Justinian II (Greek:Ἰουστινιανός,romanized: Ioustinianós;Latin:Iustinianus; 668/69 – 4 November 711), nicknamed "the Slit-Nosed" (Greek:ὁ Ῥινότμητος,romanized: ho Rhīnótmētos),[3] was the lastByzantine emperor of theHeraclian dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711. Like his namesake,Justinian I, Justinian II was an ambitious and passionate ruler who was keen to restore the Roman Empire to its former glories. However, he responded brutally to any opposition to his will and lacked the finesse of his father,Constantine IV.[7] Consequently, he generated enormous opposition to his reign, resulting in his deposition in 695 in a popular uprising. He only returned to the throne in 705 with the help of a Bulgarian army. His second reign was even more despotic than the first, and in 711 he was killed by mutinous soldiers.
Justinian II was the eldest son of EmperorConstantine IV andAnastasia.[2] His father appointed him as his heir sometime after October 682, upon the deposition of his unclesHeraclius andTiberius.[d] In 685, at the age of sixteen, Justinian II succeeded his father as sole emperor.[9][10]
As a result of Constantine IV's victories, the political situation in the Eastern provinces of the Empire was stable when Justinian ascended the throne.[11] After a preliminary strike against theArabs inArmenia,[12] Justinian managed to augment the sum paid by theUmayyadCaliphs as an annual tribute, and to regain control of part ofCyprus.[11] The incomes of the provinces ofArmenia andIberia were divided among the two empires.[7] In 687, as part of his agreements with the Caliphate, Justinian removed from their nativeLebanon 12,000 ChristianMardaites, who continually resisted theArabs.[13] Additional resettlement efforts, aimed at theMardaites and inhabitants of Cyprus, allowed Justinian to reinforce naval forces depleted by earlier conflicts.[7] In 688, Justinian signed a treaty with the CaliphAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan which rendered Cyprus neutral ground, with its tax revenue split.[14]
This enabled Justinian to turn his attention to theBalkans, where much imperial territory had been lost toSlavic tribes.[13] In 687 Justinian transferred cavalry troops fromAnatolia toThrace. With a great military campaign in 688–689, Justinian defeated theSlavs ofMacedonia and was finally able to enterThessalonica, the second most important Byzantine city inEurope.[7]
The subdued Slavs were resettled in Anatolia, where they were to provide a military force of 30,000 men.[7] Emboldened by the increase of his forces in Anatolia, Justinian now renewed the war against the Arabs,[15] winning a battle in Armenia in 693. The Arabs met the challenge by bribing the new army to revolt. Most of the Slavic troops defected during the subsequentBattle of Sebastopolis,[16] where Justinian was comprehensively defeated and compelled to flee to thePropontis.[15] There, according toTheophanes,[17] he vented his frustration by slaughtering as many of the Slavs in and aroundOpsikion as he could lay his hands on.[18] Meanwhile, aPatrician named Symbatius rebelled in Armenia[15] and opened up the province to the Arabs, who proceeded to conquer it in 694–695.[7]
In domestic affairs, the Emperor's bloody persecution of theManichaeans,[10] and his suppression of the popular traditions of those who were not of Chalcedonian origin, caused dissension within the Church.[2] In 692 Justinian convened the so-calledQuinisext Council at Constantinople to put his religious policies into effect.[19] The Council expanded and clarified the rulings of the Fifth and Sixth ecumenical councils, but by highlighting differences between the Eastern and Western observances (such as the marriage of priests and the Catholic practice of fasting on Saturdays) it also compromised Byzantine relations with theCatholic Church.[20] The emperor orderedPope Sergius I arrested, but the militias of Rome andRavenna sided with the Pope and rebelled.[7]
Justinian contributed to the development of thethematic organization of the Empire, creating a new theme ofHellas in southern Greece and numbering the heads of the four major themes of theOpsikion,Anatolikon,Thracesion andArmeniakon, and the navalKarabisianoi corps, among the senior administrators of the Empire.[7] He also sought to protect the rights of peasant freeholders (who served as the main recruitment pool for the imperial armies) against attempts by the aristocracy to acquire their land. This put him in direct conflict with some of the largest landholders in the Empire.[7]
Mutilation of Justinian II on the orders of Leontius in 695, miniature from a 15th century French manuscript.
While his land policies threatened the aristocracy, his tax policy was very unpopular with the common people.[7] Through his agentsStephen and Theodotos, the emperor raised the funds to gratify his sumptuous tastes and his mania for erecting costly buildings.[7][10] This, plus ongoing religious discontent, conflicts with the aristocracy, and displeasure with his resettlement policy eventually drove his subjects into rebellion.[19] In 695 the population rose under the leadership ofLeontius, thestrategos of Hellas, and proclaimed him Emperor.[7][10] Justinian was deposed and hisnose was cut off (later to be replaced by a solid gold replica of his original) to prevent his again seeking the throne: such mutilation wascommon in Byzantine culture. He was exiled toCherson in theCrimea.[7] Leontius, after a reign of three years, was in turn dethroned and imprisoned byApsimarus, who then assumed the throne.[21][10]
While in exile, Justinian began to plot and gather supporters for an attempt to retake the throne.[22] Justinian became a liability to Cherson and the authorities decided to return him to Constantinople in 702 or 703.[11] He escaped from Cherson and received help fromBusir, thekhagan of theKhazars, who received him enthusiastically and gave him his sister as a bride.[22] Justinian renamed herTheodora, after the wife ofJustinian I.[23] They were given a home in the town ofPhanagoria, at the entrance to the sea of Azov. Busir was offered a bribe by Tiberius to kill his brother-in-law, and dispatched two Khazar officials,Papatzys andBalgitzin, to do the deed.[24] Warned by his wife, Justinian executed Papatzys and Balgitzin. He sailed in a fishing boat toCherson, summoned his supporters, and they all sailed westwards across theBlack Sea.[25]
As the ship bearing Justinian sailed along the northern coast of the Black Sea, he and his crew became caught up in a storm somewhere between the mouths of theDniester and theDnieper Rivers.[24] While it was raging, one of his companions reached out to Justinian saying that if he promised God that he would be magnanimous, and not seek revenge on his enemies when he was returned to the throne, they would all be spared.[25] Justinian retorted: "If I spare a single one of them, may God drown me here".[24]
Having survived the storm, Justinian next approachedTervel of Bulgaria.[25] Tervel agreed to provide all the military assistance necessary for Justinian to regain his throne in exchange for financial considerations, the award of aCaesar's crown, and the hand of Justinian's daughter, Anastasia, in marriage.[22] In spring 705, with an army of 15,000 Bulgar and Slav horsemen, Justinian appeared before the walls ofConstantinople.[22] For three days, Justinian tried to convince the citizens of Constantinople to open the gates, but to no avail.[26] Unable to take the city by force, he and some companions entered through an unusedwater conduit under the walls of the city, roused their supporters, and seized control of the city in a midnight coup d'état.[22] On 21 August,[3] Justinian regained the throne, breaking the tradition preventing the mutilated from Imperial rule. After tracking down his predecessors, he had his rivals Leontius and Tiberius brought before him in chains in theHippodrome. There, before a jeering populace, Justinian, now wearing a golden nasal prosthesis,[27] placed his feet on the necks of Tiberius and Leontius in a symbolic gesture of subjugation before ordering their execution by beheading, followed by many of their partisans,[28] as well as deposing, blinding and exilingPatriarch Callinicus I toRome.[29]
Justinian and his sonTiberius, whom he crowned co-emperor in 706.
Justinian's second reign was marked by unsuccessful warfare against Bulgaria and the Caliphate, and by cruel suppression of opposition at home.[30] In 708 Justinian turned on Bulgarian KhanTervel, whom he had earlier crownedcaesar, and invaded Bulgaria, apparently seeking to recover the territories ceded to Tervel as a reward for his support in 705.[28] The Emperor was defeated, blockaded inAnchialus, and forced to retreat.[28] Peace between Bulgaria and Byzantium was quickly restored. This defeat was followed by Arab victories in Asia Minor,[10] where the cities ofCilicia fell into the hands of the enemy, who penetrated intoCappadocia in 709–711.[30]
Justinian's II punitive squad robs Ravenna after the arrest of archbishop Felix in 709.
He orderedPope John VII to recognize the decisions of the Quinisext Council and simultaneously fitted out apunitive expedition against Ravenna in 709 under the command of the Patrician Theodore.[31] The expedition was led to reinstate the Western Church's authority over Ravenna, which was taken as a sign of disobedience to the emperor, and revolutionary sentiment.[32] The repression succeeded, and the newPope Constantine visited Constantinople in 710. Justinian, after receiving Holy Communion at the hands of the pope, renewed all the privileges of the Roman Church. Exactly what passed between them on the subject of the Quinisext Council is not known. It would appear, however, that Constantine approved most of the canons.[33] This would be the last time a Pope visited the city until the visit ofPope Paul VI toIstanbul in 1967.[27]
Justinian's rule provoked another uprising against him.[34] Cherson revolted, and under the leadership of the exiled generalBardanes the city held out against a counter-attack. Soon, the forces sent to suppress the rebellion joined it.[11] The rebels then seized the capital and proclaimed Bardanes as Emperor Philippicus;[35] Justinian had been on his way to Armenia, and was unable to return to Constantinople in time to defend it.[36] He was arrested and executed in November 711, his head being exhibited in Rome and Ravenna.[2]
On hearing the news of his death, Justinian's mother took his six-year-old son and co-emperor, Tiberius, to sanctuary atSt. Mary's Church in Blachernae, but was pursued by Philippicus' henchmen, who dragged the child from the altar and, once outside the church, murdered him, thus eradicating the line ofHeraclius.[36]
Justinian's reign saw the continued slow and ongoing process of transformation of the Byzantine Empire, as the traditions inherited from the ancient Latin Roman state were gradually being eroded. This is most clearly seen in the coinage of Justinian's reign, which saw the reintroduction of theLoros, the traditional consular costume that had not been seen on Imperial coinage for a century, while the office itself had not been celebrated for nearly half a century.[37] This was linked to Justinian's decision to unify the office ofconsul with that of emperor, thus making the Emperor the head of state not only de facto but also de jure. Although the office of the consulate continued to exist until EmperorLeo VI the Wise formally abolished it with Novel 94,[38] it was Justinian who effectively ended its status as a separate political entity. He was formally appointed as Consul in 686,[39] subsequently adopting the title for all the Julian years of his reign, consecutively numbered.
Though at times undermined by his own despotic tendencies, Justinian was a talented and perceptive ruler who succeeded in improving the standing of the Byzantine Empire.[27] A pious ruler, Justinian was the first emperor to include the image of Christ on coinage issued in his name[2] and attempted to outlaw various pagan festivals and practices that persisted in the Empire.[7] He may have self-consciously modelled himself on his namesake,Justinian I,[12] as seen in his enthusiasm for large-scale construction projects and the renaming of his Khazar wife as Theodora.[7] Among the building projects he undertook was the creation of thetriklinos, an extension to the imperial palace, a decorative cascade fountain located at theAugusteum, and a new Church of the Virgin atPetrion.[40]
The veneration of Justinian II in the Orthodox Church is the subject of debate and confusion, as there are discrepancies in differentSynaxarions. TheSynaxarion of Constantinople from the 10th century lists the commemoration of the "Emperor Justinian", giving no reference of the emperor's life or whether it is Justinian I or II.[41] Contemporary footnotes comment that this must be Justinian II, since Justinian I died in heresy, a position not held by the Orthodox Church today.[42] According to Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, Emperor Justinian II was a bad man who lived a bad life, and he could not imagine that he would be commemorated as a saint, since in the Synaxarion of Saint Kallinikos of Constantinople on August 23, it does not say he died in repentance. Saint Nikodemos suggests this must be Justinian I, who is also celebrated the 15th of November with his wife Theodora.[43]
Modern English translations and some Greek Synaxarions now list either Justinian I on August 2 or make no reference to either Justinian I or II. However, there are some Greek Synaxarions that list Justinian II.[44][45]
With his first wifeEudokia, Justinian II had at least one daughter, Anastasia, who was betrothed to the Bulgarian rulerTervel. With his second wife,Theodora of Khazaria, Justinian II had a son,Tiberius, co-emperor from 706 to 711.
Justinian, a 1998 novel by Byzantine scholarHarry Turtledove, writing under the name H. N. Turteltaub, gives a fictionalized version of Justinian's life as retold by a fictionalized lifelong companion, the soldier Myakes.[46] In the novel, Turtledove speculates that while in exile Justinian had reconstructive surgery done by an itinerant Indian plastic surgeon to repair his damaged nose.[47]
^Justinian II is depicted as a tall young man when in reality he was 13 years old at the most. The mosaic was made before 681, as he’s depicted alongside the co-emperorsHeraclius andTiberius (all of whom are depicted as being as tall asConstantine IV despite the age differences).
^His name is rarely given asFlavius Heraclius Iustinianus in older sources,[5][6] but this is not corroborated by modern historians or contemporary coins or writings.
^Theophanes the Confessor states that Constantine ruled alongside Justinian after the fall of Heraclius and Tiberius. However, all the evidence indicates that he becameaugustus only on his father's death.[8]
^Johann George Estor (1766).Freiheit der Teutschen Kirchen, fürnämlich in Rücksicht auf Se. Kaiserliche Majestät, und im Betreffe der Teutschen Reichs-Stände wider die Eingriffe der Curialen zu Rom. p. 101.ISBN9781271731411.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Baudartius, Willem (1632).Apophthegmata christiana, ofte: Ghedenck-weerdige, leersame, ende aerdighe spreuken, van vele ende verscheydene christelicke ende christen-ghelijcke persoonen gesproken ...: alles uyt vele gheloof-weerdighe scribenten met grooten vlijt versamelt ... p. 196.
^According to Turtletaub/Turtledove, Myakes is a historical character, the soldier in the boat with Justinian in the Black Sea storm, according to history, who unsuccessfully urged Justinian to become less vindictive. See Turtletaub,Justinian, at p. 510.
^Turtletaub/Turtledove attributes to Richard Delbrück the same conjecture, stating that Delbrück was able to cite iconographic evidence to support the conjecture. See Turteltaub,Justinian, at p. 511.
Head, Constance (1972).Justinian II of Byzantium. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Pratsch, Thomas (2023). "Absetzungen und Absetzungsformel in Byzanz: οἱ εὐσεβεῖς ἡμῶν βασιλεῖς χρείαν σου οὐκ ἔχουσιν" [Depositions and deposition formula in Byzantium: οἱ εὐσεβεῖς ἡμῶν βασιλεῖς χρείαν σου οὐκ ἔχουσιν].Das Altertum68 3/4, pp. 95–116 (in German).
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