JUSTINIAN I (FLAVIUS ANICIUS JUSTIN 'Arius), surnamed THE GREAT, emperor of the East : b. of Gothic peasant parentage at Taure shim, Illyricum, probably 11 May 483 A.D. ; d. 14 Nov. 565. Patronized by his uncle, Justin I, who, from a Thracian peasant, had become em peror, he so flattered the Senate and dazzled the people that he was made consul, and took the title of Nobilissmus. On the death of his uncle, with whom he had latterly shared the imperial power, he was proclaimed emperor, and married an actress named Theodora. During his reign the party disputes of the Greens and the Blues became so violent, that in his attempt to quell the tumults the emperor's own life was in jeop ardy, and a great part of Constantinople was destroyed by fire in 532. Aided by his gen erals, he was able subsequently to restore to the Roman Empire a part of its former possessions, as when Belisarius in 523 and 529 defeated the Persians, and achieved victories in Africa, and when Narses put an end to the Ostrogoth rule in Italy. Turning his attention to the laws,
Justinian commissioned 10 learned civilians to draw up a new code, and the result was the 'Corpus Juris Civilis,' or body of civil law. He took great interest in building cities, fortifi cations and churches; among the latter he re built the church of Saint Sophia at Constan tinople. To maintain his public munificence he oppressed the people with taxes. Consult Fin lay, 'History of (1880) ; Hodgkin, 'Italy and her Invaders) (Vol. IV, 1880) ; Bury, 'Later Roman Empire) (1889) ; Hutton, 'The Church in the Sixth Century' (1897) ; Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Em pire' (ed. by Bury 1896-1900).