Justinian and Christianity

Justinian was born Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus on May 11, 483 in a small village called Tauresium. His mother was Vigilantia who was the sister of General Justin, who would eventually become Emperor Justin. Justinian was adopted by his uncle, who promised the boy would be well educated and he was. Justinian was intelligent in the areas of jurisprudence, theology, and Roman history. In 518 his uncle would become Emperor and Justinian would quickly advance in his military career. In 521 Justinian was appointed to consul and would later become commander of the army of the east that same year. But his big break came of April 1, 527 when he was appointed associate emperor. He married Theodora who was an actress. In those times actresses were seen as being the same thing as a prostitute. His uncle’s wife who did care for Justinian was much apposed to the marriage. She basically thought he was marrying scum and was marring below his class. But his uncle passed a law that stated when an actress abandoned her job would once again be seen as a “lady” and may marry whoever she wants to. Theodora was 20 years younger than Justinian. She was a very intelligent woman when came to street smarts and would become one of her husband’s greatest supporters.

When his uncle died in August of that year Justinian become emperor at the age of 44. Justinian would spend much of his time as emperor doing two things: recovering lost lands and trying to convert people to Christianity. His men were able to recapture parts of the Roman Empire and Africa. Justinian’s empire grew enormous, but only for a short period of time. Justinian believed that for the empire to be truly united they needed to be united by religion, so he began to suppress all the other religions, except Christianity. In 529, Justinian placed the Academy of Plato under state control, suppressing the teachings of Hellenism. There were supposedly 70,000 pagans converted in Asia Minor alone, by John of Ephesus. It didn’t take long for others to start converting to Christianity. Because of his large involvement with Christianity Justinian was once of the first emperors to be shown holding a cross on a coin. He was extremely harsh with the Samaritans. He passed a law in 529 that ordered their synagogues to be destroyed and took away their right to sell property to those who were not orthodox. The Samaritans tried to revolt, but had little success. Their leader Julian was eventually beheaded and his head was sent back to Justinian. 20,000 other Samaritans would be sold into slavery. Jewish people also had to suffer the wrath of Justinian. He restricted their civil rights, threatened their religious privileges and interfered with their internal affairs in their synagogues. He even went so far as to forbid them from using Hebrew in their services. The Jewish synagogues would eventually become churches. Justinian would continue to pass laws that would make his people unhappy; he was even almost overthrown towards the end of his reign. On May November 13/14 of 585 Justinian died.

Bibliography

Evans, James Allen. Justinian (527-565 A.D.). An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors.
Available at http://www.roman-emperors.org/justinia.htm. Accessed 5, March 2006.

Justinian I. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justinian_I. Accessed 5, March 2006.

Justinian I. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.
Available at http://www.bartleby.com/65/ju/Justinia1.html. Accessed 5, March 2006.