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 the
general Areobindus Emperor,
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
died three years later
in 518 at the age of 88.
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 force
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 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 began 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 in 610 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 to Ravenna, where Helmechis
made her
take the poison she had given him.
The Saxons left Italy
for Gaul, but they were repulsed
by the Frank forces led by Mummolus.
A year later the Saxons managed to get through Gaul,
though punished
by Mummolus; but at their old home
most of them were killed by
immigrant Swabians.
Duke Cleph became king of the Lombards at Ticinum (Pavia),
but he was murdered in 574.
After that the Lombard bands in Italy
were ruled by 35 dukes.
The Lombards divided the land,
and the coloni continued to work as their serfs.
During their first
seven years in Italy
the Lombards raided Gaul five times.
An imperial
army led by Justin's son-in-law Baduarius
was defeated by the
Lombards in 576,
and Baduarius was killed.
Military and civilian
control of remaining imperial territory
was given to a powerful
exarch in Ravenna,
and Africa was ruled by an exarch in Carthage.
Subordinate provinces remained in Rome, Naples, and Venice.
Emperor Maurice sent 50,000 solidi to Austrasia's king
Childebert so he would invade the Lombards in 584.
That year the
Lombards elected Cleph's son Authari king
and granted him half
their lands.
Authari used diplomacy and gained a truce for three
years.
In 589 Authari married Theodelinda,
daughter of Bavarian
king Garibald.
That year Ravenna's new imperial exarch Romanus
took back
the towns Altinum, Modena, and Mantua, and the next
year
twenty Frank dukes crossed the Alps and ravaged Italy
as
the Lombards stayed inside their fortifications;
but famine and
epidemics soon caused the Franks
to make peace and go home, as
Authari died in 590.
Turin duke Agilulf married Authari's widow
Theodelinda and
was proclaimed king by Lombards assembled at Milan
in 591.
He secured the northern border
by making a treaty with
the Avars.
Benevento duke Arichis consolidated southern Italy,
and in 592 Spoleto duke Ariulf broke the land
communication between
Rome and Ravenna.
The next year Pope Gregory seems to have made a treaty
with
Ariulf; but Exarch Romanus thought the prelate was
duped and seized
Perugia and several other cities.
King Agilulf in reaction to
this breach of faith occupied
Perugia and besieged Rome until
Pope Gregory arranged
a treaty, agreeing to pay the Lombards
500
pounds of gold from church funds.
However, the imperial Exarch
did not acknowledge it,
and the war went on until Romanus died
in 596.
Gregory's confidant Abbot Probus negotiated another treaty
for the next exarch Callinicus in 598 that lasted three years;
then the fighting continued as the Lombards
used Slavs and Avars
as allies.
In the armistice of 605 Exarch Smaragadus agreed
to
pay 12,000 solidi, and this armistice
was prolonged until
Agilulf died in 616.
A portion of Spain had been taken back into the empire in 554,
but that year Athanagild became king of the Visigoths,
established
his capital at Toledo, and engaged in a war
with the imperial
forces that would last thirteen years.
The Visigoths also ruled
part of Gaul, and his two daughters
helped form alliances by marrying
two Frank kings;
Brunhild married Sigibert of Austrasia,
and in
567 Galswintha married Chilperic of Neustria.
Athanagild's brothers
Liuwa and Leovigild
succeeded him in 568.
By the reign of Theodomir
(559-570) the Suevi kingdom
in northwest Spain had been converted
to Catholicism by Martin of Braga.
Leovigild invaded the Sueves
in 569, and the war went on
until his brother Liuwa died in 573.
Leovigild made his son Hermenegild duke of Narbonne
and his son
Recared duke of Toledo, as he tried to consolidate
his power;
but rebellious nobles caused him to quell
insurgencies in Toledo
and Evora
with severe punishments in 574.
Further campaigns to
control independent
territories lasted another four years.
Hermenegild was sent to Seville, where he was converted
from Arianism to Catholicism by his wife Ingundis
and Bishop Leander,
inspiring Spanish Romans
to proclaim him their king.
Leovigild
convoked a synod of Arian bishops
at Toledo in 580 to expand their
faith.
The next year Leovigild's forces occupied rebelling Vasconia.
Before attacking Seville in 583 Leovigild bought off
the Byzantines
with 30,000 gold coins.
The siege of Seville lasted two years,
and Hermenegild was
finally killed by Duke Sigebert in Tarragona
in 585
because he refused to abjure Catholicism.
By then the Suevic
kingdom had fallen
and was made a Visigothic province.
Recared
was fighting the Franks in Septimania when
he learned his father
was dying; Leovigild repented and
entrusted the spiritual care
of his son Recared to Leander.
Recared returned to Spain and was
elected king in 586.
Recared had Sigebert executed and converted
to
Catholicism, making it the religion of the Visigothic
state in 589 at a Toledo council.
In 603 Recared was killed in an insurrection
led by Count Witteric, who was supported by Arians;
but in 610
the Catholics killed him,
and the nobles made Gundemar king.
Martin was born in Pannonia (Hungary) and migrated
to the Suevic
kingdom in the middle of the 6th century.
He was called Martin
of Braga, where he founded
a monastery, and he was ordained bishop
at Dumium in 556.
He attended the first council of Braga in 561
and supervised the second council there in 572.
He died in 579.
Martin enhanced Christian enlightenment in the region
by translating Sayings of the Egyptian Fathers from
Greek into Latin and
adapted the moral teachings
of the eastern monks and John Cassian
by writing on vanity, pride, and humility.
His work "Anger"
is closely based on the essay by Seneca,
and his "Rules for
an Honest Life" written for the accession
of Suevi king Miro
in 570 recommends the four
classical virtues of prudence, courage,
temperance, and justice.
Leander of Seville became a friend of Gregory
when they were
both in Constantinople in the early 580s.
His sermon on the church's
triumph at the conversion
of the Goths at Toledo in 589 is preserved.
In this he compared heresy to the thorns outside of paradise
and
to adulterous women and prostitutes,
while he delighted in unity.
Leander wrote The Training of Nuns for his sister Florentina.
In this book he praised virginity and described how nuns
should
avoid the laity, shun holy men as well as young men,
serve other
nuns, repay those who love them,
have a sense of shame, endure
a slanderer yet slander no one,
not be proud but humble, eat temperately,
not criticize other nuns, pray and study continuously,
not speak
to a man alone, not laugh presumptuously,
be steadfast in poverty
and abundance, not eat meat,
stay in one monastery, not have personal
possessions,
not take an oath, not speak with another nun alone,
and not desire to return to the world.
When Leander died in 600,
he was succeeded
as bishop of Seville by his younger brother Isidore,
who would go on to become a famous scholar and educator.
When Chlotar died in 561, the Frank kingdom
was divided by
his four sons—
Charibert at Paris, Sigibert at Metz in Austrasia,
Guntram at Orleans in Burgundy,
and Chilperic at Soissons in Neustria.
As the son of a different mother,
Chilperic hated his three half-brothers.
In 562 while Sigibert was fighting off the Avars
on his eastern
frontier,
Chilperic attacked Rheims, beginning a civil war.
Sigibert
reacted by capturing Soissons and Chilperic's son
Theudebert,
who was released after a year
on his promise not to fight his
uncle.
Charibert married in succession three servant girls
and quarreled
with priests; but he died in 567,
and his kingdom was divided
by his brothers,
each agreeing not to enter Paris without the
others' permission.
Charibert's latest wife Theudechild was ready
to marry
his brother Guntram; but instead Guntram took her treasure
and sent her to a nunnery at Arles.
When she tried to escape to
a Spanish Goth,
Theudechild was beaten and locked up for the rest
of her life.
Guntram also had concubines,
and his wife Marcatrude
killed the son of one.
When Marcatrude's own son died, Guntram
dismissed her
and married Austrechild, a servant's daughter.
Guntram
appointed Mummolus patrician to lead
his army in fighting off
invading Lombards.
In 566 Sigibert married Brunhild, daughter of
Visigothic king
Athangild of Spain.
Though Arian, she was well educated
and converted
to Catholicism.
For her wedding she was praised
in verse by the
poet Fortunatus.
Chilperic then married Brunhild's sister Galswinth;
but he had already married Audovera, who had three sons
and a
daughter, and he was even more captivated
by her maidservant Fredegund.
After Fredegund tricked Audovera into baptizing her daughter
Basina
without a godmother, Chilperic sent Audovera to a
nunnery and
married Fredegund,
who had Audovera murdered about 580.
Galswinth
brought a large dowry; but she complained that
Chilperic did not
keep his promise to put away his other wives,
and she begged to
go home.
However, Fredegund ordered Galswinth killed in her sleep.
Brunhild's resentment at her sister's death increased
the enmity
between Chilperic and Sigibert.
Fredegund used her charms to gain an alliance with Guntram
and got Chilperic to go to war with his brother Sigibert in 573.
Chilperic sent his son Theudebert to invade Sigibert's
western
territory, and his forces captured Tours and Poitiers,
burning
and plundering churches and monasteries.
Sigibert called in Teutonic
mercenaries and marched on Paris;
but Brunhild and Paris bishop
Germain successfully pleaded
that the city be spared.
Theudebert
was killed, and Guntram changed sides
and signed a treaty with
Sigibert.
Chilperic sent his son Clovis to attack Guntram's Burgundy;
but he was expelled from Tours
by Mummolus and escaped to Bordeaux.
Many of Chilperic's suffering people
turned their allegiance to
Sigibert.
Bishop Germain warned Sigibert not to kill his brother,
or he would die.
Yet Sigibert gathered some of Chilperic's mutinous
army
at Vitry and prepared to besiege his brother at Tournai;
Queen Fredegund sent two young men,
who assassinated Sigibert
in 575.
Brunhild in Paris began ruling as the regent for her five-year-old
son Childebert; but Chilperic marched to Paris and exiled
Brunhild
in a convent at Rouen, taking her treasure.
Duke Gundovald helped
the boy Childebert
escape to Metz, where he was crowned.
King
Chilperic allowed Queen Brunhild to return to Metz
to please the
Austrasian Mayor of the Palace and the nobles.
She took control
as regent for her son Childebert II,
whom she saw well educated,
and she had the Roman roads
and buildings repaired;
but the aristocracy
was not happy with the increased taxation.
Chilperic complained the church had become so wealthy that
no one had power anymore except the bishops,
and he began taxing
church lands and canceling wills
that bequeathed property to the
church.
His taxing was so oppressive that many people chose to
emigrate or rebel; in Limoges the tax collector Mark was only
saved by Bishop Ferreolus, while a mob burned his records.
Chilperic
sent in soldiers to punish
the city and enforce the taxation.
Brittany also revolted and was suppressed.
Chilperic was influenced
by Roman emperor Tiberius and
modified the Salic law, allowing
women to inherit,
and he had amphitheaters built at Soissons and
Paris.
Chilperic wrote poetry, which was praised by Fortunatus.
Chilperic used the Jew Priscus to purchase art works
and argued
with him about theology.
The king had been godfather to several
Jews,
who had been forced to convert,
and one of them murdered
Priscus.
Relatives of Priscus killed the murderer and were not
prosecuted because of Chilperic's law that criminals
were outside
the law and could be
punished by private individuals.
Chilperic sent Duke Roccolen to invade Aquitane;
but he did
little damage at Tours
when Bishop Gregory refused his demands.
At Poitiers the duke ate so many baby rabbits
that he died in
agony.
So King Chilperic sent his son Merovech with an army
to
attack Poitiers, but instead Merovech marched on Tours.
Then he
went to Rouen to visit his mother Audovera
and married Brunhild,
Bishop Praetextatus performing the ceremony.
Chilperic objected,
because Merovech had married his
uncle's widow; they took sanctuary
in the church of St. Martin
until Chilperic promised them safety.
Chilperic banished Praetextatus, and a council of bishops
convicted
him of conspiring against Chilperic.
Gregory reported that Fredegund
tried to bribe him with
200 pounds of silver to testify against
Praetextatus;
but the historian bishop refused.
Meanwhile troops attacked Soisson, driving out Fredegund
and Chilperic's son Clovis until Chilperic returned
with his army
to re-take his capital.
Chilperic sent Clovis to raise an army
at Tours,
and they marched through Touraine and Anjou.
King Guntram's
commander Mummolus invaded Limoges
and attacked Chilperic's commander
Desiderius,
killing 5,000 of his troops.
Chilperic had Merovech's
long hair cut off as he was
ordained a priest and sent to a monastery
in Le Mans.
Merovech threw off the monastic garb and went to
St.
Martin's church in Tours,
asking the historian Bishop Gregory
for sanctuary.
The angry Chilperic threatened to set fire to the
region;
but Gregory provided hospitality.
Merovech next took sanctuary
at Auxerre;
but Austrasian nobles prevented his reunion with Brunhild.
He was surrounded by his father's soldiers at Rheims.
Merovech
requested his servant Gailen
kill him with his sword, and he did.
Queen Fredegund ordered the loyal Gailen horribly mutilated.
In 580 Fredegund's two little sons were infected by the plague;
she realized her many possessions had little value
if she lost
her sons, and she burned the tax rolls of her cities.
Chilperic
also had a change of heart and remitted taxes and
gave more charity
to the poor for the rest of his life;
but their two sons died
anyway.
Fredegund had Chilperic send Clovis, his son by Audovera,
to Berny, hoping he would die of the plague too.
He survived;
but when she heard Clovis boasting
he would rule all of Gaul,
she had him imprisoned for witchcraft and murdered.
During the
same plague Queen Austrechild got her husband
Guntram to kill
her two doctors when she died of the disease.
The next year Childebert broke his treaty with Guntram
and
allied with Chilperic, and Mummolus
fled Guntram's kingdom to
Avignon.
Queen Brunhild boldly stopped an attack on Duke Lupus
of Champagne by his enemies Ursio and Berthefried
when she placed
herself between their forces.
The latter then stole property from
the house of Lupus,
who took refuge at the court of Guntram.
Chilperic
sent Desiderius to attack King Guntram;
Desiderius forced Duke
Ragnovald
to flee and occupied Périgueux.
King Chilperic
tried to avoid a curse for entering Paris
without permission by
sending in relics of saints first.
In 583 Desiderius and Bladast
attacked Bourges,
and 7,000 were killed in the battle.
Then Guntram's
army destroyed most of Chilperic's,
and the next morning the two
brothers made peace.
In 584 Chilperic was assassinated by two men after a hunt;
according to a later chronicler they were sent by
Queen Fredegund
after her husband had learned of her lover
Landeric, possibly
the father of her infant Chlotar II,
who now became king of Neustria.
Fredegund went to Paris and invited King Guntram to take
charge
of his late brother's kingdom for her tiny baby.
Guntram marched
his army to Paris; but the Parisians refused
to allow Childebert
II to enter the city.
Guntram claimed the territory of Charibert,
because
both
Sigibert and Chilperic had entered Paris
without
permission and died.
Childebert sent messengers demanding that
Guntram
turn over Fredegund; but he protected her.
The Neustrian
aristocrats swore allegiance to Guntram
and his nephew Chlotar
II.
Guntram kept guards around himself wherever he went,
and he
asked for three years to bring up his two nephews,
whom he adopted
as his sons;
his own two sons had died of dysentery in 577.
Chlotar's mother Fredegund ruled as regent with help from
Landeric,
the Mayor of the Palace.
After Burgundy king Guntram traveled
to Paris three times
for the baptism of Chlotar to no avail,
he
suspected he was not the son of Chilperic.
So Fredegund gathered
three bishops and
300 reputable citizens to swear that he was.
Chlotar II eventually became the sole heir of the Merovingian
dynasty and would rule the Frank kingdom until 628.
Unlike her
rival Brunhild, Fredegund was not influenced
by Roman culture,
and she had more support
from the aristocrats, who were less Teutonic
in Neustria.
Fredegund used torture to learn
about the conspiracy
of Leudast,
Count of Tours, and then tortured him to death.
After
Chilperic died, Praetextatus regained his see;
but Fredegund could
not stand his criticism
and had him murdered in his cathedral
at Rouen.
Gundovald claimed to be a son of Chlotar I and thus the
brother
of Guntram; but his father had not acknowledged
him and cut off
his hair.
Gundovald worked painting walls; he went to Guntram,
who dismissed him as the son of a weaver or miller.
King Sigibert
also had his hair shorn and imprisoned him.
Gundovald escaped
to Constantinople, where he was treated
as royalty at the imperial
court for about fifteen years.
Gundovald was given treasure by
Emperor Maurice and
gained the support of many Austrasian nobles
including
Duke Desiderius and the general Mummolus,
who was in
exile from Guntram's Burgundy.
Warriors proclaimed Gundovald king
in 585.
Guntram raised a large army with universal conscription
and
marched against rebelling Poitiers; the region was looted,
the buildings set on fire, and the inhabitants were massacred.
The troops also plundered Tours.
Gundovald went to Angouleme,
where he bribed the chief citizens and gained oaths of loyalty.
From there he went to Périgueux and Toulouse with his army.
Guntram summoned Childebert II, whom he acknowledged
as a grown
man and his heir.
At Comminges Gundovald was deserted by Desiderius,
then by Duke Bladast, and he was finally betrayed
by Mummolus,
Bishop Sagittarius, and Waddo.
Gundovald was killed, and Guntram
ordered
Mummolus and Sagittarius executed.
Every person in Comminges
was massacred including
the priests, and the whole city was burned
to the ground.
In this bloody year of 585 almost all of Gaul suffered famine,
as Guntram also marched his army
against the Goths in Septimania.
Crops and herds along the Saone and the Rhone were
destroyed,
as many were killed
and booty was taken from churches.
At Carcassonne
they met the Visigoths; the Frank army
panicked and headed for
home.
Goths using ambushes killed many and stole their goods.
Since the crops of Provence had been burned,
about 5,000 were
killed or died of hunger marching home.
King Guntram summoned
the bishops and criticized his
commanders for no longer
keeping
the conventions of their forefathers.
He argued that plundering
holy places and slaughtering
ministers were the causes of their
defeats.
As Guntram concluded his speech, a messenger reported
that Leuvigild's son Recared had captured the Cabaret castle
and
ravaged the region of Toulouse.
Guntram appointed Leudegisel commander
and assigned
4,000 troops to the region of Arles.
Recared sent
envoys to negotiate peace;
but Guntram resented the death of his
niece
Ingund at Carthage.
However, Childebert and his mother Brunhild
promised peace to Recared's envoys.
A conspiracy to assassinate King Childebert by Rauching,
Ursio,
and Berthefried was discovered early,
and each was killed, Berthefried
in a church.
Young Childebert had accepted 50,000 gold coins from
Roman Emperor Maurice to attack the Lombards in 584.
He crossed
the Alps with an army and then accepted gifts
from the Lombards
too;
he did not respond when Maurice asked for his money back.
Over the next years Childebert did occasionally attack the
Lombards,
and in 590 they captured five castles;
but the wild Franks took
to plundering the countryside
and ended up devastated by hunger
and dysentery.
An invasion by Bretons into Nantes in 587 was thwarted
by Guntram's army, and they agreed to pay a thousand
gold pieces
in compensation to Guntram and Chlotar.
Two years later Guntram
again sent his army to stop
the Bretons ravaging Nantes and Rennes,
resulting in heavy casualties on both sides.
In 588 the historian
Gregory was sent from Metz to Guntram
on a diplomatic mission,
and he recorded the treaty
that clarified the Frank kingdoms of
Guntram, Childebert, and Brunhild.
Guntram sent his army to attack
Septimania again in 589;
but they fell into a trap, losing 5,000
killed and 2,000 captured.
King Guntram became so alarmed that
he closed his border to Childebert's kingdom.
That year Fredegund
nearly strangled her own daughter
Rigunth in a chest with her
own hands,
blaming her for sleeping with too many men.
When Childebert was told that his chamberlain Chundo had
violated
his hunting preserve, two surrogates were killed
in a trial by
combat; then Chundo was executed.
Nuns led by the princesses Clotild
and her cousin Basina left
their monastery in protest of the Abbess
and later attacked it.
A commission of bishops excommunicated
the two and restored the Abbess.
Fredegund's attempts to assassinate
Brunhild, Childebert II,
and his son Theudebert failed.
Twelve
assassins were caught, tortured, and mutilated.
In Tournai a feud
between two families
left only one family member.
Then relations
of the families began quarreling,
and Queen Fredegund warned them
to make peace.
Finally she had the last three survivors invited
to a banquet
and had them beheaded.
Other relations sent to King
Childebert,
and Fredegund had to flee.
Fredegund chose this time
to invite Guntram
to baptize her son Chlotar II at Paris.
In 590
the well educated monk Columban with twelve
companions arrived
from Ireland at the court of Burgundy
king Guntram, who approved
of their building a monastery
in the mountains of the Vosges at
Luxeuil and two other places.
Hard work in agriculture as well
as
literary pursuits made them successful.
Columban was much more
strict than Benedict,
as use of the rod for even minor offenses
was frequent.
Childebert took over the kingdom of Burgundy
when Guntram died
in 592.
The nobles had Childebert poisoned in 595
so that they
could rule as guardians of his infant sons;
but Brunhild took
over as regent for his sons Theudebert II
in Austrasia and Theodoric
II in Burgundy.
The nobles persuaded Theudebert to banish his
grandmother
in 599, and Brunhild went to her other grandson in
Burgundy.
Bishops objected to the independent Columban,
but he
refused to attend a synod
regarding his Celtic methods in 603.
Columban criticized Theodoric for using
concubines and urged him
to marry.
When the young king chose Ermenberta, daughter of Visigothic
king Recared, Brunhild felt her power threatened and opposed
her
so strenuously that he sent her back to Spain.
Brunhild then asked
Columban to baptize
two of her grandchildren by Theodoric's concubines.
The abbot refused, calling them "children of a brothel"
and sent Theodoric a letter threatening to excommunicate him.
The king reacted by putting Columban in jail,
but the abbot miraculously
escaped and went home.
He would not allow Theodoric to enter his
monastery
and predicted his kingdom would be destroyed
with his
royal family within three years.
Columban and his Irish monks
were expelled in 610;
but the ship to Ireland ran aground, and
they went through
Paris to the court of Austrasia king Theudebert
at Metz.
Meanwhile Neustria's king Chlotar II had been encroaching
on
Burgundy until the brothers Theudebert II and Theodoric II
joined
to push him back and take part of Neustria.
In 612 Brunhild persuaded
Burgundy king Theodoric
to attack his brother's kingdom of Austrasia.
In a bloody battle at Zülpich the Burgundians were victorious;
Theudebert was captured and beheaded.
Theodoric ruled over Burgundy,
Austrasia, and part of Neustria;
but he died of dysentery the
next year.
Brunhild chose Theodoric's son Sigibert as king;
but
the aristocrats' powerful leaders Arnulf and Pepin
offered the
crown of all three kingdoms to Chlotar II,
who paid off Brunhild's
generals.
The great grandmother was deserted by her army.
After
torturing her for three days Chlotar had Brunhild
brutally trampled
to death by an unbroken horse in 613.
During the civil war Columban had fled to Milan,
where he was
received by the Arian Lombard king Agilulf.
Later Columban also
visited Chlotar II and died in 615.
By then there were forty monasteries
using his rules,
and within a century there would be 94 for men
and women.
Columban disagreed with the prevailing attitude that
women are impure, and he founded double monasteries
for both sexes
and often counseled married women.
He was not suspicious of pagan
ideas
and helped to foster Greek and Latin literature.
The Dane invader Hengest summoned a tribe of Saxons and
settled
them in Northumberland while he governed Kent from
Canterbury
for about forty years until he died in 488.
Other Saxons as well
as Angles and Jutes
also invaded the island.
The Saxon chief Aelle
from Germany established
a southern Saxony (Sussex) in 477; they
defeated the
Britons in a costly victory at Meareredsburn in 485.
Aelle and his son Cissa led forces that massacred the British
garrison Anderida in 491; but Aelle was stopped on the
western
side when western Saxons commanded by Cerdic
and his son Cynric
landed in 495.
Cerdic called in more Saxons led by Port
and his
sons Bleda and Megla.
After an initial victory in 508 by the Britons
commanded
by Natanleod, Cynric's Saxons triumphed,
killing 5,000
Britons and Natanleod.
The short swords of the Saxons proved superior
to the arrows of the Britons.
Cerdic then besieged Britons on
Mount Badon; but the siege
was raised in 520 by help from Arthur,
prince of the Silures.
Though little is known of the historical
Arthur,
great legends would develop.
Cerdic continued to rule
Wessex until he died in 534
and was succeeded by Cynric, who ruled
until 560.
Aelle conquered Lancashire and became king of Deira.
Aelle's son Cissa ruled Sussex for 76 years.
In the middle of the 6th century a monk named Gildas wrote
a history arguing that British miseries were caused by past
mistakes
and warning that their prosperous times could be
lost if they
did not mend their evil ways.
Other Saxons had invaded the east
coast
of the British isle in 527.
Uffa became king of the East
Angles in 575, Crida of Mercia
in 585, and Erkenwin of East Saxony
(Essex)
about the same time.
The Saxon prince Ida, claiming descent
from the war god
Woden, subdued Northumberland in 547;
that year
he was crowned king of Bernicia
and ruled for twelve years.
Saxons
led by Cynric defeated Britons in 552 at Sorbiodunum,
in 556 at
Barbury, in 571 at Bedford, and in 577 at Deorham.
Mercians led
by Crida settled in the center of the island in 586.
In a century
and a half of violent conflict these Saxon tribes
valued valor
most and established a heptarchy of
seven kingdoms—Kent, Northumberland
(Bernicia and Deira),
East Anglia, Mercia, Essex, Sussex, and
Wessex.
In Kent Hengest was succeeded by his son Aesc, who passed
on
a fairly peaceful kingdom to his son Octa in 512.
During his reign
the East Saxons established a kingdom
and took Essex and Middlesex
from Kent.
When Octa died in 534,
his son Hermenric became king
of Kent.
To smooth the transition of his power in 567 Hermenric
associated in his rule his son Aethelbert, who the next year
was defeated in battle by the ambitious Wessex king Ceawlin,
grandson
of Cerdic.
In subjecting Sussex, Ceawlin stimulated the other
princes
to unite against him, and Aethelbert led the Saxon coalition
and made all the other princes dependent
except Northumberland.
Afraid of Ceawlin's fate, Aethelbert wisely resigned Mercia
to
Webba, son of Crida, its founding king.
Ceawlin's sons Cuichelme
and Cuthwin ruled Wessex
jointly until Cuthwin was expelled in
591,
and Cuichelme died two years later.
Then Ceolric ruled Sussex
until 611.
While his father was still alive, Aethelbert in 584 married
Bertha,
daughter of Paris king Charibert and a descendant of Clovis.
To gain this alliance Aethelbert had to promise her
religious
freedom.
Bertha brought a French bishop to Canterbury
and practiced
her religion with devotion.
Augustine and forty monks came as
missionaries in 597
to Aethelbert, who granted them a residence
in Canterbury.
They lived simply, fasting and praying, and by
their examples
gradually won converts, including the king, to
be baptized.
Aethelbert was the first Saxon king to enact written
laws;
the Christians brought the influence of Roman law,
but many
Saxon laws on theft, murder,
and other crimes were retained.
Victims
and the state had to be compensated according
to the class of
the victim.
Aethelbert governed Kent for
half a century until
his death in 616.
In 588 King Aethelric combined his kingdom of Bernicia with
Deira to form Northumberland, and Ida's grandson Aethelfrith
became
king of Northumberland in 593.
He married Aelle's daughter Acca,
expelled her brother Edwin
from Deira, and ruled the combined
kingdom of Northumberland.
Aethelfrith won a victory over the
Scots' King Aidan in 603 at Degsastan.
According to the historian
Bede, Britons who rejected
Augustine were later punished by the
army of Aethelfrith
when 1200 monks who came to pray at the battle
of Chester in 613 were killed.
Aethelfrith was defeated and killed
in 616 by East Angle
king Raedwald, who had given refuge to Edwin,
son of Aelle.
Gregory was born about 540 into the aristocratic Anician
family
in Rome, and he was the great-grandson of
Pope Felix (483-492).
His mother Sylvia entered a convent and was so devoted that
she
was later canonized as a saint, as were Tarsilla and
Aemiliana,
sisters of Gregory's father Gordianus.
His education at Rome did
not include learning Greek,
and Gregory later condemned pagan
literature.
Emperor Justin II appointed Gregory prefect of Rome
in 572
during the Lombard invasion.
After his father died, Gregory
gave up that position and
converted the palace he inherited into
St. Andrew's monastery;
with the rest of his estate he established
six convents in Sicily
and helped the poor.
Gregory lived as an
ascetic monk, eating raw vegetables.
After seeing three impressive
English youths in the
Roman slave market, Gregory asked
Pope Benedict
I (575-579) to let him be a missionary to
convert the English;
but the Romans got the Pope to call
him back, and he was ordained
a deacon in 578.
The next year Pope Pelagius II (579-590) sent Gregory as his
representative to Constantinople,
the only foreign post of the
papacy at that time.
There he made friends with several prominent
women and men
in the palace, including the Emperor's sister Theoctista.
At this time Gregory wrote an influential commentary
on the book
of Job called Magna Moralia.
He apparently had little
success gaining aid for Rome against
the Lombards, and in 584
he returned to Rome,
where he became abbot of St. Andrew's.
In 590 Pelagius died in an epidemic, and Gregory was
elected bishop of Rome despite his objections
and an attempt to flee in
a disguise.
He did his best to serve the people by continuing
to live
ascetically and helping the poor with church resources,
including 3,000 nuns who fled the Lombards.
He called the pope
"the servant of God's servants."
Gregory was the first
monk to become pope,
and he made monks bishops and his legates,
confirmed
the Rule of Benedict at a council of Rome,
and
guaranteed the liberty and property of convents.
Although he did
not favor but only tolerated marriage,
he considered it unlawful
for married persons to enter
monasteries without mutual consent.
Gregory protested against the oppressive Byzantine taxes
that
forced some to sell their children or emigrate.
However, in a
letter to the imperial exarch Gennadius in Africa
he urged fighting
wars to convert the Donatists.
He also objected to an imperial
edict that prohibited soldiers
from becoming monks, though he
still performed
his duty of transmitting the law.
Gregory made peace with the Lombards
but was over-ruled by
the exarch Romanus.
He wrote to Empress Constantina complaining
that Sicilians
and Corsicans were being oppressed by the methods
used to raise imperial taxes for war.
For nine years Gregory tried
to get a treaty between the
empire and the Lombards but failed;
then he negotiated a
truce for Rome and the surrounding regions
with King Agilulf.
Yet he advised Queen Brunhild to use
armed
force to stop pagan sacrifices.
Gregory's influence extended beyond
the imperial boundaries,
and in 596 he sent Augustine and forty
monks from the
St. Andrew's monastery as missionaries to England.
By correspondence Gregory answered Augustine's questions.
To replace
animal sacrifices he suggested thanking God
when animals were
slaughtered for food.
Other pagan festivals could also be replaced
by similarly timed Christian celebrations.
He warned him that
sin comes from suggestion by the devil,
pleasure in the flesh,
and consent of the will.
Yet the evils in the mind the body anticipates
with pleasure can be rejected by the soul.
Gregory objected to Constantinople patriarch John calling
himself
universal, because his claim was based on the imperial
authority
of that city instead of apostolic tradition.
Yet he did not place
Rome above the patriarchies
of Antioch and Alexandria.
When Phocas
became Emperor, he gained the support
of Pope Gregory by reprimanding
the Constantinople's
patriarch Cyriacus, who had opposed him,
and after
Gregory's death an edict of Phocas declared
Pope Boniface
III the head of the church as "universal bishop."
Gregory administered church lands around Rome, in Calabria,
Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Dalmatia, and even in Gaul and Africa;
by consolidating them he began what
would become the Papal States.
Gregory considered Arles bishop Virgilius his vicar in
Childebert's
kingdom, and he warned Virgilius and the bishops
there about the
simony that was corrupting their church.
Theologically he was
a moderate Augustinian,
and Gregory
favored a Christian republic.
He worked to make the
ecclesiastical authority superior
to the secular powers.
Gregory
improved the mass, and a new way of chanting
was called Gregorian
after him.
He preached often, drawing lessons in humility from
the
calamities of the time; he, like many,
believed the end of
the world was approaching.
Gregory criticized and deposed bishops for neglecting duty
or
committing crimes, and he often intervened in the elections
of bishops in order to appoint men he knew and trusted.
He strongly
opposed simony and forbade clergy
from exacting fees for their
services.
Although intolerant of heresy, he was more liberal
than
most toward Jews.
He condemned forced baptism of Jews and
reprimanded
bishops for depriving them of synagogues.
Yet Gregory opposed
Jews obtaining
or possessing Christian slaves.
He made some effort
to stop the slave trade and
freed some slaves, although he bought
and sold slaves himself.
He rebuked those who mistreated slaves.
However, Gregory sanctioned imprisonment of idolaters and
diviners
if they were free and even
lashing and torture if they were slaves.
Gregory wrote his book on pastoral care
called Pastoral
Rules in 591.
Like Gregory
Nazianzen, he wrote this book to describe the
awesome responsibilities
of an office he doubted he could fill.
The first book describes
the characteristics of a spiritual ruler;
the second advises him
on his conduct; the third suggests how
individuals should be admonished
for varying behaviors and
character traits; and the fourth book
is an exhortation to
uphold the dignity of the office in one's
actions.
Gregory believed that only those of tried virtue
were
capable of disciplining and governing others.
Governing the soul
is the highest art.
He believed that no one does more harm than
one in authority
who acts badly, and he suspected anyone who sought
authority.
Governing others is liable to spread one's interests
and result in confusion.
Those who aspired to the position were
often better
when a bishop might become a martyr rather than
those
who want to lord it over others now.
To harmonize the active and
contemplative life one must reject
whatever is evil or irrelevant.
In an age when few could read, preaching was very important.
The
pastor should be a friend to the good
but sternly correct the
bad, taking a middle path
between excessive strictness and over-indulgence.
In describing how to admonish more than forty different kinds
of people Gregory demonstrated his psychological
insights into
moral character.
He evaluated human actions by the effect
they
have on one's neighbors.
He argued that wealth really belongs
to the poor who need it
and that the wealthy are obligated by
justice to be charitable.
Those with intellectual gifts have the
same obligation to share
their knowledge, just as a physician
should apply medicine.
Gregory believed that those who do not
marry should use
their time to serve others instead of being selfish.
He emphasized the importance of motivation
in judging human actions.
Gregory often referred to scripture, the basis of his teachings,
although his allegorical interpretations might be creative.
Finally
he emphasized that priests should practice
what they preach and
be more concerned with the good
that has been left undone than
with
what they have already accomplished.
Gregory's book on pastoral care was dedicated to the
archbishop
of Ravenna, and a copy was sent to Leander
in Seville; it was
carried to Canterbury by Augustine,
and Emperor Maurice had it
translated into Greek
by Antioch patriarch Anastasius.
In the
9th century it was given to each bishop
ordained in France,
and
King Alfred paraphrased it in the Saxon language,
sending copies
to all English bishops.
Gregory wrote his Dialogs in 593 in order to show that
many
miracles have occurred in Italy in recent times.
The first
and third books are filled with stories of saints
working various
miracles through prayer, by dreams,
or simply by their spiritual
power.
Gregory is the main speaker, and he is questioned
and praised
by his deacon Peter.
The second book tells the life story of Benedict
and also
includes many miracles difficult to believe today.
Healings,
raising the dead, prophecy, transcendent
communication, increasing
oil or bread, suddenly mending
broken pottery, and even curses
causing leprosy or death
are some of the many miraculous incidents
told by Gregory
and willingly believed by the admiring Peter.
Yet the stories also show that the virtue and faith of the saints
are most important, because those are what make
the miracles
happen,
while vices often bring miserable punishment.
During the Vandal invasion of Italy Nola bishop Paulinus
distributed
all the episcopal furniture
to help prisoners and those in need.
Then he offered to be sold into slavery to free a widow's son.
Both went to Africa, and the son-in-law of the Vandal king
bought
Paulinus as a gardener.
Eventually the wise gardener became known
as a man of God,
and he had to admit he was a bishop.
The king
offered him what he wanted and freed the captives
in Africa Paulinus
requested.
Gregory argued that converting sinners by preaching
is a
greater miracle than raising the dead,
because the latter
will die again;
but the former are brought to eternal life.
The fourth book of the Dialogs attempts to demonstrate
mostly
by anecdotes that souls continue to live after death.
Gregory
explains that many do not believe in the invisible things,
because
they know only the lowly visible things of earth.
Yet the deaths
of saints and their miraculous powers after their
bodies are dead
indicate the invisible soul
continues beyond its former body.
Heavenly singing or music often accompanies the death of holy
ones, and listening to its sound relieves the pain of dying.
The
good recognize saints as well as those
they knew on earth at the
time of their deaths.
Gregory definitely believes in the devil
and the fires of hell
for sinners, though he does suggest that
some will be cleansed
in the world to come if they performed good
works in this life;
this is one of the earliest references to
the doctrine of purgatory.
Peter asks some difficult questions
near the end.
He wonders whether it is just to inflict everlasting
punishment
for a finite fault, and he points out that a just person
punishes servants in order to correct them.
To what purpose, then,
would anyone be burned in hell forever?
Peter also asks how a
soul can be called immortal
if it dies spiritually in eternal
fire.
Gregory attempts to answer these questions by arguing
they
are lessons for the elect to be good;
but in my view his answers
to these questions are inadequate.
1. Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 5:6 tr. Sanderson
Beck.
2. The Rule of Saint Benedict 4 ed. Timothy Fry, p. 183.
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