CHAPTER II

JUSTINIAN'S GOVERNMENT IN THE EAST

I

Ar the time when Justinian was only heir-presumptive of the Empire, probably in the year 520, he met the lady who was to become the Empress Theodora. Daughter of one of the bear-keepers of the hippodrome, brought up by an indulgent mother amongst the society which frequented the purlieus of the circus, this young girl, beautiful, intelligent, and witty - if we may believe the gossip of the Secret History -soon succeeded in charming and scandalising the capital. At the theatre where she appeared in tableaux vivants and pantomimes she ventured on the most audacious representations: in town she became famous for the follies of her entertainments, the boldness of her manners, and the multitude of her lovers. Next she disappeared, and after a somewhat unlovely adventure she travelled through the East in a wretched manner for some time-according to contemporary gossip. She was seen at Alexandria, where she became known to several of the leaders of the Monophysite party, and returned—perhaps under their influence—to a more Christian and purer mode of life. She was again seen at Antioch, and then returned to Constantinople, matured and wiser. Then it was that she made a conquest of Justinian. She soon wielded the strongest influence over her lover: desperately in love, the prince could refuse nothing that his mistress requested. He heaped riches upon her, obtained for her the title of patrician, and became the humble minister of her hatred or her affection. Finally he wished to marry her legally, and was able to do so in 523, thanks to the complaisance of Justin. When, in April 527, Justinian was associated in the Empire, Theodora shared the elevation and the triumph of her husband. She ascended the throne with him in August 527, and for twenty years the adventuress-Empress exercised a sovereign influence on the course of

politics.

Theodora's name may still be read with that of the Emperor on the walls of churches and over the doors of castles of that date. Her picture makes a fellow to that of her imperial husband in the church of

26

The Empress Theodora

[527-548

San Vitale in Ravenna, and also in the mosaics which decorated the rooms of the Sacred Palace, for it was Justinian's wish to associate her with the military triumphs and the splendours of the reign. The grateful people raised statues to her as to Justinian, the officials also swore fidelity to her, for she was the Emperor's equal throughout her life, while ambassadors and foreign kings hastened to her to pay their respects and to gain her goodwill as well as that of the basileus. In deliberating on the most important occasions Justinian always took council of "the most honoured wife which God had given him," whom he loved to call "his sweetest charm," and contemporaries agree in declaring that she did not scruple to use the boundless influence which she possessed, and that her authority was equal to, if not greater than, that of her husband. Certainly this ambitious lady possessed many eminent qualities to justify the supreme authority which she wielded. She was a woman of unshaken courage, as she proved in the troublous time of the Nika rising, proud energy, masculine resolution, a determined and a clear mind, and a strong will by which she frequently overruled the vacillating Justinian. She undoubtedly combined defects and even vices with these qualities. She was domineering and harsh, she loved money and power. To keep the throne to which she had risen she would stoop to deceit, violence, and cruelty; she was implacable in her dislikes, and inflexible towards those whom she hated. By means of a disgraceful intrigue she pitilessly destroyed the fortunes of John of Cappadocia, the all-powerful praetorian praefect, who dared for one moment to dispute her supremacy (541). She made Belisarius bitterly expiate his rare lapses into independence, and by the ascendancy which she gained over Antonina, the patrician's wife, she made him her humble and obedient servant. As passionate in her loves as in her hates, she advanced her favourites without scruple. Peter Barsymes was made praetorian praefect, Narses a general, Vigilius a pope, while she turned the imperial palace into a hotbed of incessant intrigues. Her influence was not always good-though the loungers of Constantinople have strangely lengthened the list of her cruelties and increased the number of her victims- but it was always powerful. Even when she was forced temporarily to give way before circumstances, her audacious and supple wit was always able to devise some startling retaliation. Wily and ambitious, she always aspired to have the last word - and she got it.

In the twenty years during which Theodora reigned she had a hand in everything; in politics, and in the Church; in the administration, she advised the reforms, and filled it with her protégés; in diplomacy, concerning which the Emperor never decided anything without her advice. She made and unmade popes and patriarchs, ministers and generals, at her pleasure, not even fearing, when she considered it necessary, openly to thwart Justinian's wishes. She was the active helpmate to her husband in all important matters. In the legislative reform

527-548]

The Empress Theodora

27

her feminism inspired the measures which dealt with divorce, adultery, the sanctity of the marriage-tie, and those meant to assist actresses and fallen women. In the government of the East her lucid and keen intelligence discovered and advised a policy more suited to the true interests of the State than that actually pursued, and if it had been carried out, it might have changed the course of history itself by making the Byzantine Empire stronger and more durable.

While Justinian, carried away by the grandeur of Roman traditions, rose to conceptions in turn magnificent and impossible, and dreamed of restoring the Empire of the Caesars and of inaugurating the reign of orthodoxy by reunion with Rome, Theodora, by birth an Oriental, and in other respects more far-seeing and acute than her husband, immediately turned her attention to the East. She had always sympathised with the Monophysites; even before she had become Empress she had willingly received them at the palace, and allowed them to draw on her credit. She admired their teachers, and loved the unpolished candour of their monks. She was not actuated by piety alone, for she had too much political instinct not to realise the importance of religious questions in a Christian State, and the peril attending indifference to them. But while Justinian, with the mind of a theologian, occupied himself with religious questions primarily for the empty pleasure of being able to dogmatise, Theodora, like all the great Byzantine Emperors, recognised the main features of political problems under the fleeting form of theological disagreements. She realised that the rich and flourishing provinces of Asia, Syria, and Egypt really formed the mainstay of the Empire; and she felt that the religious differences by which the Oriental nations manifested their separatist tendencies threatened danger to the monarchy. Furthermore she saw the necessity for pacifying the growing discontent by means of opportune concessions and a wide toleration, and she forced the imperial policy to shape itself to this end; and carried with her the ever worried and vacillating Justinian, even so far as to brave the Papacy and protect the heretics. It is only fair to say that she foresaw the future more clearly and grasped the situation more accurately than did her imperial associate.

Before the advent of Justin's dynasty Anastasius' dreams of an ideal monarchy may have taken this form or something approaching it. He may have imagined an essentially Oriental Empire, having well-defended frontiers, a wise administration, sound finances, and blessed with religious unity. To realise this last he would not have hesitated at a breach with Rome if it had become necessary. In spite of his efforts and good intentions Anastasius had not succeeded in realising his ideal. But it was right in principle and, thanks to Theodora, it inspired the policy of Justinian in the East. In this way the Empress made a great impression on her husband's government, and as soon as she died a decay set in which brought the glorious reign to a sad close.

28

First Persian War

[527-531

II

The imperial policy in the West had been essentially offensive. In the East, on the other hand, it was generally restricted to a defensive attitude. Justinian submitted to war or accepted it when offered rather than sought it, because he was anxious to preserve all his forces for Africa and Italy. Thus he maintained the safety of the monarchy in the East less by a series of great victories than by military arrangements combined with clever diplomatic action.

In Asia, Persia had been the perpetual enemy of the Romans for centuries. There was a ceaseless temptation to strife and a pretext for warfare in the coincidence of the two frontiers, and the rival influence which the two States exercised in Armenia in the Caucasus, and among the Arab tribes of the Syrian desert. The hundred years' peace concluded in 422 had certainly restored tranquillity for the rest of the fifth century, but hostilities had broken out afresh in the reign of Anastasius (502); and it was evident that the peace of 505 would only prove to be a truce, although Persia was torn by domestic discord, and had lost her prestige and strength, and her old king Kawad did not seek adventures. In proportion as Justinian profited by the relative weakness of his foes he attempted to bring more peoples into the relation of clients to Rome. Such were the populations of Lazica (the ancient Colchis), the tribes of Iberia and Georgia, and even the Sabirian Huns who occupied the celebrated defiles of the Caspian Gates at the foot of the Caucasus range on the boundary of the two Empires. With great skill Byzantine diplomacy, by spreading Christianity in those regions, had inclined the peoples to wish for the protection of the orthodox Emperor, and so had obtained possession of important strategic and commercial posts for Greek use. This policy of encroachment was bound to lead to a rupture, which came in 527, during the last months of Justin's reign.

The war, however, was neither very long nor disastrous. Neither of the two adversaries wanted to fight to the death. Kawad, who had taken up arms, was distracted by domestic difficulties and the task of assuring the succession of his son. Justinian wanted to disengage himself as soon as possible in order to have his hands free to deal with affairs in the West. Under these conditions the imperial army, which was of a good size, and well commanded by Belisarius, was able to snatch a signal victory at Dara in 530, the first victory won against Persia for many years. Another general was able to make considerable progress in Persian Armenia at the same time, but Justinian did not set himself seriously to profit by his successes. The next year a Persian invasion of Syria forced Belisarius to engage in and to lose the disastrous battle of Callinicum (531). Then, in spite of the fact that the Persians were

531-544]

Second Persian War

29

besieging Martyropolis (531) and that a career of pillage had brought the Huns under the very walls of Antioch (December 531), the Great King troubled as little to push his advantages as the Emperor did to avenge his defeat. Negotiations were as important in this war as military operations. When therefore in September 531 the death of Kawad gave the throne to his son Chosroes I Anoushirvan, the new sovereign was preoccupied by the endeavour to consolidate his power at home, and willingly joined in the negotiations which ended in the conclusion of an "everlasting peace," in September 532. Justinian was delighted to end the war, and gave way on almost every point. He agreed to pay once more the annual subsidy which the Romans had handed over to the Persians to keep up the fortresses which defended the passes of the Caucasus against the Northern barbarians. This was a large sum of 110,000 pounds of gold, a thinly veiled form of tribute. He promised to move the residence of the Duke of Mesopotamia from Dara, the great fortress built by Anastasius in 507, to Constantina, which was further from the frontier; and he abandoned the protectorate over Iberia. In return the country of the Lazi remained within the sphere of Byzantine influence, and the Persians evacuated the fortresses in it.

But Chosroes was not the man to rest contented with these first successes. He was a young prince, ambitious, active, and anxious for conquests. It was not without suspicion that he viewed the progress and success of the imperial ambition, for he knew that the longing for universal dominion might well form a menace to the Sassanid monarchy, as well as to the West. He therefore made use of the years which followed the peace of 532 to reconstruct his army, and when he saw what seemed to him a favourable opportunity, he resolutely began the war again (540). This happened when he discovered that the Roman frontier was stripped of troops, Armenia and the country of the Lazi discontented under Byzantine rule, and the Goths at bay after the Vandals were conquered. At the beginning of hostilities he threw himself on Syria, which he cruelly ravaged, and seized Antioch, which he completely ruined under the eyes of the helpless Roman generals. In vain Justinian sent the best generals against him, first Germanus and then Belisarius, hastily recalled from Italy at the beginning of 541. Their troops were not sufficient to defend the country effectively. In 541, Chosroes attacked Lazica, reduced Iberia, and swept away the strong fortress of Petra, which Justinian had lately built to the south of Phasis. In 542 he ravaged Commagene; in 543 he made a demonstration on the Armenian frontier; and in 544 he again appeared in Mesopotamia which he ravaged cruelly, in spite of the heroic resistance of Edessa. Meanwhile the imperial troops did nothing: and the generals spent their time in intrigues instead of in fighting. The military prestige of Belisarius had made Chosroes give way for a brief space, but the general was absorbed in his