Justin I

(ca. 450-527 BC)
The most memorable accomplishment of Justin - the end of which lasted approximately. 35 years of church dispute with the West. Thanks to the patronage, which helped Justin future Emperor Justinian, he managed to have a significant impact on the subsequent history of the empire.
Justin was born into a peasant family, possibly in Bederiane (province of Macedonia Salutaris). After leaving at the age of about. 20 years in search of fortune in Constantinople, he joined the court, and, gradually climbing the ladder of the job ladder, reached under the Emperor Anastasius I high office comes excubitorum, ie. commander of the Imperial Guard. When 9 July 518 the Emperor died, leaving open the question of succession to the throne, the throne went contrary to expectations, Justin. This was the result of cunning intrigues, when Justin used the money allocated to him to support another candidate, to promote his own candidacy

. In, . as Justin came to power, . There was nothing unusual for that era, . however, . Unlike many other adventurers, . founder of a new dynasty at the time of coming to power was almost 70 years, . and the undeniable merits of the commander were, . seemed, . the only argument in its favor,
. Who spoke barely literate, Justin was forced to sign official documents on the stencil, followed by his pen. Gradually, the emperor has delegated all the great powers of his nephew Justinian. Coming from the same places, . that Justin, . Justinian was an educated and refined man, . however, the rise of his uncle was obliged to exclusively, . which caused a scandal among the aristocracy, . legitimize his relationship with the former actress ward Theodoro, . by Justin made patrician,
. Wife of Justin himself was his aged girlfriend named Euphemia. He acted very wisely who adopted Justinian and made him his co-emperor in 527, when the seriously ill because of the opened old battle wounds. Justin died four months later, on August 1 527

. Anastasius left Justin a number of unresolved issues - religious divide, . unreliable army, . unrest in the capital, . find a way in irreconcilable rivalry racetrack parties, . that was in those days a veiled form of political struggle, . high taxes and discontent in the provinces,
. The most radical political step of Justin, . realized hands of his nephew, . was concluded in the West alliances with supporters of the Roman Church, . what has been achieved at the cost of a decisive attack on the eastern heretics Monophysites, . supported by two previous emperors,
. For the cathedral, which met in the dash in the 518, followed by three years of cruel persecution Monophysites, many of whom were forced to flee to Egypt. As a result, it became possible reconciliation of Eastern and Western churches, reached in 519.

Now Justin can gradually change its policy of appeasement arianina Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths in Italy. Last friendly gesture Justin to Theodoric had given him permission to appoint a consul in Rome in 522. After that Justin made an alliance with the kingdom of the Vandals in North Africa, Theodoric still unable to enlist the support of the new orthodoxy of the kingdom of the Merovingians in Gaul. In 524 Justin started to persecute the Arians as heretics, and by the end of his reign Ostrogoth Italy has been isolated, and its enemies have become allies of Constantinople as a defender of orthodoxy in the West. The diplomatic efforts of Justin spread up to Abyssinia, where he helped the kings of Axum (in spite of their Monophysitism) in their campaigns against the Yemeni tribes.

During the reign of Justin on the borders of the empire has its first Slavic people, which was to invade the Balkans - Antes, and in the last months of his reign once again climbed the Persians.