The Byzantine Empire: Part 3 - Justinian and his General

518-566

In 518 the emperor Justin came in at a time where things were going fairly well. And no, that's not Justinian whom you may have heard of, but rather his uncle, the first of the dynasty. He's probably best known for his nephew Justinian, but who at the time of his birth was named Peter Sabbatius. The emperor saw potential in the boy and gave him the best possible education and advantages, and Peter, never forgetting that, eventually took the name Justinian in recognition of all that his uncle had done for him. Through Justinian's reign Byzantium would see massive amounts of construction, an influx of wealth, a system of laws finally put together properly and at long last some success in wartime. But all that had to be paid for.

Justinian really amped up the taxes, which, true to modern day, angered pretty well close to everyone. In spite of winning land outside their borders (his general Belisarius, who I will show to be one of my new favourite historical figures, was winning fight after fight in Persia) the general population just couldn't stand to be having that kind of money stripped from them. The people got progressively more frustrated until all the anger culminated into a revolt while Justinian was visiting the hippodrome (an arena for horse racing, and to my disappointment, hippo-free). He was forced to flee to his palace, and very well may have been killed were it not for Belisarius who was waiting to be deployed to go clear out the Vandals who had defeated the aggressively stupid Basiliscus not long ago. Belisarius then went to the hippodrome and, as the Roman youth say, kicked their faces in. Except with swords. While there would be no chance at a rebellion of the like again soon, as if you kill all those willing to revolt it tends to leave a very small number willing to give it another go, the idea that the people were so enraged as to rise against him must have shaken Justinian.

The Hagia Sophia is quite the building. I wonder if I could buy
a Belisarius bobblehead there.

He loosened the reigns on the lower class, giving them heavy tax breaks in comparison to what it was like before, but the nobility were not so lucky. Believing that they were hampering him at every turn, he overtaxed the nobility excessively or, more simply, had them murdered. And in the wake of all of this bloodshed...

Another Byzantine golden age! With the treasury overflowing, Justinian builds the massive, beautiful Hagia Sophia, a marvel of architecture and cultural beauty amidst a number of other construction projects. But it wasn't just the home life he was taking care of - he had a few scores to settle, and he had just the man to take care of it.

Sending Belisarius against the Vandals worked brilliantly. They happened to attack at a good time, managing to catch them out of sorts as they were returning from quelling an uprising within their borders. Belisarius pretty well wiped them out entirely, returning the entire treasury and the piles of plunder they had stolen from raids on the empires over the ages. For this he was given the highest honour a general could receive. Of course, this is Belisarius. Belisarius! He wasn't done yet.

Justinian set his sights on retaking the Western Roman Empire, or at least the territory that formerly held that name. Deciding on a two-pronged assault, one general would attack from the north while Belisarius would attack from the south. The gothic king was almost ready to surrender on the spot but was spurred on to battle by the northern general's foolish death (he attacked too recklessly and ended up getting himself killed). The southern advance (of course) was going much better, however. With many supporting the Roman traditions, the doors of Rome flung open without a drop of blood spilled, but there was a distinct problem; he was taking so many cities that his army was all too rapidly losing size. Not because of the losses in battle (there were few) but because with each takeover he had to leave a small garrison behind to secure it. Before long, he was left with a relative skeleton crew of soldiers, and the gothic king who had fled to the city of Ravenna to regroup had noticed that the general's numbers were surprisingly slim. Horribly outnumbered, Belisarius and company held the line against the intruders, but were in desperate need of reinforcements.

This artist must not have liked Justinian,
giving him a rather profound double chin.
He could have gone by "Justinian
the Big Boned".

Back in Constantinople, Justinian felt about Belisarius the way many emperors felt about their successful generals; fearful of the populace getting behind the winning warlord rather than the throne. Justinian did eventually decide to send reinforcements, but with them he sent a man by the name of Nantes to watch over his every action and "help" him lead. Nantes he didn't have to worry about; he couldn't possibly take the throne because he just didn't have the balls for it. (He was a eunuch.) Unfortunately, all this did was split the forces up and as a result they lost a number of battles. Even then, they were still strong enough to push to the gates of Ravenna.

To the surprise and frustration of Belisarius, he was suddenly recalled to Byzantium. Persia was attacking and he had to be there to defend it. Knowing he had to leave almost immediately, he was given an interesting proposal by the gothic king. The king said that if he were to take the crown and restore the Western Roman Empire, the goths would rally behind him. With his standing army and the force of the goths behind him, he would be infinitely more powerful, have an empire of his own to lead, and finally find the recognition he deserves. Obviously, he took the deal - but Belisarius was loyal to a fault, and he used the prospect of taking the crown as a ruse. It wasn't until he was heading back to Byzantium the king realized he had been betrayed. Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that Belisarius had been nothing but infinitely successful and stunningly loyal, this garnered further distrust from Justinian, and more specifically, his wife Theodora.

Upon returning home he was once more sent to battle Persia. While out east, the dreaded black plague struck home and wiped out a massive part of the population, and Justinian himself was struck by the sickness. Belisarius got word of this, and believed Justinian will likely die and thus a new emperor would have to be crowned, it seems like the reins would pass to Theodora, Justinian's wife. His men in particular couldn't stomach having Theodora lead, whom they were not very fond of. His men thought that, since he has found success pretty well everywhere he's gone, that he should be leading. Unfortunately, Theodora heard this rumour and stripped Belisarius of his title and exiled him. After all what he did for the empire, he got pushed aside in disgrace.

Theodora was, apparently, rather babely. What
is the Latin translation for "hubba hubba"?

Meanwhile the empire had completely gone to crap with astounding speed. The plague had crippled the economy, the hold on the west was collapsing due to too many generals running things and fighting amongst themselves, and with the lack of numbers and poor economy Persia was taking land rapidly upon discovering Byzantium's newfound weakness. In addition to battling Persia, they were dealing with an increasingly distressing presence of the Huns who showed up just thirty miles out of Constantinople while the army was out fighting. With barely any men to fight them off and in desperate need of a military mind, Justinian lifts the exile of Belisarius and calls on him one last time. It's essentially the plot for countless movies.

Justinian: "Belisarius... the Huns have arrived. You're the only one that can stop them!"

Belisarius: "But I'm old now - I'm pushing fifty, and that's really old in ancient Byzantine times, or as we call it, present day."

Justinian: "You're the best there is. You have to do it. For the empire, Belisarius!"

*Belisarius looks at a tattered Byzantine standard, and ponders his role in the army.*

Belisarius: "Fine, Justinian. I'll help. But I'm getting too old for this *$%@."

Anyways - in his last heroic stand, Belisarius defeats the Huns outnumbered with a ragtag bunch of soldiers. Afterwards, he went into retirement and faded out of the limelight, a general so great that some of his enemies would surrender just knowing they were to fight him.

If only the emperors that followed the eventual death of Justinian could be so heroic (or at least competent). While they did inherit the throne at a difficult time (an empire too stretched out and poor) their shortsightedness certainly didn't help the situation. Worse yet, a new enemy in the Muslim army came to their doorstep after having rampaged through a weakened Persia. Upon attacking Constantinople, if it wasn't for a tremendous invention of "Greek fire", a kind of persistently burning flamethrower attached to ships (an invention well ahead of its time) it may very well have fallen.