ABSTRACT
The definitive history of Justinian has not yet been written. I am not sure that one can write a truly ‘definitive history’ about any figure in the historical landscape, but I have no doubt that the time is not ripe for a ‘definitive history’ of Justinian. A generation ago, the possibility seemed closer than it does now. Edward Gibbon’s model for decline and fall was still largely accepted. Justinian’s attempt to regain the lost territories of the Roman Empire could be regarded as a misguided attempt to reverse the course of history which resulted in fatal inattention to the eastern provinces. His corpus of law was a major attainment, to be sure, as Gibbon recognized, and his great church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul stands as witness to his achievement as a builder. But even Hagia Sophia puts his personality flaws on record. Impatient, eager that his great church should exhibit his worthiness as God’s vicegerent on earth, he refused the builders time for their mortar to set properly, thereby contributing to the structure’s instability. Yet Hagia Sophia has lasted far better than his conquests, which began to crumble before the century was over.
