Justinian I

John's letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor disclose a variety of dangers for elders, who are responsible to teach Truth in their congregations.  Pride is at the core of most of these dangers.  Elders must understand that their service will be under Satanic attack, mostly sourced in Judaizing.  This prominent denial of Christ, anti-Christ, is leagued together with a variety of Rome like empires down through the ages.

1054 reexamines all the history of the first millennium trying to answer the question, if the indivisible Church is divided at 1054, where is the indivisible Church.  Our research did not lead to any anticipated outcome.  We just followed the trail of evidence to our own surprise.

Contrariamente alla "Peste Nera" che falcidiò Asia ed Europa alla metà del XIV secolo, provocando milioni di vittime e lasciando innumerevoli testimonianze materiali, la "Peste di Giustiniano", comparsa attorno al 541, presenta tratti più sfumati, che hanno assai diviso gli studiosi. Fino a tempi assai recenti, la maggioranza degli specialisti - in accordo con le fonti letterarie- ha sostenuto una tesi "massimalista", stando alla quale il morbo bubbonico descritto da autori quali Giovanni di Efeso e Procopio di Cesarea avrebbe causato milioni di morti, annichilendo conseguentemente l'economia e l'intero Stato romano-orientale e creando i prodromi per le successive sconfitte contro le armate islamiche. Negli ultimi anni, tuttavia, procedendo a un'analisi di nuove fonti, alcuni studiosi avrebbero fortemente ridimensionato gli effetti di questa epidemia, che non avrebbe prodotto un numero di evidenze materiali sovrapponibile alle presunte ricadute catastrofiche narrate dalle fonti. In questo contributo, basato principalmente sui nuovi studi in MORDECHAI et alii 2020, a partire dall'analisi delle testimonianze numismatiche e della storia economica dell'Impero di Giustiniano, si cercherà di capire se la peste che colpì l'Impero giocò un qualche ruolo nella circolazione ed emissione monetaria, ruolo dato fino ad oggi per scontato, ma che alla luce delle nuove scoperte sembrerebbe piuttosto inverosimile.

Unlike the "Black Death" that struck Asia and Europe in the mid-fourteenth century, causing millions of casualties and leaving many material evidences, the "Justinianic Plague" (JP), appeared around AD 541, is far more obscure and has splitted scholars. Until very recent times, the vast majority of scholars - being in accordance to literary sources - has promoted a "maximalist" interpretation of this phenomenon, for which this bubonic plague described by authors such as John of Ephesus and Procopius of Caesarea would have caused millions of deaths, annihilating the economy and the entire eastern-roman State, putting the premises for the upcoming defeats against the Islamic armies. However, in the last years, with the analysis of new sources, some scholars have strongly rejected JP's catastrophic outcomes, considering that it did not leave the amount of evidences you would expect from the massive destruction narrated by the sources. In this contribution, based mainly on the new studies in MORDECHAI et alii 2020, by looking at the numismatic proofs and the Empire's economic history, we will try to understand if the plague that struck the Empire played any role in the circulation and issue of money: assumption widely taken for granted up to now, but which in the light of the new discoveries would seem really unlikely.

The book attempts to present –for the first time in the international bibliography– a detailed description of the historical life of Abydos (Άβυδος) of Hellespont (Ελλήσποντος, Δαρδανέλλια); the latter was an important ancient and medieval Greek city, situated on the Asiatic shore of Dardanelles, at the once narrowest part of the local Straits (usually named "Stenon of Abydos") and in the surrounding area of the promontory of Nara (an Ottoman and modern Turkish naval base, where free access is prohibited). The monograph also detects the  relations between Abydos and other known settlements in the wider region of northwestern Asia Minor (Troad, Hellespont, Mysia, Hellespontine Phrygia).

Αbydos was founded predominantly as a colony of Miletus (ca. 680-650 BC) and had a continuous historical life that lasted about 2.000 years (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD). The prosperous ancient city minted various coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD. Its lively port was used for centuries as a key point for the passage from Europe to Asia and the cruise from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (and vice versa) as well as a major customs station ("telonion Abydou" during the Roman imperial years, "demosion teloneion" or "kommerkion" or "dekateuterion Abydou" during the medieval period of the city). Byzantine Abydos was also an important administrative center, a military and naval base and an ecclesiastical seat (bishopric and later metropolis).

However, the long and turbulent history of Abydos and its region is virtually unknown in modern years, despite the fact that the city's reputation was particularly widespread during ancient and medieval times in the Mediterranean world. Moreover, for many reasons noted in the book, the settlement does not exist archaeologically in the last two centuries. In short, Abydos constitutes a very interesting case of a virtually lost city during the modern times.

For various reasons, also described in the book, the importance of Abydos had declined during the 13th c. AD and the city was finally abandoned by its population in the early 14th c. AD., mainly because of the Turkish threat in the area. From mid. 15th c. AD the new city of Çanakkale was established gradually (initially named as Kale-i Sultaniye) 5-6 km to the south of Abydos. The ruins of the abandoned urban area of ​​the latter have been systematically pillaged -mainly for construction and other purposes- between the 14th - early 19th c. AD.

For the reconstruction of  the long historical life of Abydos (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD) and an in-depth analysis of its numerous and largely unknown institutions, the study relies though on the information providing by the written (ancient and medieval) texts but also on the scarce and dispersed epigraphic and the much richer numismatic (the city minted coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD) and sigillographic data and other archaeological findings regarding (or deriving from) the city. It also takes into account all the contemporary related publications.

[VANIAS publications,  Thessaloniki 2017,  752 pages,  ISBN: 978-960-288-342-6,  text in Greek language with an English summary]

This paper explores the legislation against magic and the practitioners of magic during Late Antiquity, specifically between the reigns of emperors Theodosius  II and Justinian I. Throughout the breadth of the whole analysis, the legislative habit of both emperors will be suggested as the catalysis for the preservation of laws directed towards magic in both compilations of Roman laws under both rulers; the former compiling existing Roman legislation within the Codex Theodosianus with the latter commissioning the composition of the Corpus Juris Civilis.

It is often argued that the Balkan agricultural economy failed to recover from the impact of the late fourth-to fifth-century Goth and Hun raids, and that the eastern Roman government was thus compelled to supply these war-torn regions from without in the sixth century. This paper argues, conversely , that the Balkan provinces were largely self-sufficient in cereals and meat, and that only the northern provinces required imports of wine and olive oil, goods not produced in that region. Much of this argument is based on recent palynological, archaeozoological and archaeobotanical evidence from the region. Imperial decrees concerning military supply, meanwhile, exaggerated the terrible plight of peasant farmers in their attempt to wrestle control of land and food supplies from landholding elites, many of whom were military officials. At the same time, legislation concerning coemptiones (compulsory purchases) was designed to ensure that soldiers, especially field troops, were not left at the mercy of the market when procuring supplies and were instead supplied in kind via official middlemen who purchased goods at market rates on their behalf. By contrast, limitanei and federate troops nearer the frontier had more stable relationships with local socioeconomic systems and were thus paid more regularly in gold coin.

Μια ηρωϊκή πόλη δραματικών γεγονότων, επιβλητική όσο και μαρτυρική, βρίσκεται στη δεξιά όχθη του ποταμού Άλυος, χτισμένη στην πλαγιά του βουνού Παρυάδρου, σε υψόμετρο 1600. Ανάμεσα στις ωραίες πόλεις της Ανατολής είναι από τις ωραιότερες! Καθώς η τοποθεσία αυτή βρίσκεται σε δρόμο καραβανιών, κατοικήθηκε απ' την πρώτη χιλιετία πτεμ. Όμως αγνοούμε το τότε όνομα και δεν είναι εύκολο να ταυτίσουμε την Σεβαστεία με τη Μεγαλόπολη, τα Κάραυνα ή τα Τάλαυρα.
Αρχικά δημοσιευμένο στο Ανεξήγητο, στη σειρά Το Βυζάντιο στην Ανατολή, Α’ άρθρο, Απρίλιος 1986, σελ. 82-83
Πρόσφατα επαναδημοσιευμένο στο μπλογκ:
http://www.technova.gr/technova/index.php/2012-06-21-03-15-38/istoria/1905-byzantio-stin-anatoli?showall=&start=1

R. Haensch (ed.), with the collaboration of F. Hurlet et al., Recht haben und Recht bekommen im Imperium Romanum. Das Gerichtswesen der Römischen Kaiserzeit und seine dokumentarische Evidenz. Ausgewählte Beiträge einer Serie von drei Konferenzen an der Villa Vigoni in den Jahren 2010 bis 2012, Taubenschlag Foundation, Warsaw, 2016 (The Journal of Juristic Papyrology. Supplements, XXIV), p. 365-403.

Lazic War (541-562 CE) is one of the largest conflicts ever happened in the Caucasus, between the most powerful empires of late antiquity-Byzantine empire and Sasanian Iran. Lazica, the modern western part of Georgia, was under Byzantine influence, but the Sasanians, after the occupation of the Iberian (Kartlian) kingdom in the first half of the 6th century, tried to conquer Lazica to gain a strategic position on the shores of the Black sea against their main rivals, the Byzantines. Lazian kingdom, which at this time was under the influence of the Byzantine empire, stood between the two major powers of the Mediterranean and the middle east. Mostly as the Byzantine allies, the Lazi fought against Iran, and only in certain circumstances, they were under the Sasanian banner. The article examines the Lazian army before and during the Lazic War, their numbers, armament, and organization.

In 535 stuurde keizer Justinianus zijn favoriete generaal Belisarius om de voormalig Romeinse gebieden in Italië te heroveren. Het lukte Belisarius met een opvallend klein leger om grote successen te behalen en uiteindelijk heel Italië weer onder Romeins gezag te krijgen. In deze scriptie wordt de campagne van Belisarius geanalyseerd aan de hand van de werken van Procopius om zo het militaire succes van deze veroveringen te verklaren.

This article has a dual focus.  On the one hand, it traces the history of the tradition of the floating and rotating dome and relates it to the idea of the sublime.  On the other hand, it delves into the phenomenological component of the sublime as discussed in philosophy and as presented in literature and in architecture in relationship to expansive space.  In the process, it distinguishes between the architectural sublime, the cosmological sublime, and the spatial sublime.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the byzantine nummi of the VI Century, with an Alpha on the reverse. Many of these coins are actually assigned to Justinian I, and to the mint of Carthage. Nevertheless, some clues seem to lead to consider an attribution to Justin I and Justin II. Regarding the issuing mint, while Thessalonica is certain and Constantinople very likely, the mint of Carthage is quite questionable.

Byzantine Emperor Justinian I " the Great " is well known for conducting the Gothic War to recover Italy from the Ostrogoths. His coins minted at Thessalonica in Macedonia with their enigmatic reverse characters A-P have long challenged numismatists but may be best understood for their relationship to the war and as bearers of a slogan that promoted the Byzantine recovery of the ancient Roman homeland.

The article explores the relation between nomoi and canons in Byzantium, as well as the attitude of the byzantine emperor about both the canons and the church, as well as about the nomoi. The limits of the legislative power of the emperor are highlighted on the occasion of the dispute that occupied Byzantium for about fifteen years (1081-1095) as a result of the confiscation of the holy vessels by Alexios I Komnenos, in order to finance mercenary troops after the occupation of Durres by the Normans in Oktober of 1081. The equation of nomoi and canons by the Novel 131 of Justinian in 545, as well as the ambiguous attitude of 12th century jurists about the relation of nomoi and canons, as a result of the close relation of Church and State in Byzantium, are reflected in the use of the terms “nomos” and “canon” as equivalent in the Alexias by Anna Komnene, who records the dispute. On the other hand, a fiction of law is constructed by Anna Komnene, in order to cover up the violation by Alexios I Komnenos even of the strict conditions set by the Novel 120 of Justinian for the confiscation of holy vessels. Rhetoric is highlighted as the powerful tool of imperial power in its struggle to consolidate itself.

The so-called Endless Peace treaty, signed between Rome and Persia in 532, contained several provisions that regulated issues of population transfer. According to the famous evidence of Agathias of Myrina, in the treaty there was also a clause guaranteeing safety from persecution and the tolerance of religious beliefs in the territory of the Roman Empire for the seven Neoplatonic philosophers returning from their Persian emigration.
  The present article proposes a re-evaluation of the clause mentioned by Agathias by extracting parallel information from an East-Syriac hagiographical source: an anonymous account of martyrdom of the high-profile Persian Christian convert Mar Grigor. The study deconstructs Agathias' evidence regarding the circumstances of the philosophers' emigration and return, and examines the available set of “conventional” sources on how the Endless Peace treaty regulated the status of different categories of displaced people.
  The investigation proceeds with an analysis of the Martyrdom of Mar Grigor, arguing for the importance of the East-Syriac hagiographical account for a comprehensive reconstruction of the conditions of the Endless Peace agreement. Assessing information provided by the Martyrdom of Mar Grigor and other available data, the author reveals the high relevance of the East-Syriac evidence for the discussion of the so-called clause of protection.
  The scope of the article is to demonstrate, for the first time in historiography, that the clause, included in the treaty to protect the seven Hellenic philosophers upon their return to the Christian Roman Empire, was not unilateral. It is suggested that the same diplomatic agreement contained a similar promise of safe conduct for the Christian Persian general, Pīrān-Gušnasp / Mar Grigor, coming back from Roman captivity to Zoroastrian Persia.

KEYWORDS Mar Grigor, Endless Peace Treaty, Diplomacy, Justinian,
Chosroes, Agathias, Emigration, Extradition

Co-organized with Stephane Benoist and Pierre Jaillette.

Speakers : Stephane Benoist (Université de Lille 3 - SHS), Simon Corcoran (University College London), Benet Salway (University College London), Pierre Jaillette (Université de Lille 3 - SHS) and Dominic Moreau (Université de Lille 3 - SHS).

In the papyrus fragment P. Cairo Masp. 1 67005, which is dated AD 568 , a woman named Sophia from the village of Aphrodito addresses the dux Athanasios with petition to be released from private imprisonment. This act was in contradiction to Novel 134 issued 556 AD, which prescribes certain rules on women’s custody and imprisonment. Novel 134 was Justinian’s attempt for introduction of penance, which was in concordance with the Christian doctrine. However, it also aims at protecting women and their chastity from the violence of men’s authority, which is clearly demonstrated in the aforementioned papyrus. My aim is to shed light on this practice of imprisonment of women through the legal papyri from the 6th century.

Ülkemizde herkesin düşman bellediği “Bizans” aslında birçok takipçisi
ilgi görülen ve bakir olmayan bir konudur. Suyun bile hastalık sebebi
sayıldığı ülkemizde bu duruma şaşırmamak gerekir. Birçok ünlü Türk
Bizantologların yanında İslam ve Türk Tarihçileri içinde bilinmesi gereken
bir alan olmuştur. Işın Demirkent, Fikret Işıltan Semavi Eyice ve Radi Dikici
gibi Bizantologlarımız önemli çalışmalarda bulunup çevirilere de imza
atmışlardır. Ben bu çalışmada Justinianus’un hayatını, neler yaptığını
etrafındakileri ve zamanını aktarmaya çalışacağım. Temel problemlerimiz
çoğu kişide olduğu gibi dil bilmeme sorumudur. Antik Yunan, Latin ve diğer
önemli diller hakkında bende dahil birçok önemli yere gelmiş akademisyenler
bile az bir bilgiye sahiptir. Justinianus’un imparator olmadan önceki ve
sonraki dönemlerini savaşları, isyanları ve veba salgınını becerebildiğim
kadarıyla açık bir dil ve kronolojik sıra ile sizlere aktaracağım. Bende Bizans
ile ilgili kitaplar okuyarak Bizans ve tarihine merak salmaya başladım, tabi
her Bizans tarihçisi ve ilgisi olanlar gibi Justinianus’u ve tarihini severek
ilgilenenlerdenim. Sevdiğim Bizans konuları genelde siyasi olaylardır. 1204
yılında IV. Haçlı seferine kadar ki Bizans tarihine ilgiliyimdir. Yukarıda
bahsettiğim gibi dil bilmediğim için temel bir arşiv kaynak kullanmayacağım.
Türk Bizantologların çalışmaları, çevirileri ve diğer ünlü Bizantologların
çevirileri ile Orta çağ, Türk, İslam ve Kilise konulu literatürlere dayanarak
sizlere bu çalışmayı sunacağım.

He leído con sumo agrado y provecho la pulcra obra de Álex Corona Encinas sobre instituciones políticas municipales justinianeas. Publicada en la prestigiosa colección iusromanística dirigida por Antonio Fernández de Buján, la monografía constituyó su tesis doctoral, presentada en la Universidad de Valladolid en septiembre de 2020 bajo la guía de Francisco Javier Andrés Santos, autor del laudatorio prólogo.
El trabajo se enmarca en una línea de investigación más amplia que, desde hace ya unos lustros, viene dirigiendo Antonio Fernández de Buján sobre lo que se ha denominado derecho administrativo romano, donde lo político-municipal ocupa un lugar relevante. Y es que el municipio fue uno de los pilares de la visión inclusiva romana, que facilitó la expansión mediante la creación de estructuras administrativas análogas a la ciudad de Roma.

This paper discusses some controversial issues and events during the
campaign against the Vandals in 533, as described by historian Prokopios. This new reading
highlights elements of everyday life and culture, military and political tactics, and personal
rivalries and strategies.

The subject of this paper is the Byzantine law code, the Nomos Georgikos (Νόμος γεωργικός) known as the Farmer's Code. This law code has been a subject of research since the 19th century, and many scholars have assumed nexus causalis between the Nomos Georgikos and the Slavic settlements based mainly on circumstances. My examination was not oriented towards defining the ethnicity of the Byzantine farmers, but towards defining the nature of the law code by analysing its form and its penal system. The NG was aimed at protecting the farmer's property – movable and immovable, by prescribing corresponding punishments. The punishments concerning immovable property are material, while the punishments prescribed for movable property are material and/or corporal, such as beating, lashing, branding and mutilation. Capital punishment is rare, because offences towards property are not considered capital offences. The punishments in the NG are very similar to the Ekloga; however, the main difference between the two codes is the absence of a duality of punishment in the NG. In the NG corporal punishments are not alternatives to monetary penalties;
they are the only punishment prescribed. This is only natural for a law code intended to solve disputes between peasants only, a monolithic group of people who did not belong to the category of honestiores.

El objetivo principal de este trabajo consiste en analizar el proceso que condujo a que se truncase la prolífica colaboración existente entre el Senado de Roma y la monarquía ostrogoda desde finales del reinado de Teodorico hasta la caída de Totila. Se explicará con detalle en qué consistía y fundamentaba tal colaboración, para luego tratar de determinar en qué momento se produjo una ruptura entre las élites que gobernaban Italia y los factores que condujeron a ello a fin de poder calibrar su impacto en la destrucción del dominio ostrogodo de Italia.

The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze the process that led to the truncation of the prolific collaboration between the Senate of Rome and the Ostrogothic monarchy from the end of the reign of Theodoric until the fall of Totila. It will be explained in detail what that collaboration consisted of and underpinned, and then try to determine when the rupture between the elites that ruled Italy occurred, and the factors to brought it about, besides measure its impact on the destruction of the Ostrogothic rule of Italy.

EXTRAIT DE LIVRE... de Kérim MAAMER - "HISTOIRE DE DJERBA ET D'IFRIQIYA" - 2020 - Sydney Laurent...  sur la guerre des Massyles, 538-588 - Les conflits idéologiques autour du monophysisme et dyophisisme - Marasme Byzantin - Invasions arabes

Presentation made at the Workshop of the Doctoral School Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société (Communauté d'universités et établissements Lille Nord de France) "Réception de l'Antiquité : Les fondateurs d'empires et leur postérité" (Villeneuve d'Ascq, 31 March 2017).

Επί Ιουστινιανού προβιβάζεται σε πρωτεύουσα επαρχίας: γι' αυτό επισκευάζονται τα τείχη της. Στη συνέχεια οι επαρχίες αλλάζουν (όνομα ή όρια), αλλά η Σεβαστεία μένει πάντοτε πρωτεύουσα. Μέσα στα πλαίσια της Ανατολικής Ρωμαϊκής Αυτοκρατορίας (ή όπως έλεγαν τότε του Εώου Κράτους, ή επίσης της Ρωμανίας) παραμένει οπωσδήποτε γνωστή η καταγωγή του ονόματος της πόλης, όμως η τιμή αποδίδεται στην αυτοθυσία των Σαράντα Μαρτύρων της Σεβαστείας: η άρνησή τους να προσκυνήσουν στα εθνικά είδωλα στις αρχές του 4ου αιώνα και να υποταγούν στην θέληση του Λικίνιου, είχε σαν αποτέλεσμα να τιμωρηθούν και να εκτεθούν ολόγυμνοι σε μια καταπαγωμένη λίμνη, όπου και μαρτύρησαν.
Αρχικά δημοσιευμένο στο Ανεξήγητο, στη σειρά Το Βυζάντιο στην Ανατολή, Α’ άρθρο, Απρίλιος 1986, σελ. 82-83
Πρόσφατα επαναδημοσιευμένο στο μπλογκ:
http://www.technova.gr/technova/index.php/2012-06-21-03-15-38/istoria/1905-byzantio-stin-anatoli?showall=&start=1

Referat wygłoszono podczas: Otwarta sesja naukowa "Historia caffè: 1450 rocznica śmierci cesarza Justyniana" Koło Naukowe Doktoratów Wydziału Historii i Dziedzictwa Kulturowego Uniwersytetu Papieskiego Jana Pawła II w Krakowie, 3 listopada 2015

Presentation made at the annual workshop of the Collegium Beatus Rhenanus.
Oberrheinische Forschungsgruppe Antike / Groupement de recherche du Rhin Supérieur sur l'Antiquité "Recherches actuelles dans les Sciences de l'Antiquité /  Aktuelle Forschungen in den Altertumswissenschaften" (Strasbourg, 15 June 2012).