The latter years of Justin's reign have …
Years: 527 - 527
August
The latter years of Justin's reign have been marked by strife among the Empire, the Ostrogoths, and the Persians.
His health had begun to decline in 526.
Throughout his reign, Justin, though by no means the nonentity often supposed, has had the help of his gifted nephew, Justinian, who, like his childless uncle, is a Latin-speaking Illyrian born of peasant stock.
Legally adopted by Justin and granted the rank of caesar in 525, Justinian is on April 4, 527, formally recognized as co-emperor with the rank of augustus.
His wife, the former actress Theodora, who exercises considerable influence over him, is crowned augusta at the same time.
Justin's death occurs a few months later, on August 1, and Justinian succeeds him as sole emperor.
When Justinian comes to the throne, his troops are fighting on the Euphrates River against the armies of the Persian king Kavadh.
Justin will soon dedicate the Eastern Empire to the reconquest of the West from the Germanic tribes.
The new emperor reorganizes the command structure of the army and fields a small but highly trained army, dispatching a young but capable general, Belisarius, to command the Eastern army in Armenia and on the Roman-Persian border.
Locations
People
Groups
- Goths (East Germanic tribe)
- Persian Empire, Sassanid, or Sasanid
- Christianity, Arian
- East, Diocese of the
- East, or Oriens, Praetorian prefecture of
- Christianity, Chalcedonian
- Ostrogoths, Italian Kingdom of the
- Roman Empire, Eastern: Justinian dynasty
