia Minor against the restored power of Persia and were able to resist the infiltration of the Germans and the decentralising influence of the great landlords. The survival of the empire in the East was largely due to its greater material resources, the strength of its more developed urban society, and the greater homogeneity and loyalty of its population. Nevertheless, the empire was clearly on the defensive, being constantly threatened by barbarian incursions and internal conflicts.In 527 AD a talented new ruler, Justinian, came to power over the eastern part of the Roman world. From the time he ascended the throne at Constantinople Justinian directed all his energies to fulfilling his ultimate ambition: the restoration of the Roman empire to its ancient grandeur. To this end he inaugurated a programme centred upon three goals: the western provinces were to be reconquered and imperial rule re-established throughout the Mediterranean basin; religious orthodoxy was to be enforced; and Roman law was to be codified and used as a consolidating force. Following the conclusion of a peace treaty with the Persian empire in the East, Justinian turned his attention to the Vandals who were established in northern Africa. In 533 AD a landing in Africa was effected, the Vandals were defeated and Africa was restored to its former position as a province of the Roman empire. The invasion of Sicily in 535 AD marked the beginning of the reconquest of Italy. After a bitter struggle which lasted more than two decades the Ostrogothic kingdom was overthrown and Rome, the old capital of the empire, was recaptured.
In 554 AD Justinian's ambitions took him to the far western Mediterranean where the southern portion of Spain was wrested from the Visigoths and added to the empire. Within the empire, Justinian sought to protect his subjects against oppression by initiating a series of administrative reforms, and measures were introduced aimed at stimulating commerce and industry. But in his effort to restore religious orthodoxy within the Christian Church, the unity of which was being threatened by various schisms, he ran into insurmountable difficulties.[1130]Justinian accomplished his reconquest of the West at a very high price: the exhaustion of the empire's resources in money and manpower. Moreover, the centralising forces so manifest in Justinian's programme failed to overcome the centrifugal tendencies in the West. A few years after his death in 568 AD, most of the West was again lost and imperial authority was reduced to a few strongholds in Italy and Spain. The loss of the western provinces transferred the empire's centre of gravity from the Latin to the Greek element and precipitated the transformation of the Eastern empire into an essentially Greek state - the Byzantine empire.
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More on the topic The Survival of the Empire in the East:
- The Legislation of Justinian in the East: Byzantine Law
- Chapter 7 The Survival and Resurgence of Roman Law in Western Europe
- 9 THE DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE
- 1.3 Empire
- The Demise of the Western Empire
- The later Roman Empire
- CHURCH AND EMPIRE
- 11 THE END OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE
- INTRODUCTION: CITIES AND EMPIRE
- The struggle against the Empire
- THE EMPIRE AND THE LAW
- CONTEXTUALISING ‘THE UNIVERSAL LAWS OF THE ROMANS': THE EARLY EMPIRE