Justinian I

Justinian I was the Byzantine emperor whose long reign sought to restore Roman authority and law. His government codified Roman law, built Hagia Sophia and employed generals such as Belisarius in wars against Vandals and Ostrogoths, while also facing plague, religious disputes and war with Persia.

In Robert Graves’s Count Belisarius, Count Belisarius tells the story of the Byzantine general Belisarius, whose campaigns under Justinian I briefly restored imperial control over parts of North Africa and Italy. In William Havelock’s The Last Dying Light, his military education unfolds alongside the transfer of power from Anastasius to Justin I and the emergence of Justinian, while questions about Varus’s origins draw him more closely into the plans of the imperial court. Other novels featuring Justinian I include William Havelock’s An Age of Darkness and Light, David Pilling’s Siege of Rome, William Havelock’s The Eternal City, William Havelock’s The Gates of Carthage, and William Havelock’s The Seventh Gift.

In non-fiction, Justinian I is discussed in Nick Holmes’s Justinian’s Empire and Procopius’s The Secret History. In Nick Holmes’s Justinian’s Empire, Justinian’s Empire examines the reign of Justinian I, when the eastern Roman state attempted to restore imperial authority across the Mediterranean.