Justin I.

Justin I. ( Latin  Imperator Caesar Flavius Justinus Augustus ; ancient Greek Φλάβιος Ἰουστίνος Αὔγουστος Flavios Ioustinos Augoustos when Emperor also Ἰουστίνος Α'ὁ Μέγας Ioustinos I. ho Megas ( "Justin the Great"); * 450 at Naissus †; August 1 527 in Constantinople ) was from 518 to 527 (Eastern) Roman emperor and the first ruler of the Justinian dynasty (518-578 or 602).

Life

Tremissis of Justin I.

Flavius ​​Iustinus was born around 450 (according to Johannes Malalas 452) in the area of ​​Naissus in the Roman province of Dacia mediterranea as the son of peasant parents and first completed a military career in Constantinople from about 470, which was characterized in particular by his participation in the Isaurian War 492-498 was. Justin came from the Illyricum and thus from a part of the Eastern Roman Empire where Latin was spoken. His allegedly bad Greek later gave rise to ridicule; It was said that he needed a template to sign his edicts (according to the late antique historian and contemporary Prokopios of Caesarea ).

Justin was included under Emperor Leo I (457 to 474) in the bodyguard of the excubitores , which was newly founded by the latter , and rose in the following years, although the stages of his career are unclear in detail. In 503 he was already one of the generals of the great Eastern Roman army , whose offensive against the Persian Sassanids failed miserably. He acted more successfully as an admiral during the fighting against the rebellious General Vitalian in 515. A little later he rose to the command of the Imperial Guard ( comes excubitorum ). After the death of the emperor Anastasius , Justin was proclaimed emperor in 518 (probably on July 10th) at a very old age. According to late Roman custom, he was raised on the shield in the circus and crowned with a spiral ring ( torques ) by the Goth Godilas , followed by the coronation with the diadem by the Patriarch John II. Justin I seems to be skillful and unscrupulous against other candidates, including the adult nephews of his predecessor as well as the magister militum Patricius and especially the domesticus Theocritus , to have prevailed; allegedly he used bribes, which he was supposed to distribute on behalf of Theocritus, in his own name to enable his election. Very soon after the beginning of his reign, his educated nephew and later successor Petrus Sabbatius ( Justinian ) probably acted as an important advisor to Justin. There are some indications that Justin's claim to power was not accepted by all members of the Senate aristocracy; Rather, the new Augustus relied more demonstratively than his predecessor on the army from which he came, which is also clear in the reintroduction of the ritual of raising a shield during his acclamation of the emperor . On the other hand, Justin seems to have owed his uprising not least to his good contacts to influential circles in the palace. Vitalian, who could have been militarily dangerous to Justin, was initially offered reconciliation: on January 1, 520 he entered the ordinary consulate . Shortly afterwards, however, he was attacked and murdered in the palace, very likely on imperial orders.

In his relations with the Catholic Church, Justin relied on diplomacy. In a correspondence with the Roman bishop Hormisdas in 519 he succeeded in overcoming the Akakian schism (since 484) by the emperor Rome giving in on practically all points and forcing the patriarchs of the Eastern Church to do the same. This made it clear that the re-strengthened Eastern Roman Empire now had renewed interest in what was happening in the West. Around this time, for the first time (in Marcellinus Comes ), the view can be proven that the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist in 476, which is why the power of rule in the West now rests with the Eastern Roman Emperor. In the period that followed, the Roman Church then took on a mediating role under John I between the emperor and the Arian Ostrogoth king Theodoric ; but this policy failed when Theodoric had the aged bishop arrested on the accusation of having allied himself with Ostrom against the Goths.

In terms of foreign policy, Justin's reign was shaped not least by the fight against the Persian Sassanids on the eastern border (see also Kavadh I , Roman-Persian Wars ). In 522 Justin received the Lazenkönig Tzath in Constantinople, acted as godfather and installed him as king in Lasika . If there had already been latent, growing tensions between East Current and Persia (among other things due to the failure of negotiations aimed at Justin’s adoption of the later Persian king Chosrau I ), these have been precharged in fighting in the Caucasus since 526 especially in the region around Iberia, and in northern Mesopotamia. The war was changeable and brought no decision; it lasted until 532 after Justin's death. In return, Christian influence in Himyar (today's Yemen , see Ella Asbeha ) expanded.

Relations with the Ostrogothic empire also deteriorated, especially as the pro-imperial (Eastern Roman) party, which had grown stronger since the end of the schism, was fought at the Ostrogothic royal court. The execution of the philosopher Boëthius should also be seen in this context . In contrast, the Arians were persecuted in the Eastern Empire from the year 523 on, which one had to accept with displeasure at the Ostrogothic court, since the majority of the Ostrogoths adhered to the Arian creed. The bloody Gothic war that Justin's successor was to wage since 535 was casting its shadow.

Emperor Justin died on August 1, 527. He was succeeded by his nephew and adoptive son Justinian , who had been Caesar since 525 and was made co-emperor ( Augustus ) in April 527 , which enabled a smooth transition.

During Justinian's reign, the transition from the ancient statehood of Eastern Eastern Europe to the Byzantine Empire of medieval character was to accelerate. His reign outshines that of Justin's in reception. This can also be ascribed to the historiography of Prokop, who expresses himself rather disparagingly about Justin and suggests that Justin was just an uneducated, willing tool of his nephew. This assessment is doubtful, however, even if Justinian undoubtedly exerted a great influence on Justin, at least in the late period. Still, Justin's rule laid the foundation for Justinian's success. There are some indications that Justin acted quite independently, at least up to around 525, and not, as is often assumed in connection with partisan sources, was from the beginning just an instrument of his talented nephew, which he moreover probably only reluctantly used as a successor.

reception

Justin is the subject of several operas, including Giustino by Giovanni Lenzei (1683), Giustino by Antonio Vivaldi (1724) and Giustino by Georg Friedrich Händel (1737).

literature

• Brian Croke: Justinian under Justin. Reconfiguring a Reign . In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift 100, 2007, pp. 13–56, ISSN  0007-7704 .
• Geoffrey B. Greatrex : Rome and Persia at War, 502-532. Cairns, Leeds 1998, ISBN 0-905205-93-6 .
• Geoffrey B. Greatrex: The early years of Justin I in the sources . In: Electrum 12, 2007, pp. 99-113.
• Fergus Millar : Imperial Government and the Maintenance of Orthodoxy: Justin I and Irregularities at Cyrrhus in 520 . In: Scripta Classica Israelica 28, 2009, pp. 117-137.
• Klaus Rose : Justin I . In: Reallexikon für Antike und Christianentum 19, 1999, Sp. 763–778.
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 3: Faber Felix - Juwayni, Al- . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2012, ISBN 978-2-503-53243-1 , pp. 413-415.
• Claudia Sode : The coronation of the emperor Justin I in the ceremonial book of Constantine VII. Porphyrogennetos . In: Mediterraneo Antico 12, 2009, pp. 429–448.
• Alexander A. Vasiliev : Justin the first. An introduction to the epoch of Justinian the Great . Cambridge / Mass. 1950.
• Massimiliano Vitiello: "Cui Iustinus imperator venienti ita occurrit ac si beato Petro". The ritual at the first Pope-Emperor meeting in Constantinople: a Roman interpretation . In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift 98, 2005, pp. 81–96.

Web links

Commons : Justin I.  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• James Allan Evans: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).

predecessor	Office	successor
Anastasios I.	Eastern Roman Emperor 518-527	Justinian I.