The Reign of Justinian

Justinian’s uncle adopted him and also ensured his education. “Justinian was superbly well educated in jurisprudence, theology and Roman history. His military career featured rapid advancement, and a great future opened up for him when, in 518, Justin became emperor. Justinian was appointed consul in 521, and later as commander of the army of the east. He was functioning as virtual regent long before Justin made him associate emperor on April 1, 527. Four months later, Justinian became the sole sovereign upon Justin I's death.” (source) He then made his wife, Theodora, joint ruler of the empire. This proved to be a good decision because she was clever, strong-willed and a good leader. (Millard 92, source)

“The reign of Justinian was an extremely significant period. It marked the final end of the Roman empire; the establishment of the new, Byzantine empire; the beginning of Western Europe's unique position within the civilizations of the Old World; and made possible the spread of Islam and the rise of the Franks…The empire was united under the Eastern emperor in theory; Justinian tried to make it so in fact. His armies invaded the Vandal, Ostrogothic, and Visigothic kingdoms in turn, and, in a series of bitter wars (540-554), re-conquered much of the Mediterranean lands of the West.” (source) “He was the last emperor to attempt to restore the Roman Empire to the territories it enjoyed under Theodosius I.” (source)

Justinian had some architectural achievements as well. The first Hagia Sophia that was built in Constantinople burned down, and he wanted to rebuild it. “Now the Emperor Justinian wanted to rebuild the church in a style that far exceeded the capabilities of any architect of his time. He had the good sense to turn to someone who was not trained as an architect but who was a scholar, knowledgeable in mathematics, statics and dynamics. This person was Anthemius of Tralles, but in Anthemius, the emperor employed someone who was not only a skilled mathematician, but also someone with an artistic genius. Mathematical skills, the ability to teach the builders to accomplish the required tasks, the daring of an innovator, and the vision of an artistic genius combined in Anthemius to produce one of the most beautiful buildings the world has seen.” (source) (Rosen 93)

Although his reign is often called the Golden Age of the Roman Empire, the end of Justinian’s rule was disastrous. A plague hit the people and they were dying quickly. “Procopius gives us a good account of the plague, modeled on Thucydides. This was clearly bubonic rather than the more deadly pulmonary plague, for Procopius indicates that people who cared for the ill did not necessarily contract the plague themselves, and pulmonary plague is directly communicable to another person whereas the bubonic variety is carried by fleas, which live on rodents, particularly the black rat. Nonetheless, bubonic plague is deadly enough: without modern treatment it can result in death in 40 to 70 per cent of its victims.
The plague moved from city to city in the empire. In 558 it returned to Constantinople for a new crop of victims.” (source)

“In fact, the number of natural disasters which befell the empire in Justinian's reign is remarkable: earthquakes, floods and plague… The plague brought a period of economic growth to an end. One estimate suggests that the population of the empire in 600 was only 60 per cent of what it was in 500. The loss of so many taxpayers hurt the treasury, though Justinian does not seem to have greatly curtailed his building program to take declining revenues into consideration. Recruits for the army became harder to find and Justinian had to rely more on barbarian troops.” (source)

Theodora died of cancer in 548, but Justinian lived some years longer, dying in 565. He was not a humble man, (thinking of himself as wiser than Solomon,) but he was smart and a good leader. Even though the plague was a huge tragedy that occurred during his reign, his reign is still thought of as the Golden Age of the Roman Empire. (Now that’s something to be proud of.) (source)

Works Cited

Millard, Dr. Anne and Patricia Vanags. The Usborne Book of World History. London, England: Usborne Publishing Ltd. 1985.

Rosen, William. Justinian’s Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire. U.S.A.: The Penguin Group. 2007.

The Magna Carta

On July 27, 1214, King John of England lost an important battle at Bouvines to King Philip II of France. Because of this, he lost any hopes he had of regaining the French lands he had inherited. When he returned, he demanded that the barons who had not joined to help him in the battle pay a fee. These barons protested and condemned his policies, and families began to take sides. King John’s opposition intensified, and he could not refuse the demands of the barons any longer. On June 15, 1215, he agreed to put his seal upon the document that confirmed their liberties. (source, source)

“The document conceded by John and set with his seal in 1215, however, was not what we know today as 'Magna Carta,' but rather a set of baronial stipulations, now lost, known as the ‘Articles of the Barons.’ After John and his barons agreed on the final provisions and additional wording changes, they issued a formal version on June 19, and it is this document that came to be known as 'Magna Carta.' Of great significance to future generations was a minor wording change, the replacement of the term ‘any baron’ with ‘any freeman,’ in stipulating to whom the provisions applied. Over time, it would help justify the application of the Charter's provisions to a greater part of the population. While freemen were a minority in 13th-century England, the term would eventually include all English, just as ‘We the People’ would come to apply to all Americans in this century.” (source)

The document also contained “63 clauses promising all freemen access to courts and a fair trial, eliminating unfair fines and punishments, giving power to the Catholic Church in England, and addressing many lesser issues.” (source) These lesser issues included settling conflicts “between church and monarchy, between individual and the state, between husband and wife, between Jew and Christian, between king and baron, between merchant and consumer, [and] between commoner and privatizer…. Its chapter 39 has grown to embody fundamental principles, habeas corpus, trial by jury, [and] prohibition of torture.” (Linebaugh 45)

The last few sections of the charter “deal with how the Magna Carta would be enforced in England. Twenty-five barons were given the responsibility of making sure the king carried out what was stated in the Magna Carta - the document clearly states that they could use force if they felt it was necessary. [Again,] to give the Magna Carta an impact, the royal seal of King John was put on it to show people that it had his royal support.” (source)

The Magna Carta has been a great influence to Americans, too. “Before penning the Declaration of Independence--the first of the American charters of freedom--in 1776, the Founding Fathers searched for a historical precedent for asserting their rightful liberties from King George III and the English Parliament. They found it in a gathering that took place 561 years earlier on the plains of Runnymede, not far from where Windsor Castle stands today…[the] Magna Carta--a momentous achievement for the English barons and, nearly six centuries later, an inspiration for angry American colonists.” (source) The common American people have looked to this agreement for help, too. A man named Roger B. Taney cited the Magna Carta in an American court 16 times! (Linebaugh 172, 173)

Indeed, the Magna Carta served as a reference point of law for the people of England to go back to if they thought the king was being unfair. This is what America’s Founding Fathers did when they wrote the Declaration of Independence. The charter can be compared to the Constitution, too, in some ways, in that it spelled out the rights of the people. All in all, the Magna Carta, (Latin for “Great Charter,”) was an outstanding document that changed the world and the way it thought about freedom. (Howard 25)

Works Cited

Howard, A. E. Dick. Magna Carta: Text and Commentary. U.S.A.: The University Press of Virginia. 1964.

Linebaugh, Peter. The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. 2008.







The Magna Carta




The Declaration of Independence





The Constitution

Princess Olga of Kiev

Princess Olga was born around 890. Her “origins are not known with certainty, but she may have come from Pskov, [Russia.] She was probably of Varangian (Scandinavian) heritage. Olga married Prince Igor I of Kiev in about 903. Igor was the son of Rurik, who is considered the founder of Russia. Igor became the ruler of Kiev, a state which included parts of what is now Russia, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, and Poland.” (source) However, Igor got greedy. He raised taxes on his subjects by triple! The Derevlians revolted and murdered Igor. (Early)

Looking to gain more power, the Derevlians’ prince Mal asked Olga to come and marry him. Olga was furious, but she concealed it so as not to spoil her plan of revenge. “Olga made this reply, ‘Your proposal is pleasing to me; indeed my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people.’ Olga pretended to show them great honor by having her men carry the Drevlians' boats from the river Dniepr towards the Prince's residence... and straight into a huge pit. She then commanded that they should be buried there alive, and they were thus buried.” (source)

“Olga then sent messages to the Derevlians to the effect that, if they really required her presence, they should send after her their distinguished men, so that she might go to their Prince with due honor, for otherwise her people in Kiev would not let her go. When the Derevlians heard this message, they gathered together the best men who governed the land of Dereva, and sent them to her. When the Derevlians arrived, Olga commanded that a bath should be made ready, and invited them to appear before her after they had bathed. The bathhouse was then heated, and the Derevlians entered in to bathe. Olga's men closed up the bathhouse behind them, and she gave orders to set it on fire from the doors, so that the Derevlians were all burned to death.” (source)

However, Princess Olga was still angry. “Olga sent another message to Prince Mal, saying she was coming at last. But she wanted to mourn at Igor's gravesite and give him a proper memorial with the traditional banquet. She asked Mal and his favored men to be her guests, and to bring plenty of mead. Once finding Igor's grave, Olga's men got busy building a proper burial mound while she wept like a dutiful wife. When the funeral rites were complete, she went with Mal to the hall for the feast. Mal inquired about the escorts that he had sent her, and Olga told him that they were on the way accompanied by her personal bodyguards. Olga and her people hosted the Drevlians and kept the mead flowing. Prince Mal and his men were so happy that everything seemed to be going their way that they never noticed how little drink was being consumed by Olga and her companions. When the Drevlians were finally incapacitated by mead, Olga's men went about with swords and killed every single Drevlian in the hall. It is estimated by historians that several hundred men were killed that night alone.” (source)

Nevertheless, the princess was still unsatisfied and as infuriated as ever. It seemed that no amount of Drevlian deaths could avenge the death of her one husband. She asked the Drevlians to give her three pigeons and three sparrows from each house as a tribute. They gladly agreed. “Now Olga gave to each soldier in her army a pigeon or a sparrow, and ordered them to attach by thread to each pigeon and sparrow a piece of sulfur bound with small pieces of cloth. When night fell, Olga bade her soldiers release the pigeons and the sparrows. So the birds flew to their nests, the pigeons to the cotes, and the sparrows under the eaves…[and set the houses on fire.] There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught on fire at once. The people fled from the city, and Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them. Thus she took the city and burned it, and captured the elders of the city. Some of the other captives she killed, while some she gave to others as slaves to her followers.” (source) She made the rest pay a heavy tribute. Finally, Olga settled down to rule as regent until her son, Svyatoslav, was of age in 964. (source)

“In 957, she visited Emperor Constantine VII in Constantinople. He admired her looks and intelligence, noting to her that 'You are fit to reign in this city with us.'…[Later, she became a Christian and agreed to be baptized.] Before her baptism, Constantine asked her hand in marriage, but Olga deferred, claiming that she wanted to be baptised an Orthodox Christian first. Again, after the baptism, Constantine requested her hand in marriage, but the quick-thinking Olga tricked him (since he was her godfather in baptism), noting that he called her his daughter in baptism and so such a union is forbidden under Christian law.” (source)

“After Princess Olga returned to Kiev, she was unsuccessful in converting her son or very many others. Her example, however, may have helped to influence her grandson, Vladimir I, who was the third son of Svyatoslav” (source) and was in line for the crown. “The city of Kiev became the political and religious center of Russia.” (Hicks 333)

“Princess Olga died, probably on July 11, 969. She is considered the first saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. Her relics were lost in the 18th century,” (source)but monuments of her still remain.

Works Cited

“Early Russia & the Fall of Constantinople” Movie. (The one where the guy dresses up.)

Hicks, Laurel Elizabeth. Old World History & Geography in Christian Perspective. U.S.A., A Beka Book. 1999.

Saturday's Blog, 9/6

This blog is cancelled.