Daily Medieval

I thought we should see the man who was causing such trouble for Justinian I and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

While the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I and the Sassanids under Khosrow I might have decided to stop fighting on their southern borders, but hostilities continued in the area east of the Black Sea.

When Justinian I became emperor (527 - 565), he inherited from his uncle the war with the Sassanid Empire to the east.

One of Emperor Justinian's (527 - 565) goals—and it was personal as well as professional—was reconciling Chalcedonian Christianity with the non-Chalcedonians.

We've been talking lately about Emperor Justinian I and the Eastern Roman Empire trying to reunite with the Western Roman Empire in the Gothic Wars.

Totila's behavior in Rome after the Siege enhanced his reputation.

In 546, Goth King Totila walked into Rome after a year-long siege.

In May 544, General Belisarius and a mere 4000 men were camped along the Adriatic coast, sent by Emperor Justinian I to counter the Gothic army of Totila that was reclaiming territory that the Byzantines had taken from the Ostrogoths during the first part…

King Totila of the Ostrogoths, although the enemy and a barbarian, was still recognized by Procopius as an impressive figure: The armour in which he was clad was abundantly plated with gold and the ample adornments which hung from his cheek plates as well…

Although the coins later minted during his reign as king of the Osgtrogoths name him Baduila, he has become known as Totila through the writings of men like Procopius.

The Gothic Wars (535 - 554) under Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I were created to reunify the Western Roman Empire with the Eastern.

Emperor Justinian's plan to end the Nika Riots involved bribes.

Let's look at how Emperor Justinian managed to stop the Nika Riots and save Constantinople.

Constantinople during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (482 - 565) saw a tumultuous week in 532.

People love sports, and people love their sports teams, and rivalries abound.

Flavius Belisarius (c.500 - March 565) was Byzantine Emperor Justinian's favorite military commander.

Although during the horrific events of the first recorded appearance of the Bubonic Plague during the time of Justinian we read that rivals put aside their differences, the aftermath did not usher in a golden age of humanity.

Just because deaths during the Justinian Plague were so numerous that they couldn't dig graves and had to resort to piling them up in stone towers doesn't mean that "proper" funerary procedures weren't followed.

Sometimes a disaster strikes a civilization that kills so many so fast that the systems for providing support and burial cannot keep up.

The Plague of Justinian in the 540s was determined to be an early strain of the Bubonic Plague by researchers in recent years who were able to examine evidence from contemporary skeletons.

One of the chief sources of the Gothic Wars and of 6th century Byzantine history is Procopius of Caesarea (c.500 - c.565), a Greek scholar and historian from Palestine.

There were several people writing during the time of the Justinian Plague (540s CE).

Long, long ago I made a brief mention of the Plague of Justinian, and I've made many posts dealing with the Bubonic Plague, the Black Death, and Yersinia pestis.

For the sake of ending the Byzantine invasion of Italy to conquer the Ostrogoths and unify the old Western Roman Empire with the Eastern Byzantine Empire, King Vitiges of the Ostrogoths agreed to terms with General Belisarius.

Ravenna, in the far north coast of Italy on the Adriatic, was the capital city of the Ostrogoths.

The insubordination of John the Sanguinary that led to the division in the Byzantine army between the forces commanded by Belisarius and those commanded by Narses created further problems.

The outcome of the insubordination of John the Sanguinary created a dangerous precedent.

I thought we'd elaborate a little on the conflict mentioned yesterday about the taking of Ariminum (modern Rimini) by a Byzantine force under a general called John the Sanguinary.

King Vitiges of the Ostrogoths besieged Rome, that had been taken and inhabited by the Byzantine forces of Justinian I, led by General Belisarius.

Whatever the catalyst was—murder of his friend Amalasuintha, or just a desire to avenge Rome and Romans against the Goths—Byzantine Emperor Justinian I decided it was time to re-assert control over the western provinces of the once-mighty Roman Empire.

The Ostrogothic prince Eutharic took as his wife Amalasuintha, daughter of Theodoric the Great.

The sons of Clovis saw Burgundy as a target.

Clodoald (522 - c.560CE) was (along with Theodebald and Gunthar) one of the three sons of King Chlodomer of Orléans.

When King Hermanfrid of Thuringia offered part of Thuringia to Theuderic if Theuderic would help him defeat Hermanfrid's brother and co-ruler Baderic, Theuderic agreed.

Radegund (c.520 – 13 August 587) was another wife of Clothar I.

The father of the four sons who were mentioned fighting each other's divided Frankish kingdoms yesterday was Clothar I (one of the four sons of Clovis I, the king who first united all the Frankish kingdoms), who also spent his adult life trying to conquer…

Yesterday's post mentioned that the Franks fell into civil war and became less of a threat to Lombardy.

There was a period in the history of the Kingdom of Lombardy when they had no king.

The past few days have been filled with discussion about the Lombards, aka the Langobards, and their origin according to medieval texts.

The History of the Lombards by Paul the Deacon drew heavily on other works, especially about prior times.

Paul the Deacon assembled information from some of the greatest scholars and historians and his own observations to create his Historia Langobardorum.

Paul the Deacon (c.720s – 13 April c.796-799) has many writings attributed to him (some probably erroneously, like a life of Gregory the Great, that was probably written much earlier than Paul).

Winfrid was born about 720 in the Duchy of Friuli, the northern part of the Italian Peninsula that was the kingdom of the Lombards.