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The Isaurian Zeno was restored in Constantinople as Emperor of the Roman empire in 476; but Praetorian Prefect Erythrius had resigned, because he refused to oppress people to gain the needed revenue. He was replaced by Sebastian, who raised funds by selling offices. Zeno appointed Illus Master of the Offices; but Illus was hated by the empresses Verina and Ariadne, who instigated attempts on his life. Prefect Epinicus was banished for hiring an assassin, who failed. Illus learned from Epinicus about Verina's part and insisted on Zeno removing her. Verina became a nun and was also exiled to Isauria. This stimulated Marcian, son of Western Emperor Anthemius, to try to overthrow Zeno in 479 based on the innovative claim of his marriage to Leo's daughter Leontia. The barbarians in the capital, supporting Marcian and his brother Procopius, overcame the imperial guards; but they were defeated the next day. Marcian was ordained a priest and banished to Cappadocia, while his wife Leontia entered a convent. Ariadne also sent an assassin, who wounded Illus and was killed. Illus went to Antioch as Master of Soldiers in 481.
Alexandria patriarch Timothy Salophaciol sent the monk John Talaia to Constantinople to urge the Emperor to support the Chalcedon doctrine. Zeno agreed but made Talaia swear he would not accept the episcopal office. However, when Salophaciol died in 482, Talaia was elected bishop of Alexandria. Zeno was afraid that Illus would use Talaia to get the Egyptians against him. So the Emperor deposed Talaia and accepted Constantinople patriarch Acacius' advice that Peter Mongus should be the Alexandrian patriarch. Zeno issued an edict called the Act of Union (Henotikon) that affirmed the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Ephesus against any other views including those of Chalcedon, thus ambiguously refusing to accept or reject Chalcedonian decrees. In 483 the new Roman pope Felix wrote Zeno and Acacius that Peter Mongus was a condemned heretic, although Peter accepted the Henotikon, and Felix was persuaded by Talaia to summon Acacius. When the Byzantine patriarch did not comply, Pope Felix excommunicated Acacius the next year, causing a schism between Rome and Constantinople.
Although Emperor Zeno continued to recognize as Western emperor the exiled Nepos until he was murdered in 480, he declared Italy's new king Odovacar Patrician. Consuls were still elected for the empire from the West; but Odovacar only allowed Rome's city prefects to serve for one year. The Roman nobility was compelled to support the army, and the Herulian Odovacar settled about 20,000 of his Germans in Italy. To keep Odovacar out of Illyricum, Zeno got the Rugians to invade Italy; but they were defeated, and the Rugian king Feletheus and his queen were beheaded. A Roman synod excommunicated the patriarch of Alexandria, because they challenged the Emperor Zeno's right to dictate to the church.
Theodemir's son Theodoric had spent much of his youth as a hostage in Constantinople, although he apparently did not learn to write. Theodoric succeeded his father before 475 and settled his people in Lower Moesia. Another Theodoric named Strabo had been proclaimed king by German troops and made a general by Emperor Leo; but the restored Zeno gave Strabo's military position to Theodoric. Zeno got Theodoric to march against Strabo; but then he joined his namesake in 478. Zeno prepared for war; but when his army disbanded in winter, he made terms with Strabo, because Theodoric was destroying Thrace. Now Strabo replaced the other Theodoric as master of soldiers. So Theodoric fled with his army into Macedonia. Thessalonicans rebelled against Illyricum's praetorian prefect and gave his keys to their archbishop. While Zeno's envoy Adamantius tried to negotiate with Theodoric, Zeno's general Sabinian Magnus fought the Goths in Epirus. After a year and a half Sabinian was murdered and replaced by John the Scythian.
During Marcian's revolt of 479 Strabo's forces approached Constantinople and got money from Zeno; but refusing to surrender two conspirators in his camp, Strabo was declared an enemy, allied with Theodoric again, and ravaged Thrace. In 481 Strabo's army marched on Constantinople but was turned away. After Strabo's accidental death, his place was taken by his son Recitach; he ruled Thrace even worse than his father. Three years later Zeno instigated Theodoric to murder Recitach. The Emperor gave Moesia and Dacia Ripensis to Theodoric's Ostrogoths and received his help against Illus. Yet in 486 Theodoric ravaged Thrace.
In 484 when Illus refused to release Zeno's imprisoned brother Longinus, the Emperor replaced Illus with John the Scythian and confiscated the property of Illus' friends. This resulted in a civil war that lasted four years as Illus proclaimed Marcian emperor. Illus appealed to Odovacar and the Persians; but Odovacar refused, and the Persians had their hands full fighting the Ephthalites, who killed Persian emperor Peroz that year. Illus retrieved Verina and got her to crown the patrician Leontius in place of Marcian while repudiating Zeno for avarice. Though rejected at Chalcis and Edessa, the new Emperor was welcomed at Antioch. Zeno appealed to Ostrogoth king Theodoric to supplement his Isaurian troops. Zeno's army then defeated the rebellion the same year; but the siege of the fortress of Cherris lasted four years until it was treacherously taken. Illus and Leontius were beheaded. Zeno died of epilepsy in 491.
Before Theodoric invaded Italy in 489, he got Zeno to agree that he could replace Odovacar. Theodoric's army defeated the forces of Odovacar, who fled to Ravenna, as his commander Tufa surrendered most of his army. Theodoric trusted Tufa with some of his Gothic troops; but Tufa rejoined Odovacar instead of attacking him and put the Goths in irons. The next year Odovacar was able to regain Milan; but Visigoths reinforced the Ostrogoths, and Theodoric decisively defeated Odovacar, who fled again to Ravenna. The Roman Senate acknowledged that Theodoric ruled southern Italy and Sicily. Meanwhile Burgundian king Gundobad's army plundered northern Italy, capturing thousands. Theodoric also had to fight the Vandals, who were trying to regain Sicily. Odovacar held out under siege for two and a half years until a blockade compelled him to negotiate in 493. However, Theodoric suspected Odovacar, and ten days later at a banquet he was killed with a sword. Theodoric then had Odovacar's wife, son, and many of his supporters slaughtered. The next year Bishop Epiphanius crossed the Alps to plead with Gundobad and persuaded him to restore more than 6,000 captives to Italy. In 497 Epiphanius got Theodoric to reduce taxes on Liguria by two-thirds.
At Constantinople in 491 Empress Ariadne chose Anastasius to succeed Zeno, though the church patriarch Euphemius insisted that Anastasius declare his orthodoxy in writing. Ariadne married Anastasius the next month. The Isaurians had expected Longinus to succeed his brother Zeno; when they rioted at the Hippodrome and set it on fire, Anastasius ordered his soldiers to expel the Isaurians from the capital. He replaced the unpopular city prefect Julian with his brother-in-law Secundinus. Longinus was exiled to a religious life at the Thebaid in Egypt. Anastasius confiscated Zeno's property and 1400 pounds of gold the late emperor had allowed his countrymen. A rebellion of 100,000 in Isauria was defeated in Phrygia by the imperial army under John of Scythia and John the Hunchback in 493. Isaurians led by Longinus of Kardala and Athenodorus held out in fortresses until they were captured and executed four years later. Large colonies of Isaurians were re-settled in Thrace.
Anastasius economized on state expenditures and in 498 abolished the Chrysargyron tax that had oppressed the poorest people. Christians were pleased by this, because it had tacitly acknowledged the work of prostitutes by taxing them. More revenue was gained from the private estates. Anastasius appointed the Syrian Marinus, and he relieved local community leaders from collecting taxes by assigning the job to vindices, though they could be bribed. Curial assemblies often had been afraid to offend wealthy landowners. Many farmers had been driven into bankruptcy, and this put the tax burden on the other farms. Though many governmental officials were less affluent because of the new policies, Anastasius was able to build up a public reserve of 320,000 pounds of gold.
In 498 an invasion of Saracens from the desert into Euphratesia, Syria, and Palestine was defeated. Another brief raid four years later led by the Saracen Harith resulted in a treaty. Huns known as Bulgarians had encroached on the empire as early as 493, and they invaded again in 499 and 502, stimulating Anastasius to build a long wall around Constantinople. A century of invasions by Germans and Huns into the Balkans had depopulated the region.
In Persia Balash (r. 484-488) succeeded Peroz and kept peace with Armenia by granting them religious toleration. Yet the Ephthalites to the east of Persia were exacting tribute, and Kavadh (r. 488-531), who spent his youth there, became king of Persia only four years after these White Huns had defeated and killed Peroz. Persia had suffered from the wars and famines, and in the economic hardship Kavadh tried to borrow money from Anastasius to no avail. Mazdak started a movement based on the teachings of Mani and the socialist sharing of goods (including wives), and Kavadh championed the people against the aristocracy. Kavadh enacted laws to liberate women from harems; but he was deposed, imprisoned, and put on trial. Mazdak was also imprisoned but was freed by his disciples. Then Kavadh escaped to the Ephthalite court, returned with their army in 499, and took the throne back from his brother Zamasp. The long truce with Rome was breaking up. Because Persia had not given back Nisibis in 483 after 120 years according to the 363 treaty, Rome had stopped making payments. Dependent on Ephthalite soldiers and needing to pay them tribute, in 502 Kavadh invaded Armenia, gained Theodosiopolis by treachery, took Martyropolis by force, and besieged Amida. A persuasive priest prevented a massacre, and the inhabitants of Amida were enslaved and replaced by a garrison of 3,000.
Anastasius sent an army led by Areobindus, Patricius, and his nephew Hypatius. A personal conflict between the latter two resulted in a Persian victory. Areobindus retreated into Edessa, which Christians believed was specially protected by Jesus Christ. Kavadh blockaded Edessa and then agreed to withdraw for 2,000 pounds of gold. When payment was not made, he renewed the blockade but eventually abandoned it. Jews in Constantia were suspected of conspiring to deliver the city, and Greeks slaughtered many of them. Celer replaced Hypatius and devastated Arzanene, while Areobindus invaded Persian Armenia, and Patricius tried to liberate Amida, which agreed to surrender for 1,000 pounds of gold. Since Kavadh was now at war with the Ephthalites, he agreed to a truce with Celer in 505. During the wars the people suffered so much from the occupation by the German mercenaries in the imperial army that many preferred Persian rule. Near Nisibis that defended the Persians, the Emperor had a fortress built and named after himself Anastasiopolis.
In theology Emperor Anastasius inclined toward the Monophysites. Complaints by Alexandrian and Jerusalem patriarchs that Euthemius was a heretic led to the Constantinople patriarch being deposed by a local council in 496. His successor Macedonius held similar views but was more compliant and signed the Henotikon. Two years later rock-throwing at the Hippodrome in the presence of the Emperor escalated to another fire. A new city prefect named Plato was appointed. Anastasius abolished contests with wild beasts in 499, and a pagan dance of the Brytae festival that caused bloody riots was also banned two years later. In 511 Macedonius was forced to abdicate and was replaced by the Monophysite Timothy. A noisy conflict between orthodox church-goers and heretical priests caused Praetorian Prefect of the East Marinus and City Prefect Plato to send in imperial troops, killing some and imprisoning others. The next day people proclaimed Emperor the general Areobindus, who was married to Valentinian III's granddaughter; they pulled down statues of Anastasius and burned the house of Marinus. Anastasius was ready to abdicate, but after his speech in the Hippodrome, the people persuaded him to remain.
In Antioch the moderate patriarch Flavian was replaced by the leading Monophysite theologian Pisidian Severus in 512. Vitalian was the military Count of the federates in Thrace, who were mostly Bulgarians. He championed the religious cause of Flavian and Macedonius, and he claimed that his federates had been deprived of promised provisions. Hypatius was Master of Soldiers in Thrace, but he retreated to Constantinople. Vitalian marched on the capital with a reported 50,000 men. Anastasius made gifts and promises, recommending that the church of Rome decide the religious issue. Vitalian and his army returned to Lower Moesia, followed by Cyril, who had replaced Hypatius.
When Cyril was assassinated, the Senate declared Vitalian a public enemy and sent an army (said to have 80,000 men) under the Emperor's nephew, another Hypatius. After an initial victory in 513 the imperial army was driven over precipices and lost a reported 60,000 men. Hypatius was captured and ransomed for 9,000 pounds of gold. Vitalian, after raising a navy of 200 ships, was appointed Master of Soldiers in Thrace. A church council was scheduled for 515 but never met. So once again Vitalian marched to the capital. Marinus commanded the imperial forces that defeated the rebels in the naval battle of the Golden Horn. A chemical compound invented by an Athenian that set fire to ships greatly aided the imperial victory. Vitalian fled with the remains of his army. Emperor Anastasius was 88 when he died three years later in 518.
As Patrician Theodoric (r. 490-526) replaced many of Odovacar's Germans with his Ostrogoths. The Roman senator Liberius assigned the Goths one-third of the Roman estates. It was not until 497 that Anastasius recognized Theodoric as the Governor of Italy. Being under the Emperor, Theodoric could issue edicts but could not make laws though he called himself king. Theodoric acknowledged the Roman Senate as a comparable authority. Civil offices were reserved for Romans; but the military was all Goths, as Romans were forbidden to carry arms. Theodoric, like the Emperor, could hear any judicial case as the supreme royal court and did so more often than the Emperor. In religion Theodoric was tolerant, and he wrote to all the Jews of Genoa that people could not be compelled to believe against their will. Theodoric apparently got along well with Romans, but the society essentially segregated Goths and Romans. Intermarriage was illegal, and Goths used the Gothic language. According to Cassiodorus the Goths learned how to respect laws and refrain from private revenge.
As the king's secretary Cassiodorus wrote letters for Theodoric. In one to a sword-bearer named Unigis, the king expressed his delight living under Roman laws and his interest in maintaining morality even in war. What benefit is there in ending the turmoil of barbarians, he asked, unless they live under law? He would let other kings glory winning battles, taking cities, and causing ruin, his purpose with God's help was to rule in such a way that his subjects would grieve they had not gained the blessing of his dominion sooner. Theodoric urged racial harmony and civility, restraining Goths from oppressing the Romans. He made alliances by marrying his daughters to the Visigothic king Alaric II and the Burgundian prince Sigismund in 494. Theodoric married Audafleda, sister of Clovis, and his sister Amalfrida wed the Vandal king Thrasamud in 500.
After Symmachus and Laurentius were both elected pope in Rome on the same day in 498, Theodoric the next year chose Symmachus. The Byzantine-supported Laurentius went on but had to retire after the Sirmium conflict aroused Italian patriotism against the empire; Symmachus also excommunicated him. While fighting Gepids to recover Sirmium, the Gothic army clashed with imperial troops in 504 and held the city against a force led by Sabinian the next year. In 507 Theodoric settled some Alamannic people in Pannonia. Campaigns in Gaul saved Arles and Narbonensis, and Provence was taken from Burgundy. Alaric II died in 507, and after 511 Theodoric ruled Spain for his grandson Amalaric. Theodoric chose Ravenna as his capital and built a new palace and an Arian church dedicated to St. Martin.
Near the end of his life Theodoric was concerned about the persecution of Arian Christians in the Eastern empire, and he sent Pope John (523-526) to Constantinople to persuade Justin to moderate the decree against the Arians. When Albinus was charged with political sympathy for imperial rule, the Master of the Offices Boethius defended him in the Senate. Even Pope John was suspected, and after returning from Constantinople he died in Theodoric's prison. Without investigating their cases properly Theodoric had the philosopher Boethius and the patrician Symmachus executed. Guilt over this and a sudden illness left Theodoric dead in 526.
Proclus was born about 410 in Constantinople and studied philosophy under Olympiodorus at Alexandria, then at Athens under a Plutarch and Syrianus, whom he succeeded as teacher at the Academy. Considered the last major Neo-Platonist, Proclus attempted to systematize the philosophy in his Elements of Theology, commentaries on Plato, and in other works. He never married, was a vegetarian, and believed he was the reincarnation of the Neo-Pythagorean Nicomachus. Proclus died in 485 and was succeeded by his biographer Marinus. In 529 Justinian prohibited teaching philosophy at Athens, and the last seven members of the Neo-Platonic school went to Khusrau I in Persia; they were disappointed and returned to Athens, though in the treaty of 532 Khusrau got Justinian to agree not to persecute them or force them to be Christians.
Proclus emphasized the unity of God and the universe in a hierarchy that descended from being, the ultimate cause, to power (of the cause) to mind (activity of the cause) to the world soul (power of that activity) and finally to becoming, the world of appearances. From the one God derived the gods of Greek religion and the Platonic ideas. The ethics of Proclus focused on the oneness of this absolute goodness. By renouncing the appearances of the body and its unnecessary physical desires, social and political relations, one could ascend into higher levels of awareness and increasing virtue. Three main stages are love, truth, and faith. Truth takes the soul beyond love to the beautiful and a knowledge of the true reality. Faith represents the mystical silence of the ineffable. The good is what draws all souls back to God, and evil is only the imperfection found in the lowest levels of becoming. Everyone naturally seeks the good.
Greatly influenced by the ideas of Proclus are the writings attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite that appeared about 500 and transformed his Neo-Platonic hierarchy into a Christian cosmology that included seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, powers, authorities, principalities, archangels, and angels. In the Divine Names Dionysius attempted to understand the indescribable godhead by using such terms as goodness, being, eternal life, wisdom, mind, truth, cause, beginning, reason, and power. For Dionysius goodness is the highest name, and it is experienced by means of prayer. Evil is only a term that is used for what is deficient in goodness or is inadequate; but it has no existence of its own. Evil is only a deprivation, defect, weakness, disproportion, error, or absence of divine qualities such as purpose, beauty, life, understanding, reason, and perfection. In Mystical Theology Dionysius attempted to describe a way toward the knowledge of God, which is essentially mystical and ineffable. Paradoxically this reality can only be experienced in the darkness of unknowing. God is in all and yet transcends all as the cause of all things.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was born about 480 into the illustrious Anician Roman family that had been Christian for about a century. His father was a consul in 487 but died soon after that. Boethius translated Greek works on theology by Plato, logic by Aristotle, arithmetic by Nicomachus, geometry by Euclid, music by Pythagoras, and astronomy by Ptolemy into Latin, and he wrote four tractates on Christian theology. In these he attempted to explain with Aristotelian logic the unity of God as substance and the trinity of divine persons in terms of relation, describing Christ as having both divine and human nature. He was consul of Rome in 510, and in 522 his two sons were appointed consuls by King Theodoric and Emperor Justinian, while Boethius himself was serving as master of the offices.
When Senator Albinus was accused of conspiring with Emperor Justin, Boethius in the Senate said the charge by Cyprian was false and that if Albinus was guilty, then he and the entire Senate were also. This led to the charge of treason being extended to Boethius but not to other senators. Cyprian then brought forth false witnesses against both Albinus and Boethius. In 523 Boethius was locked up in prison at Ticinum (Pavia) about 300 miles from Rome for about a year while his conviction was confirmed by the Senate. He had hoped to translate all the works of Plato and Aristotle to show their essential agreement; but left without his library, Boethius wrote the brilliant work, The Consolation of Philosophy. Boethius was tortured and beaten to death with a club in 524, and his father-in-law Symmachus was taken from Rome to Ravenna to be executed the next year.
The Consolation of Philosophy alternates passages of verse with prose. Boethius is bewailing his fate in prison after his sudden fall from the peak of good fortune when Philosophy appears to him in a gown that stretches from the practical on the lower hem to the theoretical or divine at the top as symbolized by the Greek letters Pi and Theta. Boethius complains that he is suffering unjustly. He had followed the advice of Plato that the wise should go into politics lest the good be destroyed by bad citizens; but in watching justice with a free conscience he displeased the powerful. He had worked to reduce taxes during famine and stopped an enforced sale. Having seen the brave consul Paulinus devoured by Palatine dogs, he exposed himself to the informer Cyprian in order to prevent a similar injustice against Albinus. He was then denounced by the informers Basilius, Opilio, and Gaudentius so that they would not be expelled by royal decree. Boethius explained that forged letters blamed him because he hoped for Roman liberty, and he believed he would be vindicated by the wise judgment of posterity. Harmful penalties due the wicked are pressing the innocent, while perverted morals on a high throne trample on the pious.
Philosophy promises to cure him. She uses a dialectical method and discovers that at least Boethius understands that God created the universe and watches over it; but she is surprised that knowing the beginning, he does not understand how the universe is governed and to what end. Boethius thinks of himself as a reasoning but mortal animal, and this belief she diagnoses as the chief cause of his illness, not knowing how the universe is guided. His attitude makes things appear wretched, because he seeks happiness outside instead of within himself. Philosophy discusses how the various human desires for riches, gems, clothes, servants, and so on do not extend their external good to their possessors. Most creatures are satisfied with their own intrinsic good; only humans lower themselves to seek worthless things. Yet humans can know themselves. Because power, position, and fame may be used for evil, they have no intrinsic good. Philosophy suggests that he let Fortune and her friends depart so that he can find more precious friends such as love. Love is what binds all people together by treaties they may not break. Love binds in holy wedlock and trusted friendship; it even rules the universe.
Boethius is now ready for the sharper remedy of Philosophy. She reveals that the true goal is the highest good that includes all happiness which everyone seeks. The vanity of riches, positions, political power, fame, noble birth, and desires of the flesh lead people astray from what is their true good. Human welfare is troubled, because it is not whole, and it may not continue. Sufficiency easily becomes excess by adding what is unpleasant or harmful. Honor does not come to the virtuous from their position; but rather from virtue honor comes to the position. Paradoxically Philosophy points out that adversity is more beneficial than fortune, because the latter is a pretense of happiness that deceives with external goods, while the former instructs by true experience that brings wisdom and goodness. Fortune draws one away from the truly good by devious allurements, but adversity leads one back to the good. The dialectic determines that the highest good includes happiness, satisfaction, power, glory, veneration, and joy. They begin by calling on God as Philosophy's pupil Plato did in his Timaeus and discover that the highest and perfect good is found in the highest Deity that includes true happiness. Thus God rules the universe for the highest good, and all things move toward that good according to their own will.
In the fourth book Philosophy discusses good and evil. Boethius asks why the virtuous lack rewards and are trampled under the feet of the wicked, being punished instead of the criminals. She says that would be monstrous if true; but the good is always powerful, and evils are helpless. Ultimately vice cannot escape penalty, and virtue is not without reward; for happiness comes to the good, while the bad cannot help but suffer misfortune eventually. Everyone seeks the good, and those who gain it are strong. Evil is really nothing, and the dishonest are incapable of achieving anything real. The bad are really weak, because they have not attained the good. The bad have limited themselves to a partial reality. From God's viewpoint everything is good, because the bad are improved by the punishment their actions bring, and good actions in spite of adversity strengthen virtue, which is a lasting good.
By honesty alone may someone rise beyond the human level to the divine, while the dishonest lower their condition. A violent robber is like a wolf, the quarrelsome like a dog, the deceptive ambusher like a fox, the angry like a lion, the fearful like a deer, the lazy like an ass, the trivial like flighty birds, and the lusty like swine. By deserting honesty one is turned into a beast, not physically but psychologically. Schemes of crimes are often destroyed suddenly, limiting the misery. The longer one is worthless the worse it is. The dishonest are made happier by paying their punishment than if there were no penalty of justice. Baseness makes one wretched by its own nature; yet the misery of the injured victim is not the recipient's but the perpetrator's. All fortune, whether pleasant or difficult, is to reward and discipline the good, or to punish and correct the dishonest.
In the fifth and last book Philosophy explains that chance events are unexpected, because they are different than the conscious purpose. Yet they have their own causes too. Fate is used to describe events when one is far from the center of God, and so they seem random. Those closer to the creator can more easily see the hand of divine providence. Finally Philosophy takes on the difficult dilemma of resolving how free will can still exist if God is omniscient and knows the future. She uses the example of a man walking into the sunset. Everyone knows that the movement of the setting sun is inevitable, but the man is freely choosing to walk. In this way God is able to watch the future just as we are able to watch the present. The awareness of God is more like providence than foreseeing and is beyond not only sense perception but reason as well. Divine light illuminates all and is aware of all while still allowing individuals their free expression. Perhaps another way of putting it is that God understands all the possibilities and probabilities which may be chosen and all their possible results. Since some things are determined by necessity, while other human concerns result from the ability to choose and act, humans are responsible for the consequences of their actions and the discipline, rewards, or penalties that result. Thus the divine laws are just, and prayers to God are not in vain. Philosophy concludes,
Then reject vices, cultivate virtues,
lift up your soul to right hopes,
offer to the heights humble prayers.
Great is the necessity of honesty indicated for you,
if you are not to deceive with appearances,
since you do all before the eyes of a discerning judge.2
Next to the Bible, The Consolation of Philosophy would become the most widely distributed book during the middle ages by which many could absorb the essential Platonic principles of ethics that affirm virtue, self-knowledge, and the inner spiritual life of love and joy rather than the extrinsic values of outer baubles like riches, pleasures, positions, and honors. It would be translated into Old, Middle, and Elizabethan English by King Alfred, Chaucer, and Queen Elizabeth.
Although Guizot wrote that the German race called themselves Franks, meaning freemen, in the Attic language Frank means fierce. Childeric, the Merovingian chief of the Salian Franks, died in 481 and was succeeded by his 15-year-old son Clovis. After the Visigoth king Euric died in 486, Clovis and his relative Ragnachar attacked at Soissons the Roman authority of Syagrius, son of Aegidius. The forces of Syagrius were defeated and fled to the new Goth king Alaric II at Toulouse. Alaric handed Syagrius over to Clovis, who had him imprisoned and later secretly killed. The pagan Franks plundered the churches, and once Clovis killed one of his soldiers for denying his right to take a valuable vase. Five years later they subjected the Thuringians as Frank rule expanded its territory. In 493 Ostrogoth king Theodoric married the sister of Clovis, Audafleda, and Clovis married Chilperic's exiled daughter Clotild. When their first child was baptized into the Catholic faith and died, Clovis complained; but a second baptized child, Chlodomer, survived. In 496 while battling the Alamanni, Clovis prayed to Jesus Christ for a victory. When his enemies submitted, Clovis became a Christian. 3,000 of his warriors deserted him for Ragnachar, the Frank king of Cambrai, but another 3,000 soldiers were baptized along with Clovis and his two sisters.
A letter from the Arian Godigisel in Burgundy, offering to betray his brother Gundobad, persuaded Clovis to march his army against the latter. During the battle Godigisel joined forces with Clovis, and they defeated Gundobad near Dijon. Gundobad retreated to Avignon and, besieged, promised to pay an annual tribute but then did not do so. Instead he besieged his brother at Vienne, and Godigisel was killed along with an Arian bishop in a church. In 498 Clovis met Alaric II on an island in the Loire, and they swore eternal friendship. Alaric promulgated the Roman law of the Visigoths for Spain and part of Gaul in 506. However, the next year Clovis assembled his chiefs and decided to attack the Arian Goths at Poitiers. At Tours he gave orders to respect St. Martin and take only grass and water. As an example he slew a soldier who had robbed a poor farmer of his hay. Clovis killed Alaric but was wounded.
The next year the Franks occupied the Visigoth capital at Toulouse. While his son Theodoric subdued the region, Clovis managed to take Angouleme. However, King Theodoric from Italy sent forces to keep the Franks out of the eastern provinces of the Visigoths. The Ostrogoth army took Provence, and their general Ibbas retook Septimia. Yet Frank territory had expanded from the Loire to the Pyrenees. Clovis ordered all captured clergy, widows, and serfs of the church to be released. Churches were reconsecrated for the Catholic faith, and Arian priests could be reconciled by a laying on of hands. Emperor Anastasius sent word that he made Clovis honorary consul, and the Frank king calling himself Augustus established his capital at Paris.
Now Clovis aimed to unite all the Franks. He secretly sent a message to Chloderic, son of Ripuarian Frank king Sigibert, and the prince had his father assassinated. Chloderic offered to share his treasure with Clovis, but the envoys who came for it murdered him. Yet Clovis claimed he had no part in this crime against his relative. Next Clovis marched against Chararic, who twenty years before had refused to support him against Syagrius. He ordered Chararic and his son to have their hair cut short for the religious life; but when they threatened to let their hair grow long in the royal manner of the Franks, Clovis had them beheaded. Although Ragnachar had supported him against Syagrius, Clovis bribed his guards with counterfeit gold and defeated Ragnachar's army. Clovis then used his ax to kill Ragnachar and his brother Ricchar. He ordered a third brother to be put to death at Le Mans. Thus by eliminating his own relatives Clovis united the Frank kingdom; yet he later lamented that he had no relations left to help him. In 511 a church convocation of 32 bishops at Orleans drew up 31 canons granting the church great privileges and influence, expressing respect for human rights, and binding the church to the state while giving royalty great power. Clovis approved them before dying later that year at Paris after ruling for thirty years.
Also before he died, Clovis proclaimed the laws of the Salian Franks in writing as the Lex Salica. This codified ancient German common laws of vengeance that forced criminals to pay wergild, meaning man-payment. Only half went to the state, as half went to the victim or the family of the deceased. The amount was based on the seriousness of the offense and on the social position of the victim. For murder of a king's follower one had to pay 600 solidi. The Roman gold coin solidus was equal to one cow, and payment was usually in livestock. A freeman was worth 200, a pregnant woman 700, a priest 600, a bishop 900, a Roman landowner or a German serf 100, a slave 30, or more if skilled in a craft. If one could not pay, the criminal might be executed or mutilated, cutting off an ear or a finger. Torture and flogging were common. A thief might lose an eye for the first offense, a nose for the second, and one's life for the third. Yet free Franks feared imprisonment or slavery even more than these. The accused might swear innocence with a solemn oath or undergo an ordeal by various forms of burning. Under the Salic law personal property was equally divided by sons and daughters, but all the land must go to a male heir.
After Clovis died in 511, the Frank kingdom was ruled by his four sons who all called themselves kings - Theodoric of Metz, Chlodomer of Orleans, Childebert of Paris, and Chlotar of Soissons. Their sister Clotild was sent to Spain with a dowry to marry Visigoth king Amalaric. When Danes led by king Hygelac raided the coast, Theodoric sent his son Theudebert with an army that defeated them and killed their king in a naval battle. The Thuringians across the Rhine were ruled by three brothers; but Hermanfrid defeated and killed Berthar. Hermanfrid then offered to share part of this kingdom with Theodoric if he would help him defeat and kill the other brother Baderic. Theodoric did so, but Hermanfrid did not keep his promise. In Burgundy Sigismund succeeded his father Gundobad as king; but his second wife suspected her step-son and persuaded her husband to have the boy strangled. To avenge her parents Frank Queen Clotild urged her four sons to attack Sigismund and his brother Godomar. After the Burgundian army was defeated in 523, Sigismund was captured; but Godomar escaped, rallied his forces, and won back the kingdom.
Although the abbot Avitus urged him not to murder Sigismund and his family lest he be killed in battle, Chlodomer nonetheless ordered them thrown into a well. His brother Theodoric marched to support Chlodomer; but in 524 the Burgundians isolated Chlodomer and cut off his head. Nevertheless the Franks forced Godomar to flee and took over his territory until Godomar won it back a third time. In 528 Theodoric got Chlotar's help marching against Hermanfrid. After a bloody battle Hermanfrid fled, and the Franks took over the Thuringian territory. While there Theodoric plotted to kill Chlotar with an ambush, but Chlotar perceived the danger and survived. Theodoric gave Hermanfrid safe conduct and gifts; but someone pushed him off a wall to his death. By 531 the Thuringians had lost their independence. Chlotar married the captured Thuringian princess Radegund, but she left him to found a nunnery at Poitiers.
From Spain the Catholic Clotild wrote that her husband Amalaric was mistreating her. Childebert left Clermont, and one of his soldiers killed Amalaric as he was entering a church. Childebert carried off much church treasure, but his sister Clotild died on the journey back to Paris. In 534 Chlotar and Childebert attacked Burgundy and besieged Autun; once again Godomar fled as they occupied all of Burgundy. When Munderic proclaimed himself king, Theodoric sent Aregisel to promise him safety and then kill him. Theodoric and Childebert made a treaty not to attack each other, and they exchanged hostages. At Paris Childebert became jealous that his mother Clotild was lavishing all her affection on the sons of Chlodomer. So he summoned Chlotar, and they sent Arcadius to the queen with scissors and a sword, asking her if she wanted her grandsons to have their hair cut or be killed. She defiantly chose the latter if they could not be kings. Chlotar killed the oldest boy. Then even though a weeping Childebert pleaded for the other boy, Chlotar murdered him too. Then their attendants and tutors were slain. The third son Chlodovald escaped and devoted his life to God as a priest. Chlodomer's lands were equally divided between kings Childebert and Chlotar.
The Goths had regained much territory they had lost to Clovis; so Theodoric sent his son Theudebert, and Chlotar sent his son Gunthar to try to win it back. While her husband was away, Theudebert fell in love with Deuteria, and they conceived a child. Theodoric killed his relative Sigivald and sent his son Theudebert a secret message to kill Sigivald's son; but Theudebert warned the younger Sigivald instead, and he fled to Arles and Italy. Theodoric died of illness in 534. Childebert and Chlotar tried to take his kingdom, but Theudebert bought them off and then married Deuteria. Young Sigivald returned from Italy, and Theudebert restored to him the property his father had confiscated from Sigivald's father. The historian Gregory of Tours praised Theudebert for being virtuous and liberal to the churches and the poor. Theudebert had been engaged to Wisigard for seven years, and he eventually gave in to social pressure to desert Deuteria and marry her. Wisigard soon died though, but Theudebert married another woman and did not take Deuteria back, possibly because she had killed their daughter out of jealousy.
When Childebert and Theudebert joined forces to march against their brother Chlotar, Queen Clotild prayed to St. Martin to prevent civil war. According to Gregory, a hailstorm stopped the aggressors. In 542 Childebert and Chlotar attacked Zaragoza and conquered a large part of Spain, bringing back St. Vincent's tunic as a relic to Paris. Theuda (r. 531-548) succeeded Amalaric as king of Visigothic Spain; but he was assassinated, as were his successors Theudigisel in 549 and Agila in 554. Gregory considered this killing of kings they did not like a reprehensible habit of the Goths. Theudebert's army invaded Italy in 539 and gained booty, but many soldiers died in an epidemic. Queen Clotild died in 544, and king Theudebert died after a long illness in 548. The Franks hated Parthenius so much for levying taxes that they took this opportunity to stone him to death. Theudebert was succeeded by his son Theudebald.
Chlotar demanded that the churches in his kingdom pay one-third of their revenue to his treasury, but Tours bishop Injuriosus refused to pay the king money that should help the poor. Chlotar feared St. Martin would punish him and apologized, canceling his order. Count Chanao of Breton killed three of his brothers, but Macliaw escaped to become a bishop. After Chanao, died, Macliaw renounced his vows and grew his hair long, for which he was excommunicated. Theudebald had a stroke and died in 555, and Chlotar took over the lands of the Ripuarian Franks. That year the Saxons revolted, and Chlotar marched an army against them. The Saxons asked for peace and offered to pay half of all they had; Chlotar was willing to accept, but his soldiers insisted on fighting. The Franks were victorious, but many were killed on both sides. The Saxons had to pay an annual tribute of 500 cows, and Thuringia was ravaged for supporting the Saxons. Childebert also died after a long illness in 558. Chlotar by taking his territory and treasure now ruled over a united Francia. His son Chramm had conspired against him with Childebert and committed many crimes. When he marched his army against his father's, Chramm was defeated. Chlotar ordered Chramm burnt to death with his wife and daughters. Exactly one year later in 561 Chlotar died of a fever.
Julianus Pomerius was the teacher of Caesarius at Arles, and about 500 at the request of a bishop he wrote The Contemplative Life. The contemplative life is to see God; but life in the world is a trial and confusing. God is not really seen until one receives the reward of a virtuous life, though by discipline one can receive intimations of God's glory. The active life is what makes a person holy by restraining the body according to reason and seeking perfection. The active life is the journey; the contemplative life is the summit attained. Pomerius warned that bishops can become so preoccupied with worldly business that they think more of themselves and their reputations than of virtue and God, thus losing the benefits of contemplation. He recommended confession as a way of reconciling oneself with God and of escaping the vice of deceit.
Pomerius held that priests should have no possessions and that the church should share its possessions as common goods. To seek profit from the church or to deny the church the goods it needs to help sinners is a sin. He criticized the pretension of virtue as a lie that is doubly guilty, because one refuses to do what God demands and is deceitful too. Pomerius believed that pride is the cause of all sins, which are contempt for God. The virtue of humility will lead to all the other virtues. He also extolled charity as the goal of heaven's precepts. Pomerius believed that the four cardinal virtues of temperance, prudence, justice, and courage are gifts of God and are given to those who live by faith. Fear, desire, sorrow, and joy can be good emotions when they accompany virtue.
Caesarius was born into a wealthy Gallo-Roman family in Chalon-sur-Saone in 470. When he was 20, he entered the Lerins monastery. After being ordained a priest he served as abbot on an islet monastery in the Rhone near Arles. In 502 Caesarius succeeded his relative Aeonius as archbishop of Arles. Three years later he was briefly banished to Bordeaux by Alaric II for suspicion of favoring Burgundian rule. When Caesarius was released, he prevented his accuser Licinianus from being stoned. After Alaric was killed by Clovis in 507, Arles was besieged by the Franks and Burgundians, who destroyed a nunnery Caesarius was having built. Arles was rescued by Italy's King Theodoric the next year. Caesarius used much church treasure to ransom captives. In 513 Caesarius was arrested and taken to Ravenna. Theodoric was impressed with him and gave him a large silver dish, but Caesarius sold it to free more captives.
In Rome Pope Symmachus appointed Caesarius papal vicar of Gaul, and he organized several synods. The most important was the second council of Orange in 529 when he settled a controversy by rejecting the semi-Pelagianism of John Cassian and accepting a moderate interpretation of Augustine. A brief biography by his colleagues glorified his pastoral service and numerous healings by prayer. Caesarius was especially known for the persuasiveness of his sermons, which were published and circulated. Caesarius also wrote a monastic rule. After nearly 40 years as archbishop of Arles, Caesarius died in 542.
Benedict was born at Nursia in the aristocratic Anicius family about 480. He was educated in Rome but was shocked by the licentiousness he saw there. When he was fourteen, Benedict retired to a cave forty miles away near Subiaco, where for three years the monk Romanus provided him with food for his hermit life. To end the temptation to go back and find a beautiful woman he had met previously, Benedict took off his clothing of skins and rolled in thorns and briers. He became the head of a monastery at Vicovars; but his way of disciplining was so unpopular that the monks attempted to poison him, and he returned to Subiaco. As disciples came to him, Benedict founded twelve monasteries, each with twelve monks and a prior and all under his authority. Intrigues of a neighboring priest caused him to leave there.
At Monte Cassino, halfway between Rome and Naples, about 530 Benedict founded a monastery on the ruins of a temple of Apollo. There he converted many pagans by his preaching, charity, and healings. His sister Scholastica founded and supervised a nunnery nearby, and they would see each other once a year. Benedict received visitors, the most noteworthy being the Gothic king Totila about 542. When he died standing up about 547, Benedict left behind the Rule he had written for the monastic community that would become extremely influential. Benedict established a second cloister near Terracina, and his disciples Placidus and Maurus took his regulations to Sicily and France. Monte Cassino was destroyed by Lombard Duke Zotto in 589 and was not rebuilt until 720.
The Rule of Benedict begins with a prolog that advises the monk to listen with the "ear of the heart" to the master's instructions and put them into practice. The labor of obedience will bring one back from where he may have drifted by sloth. Every good work should be begun with prayer, and the sovereignty of God will be attained by good deeds. Life is extended like a truce so that we may amend our misdeeds. These regulations were drawn up for a school of the Lord's service without being harsh or burdensome. Some strictness is in order to amend faults and safeguard love for the good of all concerned. Progress in this way of life will enable one to run on the path of God's commandments.
The Rule contains 73 succinct chapters. The four kinds of monks are the cenobites who serve under a rule and an abbot, hermits who are self-reliant, sarabaites who do whatever they like, and worst of all are the gyrovagues who wander as guests to different monasteries and are slaves to their appetites. The abbot must never teach anything that deviates from the Lord's instructions, and he is addressed as the Christ. He should point out what is good more by example than by words, and he must not do what he teaches should not be done. The abbot should avoid favoritism, but he may change anyone's rank according to justice. After giving one or two verbal warnings he may use blows or physical punishment. He should not gloss over sins but cut them out as soon as he can before they sprout. The stubborn, arrogant, or disobedient may require blows at the first offense. The abbot must remember that as the shepherd he is responsible for his flock. He may summon all the brothers to a council to hear their advice. The brothers may humbly express their opinions but should not defend them obstinately. The decision is the abbot's, and all must obey. In a monastery no one is to follow their heart's desire nor should anyone presume to contend with the abbot. On less important matters the abbot may confer with only the senior monks.
Monks are taught not to injure anyone and to bear injuries patiently. "If you notice something good in yourself, give credit to God, not to yourself, but be certain that the evil you commit is always your own and yours to acknowledge."2 Keep careful watch over all you do, aware that God sees all. The abbot is to be obeyed without reservation even if his conduct is at odds with what he says. For those who cherish Christ, humility comes from obedience that should be given gladly and without grudging. Those who grumble will be punished rather than rewarded unless they change for the better. Silence is practiced unless one is given permission to speak. Teaching is the master's task; the disciples are to be silent and listen. The Rule outlines twelve steps of humility as always remembering that God knows our thoughts, not to love one's own will nor take pleasure in satisfying one's desires, submitting obediently to one's superior, obeying even under difficult or unjust conditions, not concealing sinful thoughts from the abbot, being content with low and menial treatment, being convinced that one is inferior to all, following the common rule of the monastery, remaining silent unless asked a question, not laughing, speaking gently and with modesty, and having a humble bearing by bowing the head and looking down.
Monks were allowed nearly eight hours sleep, spent five hours or so praying and in liturgy, worked for five or six hours, and read scriptures and spiritual writings for about four hours, though community prayers were to be brief. For a large community the Rule recommends a dean for every group of ten. Monks slept in their clothes in separate beds but in the same room. Those who did not reform could be excommunicated. Associating with an excommunicated brother without authorization could also result in excommunication. The abbot was to care for wayward brothers as a physician does for the sick. Anyone who refuses to amend after frequent reproofs might be expelled so that one diseased sheep will not infect the flock. Yet brothers who leave could be re-admitted as many as three times. Those who join the monastery give up all private property to the poor or the monastery. The abbot assigns clothing, tools, and other goods according to need. The original probationary period of one year was later extended to three years. Then a three-fold vow that implied poverty, chastity, and obedience to the abbot as the representative of God isolated the monk from the world.
If anyone commits a fault, loses or breaks something, he should come to the abbot and make satisfaction. If it is made known by another, the correction is more severe. Guests eat at the abbot's table, and no one is allowed to associate with guests unless bidden. Monks must get the abbot's permission to exchange letters or gifts. Monks are ranked by date of entry and by the decision of the abbot according to virtue. The abbot is elected by the whole community or by some part of it that has sounder judgment. This is to prevent the community from electing someone to go along with their evil ways. Qualities the abbot should not have are being excitable, anxious, extreme, obstinate, jealous, or overly suspicious. The Rule recommends that the prior be chosen by the abbot instead of elected so that he will not engage in conflict with the abbot. In conclusion the Rule once again emphasizes obedience as the way to God, though the Rule is only the beginning of perfection.
During his long life of nearly a century Cassiodorus had a varied career. He served the Ostrogoth king Theodoric as quaestor (507-511) and consul (514); in 523 he replaced Boethius as master of the offices, acting as the king's secretary during his last years. He had written a historical chronicle up to the year 519, but his History of the Goths in twelve books only survived in a short abridgment by Jordanes. Cassiodorus became praetorian prefect under Athalaric in 533. Four years later he published twelve books of Variae that included 468 official letters and documents he wrote for Theodoric; his own treatise on the soul and its immortality was added in 540. After that he founded the monastery Vivarium, collected a library, and worked to perpetuate classical culture. His encyclopedic writings did much to preserve ancient learning through the middle ages.
In his most important work for the future of education, Divine Institutions and Secular Literature, Cassiodorus emphasized the seven liberal arts recommended by the fourth-century pagan Martianus Capella that to the traditional Roman trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and logic added the mathematical quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. In his 93rd year Cassiodorus compiled De Orthographia from the works of eight grammarians. He had two monasteries in Calabria; one was a hermitage for solitary asceticism, but at Vivarium he established a scriptorium for the copying of secular as well as religious manuscripts. This practice would be adopted by the Benedictine and other monastic institutions so that the ancient culture would continue to exist in writing.
When Emperor Anastasius died in 518, the high chamberlain Amantius gave money to Justin, Count of the Excubitors, in order to bribe troops and make Theocritus emperor. At the Hippodrome other names were put forward, but no one was accepted. So the Senate elected Justin, and he was crowned by the patriarch John and acclaimed Emperor by the assembly; he donated a pound of silver to each soldier. Justin was 66 and an Illyrian peasant brought up with Latin, but he was uneducated. He joined the army at Constantinople and served in the Isaurian and Persian wars. He married a captive concubine he had purchased, and she was crowned Augusta Euphemia. He had adopted his elder nephew who took the name Justinian. Justin began his reign by executing Amantius and Theocritus, though some blamed Justinian for this. Vitalian was summoned and assured of the orthodoxy of the new Emperor, and he was appointed master of the soldiers. Justinian was appointed count of the domestics and also helped restore the ecclesiastical unity. However, this led to persecution of the Monophysites. Marinus was made praetorian prefect of the East in 519.
Justinian was held responsible for the murder of consul Vitalian in 520. From then until his succession seven years later, Justinian was considered the power behind the throne. He took the side of the Blue partisans who were orthodox and mostly from the upper classes, and he protected them from being punished for their many riots until in 524 a scandalous murder led Justin to have many executed while Justinian was ill. This restrained the Blues, and the next few years were more peaceful. In 527 Justin became seriously ill, and the Patriarch crowned Justinian Emperor before the imperial guards rather than in the Hippodrome. Justin recovered but died a few months later. Justinian was about 45 when he became Emperor. He was interested in theology and loved to study and work. He abstained from wine and lived on salads with oil and vinegar. His great ambition was to extend his power in a larger empire, and he claimed control over the church. Those entering the presence of the Emperor or Empress had to prostrate themselves, and officials called them Lord and Lady.
Empress Theodora was the illegitimate child of a bear-keeper, an actress who performed lascivious mimes, and probably a prostitute; but as Augusta she was faithful to the Emperor and powerful with her own intelligence service. Her devotion to the Monophysites offered some balance to her husband's position, as she tried to protect them from his laws. The Greens she supported also tended to be Monophysites from the lower classes. As Empress she had large estates and access to great financial resources for her intrigues. By her influence strict laws were enacted to suppress the procuring of young girls for prostitution, and she paid the compensation given for the girls who were liberated. The women were put into a converted convent called Metanoia, meaning repentance. According to the Secret History by Procopius, Theodora often cruelly punished those who had offended her, and she was greatly feared. Theodora banished the corrupt imperial secretary Priscus, who had become rich on public money, and Justinian confiscated his property.
The large surplus built up by the frugality of Anastasius had been dissipated during the reign of Justin, and the destruction caused by the 526 Antioch earthquake and the ensuing Persian wars led to heavy taxes being imposed. The aging Persian king Kavadh wanted to secure the throne for his younger son Khusrau and asked Justin to adopt him. The quaestor Proclus dissuaded the Emperor by pointing out that his son could then legally inherit the Roman empire. During Justin's reign Theodora's brother-in-law Sittas had been sent to subdue raiding by the Tzani on the borders of Lazica (Colchis) and Armenia, and they had accepted Christianity. Lazi king Tzath visited Constantinople. Persia had previously ruled the Lazi, but now they were Christian too. Kavadh ordered their neighbor Iberians to stop burying their dead (as Christians instead of exposing them like the Zarathustrans). The Iberian king Gurgenes appealed to the Roman Emperor for protection. As the Persians invaded Iberia, Gurgenes fled to Lazica and then Constantinople. Sittas and Belisarius attacked Persarmenia, but the Romans' second expedition was defeated.
When Justinian became emperor, he ordered Belisarius to fortify Daras (Anastasiopolis), and the historian Procopius was selected as his advisor. In 528 Persian prince Xerxes led an army of 30,000 into Mesopotamia and defeated the Roman army while incurring heavy losses. Belisarius escaped, and Justinian sent more troops. The next year Hira king Mundhir with Persian and Saracen forces raided Syria and quickly retreated. In reaction Phrygians plundered Persian and Saracen country. Belisarius, only 25, was appointed master of soldiers in the East, but negotiations failed. That year Samaritans revolted, and 50,000 who escaped the massacre threatened to betray Palestine to the empire's enemies.
The Heruls had been granted land in Illyria, where their practices of killing the old and sick and letting wives hang themselves at their husbands' funerals were modified when they were converted to Christianity after Justinian became Emperor in 527; then they were given better land in Second Pannonia. Some Heruls sent to Scandinavia for a king, while others preferred Suartuas, who had been selected by Justinian. This conflict resulted in most Heruls joining the Gepids, while the remainder served the empire as federates. When the Langobards (later known as Lombards) became independent of the Heruls, they lived north of the Danube near the Gepids. In 528 Justinian tried to strengthen his hold on Bosporus by converting Hun king Grod to Christianity; but when Grod melted down their images, angry pagan priests killed him and the Bosporus garrison, selecting a new king. So the Emperor sent enough forces to intimidate the Huns and fortify Bosporus and Cherson.
In 529 Bulgarians moved through Lower Moesia and Scythia, defeating imperial forces led by generals named Justin and Baduarius. The Bulgarians crossed the Balkans and invaded Thrace, where they captured the Roman general Constantiolus and ransomed him for 10,000 gold pieces from the imperial treasury. The next year Illyricum master of soldiers Mundus stopped the Bulgarians with heavy losses, and for three years Thrace's master of soldiers Chilbudius kept barbarians from crossing the Danube by raiding their countries until he was defeated and killed by Sclavenes (Slavs).
The Romans had 25,000 troops at Daras; but in 530 they were met by a Persian army of 40,000 led by Perozes. The Roman strategy to use its cavalry succeeded, and the Persians fled. Roman arms were also victorious in Persarmenia. The next year Mundhir led an army again into Syria, and after fighting the Romans by the river near Callinicum, both sides retreated. Belisarius was recalled and replaced by Mundus, who stopped two Persian attempts to take Martyropolis. When Kavadh died, Khusrau (r. 531-579) succeeded him and made a peace that was ratified in 532. The Romans restored two fortresses in Persarmenia, and borders remained the same, though the Romans had to pay 11,000 pounds of gold to defend the Caucasian passes. A plot involving Kavadh's older son Zames, who had been excluded from the throne because of a damaged eye, was discovered by Khusrau, and he had Zames and all his brothers put to death. Khusrau restored the property of the aristocracy that had been taken in the Mazdakite revolution, and the state provided education for the nobility's children. All men were required to serve in an army of peasant soldiers. Khusrau tolerated Christians, while Armenians leaned toward Monophysitism, as their patriarch Narses got the doctrine of two natures condemned at a synod.
By 531 John of Cappadocia had risen from a clerk to become praetorian prefect in Constantinople. His unscrupulous methods were very successful at raising revenues, and he became rich himself too. He also saved money by reducing state services such as the postal roads. This lack of public transportation resulted in quantities of grain rotting and farmers being impoverished. In 532 an incident led to a revolt in the capital. Justinian had ordered that crimes and disorders be punished impartially. When a Blue and a Green survived hanging, both factions shouted for mercy in the Hippodrome. Their shouts "Nika" (win or conquer) soon led to breaking open the prison to release criminals and kill officials. The building was set on fire, which spread to part of the Great Palace, the Senate-house, and the church of St. Sophia. The next day a demonstration demanded that John of Cappadocia, the city prefect Eudaemon, and the quaestor Tribonian all be replaced; Justinian yielded to these demands by appointing Phocas, Tryphon, and Basilides to their positions.
On the day after that Belisarius rode into the capital with Goths and Heruls to suppress the revolution by killing protesters. Street fighting went on for several more days until on Sunday Emperor Justinian granted amnesty and promised to comply with their demands. However, many did not trust him, and they appealed to Hypatius, who was carried to the Forum of Constantine and then was proclaimed Emperor in the Kathisma of the Hippodrome. John of Cappadocia and Belisarius advised Justinian to flee; but Theodora urged him to remain and fight. Justinian sent out the eunuch Narses with money to persuade people. Belisarius then ordered his soldiers to charge, and according to all estimates at least 30,000 people were killed. Hypatius and Pompeius were seized and executed. Eighteen senators were banished and had their property confiscated. John of Cappadocia and Tribonian were reinstated in their offices. The church of St. Sophia was rebuilt more magnificently than ever and was completed five years later.
The peace treaty the Roman empire made with Vandal king Gaiseric in 476 was observed by both sides under Vandal kings Huneric (r. 477-484), Gunthamund (r. 484-496), and Thrasamund (r. 496-523) except when the Vandals attacked Sicily during the war between Odovacar and Theodoric. Vandal king Hilderic (r. 523-530) restored two hundred bishops to their churches and tolerated the previously persecuted Catholics. When Gelimer deposed Hilderic and put him in prison, Justinian demanded that Gelimer send Hilderic to Constantinople or he would terminate the treaty. Praetorian Prefect John of Cappadocia argued against intervening; but a bishop told the Emperor of a dream in which God said to protect the Christians in Libya. So the Emperor ordered Belisarius to organize a campaign that included 10,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, 600 Huns, and 400 Heruls transported on 500 ships guarded by 92 warships. At the same time the Vandal governor of Sardinia revolted, and Gelimer sent a force of 5,000 there, while a revolt at Tripolitana gave the Romans a safe place to land in Africa.
The Roman fleet landed at Caputvada in September 533, and they marched toward Carthage, giving out a letter that they were not breaking the treaty nor at war with the Vandals but only intended to overthrow the tyrant. Belisarius punished with impaling two drunk Massagatae who killed a man for ridiculing them, and then he explained to his men that God helps the just gain victory in war. Procopius reported that this caused the whole army to fear doing anything unlawful. John of Cappadocia had tried to save money by not baking the bread as dry, which caused it to rot, and at least 500 men died. When Gelimer learned that the Romans had landed, he ordered his brother Ammatas at Carthage to have Hilderic and the other prisoners put to death. Approaching Carthage, John the Armenian's vanguard killed Ammatas, who was out surveying. While Gelimer was mourning his brother, Belisarius attacked, causing the disordered Vandals to flee. The next day the Roman army was welcomed into Carthage, and the imperial fleet sailed into the Lake of Tunis.
Gelimer's brother Tzazo returned from Sardinia, and their joined forces marched on Carthage. Repeated Roman cavalry charges finally broke through the Vandal lines, and the imperial soldiers seized the treasures and women in the Vandal camp. Vandal warriors took refuge in churches, surrendered, and were sent to Constantinople. Belisarius sent detachments to take over Sardinia, Corsica, Balearic Islands, Septum at the Gibraltar Straits, and Caesarea on the coast of Mauretania. Gelimer took refuge on Mount Papua in Numidia, where they were blockaded for the winter by Heruls led by Pharas. In March 534 Gelimer surrendered and was taken to Constantinople. Justinian granted the regal Vandal an estate in Galatia but refused to call him a patrician, because he was an Arian Christian. Suspected of imperial ambition, Belisarius returned to the capital in triumph. In Africa Arian churches became Catholic; Arian believers were persecuted as heretics; and Vandals were forbidden to hold office. Vandal warriors were made slaves of the Romans, who married the Vandal women. Even though it had been a century since the Vandal invasion, attempts were made to restore estates to the descendants of their previous owners.
When Theodoric was succeeded as king of Italy by his 8-year-old grandson Athalaric in 526, the boy's mother (Theodoric's daughter) Amalasuntha acted as regent. She assured the Romans they would be well treated and restored the confiscated properties of Boethius and Symmachus to their children. Amalasuntha had a Roman education, but Gothic leaders objected to her son being given a soft upbringing, wanting him to be raised like a Gothic warrior. Athalaric was given young male companions, but they led him into debauchery that ruined his health and his relationship with his mother. She wrote to Justinian and had a ship loaded with gold to prepare for her departure; but after the three most dangerous Gothic leaders she had sent away were murdered, she decided to stay at Ravenna. Her cousin Theodahad, son of the Vandal queen Amalafrida, had greedily acquired most of Tuscany, because he did not like neighbors. He offered to give these estates to Justinian for money if he was made a senator and could live at Constantinople.
When Athalaric died in 534, Amalasuntha offered to make Theodahad king while she still ruled. Theodahad accepted but called together the relatives of the murdered Goths, had others faithful to her killed, and imprisoned Amalasuntha on an island in Tuscany, where she was strangled in a bath before Justinian could protect her. In the public history of Procopius the Emperor's envoy Peter told Theodahad that his crime meant war; but in his Secret History Procopius revealed that the Empress Theodora, jealous of a Gothic queen coming to Constantinople, bribed Peter to persuade Theodahad to get rid of Amalasuntha. Since Theodahad refused to abdicate, Justinian prepared for war, sending envoys to Frank kings asking for their help against the Arian Goths, while his master of soldiers in Illyricum, the loyal Gepid Mundus, defeated Goth forces and occupied Salona in 535. Belisarius with 8,000 troops seized Catane and occupied Syracuse in Sicily. Theodahad sent Pope Agapetus to Constantinople to ask for peace but to no avail. A large Gothic army sent to Dalmatia killed Mundus and his son Maurice, forcing the imperial army to withdraw.
Justinian appointed Count Constantian to lead the Illyrian army back into Dalmatia and ordered Belisarius to invade Italy. At Naples the Jews supported resistance, because they had benefited by Theodoric's policies. After a short siege imperial troops entered Naples through a broken aqueduct, and their Huns slaughtered many before Belisarius could stop the carnage and order the 800 captured Goths to be well treated. Goths from Rome and Campania met at Regata in November 536 and deposed Theodahad, acclaiming the royal Amal Witigis king. Cassiodorus wrote that Witigis was elected by the free judgment of the people, not in the royal bedchamber like Theodahad, who was then killed fleeing Rome on his way to Ravenna by his enemy Optaris, whom Witigis had sent. Witigis left a garrison of 4,000 in Rome and took some senators hostage with him to Ravenna, where he married Athalaric's sister Matasuntha against her will. Theodahad had offered the Franks Ostrogothic territory in Gaul with 2,000 pounds of gold if they would be his allies against the Emperor, and Witigis continued the arrangement. Since Theodahad had been punished for killing Amalasuntha, and Matasuntha had become queen, Witigis wrote to Justinian that the cause of war was removed. However, the army of Belisarius entered Rome in December 536, as the Gothic garrison withdrew.
In Africa a eunuch named Solomon had replaced Belisarius and was made praetorian prefect and master of soldiers. Each of the four provinces was threatened by native rebellions - Tripolitana by the Louata, Byzacena by the Frexi, Numidia by Aurasian Moors, and Mauretania by the Berbers. The Moors accused the Romans of breaking promises Belisarius had made by taking their possessions. Solomon defeated the Moors in Byzacena and established forts there and in Numidia. In 536 imperial soldiers mutinied, because their pay was delayed, Arians were persecuted, and the lands of their Vandal wives were being confiscated. Solomon escaped an assassination attempt, and the historian Procopius went to Sicily to get help from Belisarius. Stotzas led 9,000 desiring freedom from imperial rule; but they were defeated by Belisarius at Membressa. The rebels fled; but more troops revolted in Numidia, forcing Justinian to send his cousin Germanus, who estimated that two-thirds of the army was in rebellion. Germanus wisely declared that he was not there to punish mutiny but to rectify grievances. Those who returned to loyalty were given their arrears in pay including their period of mutiny. Stotzas attacked Carthage in 537 but was defeated. Germanus re-established military discipline, but he was replaced by Solomon two years later. Solomon transferred suspected soldiers, expelled Vandal women from Africa, and built hundreds of forts.
After the Goth siege of Salona failed, and their attempts to regain Perugia were defeated, King Witigis marched a large army to surround the army of Belisarius at Rome in March 537. This siege lasted a year and nine days and destroyed the various aqueducts that for centuries had supplied Rome with abundant water. The luxurious tradition of Roman baths ended, as they went back to drawing water from the Tiber and wells. Belisarius immediately sent the women, children, and slaves not involved in garrison duty out of the city. Artisans and traders were drafted into military service and were paid a small wage. Witigis ordered the senators held hostage at Ravenna put to death, though a few escaped. Martin and Valerian brought into Rome Huns and Slavs who made up most of 1600 cavalry. Imperial forces began making successful sorties against the Goths, who did not have their cavalry armed with bows. Belisarius sent Procopius out with a small detachment to gather troops and provisions in Campania. 3,000 Isaurians came by sea to Ostia, while John brought to Rome on the Appian Way 1800 cavalry along with 500 raised by Procopius. A strong sortie led by Belisarius routed the Gothic camp near the Flaminian Gate and allowed them into the city.
Defeated in various encounters, the Goths agreed to a truce for three months, and hostages were exchanged. Hunger caused Witigis to withdraw garrisons from Portus, Centumcellae, and Albanum, which were then taken over by imperial troops. When his officer Constantine refused to return two daggers he had taken in violation of the truce and actually threatened the life of Belisarius, the Roman general had him executed. Procopius criticized Belisarius for this, because he believed he was influenced by his wife Antonina's hatred for Constantine, who had told Belisarius to kill her for her adultery. The truce was soon broken as Goths kept trying to sneak into Rome. So Belisarius sent John to attack the Picentine provinces. John disobeyed his commander in passing by Auximum and Urbinum to seize Ariminum, because it was closer to Ravenna. Matasuntha, who hated her husband, proposed to betray Ravenna and marry John. Word of Ariminum falling caused the Goths to give up the siege of Rome and depart in March 538; but Belisarius attacked them as they were crossing the Milvian Bridge, killing many.
John occupied Ariminum with 2,000 Isaurian cavalry. Not wanting them bottled up there, Belisarius sent Martin and Ildiger with 1,000 cavalry to replace John's forces with infantry from the Ancona garrison. John refused to obey and was besieged by Witigis, causing distressful hunger. From the East came a new army with 5,000 imperial troops led by the eunuch Narses and Illyricum master of soldiers Justin along with 2,000 Heruls. A desperate letter from John added to the persuasion of his friend Narses and made Belisarius order the relief of John's forces. A large force sent by sea under Ildiger and land forces led by Belisarius and Martin converged on Ariminum, forcing the Goths to flee in confusion without a battle or casualties. Amid rivalry with Narses, Belisarius managed to successfully besiege Urbinum, while John went off to subjugate the Aemilian province. In 539 a hungry Urbs Vetus had to surrender to Belisarius.
Frank king Theudebert of Austrasia helped the Goths by bringing 10,000 Burgundians across the Alps to blockade Milan. Delays by imperial officers Martin, Uliaris, John, and Justin resulted in Mundilas and his garrison of 300 soldiers having to surrender in 539. Although these soldiers were honorably treated, according to Procopius, the Goths and Burgundians massacred all the men of Milan, enslaved the women, and razed the wealthiest city in Italy to the ground. The Goths now controlled the territory of Liguria. Justinian recalled Narses so there would be no doubt that Belisarius was in command. Seeing Narses leaving, the Heruls also departed and sold their slaves and animals to Uraias in Liguria for gold, promising not to fight the Goths. Italy was so ravaged that crops had not been planted, and many thousands were now dying of hunger and disease.
Belisarius sent Justin and Cyprian to besiege Faestulae, while he oversaw the blockade of Auximum. Meanwhile Theudebert led a large army to plunder northern Italy. Goths helped the Franks to cross the Po at Ticinum, but they were surprised to see Franks sacrificing Goth women and children. Franks also turned on the Goths and began slaughtering them. On the road to Ravenna the Franks attacked Goths and then imperial forces too. In the harsh conditions of a war-torn country dysentery broke out among the Franks, killing about a third of them before they went home. After six months those starving at Faestulae surrendered and were marched to Auximum, which then capitulated also, agreeing to divide their wealth with the Romans and promising to serve the Emperor. Belisarius wasted no time in besieging Ravenna, and he bribed someone to set fire to the public warehouses, which destroyed the grain supply. The Franks proposed that the Goths should divide Italy with them; but Witigis could not trust the treacherous Franks and began negotiating with Belisarius. Uraias gathered 4,000 men from northern garrisons to reinforce his uncle Witigis; but when John and Martin captured the forts with the wives and children of the Goths, the Goths deserted Uraias and went over to John.
Between 532 and 539 Justinian had engineers oversee the construction of better walls to defend towns in Syria and Mesopotamia. In 539 Ostrogoth king Witigis appealed to the Persian Khusrau to fight their common enemy. The Armenians called on Persia after they had killed the Roman governor Acacius for exacting too much tribute from their country; their rebellion also killed the Roman general Sittas. In 540 Khusrau stopped tribute to the Ephthalites and himself led an army that attacked Sura, killing many, enslaving the rest, and burning the city. The Romans blamed Khusrau for breaking the peace treaty, but he claimed they had caused the war by writing to the Huns. Seriopolis bishop Candidus promised to ransom 12,000 captives for 200 pounds of gold; but few prisoners survived the ordeal. The Persians demolished Beroea and besieged Antioch, which had not been taken by an enemy in three centuries. Khusrau ordered the city burned except for the cathedral, which was merely robbed. Khusrau entered Apamea; Chalcis bought its safety with 200 pounds of gold, and the stronghold Edessa paid the same amount to spare its surrounding region. Khusrau besieged Daras but left it alone after receiving 1,000 pounds of silver.
Faced with an imminent war in Persia, Emperor Justinian agreed to divide Italy at the Po River, giving Witigis territory to the north; the treasury at Ravenna would also be divided. Belisarius did not like this compromise and refused to sign the agreement. The Goths offered to submit to Belisarius if he became Western Emperor; but he had sworn loyalty to Justinian. Belisarius got the imperial envoys to accept all of Italy and the treasury and gave the Goths pledges on everything except becoming Emperor. He then sent his fleet to Ravenna to feed its starving people and marched into the city with his army in 540. He took the palace treasury but allowed the Goths to keep their private property and prohibited plundering. Most northern garrisons surrendered also until they learned that Belisarius had refused the purple. Witigis was held in honorable captivity; but his nephew Uraias refused to take his place to fight for freedom. He recommended the Visigoth Ildibad, who was proclaimed king. Belisarius took Witigis and leading Goths with the royal treasure back to Constantinople; Justinian named Witigis patrician and gave him an estate near Persia.
Bulgarians invaded again in 540, occupying Chersonesus and terrorizing the suburbs of Constantinople. They devastated Thessaly and northern Greece, capturing tens of thousands. Justinian responded by building or repairing about 600 forts in Thrace, Macedonia, Dardania, Epirus, and Greece.
After the Persians had invaded Iberia, the Romans felt it necessary to defend Lazica to keep them from the Black Sea. John Tzibus established a monopoly at the Petra fortress and raised money by oppressing the Lazi grain traders. The Lazica king Gubazes invited Khusrau to reclaim this kingdom by driving out the Romans. The Persian emperor brought his army and besieged Petra but took only the holdings of the former governor Tzibus. Meanwhile Belisarius led his Gothic army into Mesopotamia and captured the fortress at Sisaurana, releasing the Christians and sending the Zarathustrans to Constantinople. As the Goths were used to fight the Persians, the Persian captives later fought the Goths. The Mesopotamian heat persuaded the Roman the army to retreat, though some blamed Belisarius for returning to punish his unfaithful wife. John of Cappadocia continued to oppress the eastern provinces until he was caught by intrigue conspiring to overthrow the Emperor in 541. He was banished to Cyzicus, but the generous Justinian allowed him to retain enough of his estate to live in luxury.
Without Belisarius in the west various generals had independent authority. Most prominent was John, nephew of Vitalian, but there was also Vitalius at Venetia, Constantian at Ravenna, Justin at Florence, Conon at Naples, Cyprian at Perugia, and Bessas at Spoletium. Meanwhile the imperial logothete Alexander was making the army and others miserable by collecting back taxes while getting rich on the one-twelfth he was allowed to keep for himself. The Goths held Ticinum; King Ildibad at Verona had only about a thousand soldiers, but they defeated an attack by Vitalius and Heruls. After his queen was insulted by the wealthy wife of Uraias, Ildibad had Uraias murdered. In reaction a Gepid with a grudge against the king killed Ildibad at a palace banquet in 541. Rugians, who had submitted to the rule of Ostrogoth Theodoric, nominated their Eraric as king; but he tried to sell northern Italy to Emperor Justinian and was put to death when Totila became king five months later.
Alexander and Constantian marched with 12,000 men upon Verona while a small band led by the Armenian Artabazes entered the city; but quarrels between commanders delayed the imperial forces, and 5,000 Goths led by Totila won an astonishing victory near Faventia, capturing all the imperial standards. Totila marched against Florence; but Justin was reinforced by John, Bessas, and Cyprian. However, at Mucellium a rumor that John had fallen caused the imperial troops to flee the pursuing Goths. Totila treated his prisoners well and persuaded them to join his forces. While John retreated to Rome, Totila took towns in Umbria, razed the walls of Beneventum, and began collecting taxes in the provinces Lucania, Brutti, Apulia, and Calabria.
Conon and a thousand Isaurians were besieged at Naples. Emperor Justinian appointed the civilian Maximin praetorian prefect of Italy; but he did little and was soon followed by Demetrius as master of soldiers. Totila's navy captured most of his men in the Bay of Naples, though Demetrius escaped. Ships with Demetrius sent from Syracuse by Maximin were caught in a storm; Demetrius and the crews not killed were captured. In 543 Conon and the garrison at Naples surrendered, and Totila wisely doled out gradually increasing amounts of food to the starving Neapolitans. Totila punished one of his guards for violating the daughter of a Calabrian, arguing that it is not possible to commit injustice and still win glory in battle. While the imperial commanders were plundering the people of Italy, Totila wrote to the Roman Senate that men are responsible for the intentional wrongs they commit, and he believed the Roman army was being avenged for the suffering they caused the Italians.
Starting in 542 bubonic plague spread from Egypt through Palestine and Syria to Asia Minor and Constantinople, where about 300,000 died in 543. The epidemic also discouraged the military activities of the Persian and Roman empires during these years, though the Persians did demolish Callinicum in 542. The Persians besieged Edessa in 544; but the mound they built failed to achieve its purpose, and Khusrau had to settle for 500 pounds of gold. The next year a five-year truce was made, and Justinian agreed to pay 2,000 pounds of gold. Khusrau gained a Greek physician named Tribunus and was so grateful that at his request he released 3,000 Roman prisoners.
In Africa Justinian's nephew Sergius was such a corrupt and immoral governor of Tripolitana that he provoked the Louata to fight. When Solomon offended the Moor chief Antalas, they joined forces and defeated the Romans at Cillium in 544, killing Solomon. Emperor Justinian sent patrician Areobindus, who had married his niece Praejecta; but he and Sergius quarreled and were defeated badly at Carthage. Sergius was replaced by Areobindus, who was assassinated in 546 when Numidian duke Guntarith seized the palace at Carthage. Guntarith claimed to rule for a month until he was murdered by the Armenian Artabanes, who was appointed master of soldiers in Africa. Artabanes wanted to marry Praejecta; but he was already married, and Theodora would not permit a divorce. Justinian appointed John Troglita, whose diplomatic and military skill enabled him to defeat the forces of Antalas in 547. Moors led by Carcasan won a victory; but his coalition of Moors was finally defeated early the next year. John's victories were celebrated by the African poet Corippus in his Johannis. Africa was then fairly peaceful under Roman imperial rule until master of soldiers John Rogathinus ordered the elderly chief Cutsina assassinated in 563, which caused a Numidian revolt. Peace was re-established by diplomatic means only after Justinian sent his nephew Marcian with an army.
When Totila besieged Otranto and marched on Rome in 544, Justinian recalled Belisarius from Persia and sent him to command in Italy. Belisarius recruited 4,000 troops in Thrace and Illyria and sent an expedition to relieve Otranto. Belisarius believed that he had been sent to correct the wrongs the other commanders had done; but in the Secret History Procopius wrote that he plundered the Italians indiscriminately, because he had received nothing from the Emperor. This caused Herodian to turn over his command and Spolitium to Totila and the Goths. Fortresses in Aemilia were taken; but when Illyrians heard that the Huns were devastating their homes, they went back to their country. Bononia and Auximum fell back into the hands of the Goths. Totila was blockading Rome, and Tibur fell to him because the Isaurians quarreled with the inhabitants and betrayed it. Procopius refused to describe the atrocity that left the inhabitants dead. In 545 Belisarius wrote to the Emperor that he needed more men and money, because the provinces could not supply them. Meanwhile John was in Constantinople marrying the daughter of Germanus, the Emperor's cousin. Totila's Goths were taking towns in Picenum and Tuscany; though he was unable to bribe Perugia, which remained loyal even after Cyprian was assassinated by Ulifus. Narses, using Heruls he had recruited for the Italian war, defeated invading Sclavenes.
In 546 Totila returned to the siege of Rome, where Bessas commanded 3,000 troops. Pope Vigilius tried to send grain from Syracuse; but the ships were captured by the Goths. Hungry Rome asked for a truce; but Totila told the envoy Pelagius that he refused to show mercy to Sicily, because it welcomed and supplied the imperial war nor would he allow the walls of Rome to defend imperial troops nor would he give up slaves who had deserted to them. Thus negotiations failed, and Rome was soon captured, as Bessas, the garrison, and a few senators with horses fled. The victorious Totila sent Pelagius to Constantinople asking for the peace that was enjoyed by Theodoric in the era of Anastasius. Justinian wrote back that the war was being conducted by Belisarius and that he should negotiate peace with him. As the walls of Rome were being torn down, Totila received a letter from Belisarius, asking him to spare the beautiful buildings, because only the unintelligent destroy such civilization. Totila stopped the vandalism.
Totila left Rome deserted in 547, placed a force to watch Belisarius at Portus, and marched south to regain Lucania, Apulia, and part of Calabria. When Belisarius recovered his health, he entered Rome and had the walls rebuilt without mortar; but the gates could not be rebuilt yet, because he lacked carpenters. The Goths attacked for two days, while valorous imperial soldiers fought at the gates. Then the Goths retreated, and new gates were built, while Totila fortified Tibur. John defeated Gothic cavalry at Capua and liberated many Roman captives. Totila marched an army of 10,000 men into Lucania; but attacking John's camp at night, only 100 were killed while 900 escaped in the dark. Justinian sent 2,000 soldiers. Belisarius sailed to Sicily with 900 men, but their camp was surprised and also decimated by Totila's men. Totila besieged Rossano; when no help came, they surrendered. Totila pardoned all except the commander Chalazar, whom he executed for breaking his word.
At Rome the garrison had mutinied and killed their commander Conon. They sent clergy to Constantinople threatening to turn over Rome to the Goths unless they were pardoned and paid their arrears; the Emperor accepted their conditions. Belisarius provisioned Rome, established discipline, and left a garrison of 3,000 under Diogenes before he left Italy in 549. Then Perugia fell after a siege of four years. Marauding Sclavenes had just devastated Illyricum, and in 549 half split off to ravage Thrace, taking the port of Topirus.
Dagistheus was sent to Lazica in 549 with 7,000 Romans to regain the fortress of Petra. Mermeroes brought Persian reinforcements, relieved the siege, and garrisoned Petra with 3,000 men and provisions before withdrawing to Persarmenia. However, Dagistheus and Gubazes led an attack that killed those men and destroyed the provisions. The next year Dagistheus defeated the invading Chorianes; but Justinian ordered Dagistheus arrested for the Petra debacle, and he was replaced by the elderly Bessas. He managed to suppress a revolt of the Abasgians, a Christian kingdom that had profited by selling boys as eunuchs, a practice that Justinian abolished. Bessas besieged Petra and regained the fortress in 551. The truce with Persia was renewed for another five years as the Romans agreed to pay 2600 pounds of gold, though the hostilities in Lazica were not affected. Lazi king Gubazes quarreled with Roman commanders Bessas, Martin, and Rusticus, complaining to Justinian. Bessas was recalled, but Rusticus and his brother John contrived to murder Gubazes. The Lazi people got the Emperor to nominate the younger brother of Gubazes as their new king, and senator Athanasius investigated the assassination. Rusticus and John were arrested, tried, and executed.
Totila besieged Rome for the third time, and in January 550 the Isaurians opened the gates to the Goths. Diogenes and a few escaped. Paul and 400 cavalry held out and were willing to fight to the death; but Totila offered to let them go if they swore not to fight the Goths ever again, or they could fight equally with the Goths; all joined the Goths except Paul and one other who returned to Constantinople. Totila now realized it was better to rebuild and repopulate illustrious Rome. His peace envoy was turned away by Emperor Justinian, who replaced Belisarius with 80-year-old Liberius and then Germanus. With a navy of 400 ships Totila besieged Rhegium and captured Tarentum, but he could not take Messina. Germanus recruited barbarians in Thrace and Illyria, and his reputation from his victory over the Antae was such that the Sclavenes stopped moving south but invaded Dalmatia instead, though they won a costly victory over imperial forces at Hadrianople. Germanus had married the Gothic queen Matasuntha, and the hopes of many were dashed when he died of a sudden illness in 550. Meanwhile Totila besieged Syracuse. Justinian appointed the eunuch chamberlain Narses supreme commander; he insisted on sufficient forces and money to win the war. Totila made a treaty with the Franks, allowing them territory they had seized.
In 551 the Goths blockaded Ancona by sea and land. John responded to an urgent letter by gathering fifty ships, which sunk 36 Gothic ships and rescued Ancona, as the Goths burned their remaining eleven ships and abandoned the siege. Once more Totila tried to make peace with Justinian by offering to give up Sicily and Dalmatia and pay taxes on their tenantless estates in Italy; but the Emperor refused again. The tide of the war was turning as Artabanes led imperial forces in recovering the four Sicilian fortresses the Goths had taken. Yet Totila sent a fleet and captured the islands of Corsica and Sardinia.
The Gepids led by Thorosin and the Lombards under King Audoin were about to go to war, and both appealed to Justinian for imperial help. The Emperor sent the Lombards 10,000 cavalry in exchange for their help in the Italian war. The Gepids allied with the Kotrigurs, who crossed the Danube and ravaged Illyria with 12,000 men. Justinian countered with Utigur king Sandichl, who crossed the Don and defeated the Kotrigurs, enslaving their women and children. Then the Emperor sent Aratius to bribe the Kotrigurs, who were plundering the Balkans, to go home, promising to settle them in Thrace if the Utigurs had taken their land; both happened. Justinian broke a promise to help the Gepids against the Lombards, because they had helped the Sclavenes cross the Danube, and the imperial forces did not reach the Lombards, who nevertheless defeated the Gepids. A peace treaty between the Gepids, the Lombards, and the empire would last to the end of Justinian's reign. By 552 Narses had collected 5500 Lombards, 3,000 Heruls, and others to amass an imperial army of about 25,000. They marched to Ravenna; but Totila would not submit without a battle. About 6,000 Goths were killed, as was Totila.
To stop the Lombards from burning and raping, Narses gave them gold and had Valerian escort them to the northern frontier. Then Valerian negotiated with the Goths at Verona; but the Franks in the Venetian province blocked a truce. Totila's remaining army was led by the warrior Teias to Ticinum, where he was elected king of the Goths. Perugia surrendered, though Ulifus and his followers were killed resisting. Rome was captured again by Narses, and Portus surrendered. The desperate Goths put to death Roman senators they could find and 300 boys from Roman families they held hostage. Tarentum commander Ragnaris had surrendered and asked for fifty men to conduct him to Constantinople and then killed the fifty when Pacurius would not exchange the Gothic hostages for them. Teias collected the treasure left at Ticinum and headed for Cumae, where the Goths stored most of their money. Narses had Cumae besieged and met the army of Teias at Mons Lactarius. There Teias was killed, and the Goths asked to be allowed to live outside the Roman empire in peace. John persuaded Narses to accept on the promise that they not make war on the empire.
In 553 two Alamanni chiefs, Leutharis and Buccelin, led an army of about 75,000 that included some Franks south into Italy. Narses was besieging Lucca, which broke its agreement to surrender after thirty days but capitulated two months later. Aligern, Gothic commander at besieged Cumae, finally surrendered also. The Alamanni bypassed Narses, who was at Rome, and plundered the Italian provinces as far south as Calabria; they even stole from the churches that the Franks with them respected. Leutharis died of a plague in Venetia; but Buccelin, eager to drive out Narses and become king of the Goths, met the imperial army at Capua in 554. When Narses had a Herul officer executed for killing his servant, the Heruls left the center of the Roman lines. Yet this opening enabled the two flanks of the imperial army to aim their arrows at the backs of the Alamanni fighting the other flank, and they were slaughtered with few Roman losses. Ragnaris still led 7,000 Goths; but he was killed the next spring when he tried to shoot Narses after a negotiation. The remaining Goths surrendered and were sent to Constantinople. Imperial authority was restored in Italy south of the Po, and the north was gradually recovered.
Justinian had handed down the Pragmatic Sanction to Narses and Antiochus in 554 to apply the Imperial Code to Italy. Grants made by Athalaric, Amalasuntha, and Theodahad were valid, but those of Totila were annulled. Property that had been forcibly taken was restored, enabling the aristocracy and the church to regain most of their land. Public funds were allocated for public buildings and aqueducts in Rome, and the food dole was re-established. Provincial governors were no longer appointed but were elected by local land-owners and bishops. Narses administered Italy as Patrician for thirteen years, though he was resented for the wealth he accumulated.
In Spain after Theodoric died, the general Theudis continued to rule and became king when Theodoric's grandson Amalaric was killed in an army mutiny in 531. After Theudis died in 548, Agila became king the next year; but there was a civil war until Athanagild defeated Agila in 554. Liberius established an imperial province in Baetica in 550 that would last about seventy years.
Late in 558 the Kotrigurs led by chief Zabergan crossed the frozen Danube and invaded Thrace with little resistance and threatened the capital. However, imperial forces rallied, and three separate bands of Kotrigurs were defeated by a reinvigorated Belisarius in Thrace, by Germanus in Macedonia, and by the Thermoplyae garrison in Thessaly. Justinian paid much gold for the captives, and the Kotrigurs went back beyond the Danube. Then the Emperor suggested to Sandichl that the Utigurs could enrich their treasury by attacking the Kotrigurs, which they did, weakening both sides. Also in 558 Justinian began diplomatic relations with the Avars by giving their king Candich gifts. The Avars then attacked the Sabirs and the Utigurs, invaded the Kotrigurs, and by 562 had over-run central Europe as far as the Elbe.
A new truce with Persia in 557 had included Lazica. About 560 the Persians allied with western Turks led by Mo-Kan (r. 553-572) and destroyed Ephthalite power, partitioning its territory among the allies and making the Oxus River Persia's eastern border. It was 562 before Khusrau and Justinian signed a treaty for fifty years. The Romans agreed to pay 30,000 gold pieces annually, but Persia recognized Roman rule in Lazica. Other provisions indicate the nature of Roman-Persian relations. Persia agreed to keep Huns and Alans from crossing the Caucasus into Roman territory. Both sides had Saracen allies that were included in the peace. Persian-Roman trade was to occur at custom houses in prescribed places. Ambassadors could use public posts without paying custom duties. Saracens and others were to trade at Daras and Nisibis and were not to smuggle by other roads. Migration was restricted to the return of deserters. Disputes were to be settled by a committee on the frontiers in the presence of the Persian and Roman governors. Towns near the frontier were not to be fortified. Neighboring tribes should not be attacked nor harassed. Daras was not to have a large garrison. Treachery could be appealed to the sovereign of the injured person. Curses were called down on the party that should violate the treaty. Persia also agreed to tolerate Christians and their burial practices, and they were to be free of persecution by the Magi; but they had to refrain from proselytizing.
In his histories of Justinian's imperial wars Procopius gave a fairly objective account from the usual perspective of the Romans, and he portrayed Belisarius as a noble and great commander. Yet in his Secret History written about 550 Belisarius is foolishly manipulated by his wife Antonina; Justinian is castigated in a diatribe as the worst ruler possible, and Theodora is described as a shameless whore, who became a cunningly powerful empress. Yet internal evidence does not give scholars adequate reasons for denying that Procopius wrote this extremely different view. Certainly Justinian's imperialistic wars did cause extensive killing and much human misery throughout his empire and in the regions conquered; but the unrelentingly negative judgments of Procopius in every aspect of his government are likely exaggerated in some outpouring of emotion though there is probably much truth in his criticisms. Procopius exposed the dark and private sides of Justinian, Theodora, Belisarius and his wife Antonina, hoping that by showing how their misdeeds overtook them future monarchs would be less likely to transgress.
Procopius accused Justinian of murdering thousands of people and plundering their property with no provocation at all. His many changes destroyed valuable institutions. He not only ruined the Roman empire but took over Libya and Italy in wars that cost millions of lives. In refusing to prosecute Blues, gangs were allowed to rob the upper class with impunity. People despaired because when they suffer violence from state authorities, they have little hope of finding justice. Justinian spent large amounts of the treasure he exploited erecting buildings along the sea-front that had to be protected from floods by erecting expensive walls. While Procopius argued that every purpose of Justinian was dishonest, he was an easy mark for anyone who wanted to deceive him. He seized other people's money stealthily without hesitating.
According to Procopius the Emperor squandered the people's wealth by giving it to foreign tribes like the Huns, encouraging other chiefs to raid imperial territory and bringing about the enslavement of the Roman empire. Justinian was also a religious hypocrite, robbing the wealth of Arians and other heretics. Samaritans in Palestine were also persecuted. Justinian criminalized homosexuality and had offenders castrated, even if it was in their past. At first he only used this law against the rival Greens or other political enemies. Forgery of wills and letters was used to take property from leading senators such as Tatian, Demosthenes, and Hilara. The hall of justice was turned into a marketplace as judgments and even the making of laws were sold to the highest bidders. To account for this extreme pattern of evil Procopius assumed that Justinian must be possessed by a demon if not the king of demons. He estimated that at least five million people died in the Libya war and three times as many in the drawn-out war in Italy, because for so many years the Emperor would not make peace or provide the necessary troops and funds to win. In the Persian wars Procopius blamed Justinian for being aggressive during truces, but he refused to spend his money to defend the empire against the invasions of Khusrau in which unnumbered men and women were killed and enslaved.
Procopius had no doubt that Justinian ruled during the reign of the illiterate Justin and that he quickly spent the surplus Anastasius had acquired. Then he appointed officials to strip the wealthy of their estates, and the money collected was soon given to the empire's enemies on its frontiers. He established monopolies to squeeze money out of every class. Quaestors such as the noted jurist Tribonian or the Libyan Junilus, who knew little about law, used the office to enrich themselves. Constantine made a pile of money from the law-courts and by selling access to his friend, the Emperor. After the praetorian prefect collected great wealth from taxes, Justinian would then take everything he had with one stroke, as he did to John of Cappadocia. Provincial officials were the most corrupt men he could find so that people continually looked back at the past as not as bad as what was currently happening, so rapid was the degeneration of the empire. After John was succeeded by Theodotus, he was soon replaced by a Syrian money-changer named Peter, who was even more avaricious. During a good harvest high prices were charged while much grain rotted. The next year had a lean harvest, and hunger resulted in constant rioting in the capital by unpaid troops. Justinian refused to give the usual debt relief, and taxes for the many wars were unrelenting, while pay for soldiers fell years behind.
The poor suffered too from the monopolies, and even bread and water were hard to obtain. In Egypt Alexandrians experienced similar misery under its governor Hephaestus, as he controlled the economy to enrich himself and the Emperor. Justinian sent Liberius to replace Rhodo as governor of Alexandria after the latter tortured Psoes to death at the instigation of Paul and Arsenius. Archdeacon Pelagius was sent by Pope Vigilius to investigate. Rhodo fled to Constantinople, where Justinian had him beheaded and confiscated his property. Theodora got Liberius to execute Arsenius, who previously had been useful to her and had only accompanied Paul; yet Paul, who was convicted of homicide, only lost his priesthood. Later Justinian appointed Paul bishop of Alexandria.
Yet four or five years after Procopius wrote The Secret History, which the Emperor apparently never saw, he published Buildings, praising Justinian for the many edifices he had constructed. He began by writing that the Emperor purified and strengthened the laws, eliminating their contradictions. Procopius flattered Justinian for doubling the territory of the empire and increasing its power, noting that he even allowed those caught plotting to assassinate him to keep their property. He dedicated 25 churches in Constantinople, and some funds were spent for wells and hospitals to relieve pilgrims. Many bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts were constructed, and in Buildings Procopius even credited Justinian with saving the empire with the ring of fortresses that lined the borders.
The many new laws proclaimed by Justinian make it clear that at least attempts were made to reform abuses. Governors who took bribes were liable to exile, confiscation of property, and even corporal punishment. Subjects were exhorted to obey the laws and pay their taxes in full because of the Emperor's acquisitions of territory. Many provinces were reorganized, as dioceses were eliminated. Wanting uniform Roman law and to break up large estates, Justinian objected to Armenian prohibitions of women inheriting property. Consuls were expected to pay such large amounts for public spectacles and largesses that few could afford the honor, and the state became too broke to subsidize the office. After Belisarius in 535 and John of Cappadocia in 538, Basilius in 541 became the last consul. The traditional way of designating the Roman years for nearly a millennium now became the number of years since the consulship of Basilius.
Because of expenditures for the disasters of war, famine, plague, and earthquakes, the state could no longer pay teachers and physicians, and few people could afford a lawyer. Public amusements were greatly decreased, and some towns could not afford to light their streets. Not until most of the wars were over in 552 was the Emperor able to cancel arrears of taxation. Yet conquests, particularly in Africa, enabled the state to increase greatly its imperial lands. Justinian feared the large landowners, who had their own private armies and tax collectors, and one of his new laws blamed the abuses and crimes of the local managers of landlords' estates for the plundering of the state. In 542 Peter Barsymes made the manufacture of silk a state monopoly; ten years later two monks smuggled silk worm eggs from China, and soon orchards of mulberry trees spread in Syria, giving the empire a lucrative new industry. When the price of labor increased after the plague, the Emperor issued an edict in 544 to enforce the old prices and wages. Justinian reduced the maximum interest rate from twelve to eight percent and prohibited senators and aristocrats from charging more than four percent, though 12% could still be charged for risky sea voyages. Roman coins were still the most respected in the commercial world, and many found their way to India and China, though Persians controlled this trade through Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
Justinian spent much of his time studying and discussing Christian theology, and his life was dedicated to establishing one state, one law, and one church in a revived and expanded Roman empire. He issued an edict that canons of the four ecumenical councils were valid imperial laws. All citizens must be orthodox Christians, and those who strayed very far could lose their civil rights and have their earthly goods withheld. To serve the state one must have three witnesses declare one's orthodoxy. Heretics were barred from the professions of law and teaching, and a woman could lose her dowry and property. Manichaeans and relapsed heretics could even be executed. Jews and especially Samaritans were persecuted. After a revolt broke out in Samaria in 529, according to Malalas, 20,000 Samaritans were killed and 20,000 more were sold into slavery to the Saracens; this is probably more accurate than the report by Procopius that 100,000 died. Jews generally retained their civil rights but could not serve the state.
The intolerance of Justinian meant the final death throes of paganism as even the Athenian schools were closed in 529. A zealous Monophysite named John of Ephesus in 542 was sent as a missionary to heathens in the eastern provinces and claimed in his Ecclesiastical History that he converted 70,000, as temples were destroyed, and 96 churches and 12 monasteries were founded. Four years later he denounced grammarians, sophists, lawyers, and physicians, subjecting them to torture and imprisonment. Pagan books were publicly burned in Constantinople in 559.
Most affected by Justinian's laws against heresy were the many Monophysite Christians in Egypt and the East. After Justinian gained the reconciliation with the western church in 518, Monophysite bishops were expelled from their sees. Banished from Antioch by the synod of Tyre, the Monophysite leader Severus found refuge in Alexandria. About ten years later the exiled prelates and monks were allowed to return, though Severus refused to attend the conference at Constantinople in 531. Montanists had been forbidden to assemble or baptize in 530. Empress Theodora favored the Monophysites and got Anthimus elected patriarch at Constantinople in 535. Pope Agapetus came from Rome and insisted that he be deposed, and he consecrated Menas in his place. Anthimus hid in Theodora's palace. This resulted in renewed persecution and torture of Monophysites led by Ephraim of Antioch. When Agapetus died, Theodora sent 200 pounds of gold to get Vigilius elected; but Theodahad in Rome selected Silverius. In 537 Belisarius met with both Silverius and Vigilius, banishing the former to Lydia as a monk and allowing Vigilius to be ordained bishop of Rome.
Justinian replaced the Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria in 537 with Paul; but he was so violent that the Emperor had to banish him to Gaza. Monophysites in Egypt came under attack for espousing doctrines derived from Origen such as the rejection of eternal damnation. In 546 Justinian tried to settle the theological difficulties by promulgating an edict referred to as the Three Chapters that condemned the Nestorian views of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and Ibas. Pope Vigilius went to Constantinople and opposed the Three Chapters in his Judicatum. This effort by the Emperor to proclaim church dogma led eventually to the Fifth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 553. Pope Vigilius kept changing his mind and was also condemned by the council, and Pelagius was imprisoned for signing the Pope's document. Vigilius had spent seven years in Constantinople and died in Syracuse before he could get back to Rome. Pelagius changed his view and was made the next bishop of Rome in 555 by the Emperor's influence, though opposition in the West caused Pelagius to change his mind again. This Fifth Council settled little but caused a temporary schism in the West since northern Italy disagreed.
Justinian made a lasting contribution to civilization by having Roman laws revised and clarified. The latest of three Codes had been that of Theodosius II in 438. Soon after Justinian became Emperor himself he appointed a commission of ten jurists led by Tribonian and Theophilus, and the Codex Justinianus was published in ten books in 529, becoming law and replacing the three older codes. Next Tribonian supervised sixteen lawyers for three years to produce the fifty books of the Digest or Pandects in 533, arranging, reducing, and revising the works of previous jurists. The commission read 2,000 books by 39 authors; but the five main commentators were Gaius, Papinian, Ulpian, Paulus, and Modestinus, and a majority of their opinions ruled with Papinian being authoritative if they were equally divided. This also became valid law and rendered all other books by jurists obsolete. The next year two books were added to the Codex, giving it a total of 4652 laws. Tribonian and law professors Theophilus from Constantinople and Dorotheus from Beirut also produced the Institutions from the commentaries of Gaius. This also had authority and was to be used as a text with the others for law students at Constantinople, Rome, and Beirut, now the only law schools in the empire. Beirut was destroyed by an earthquake, tidal wave, and fire in 551; the law school moved to Sidon but declined. Justinian's laws were completed by the 153 new laws he enacted which were called Novels. Many of these were published in spoken Greek for easy comprehension.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the Corpus Juris Civilis Justiniani was the legal support it gave to monarchical authority. In the republic laws had been made by assemblies, magistrates, and the Senate; but during the empire the Emperor promulgated most laws by edict. This new law code simply bore the name of the Emperor. Civil laws were simplified by eliminating most of the ambiguities of freed slaves by classifying everyone as either citizens or slaves, though the freed still had obligations to their patrons. Slavery derived from the laws of nations since slaves usually originated as war captives; but it became hereditary. Gaius noted though that one person becoming the property of another was contrary to natural right. Justinian's new laws made it easier to free slaves and no longer limited the number that could be manumitted. The traditional Roman power of the father continued but was moderated by limiting his power to sell his children into slavery. Parents were liable for the exposure of a child, and the new code prohibited making an exposed child a slave.
Punishments were still much more severe for the lower classes than they were for senators, knights, soldiers, veterans, decurions, and their children. Slaves, of course, were punished even more cruelly, though in imperial Rome, as opposed to the old republic, the lower classes could be tortured too. The privileged were never thrown to wild beasts in the arena and rarely were sent to work in the mines, but they were more likely to be deported or have property confiscated. In this century mutilation became more common, indicating the middle ages were beginning. Serfs called cultivators (coloni) composed most of the population and were still legally tied to the land.
The new laws codified the increased rights of women as well as children. Dissolving the father's power over the child was made easier, either to make the child independent or adopted. Divorces were easy to obtain, though the influence of Christianity was now making them more difficult. Divorce was by mutual consent or by one spouse repudiating the other by stating the reason to seven citizens. Constantine had greatly reduced the allowable reasons and made adultery a capital crime; Theodosius II abolished those restrictions but later revived some of them. Justinian added the grounds of the husband's impotence or if either person wanted to live ascetically. His law in 542 required wives and husbands who repudiated their mates without legal grounds to be consigned to a monastery, and this confinement also replaced the death penalty for adultery. The number of grounds for divorce were reduced; but a husband could still divorce his wife for banqueting or bathing with strange men or staying out of the house or visiting circus shows or theaters without his consent.
Previously only patricians had been married by religious ceremony, while others were wed by fictitious sale (coemptio) or by cohabiting for one year (usus). These methods had put the wife under the control (manus) of her husband, but now this became obsolete as marriage was by consent. Wives were no longer under the father's power (patria potesta) or guardianship (tutela) like daughters, as guardianship only affected those who had not yet reached puberty. Because of Paul's view that the man is the head, women could be cruelly punished for deriding men. Concubinage was allowed to gratify passion rather than for founding a family; any children produced had no legal relation to the father. Concubinage was socially disapproved by many though, especially if the man was already married.
Ulpian had summarized the maxims of law as living honestly, harming no one, and giving everyone what is due. Paulus wrote that robbery with violence was liable to quadruple damages, and Ulpian added that whoever has suffered violence and can prove it may proceed by a public criminal action. Violence makes robbery malicious, but it can also be malicious without violence by dishonesty. Roman delicts allowed one to sue for damages due to negligence.
After his death in 565 the expanded empire of Justinian fell apart. Justinian was succeeded by his nephew Justin II (r. 565-578); he banished his cousin Justin, son of Germanus, to Alexandria, where he was assassinated, and the senators Aetherius and Addaeus were executed for treason in 566. The Gepids sent gifts, and Roman forces led by Baduarius helped Kunimund win a battle over Alboin's Lombards. Alboin turned to the Avar Khagan Baian, because the Romans had not paid their tribute. Baian agreed for one-tenth of the Lombard animals and half the spoils of the conquered Gepids. A Lombard embassy to the Emperor complaining about the Gepids secured Roman neutrality. The Gepids were driven from their territory, and Kunimund was killed, though his grandson took the Gepid treasury to Constantinople. Alboin took Kunimund's daughter Rosamund as his wife. The Avars besieged Sirmium, while Baian sent 10,000 Kotrigur Huns across the Save to plunder Dalmatia. Tiberius urged Justin to accept the Avar terms; but he refused until Tiberius had been defeated in battle about 570.
The Turks as Persia's eastern enemy sent an envoy in 568 to offer Justin II an alliance with an alternative trade route to China. Since Justin was imposing orthodoxy on Armenia, Khusrau I sent the Surena to build a fire temple at Dovin and impose the Zarathustran faith in Persarmenia. The Armenians gained a promise from Justin that they would have religious toleration in the Roman empire, and they defeated 15,000 Persians and killed the Surena in 571. Now with an empty treasury Justin broke the treaty with Persia by refusing to pay the tribute for the northern forts, and he sent Julian to urge Axum's Abyssinian king Arethas to invade Persia. Also as the patriarch John's diplomatic efforts had failed to reconcile the Monophysites, Justin ordered heretics persecuted. Justin's cousin Marcianus invaded Arzanene and besieged Nisibis in 573. The Roman army abandoned Nisibis when Marcianus was replaced by Acacius Archelaus. Khusrau had relieved Nisibis and now successfully besieged Dara, while Adarmaanes invaded Syria, capturing Antioch and 292,000 prisoners. These disasters pushed the mentally suffering Justin over the edge; he stopped trade in the capital and was deemed so insane that the Empress and Tiberius took over the government. She offered to pay 45,000 gold coins (nomismata) for peace with Persia, and Tiberius was adopted as Justin's son and named Caesar in 574.
Tiberius stopped the ecclesiastical oppression of the Monophysites and tried to support the people against the aristocratic policies of Justin by remitting taxes for a year and relieving the ravages the Persians had inflicted on Syria. Tiberius gained a truce with Persia for three years so he could re-organize the army; but as Armenia was not included, Khusrau I invaded and burned Melitene, though Roman forces then chased him across the Euphrates. Justinian's forces pillaged Persia but were defeated in Armenia in 576. Tiberius appointed Maurice chief commander, and he recruited a larger army. Justin crowned Tiberius Emperor just before he died in 578. In 580 Baian's Avars begin constructing a bridge across the Save, and before he died in 582 Tiberius allowed Sirmium to surrender and pay 240,000 nomismata. In his final days Tiberius made Maurice Caesar and crowned him Emperor.
After Maurice's commander Philippicus retreated from a Persian battle in 587, Heraclius became commander in the East. Philippicus warned Maurice not to cut the soldiers pay by a quarter; but he was replaced by Priscus, who had to flee a mutiny to Constantina. Riots there and at Edessa drove him back to the capital. Aristobolus took gifts to the soldiers, and Germanus invaded Persia with 4,000 men, capturing 3,000. Philippicus tried to recapture Martyropolis in Armenia in 590; but he failed and was replaced by Comentiolus. In Persia the misrule of Hormizd IV (r. 579-590) caused a revolt in Khuzistan and Kerman. Hormizd turned to the Turks, but Shaweh Shah used the opportunity to march toward the Persian capital. Media's governor Vahram Chobin defeated the Turks and made them pay tribute. Vahram then invaded the Roman territory of the Caucasus, but he was eventually defeated by Romanus and recalled by Hormizd. At Ctesiphon a conspiracy assassinated Hormizd and crowned Khusrau II (r. 590-628), but his troops deserted to Vahram. Khusrau went to Circesium, asking for Roman protection in exchange for Armenia, Martyropolis, and Dara. So Maurice provided funds and troops under Narses, who defeated Vahram and restored Khusrau on his throne in 591.
The Balkans had been invaded and plundered by Avars and Slavs with the latter settling permanently. The Persian treaty enabled Maurice to move his army west, and they attacked the Slavs and Avars across the Danube in 592. Maurice also reverted to religious persecution, and conflicts between the Blues and Greens tore apart all the major cities. Comentiolus wanted to surrender the northern frontier in 600 and fled to the capital; but the next year Priscus won battles killing many thousands, and in 602 some Avars deserted to Peter's imperial forces. However, orders for the army to winter beyond the Danube resulted in a mutiny led by the centurion Phocas. In the capital Maurice could rely on the 900 Blues, but they were opposed by 1500 Greens. Germanus, believing he was suspected of treason, armed his followers and took refuge in the Sophia cathedral; but the Emperor's use of force there started a riot. Maurice fled, and the Greens, mistrusting Germanus, had Phocas crowned Emperor by the Patriarch in another church. Maurice was executed after witnessing the murder of his five sons. Comentiolus, Peter, and other aristocrats were also killed.
Phocas (r. 602-610) recognized the Roman church as the head, and his orthodox policy persecuted Monophysites and Jews. The Greens turned against him and were banned from holding offices, while the Blues terrorized the empire in civil war. Phocas failed to stop Slav and Avar invasions of the Balkans with more tribute and withdrew the army from Thrace. Khusrau II, claiming to avenge the murder of Maurice, regained Armenia. Narses revolted and seized Edessa for Persia; he later was induced to surrender, but Phocas broke his word and had him burned to death in the capital. The Persian army captured the Dara fortress in 605, overran Syria, Palestine, and Phoenicia, and in 608 invaded Cappadocia, taking Caesarea and reaching the Bosporus two years later. At Antioch in 608 Monophysites gathered, fought imperial troops, and killed the orthodox patriarch. Bonosus was sent to repress Antioch and from there went to quell riots in Jerusalem.
Carthage exarch Heraclius challenged the tyranny of Phocas and negotiated with the Senate. His son Heraclius and his chief general's son Nicetas carried out the revolution by organizing forces in the Pentapolis and Alexandria. Bonosus left Jerusalem to march against Nicetas at Alexandria; but after taking the Delta, Bonosus had to flee through Asia to Constantinople. When Heraclius arrived with a fleet at the capital, Phocas was brought to him by his own ministers and put to death. Heraclius was crowned Emperor by Patriarch Sergius, and the standard of the Blues was burned in the Hippodrome. The Roman empire had become a Byzantine empire in the East.
In the West Lombard king Alboin invaded Italy with a large army that included 20,000 Saxons in 568, the year after Italy's governor Narses was recalled to the capital at the request of suffering Italian tax payers who resented his immense wealth. Alboin's forces entered Milan the next year as Archbishop Honoratus fled from the Arians to Genoa. Pope John III (561-574) went to Naples and begged Narses to return to Rome. Narses did so and administered Rome until he died in 571 at the age of 95. By the next year the Lombards had established Pavia as their capital and had taken over most of the Italian peninsula except Ravenna, Rome, and the seaports with walls that prevented land attacks. Alboin had married Kunimund's daughter Rosamund; but revolted by having to drink out of her father's skull, she conspired with Alboin's foster-brother Helmechis and the powerful Peredeo, and they murdered Alboin in his bed in 572. Rosamund and Helmechis took the Lombard treasure and fled