Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/832

 J U S J U T the lower Danube and on the north coast of the Black Sea made frequent marauding expeditions into Thrace and Macedonia, sometimes penetrating as far as the walls of Constantinople in one direction and the isthmus of Corinth in another. Immense damage was inflicted by these marauders on the subjects of the empire, who seem to have been mostly too peaceable to defend themselves, and whom the emperor conld not spare troops enough to protect. Fields were laid waste, villages burnt, large numbers of people carried into captivity ; and on one occasion the capital was itself in danger. It only remains to say something regarding Justinian s personal character and capacities, with regard to which a great diversity of opinion has existed among .historians. The civilians, looking 011 him as a patriarch of their science, have as a rule extolled his wis dom and virtues ; while ecclesiastics of the Roman Church, from Cardinal Baronius downwards, have been offended by his arbitrary conduct towards the popes, and by his last lapse into heresy, and have therefore been disposed to accept the stories which ascribe to him perfidy, cruelty, rapacity, and extravagance. The difficulty of arriving at a fair conclusion is increased by the fact that Procopius, who is our chief authority for the events of his reign, speaks with a very different voice in his secret memoirs (the Anccdota) from that which he has used in his published history, and that some of the accusations contained in the former work are so rancorous and im probable that a certain measure of discredit attaches to everything which it contains. The truth seems to be that Justinian was not a great ruler in the higher sense of the word, that is to say, a man of large views, deep insight, a capacity for forming just such plans as the circumstances needed, and carrying them out by a skilful adaptation of means to ends. But he was a man of considerable abilities, wonderful activity of mind, and admirable industry. He was interested in many things, and threw himself with ardour into whatever he took up ; lie contrived schemes quickly, and pushed them on with an energy which usually made them succeed when no long^ time was needed, for, if a project was delayed, there was a risk of his tiring of it and dropping it. Although vain and full of self- confidence, he was easily led by those who knew how to get at him, and particularly by his wife. She exercised over him that influence which a stronger character always exercises over a weaker, whatever their respective positions ; and unfortunately it was seldom a good influence, for Theodora seems to have been a woman who, with all her brilliant gifts of intelligence and manner, hadno principles and no pity. Justinian was rather quick than strong or profound; his policy does not strike one as the result of deliberate and well-considered views, but dictated by the hopes and fancies of the moment. His activity was in so far a misfortune as it led him to attempt too many things at once, and engage in undertakings so costly that oppression became necessary to provide the funds for them. Even his devotion to work, which excites our admiration in the centre of a luxurious court, was to a great extent unprofitable, for it was mainly given to theological controversies which neither he nor any one else could settle. Still, after making all deductions, it is plain that the man who accomplished so much, and kept the whole world so occupied, as Justinian did during the thirty-eight years of his reign, mu.st have possessed no common abilities. He was affable and easy of approach to all his subjects, with a pleasant address ; nor does he seem to have been, like his wife, either cruel or revengeful. We hear several times of his sparing those who had conspired against him. But he was not scrupulous in the means he employed, and he was willing to maintain in power detestable ministers if only they served him efficiently and filled his coffers. His chief passion, after that for his own fame and glory, seems to have been for theology and religion ; it was in this field that his literary powers exerted them selves (for he wrote controversial treatises and hymns), and his taste also, for among his numerous buildings the churches are those on which he spent most thought and money. Considering that his legal reforms are those by which his name is mainly known to posterity, it is curious that we should have hardly any information as_to his legal knowledge, or the share which he took in those reforms. In person he was somewhat above the middle height, well-shaped, with plenty of fresh colour in his cheeks, and an extraordinary power of doing without food and sleep. He spent most of the night in reading or writing, and would sometimes go for a day with no food but a few green herbs. Two mosaic figures of him exist at Ravenna, one in the apse of the church of S. Yitale, the other in the church of S. Apollinare in Urbe ; but of course one cannot be sure how far in such a stiff material the portrait fairly represents the original. He had no children by his marriage with Theodora, and did not marry after her decease. On hia death, which took place November 14, 505, the crown passed to his nephew Justin II. ^ Authorities. For the life of Justinian the chief authorities are Procopius (Historic, De jEdificiis, Anccdota) and (from 552 A.D.) the History of A^athias ; the Chronicle of Johannes Malalas is also of value. Occasional reference must be made to the writings of Jordanes and Marcellinus, and even to the late compilations of Cedrenus and Zonaras. The Vita Justiniani of Ludewig or Ludwig (Halle, 1731), a work of patient research, is frequently referred to by Gibbon in his important chapters relating to the reign of Justinian. There is a Vic de Jmtinicn by Isambert (2 vols., Paris, 1856). (J. BK.) JUSTINIAN II., Rhinotmetus, Roman emperor of the East from G85 to 695, and from 704 to 711, succeeded his father Constantine IV., at the age of sixteen. His reign was unhappy both at home and abroad. He made a truce with the Arabs, which admitted them to the joint possession of Armenia, Iberia, and Cyprus, while by remov ing 10,000 Christian Maronites from their native Lebanon, he gave the Arabs a command over Asia Minor of which they took advantage in 692 by conquering all Armenia. In 688 Justinian was defeated by the Bulgarians. Mean while the bitter dissensions caused in the church by the emperor, his bloody persecution of the Manichgeans, and the insatiable and cruel .rapacity with which, through his creatures Stephanus and Theodatus, he extorted the means of gratifying his sumptuous tastes, maddened his sub jects into rebellion. In 695 they rose under Leontius, and, after cutting off the emperor s nose (whence his sur name), banished him to Cherson in the Crimea. Leontius, after a reign of three years, was in turn dethroned and imprisoned by Tiberius Absimarus, who next assumed the purple. Justinian meanwhile had escaped from Cherson and married Theodora, sister of Busirus, khan of the Khazars. Compelled, however, by the intrigues of Tiberius, to quit his new home, he fled to Terbelis, king of the Bulgarians. With an army of 15,000 horsemen Justinian suddenly pounced upon Constantinople, slew his rivals Leontius and Tiberius, with thousands of their partisans, and once more ascended the throne in 704. His second reign was marked by an unsuccessful war against Terbelis, by Arab victories in Asia Minor, by devastating expeditions sent against his own cities of Ravenna and Cherson, and by the same cruel rapacity towards his subjects. Con spiracies again broke out; Bardanes, surnamed Philip- picus, assumed the purple ; and Justinian, the last of the house of Heraclius, was assassinated in Asia Minor, December 711. JUTE h a vegetable fibre which, notwithstanding the fact that it has come under the notice of manufacturing communities only within comparatively recent times, has advanced in importance with so rapid strides that it now occupies among vegetable fibres a position, in the manu facturing scale, inferior only to cotton and flax. The term jute appears to have been first used by Dr Roxburgh in 1795, when he sent to the directors of the East India Company a bale of the fibre which he described as &quot; the jute of the natives.&quot; Importations of the substance had been made at earlier times under the name of pctt, an East Indian native term by which the fibre continued to be spoken of in England till the early years of the 19th century, when it was supplanted by the name it now bears. This modern name appears to be derived from jhot or jlwut (Sanskrit, jhat), the vernacular name by which the substance is known in the Cuttack district, where the East India Company had extensive roperies at the time l)r Roxburgh first used the term. Tiie fibre is obtained from two species of Corchorus (nat. ord. Tiliacese), C. capsularis and C. olitorius, the products of both being so essentially alike that neither in commerce nor agriculture is there any distinction made between them. These and various other species of Corchortis are natives of Bengal, where they have been cultivated from very remote times for economic purposes, although there is reison to believe that the cultivation did