What is the Justinian Code?
| Page from Justinian Code Book |
Justinian holds in his hands the power and future of the eastern Roman Empire, and soon he will spread westward, reclaiming the world as God has deemed him to. What wrong can he do? He surely is the divinely chosen ruler of Byzantium, right?
This is Justinian's sole claim, on which any question of political manoeuvres and otherwise political faux pas were justified, also having divine and destined purpose in God's larger purpose. He consecutively constructed a code, a socio-religious code by which all oriental Romans were to read as law and obey as if God Himself had handed to them. A law by which society was expected to function or else justice served, and justice served by God's chosen people reinforced by eternal damnation.
Justinian planned this all out, and even knew how to perpetuate this plot. He began closing every port of foreign idea. In his Code 529, Bauer notes that Justinian banned all forms of pagan worship in public. He shut down philosophical academies, notably places where Platonic philosophy was preached. Even though he shut down platonic schools, he used Plato's utopian ideologies in his favour, indoctrinating his people with his own teaching and circularly self-perpetuating patterns of thought. It was foolproof, in theory.
Much like the failed attempts of Constantine and the Divine Right of King theory reestablished by King James, their political and philosophical worlds were less than waterproof, perhaps resistant, but in no way did it prevent foreign contaminants. As soon as there is hope for improvement in any of these examples, there comes a socio-political movement for change.
This change meant ill for Justinian's influence on Byzantium.
Leadership and governance of large institutions and populations is fraught with difficulty, and it would seem, no version of "leadership" or "governance" is without its own myth-making and formation of power. You do well here to point out Justinian's use of religion and icon in building his persona of Emperor. To what extent he is conscious of all of his apparent self-fashioning is difficult to determine.
ReplyDelete