Justinian I

Justinian I was born in 482 near Tauresium in present-day North Macedonia, into a Latin-speaking peasant family. His uncle Justin rose from Balkan soldier to imperial-guard commander and in 518 to emperor. Adopted and educated in law, theology, and Roman history, Justinian acted as de facto regent in his uncle's later years, became Caesar in 525, co-emperor in 527, and sole ruler that August. He married the former actress Theodora - a controversial breach of class, but she would remain his most important political partner.

The defining early crisis was the Nika riots of January 532. A dispute between the Blue and Green chariot factions spiralled into anti-imperial revolt; Justinian considered fleeing. Procopius records Theodora's reply: 'the purple is the noblest shroud'. The emperor stayed; Belisarius and Narses cornered some 30,000 rioters in the Hippodrome and massacred them. That bloodshed belongs in the record. The burnt city was rebuilt, including the new Hagia Sophia consecrated in 537; the emperor is said to have cried, 'Solomon, I have surpassed thee'.

Abroad his generals pursued renovatio imperii. The Vandal kingdom fell in 533-534; Italy was reclaimed in a draining Gothic War (535-554); a slice of southern Iberia became Spania. The reconquests added over a million solidi a year, but Italy was wrecked, and from 541 the plague Procopius called 'of Justinian' may have killed thirty to forty percent of the eastern Mediterranean population. Much reconquered ground was lost within decades of his death.

The enduring achievement was legal. Through Tribonian, Justinian issued the Codex (529), Digest (533), Institutes (533), and later Novellae - the Corpus Juris Civilis. Rediscovered in twelfth-century Bologna, it became the spine of continental European law; modern French, German, and Japanese codes descend from it. He also restricted divorce and in 529 closed the Athenian schools. Theodora died in 548; childless, Justinian died on 14 November 565.