Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/680

Rh 666 JUSTINIANUS. PetruB Gyllius (English translation by John Ball, London, 1729), give a description of the most re- markable buildings of Justinian, in Constantinople. Justinian paid 45 centenaries of gold (nearly 200,000/. ), towards the rebuilding and embellish- ment of Antioch, after it had been destroyed by an earthquake ; his native village he transformed into a large and splendid city, to which he gave his name ; and, in short, there was not a town of consequence in his vast dominions, from the Columns of Hercules to the shores of the Caspian, but could show some beautiful monument of the emperor's splendour and taste. Asia Minor still contains a great number of edifices erected by Justinian, and our modern travellers have discovered many which were formerly unknown. Indeed his love of splendour and his munificence in matters of taste, show, or luxury, no less than his extraordinary power, made his name known over the world, whence he received embassies from the remotest nations of Asia. In his reign the silk- worm was brought to Constantinople, by some Nestorian monks, who had visited their fellow-Christians in China, In 541 Justinian abolished the consulship, or, more correctly, discontinued the old-established custom of choosing consuls. The consulate being a mere title, it was but reasonable to do away with it, although the name was still dear to the people ; but it was not abolished by law until the reign of the emperor Leo Philosophus (886 — 91 1.) Justinian likewise shut up the schools at Athens and Alexan- dria, where the Neo-Platonists still professed dogmas which the orthodox emperor thought dangerous to Christianity. In the time of Justinian, however, those schools were only a shadow of what they had been in the first centuries of our era. Christian orthodoxy was one of the most important objects which Justinian endeavoured to establish in his empire, and many of his laws testify his zeal on behalf of the church and the clergy. But his piety was exaggerated, and toleration was a thing unknown to him. He persecuted Christian sec- taries, Jews, and pagans, in an equally heartless manner, and actually endeavoured to drive them all out of his dominions. Towards the end of his life, however, Justinian changed his religious opinions so much that he was considered a com- plete heretic. Nestorianism, which he was so active in condemning at the fifth General Council, the second of Constantinople, in 553, was the doctrine which he embraced. The character of Justinian presented a strange mixture of virtues and vices, but he was neither so depraved as Procopius depicts him, nor so accom- plished as the modern jurists of Germany and France represent him in their admiration for his legislation. His private life was exemplary. He was frugal, laborious, affable, and generous, but his mean suspicions and unreasonable jealousy never allowed him to gain the love of his friends or the esteem of his subjects. His conduct towards Be- lisarius was execrable. Another of his vices was rapacity, and it would seem that he considered men created to work, riot for themselves, but for him alone. Thence the little regard he paid to the complaints of his subjects with reference to his per- petual wars ; and although he assisted them with great liberality when they were suffering from the consequences of those plagues and earthquakes which signalized his time, his motive was vanity as JUSTINIANUS. much as humanity. If we look at his endless and glorious wars, we should think that he was a great warrior himself, or possessed at least great military talents : but however great his talents were, they were not in that line ; he never showed himself in the field, and his subjects called him a bigoted and cowardly tyrant. As a statesman he was crafty rather than wise ; yet his legislation is a lasting monument of his administrative genius, and has given him a place in the opinion of the world far beyond that which he really deserves. (Procopius, with special reference to his Anecdota and De Aedificiis ; Agathias, Hist. ; Paulus Silentiarius ; Cedrenus, p. 36G, &c. ; Zonaras, xiv. p. 60, &c. ; Joannes Malala, vol. ii. p. 138, &c. ; Marcellinus, Ckron. ad an. 520, &c., p. 50, &c. ; Theophanes, p. 300, &c. ; Evagrius, iv. 8, &c. in the Paris edi- tions ; Jornandes, De Regn. Succ. p. Q2, &c., De Reb. Goth. p. 143, &c. ed. Lindenbrog ; Paulus Diaconus, De Gest. Longobard. i. 25, &c., ii. 4, &c. ; Ludewig, Vita Justiniani, &c., Halle, 1731, is rather too flattering ; the best description of the reign and character of Justinian is given in Gib- bon's Decline and Fall.) [W. P.J THE LEGISLATION OP JUSTINIAN. The idea of forming a complete code of law has been attributed to Pompey, to Cicero, and to Julius Caesar. Such, too, was the original plan of Theo- dosius the younger, although a much more limited design was ultimately carried into effect in the Theodosian Code. [Diodorus] Shortly before the reign of Justinian, upon the submission of the Western empire to Germanic rule, the Roman law was still allowed to retain its force in the West by the side of a newly-introduced Germanic jurispru- dence. The Lea; Romana., as it was barbarously called, remained the law of the subjugated Romans, while the Barbari, as the Germans were proud to be styled, continued to live xmder their own Teu- tonic institutions. Under this anomalous system of personal laws, many difficulties must have arisen, and it was found necessary to make separate col- lections of such sources of law as were to be recog- nised for the future in regulating the respective rights and duties of the subjugated Roman provin- cials and their conquerors. In the West Gothic kingdom, which was established in Spain and a part of Gaul, a collection of Roman laws was formed during the reign of Alaric II. (a. d. 484 — 507 ), partly from the Theodosian, Gregorian, and Her- mogenian Codes, and partly from the works of jurists. This collection is known in modem times by the name Breviarium Aniani [Anianus], or Breviarium Alaricianum. In A. D. 493 the Ostro- goths became masters of Italy, and in A. d. 500 Theodoric the Great published for the use of the whole population of the Ostrogothic kingdom a set of rules based on the Roman, not the Gothic law. About the year A. D. 517 the Lex Romana Bur- gundiorum was compiled for the use of the Burgun- dian Romans. The Burgundian conquerors, who, towards the middle of the fifth century, established a kingdom upon the banks of the Rhone, had already a similar code of their own, called Gun' dobada. Though the necessities which called for these legislative efforts in the kingdoms of the West did not exist to the same extent in the Oriental em- pire, there were not wanting other reasons for legal