Justin II
Justin II | |
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Justin II (
Justin II inherited a greatly enlarged but overextended empire, with far less resources at his disposal compared to Justinian I. Despite this, he strove to match his formidable uncle's reputation by abandoning the payment of tributes to the Empire's neighbors. This miscalculated move resulted in rekindling of war with the
.Justinian dynasty | ||
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Chronology | ||
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Succession | ||
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Family
He was a son of Vigilantia and Dulcidio (sometimes rendered as Dulcissimus),[2] respectively the sister and brother-in-law of Justinian. His siblings included Marcellus and Praejecta. With Sophia he had a daughter Arabia and possibly a son, Justus, who died young. He also had a niece named Helena.[3]
Reign
Accession
Justinian I died childless on 14 November 565. Callinicus , the praepositus sacri cubiculi, seems to have been the only witness to his dying moments, and later claimed that Justinian had designated "Justin, Vigilantia's son" as his heir in a deathbed decision. The clarification was needed because there was another nephew and candidate for the throne, Justin, son of Germanus. Modern historians suspect Callinicus may have fabricated the last words of Justinian to secure the succession for his political ally.[4] As historian Robert Browning observed: "Did Justinian really bring himself in the end to make a choice, or did Callinicus make it for him? Only Callinicus knew."[5]
In any case, Callinicus started alerting those most interested in the succession, originally various members of the
Both the Patriarch and
In the first few days of his reign Justin paid his uncle's debts, administered justice in person, and proclaimed universal religious toleration. On 1 January 566, he became a consul, thereby reviving a post Justinian had discontinued since 541. Justin and Sophia initially promised to make peace with Justin's cousin and rival to the throne, Justin (son of Germanus), but had him assassinated in Alexandria not long after. According to a hostile source, the imperial couple kicked his severed head.[7]
In 566 he reformed Justinian's divorce law for going too far, revoking the possibility of divorce by mutual consent.[8] Under the pretext of not understanding the fragile human nature:
Mankind has nothing more admirable than marriage: from it stem children and successive generations, the peopling of villages and cities, and society’s best bond. Hence, it is our prayer that marriage should be so successful for those contracting it as never to be the work of an unlucky daemon, and that married couples should not split up without just cause for their marriage to be dissolved. But as it is difficult for this to be maintained for all mankind – in such a large population, it is outside the realms of possibility that some unreasonable enmities should not supervene – we have thought it appropriate to devise some remedy for this, in particular where the consequences of pettiness have escalated so far as to engender real, irreconcilable hatred between the partners.[9]
Foreign policy
Faced with an empty treasury, he discontinued Justinian's practice of buying off potential enemies. Immediately after his accession, Justin halted the payment of subsidies to the
The North and East frontiers were the main focus of Justin's attention. In 572 his refusal to pay tribute to the
Shortly after the
In 1937, the historian Previte-Orton described Justin as "a rigid man, dazzled by his predecessor's glories, to whom fell the task of guiding an exhausted, ill-defended Empire through a crisis of the first magnitude and a new movement of peoples". Previte-Orton continues,
In foreign affairs he took the attitude of the invincible, unbending Roman, and in the disasters which his lack of realism occasioned, his reason ultimately gave way. It was foreign powers which he underrated and hoped to bluff by a lofty inflexibility, for he was well aware of the desperate state of the finances and the army and of the need to reconcile the Monophysites."[14]
Succession and death
After 572, Justin was reported to have fits of insanity. John of Ephesus, whose Monophysite sect suffered persecutions under Justin, offered a vivid description of Justin's madness, in which he behaved like a wild animal, was wheeled about on a mobile throne and required organ music to be played day and night.[15] In 574, at Sophia's suggestion, he adopted the general Tiberius as his son and heir, and then retired in his favor.[16] On 7 December, according to Theophylact Simocatta, Justin remained sufficiently clear-minded to make an eloquent speech as he passed the crown:[17][18]
You behold the ensigns of supreme power. You are about to receive them, not from my hand, but from the hand of God. Honor them, and from them you will derive honor. Respect the empress your mother: you are now her son; before, you were her servant. Delight not in blood; abstain from revenge; avoid those actions by which I have incurred the public hatred; and consult the experience, rather than the example, of your predecessor. As a man, I have sinned; as a sinner, even in this life, I have been severely punished: but these servants (and he pointed to his ministers), who have abused my confidence, and inflamed my passions, will appear with me before the tribunal of Christ. I have been dazzled by the splendor of the diadem: be thou wise and modest; remember what you have been, remember what you are. You see around us your slaves, and your children: with the authority, assume the tenderness, of a parent. Love your people like yourself; cultivate the affections, maintain the discipline, of the army; protect the fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of the poor.[16]
Four years later, on 26 September 578, he elevated Tiberius as Augustus. Justin died only nine days later, on 5 October 578.[19]
Footnotes
References
- ^ Lingenthal 1857, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Martindale 1980, II, 1165.
- ^ Martindale 1992, III, 754–755.
- ^ Evans (1999), pp. 263–264
- ^ Browning (2003), p. 165
- ^ a b Evans (1999), p. 264
- ^ Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, 5.2
- ^ Sarris, P. (2017). Emperor Justinian. In J. Witte, Jr & G. Hauk (Eds.), Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction (Law and Christianity, pp. 85-99). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108233255.008
- ^ Novellae Constitutiones 140.
- ^ Norwich, John J. Byzanptium: the Early Centuries (London:Penguin 1988) p.571 gives this subsidy to Avars as 80,000 silver pieces.
- ^ Nicholson, Canepa & Daryaee 2018.
- ^ a b c Howard, Michael C., Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies, the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel, McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 133.
- ^ Liu, Xinru, "The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia", in Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History, ed. Michael Adas, American Historical Association, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, p. 168.
- Previte-Orton, Charles William, The shorter Cambridge medieval history (Cambridge: University Press, 1952), p. 201.
- ^ John of Ephesus, Ecclesiastical History, Part 3, Book 3
- ^ a b Gibbon, Edward, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter XLV, Part II
- ^ Theophylact Simocatta III.11: "This was spoken on the seventh of December, on the sixth day, in the ninth indiction."
- ^ John of Ephesus, 3.5.
- ^ Chronicon Paschale 578; John of Ephesus, 3.5.
Sources
Primary sources
- ISBN 978-1-889758-88-6.
Secondary sources
- Browning, Robert (2003), Justinian and Theodora, Gorgias Press LLC, ISBN 1-59333-053-7
- Evans, James Allan Stewart (2000), The age of Justinian: the circumstances of imperial power, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-23726-2
- Garland, Lynda (1999), Byzantine empresses: women and power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204, CRC Press, ISBN 0-203-02481-8
- ISBN 0-521-20159-4.
- ISBN 0-521-20160-8.
- ISBN 978-0-88-141056-3.
- Nicholson, Oliver; Canepa, Matthew; Daryaee, Touraj (2018). "Khosrow I Anoshirvan". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
- Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
- Lingenthal, C. E. Z. (1857). Jus Graeco-Romanum: Novellae Constitutiones. T. O. Weigel.