Source
According to Rosenwein Justinian saw himself as the new Constantine and he wished to restore the Roman Empire to the amount of territories it had had under Emperor Theodosius I. He wanted to unite and rule Constantinople under the flag of Christianity. To do this he spent much of his time trying to retake the western provinces from the Germanic tribes. During his reign Justinian introduced the Corpus Juris Civilis which was the first time that the laws of Rome were written down and organized. Justinian became a religious despot. He banned worship of pagan gods and also made worship difficult for the Jewish people. He acted to “defend” the church against heretics, and to control high ranking members of the church and clergy. He even had the Hagia Sofia which was destroyed in the Nika riots rebuilt.
Procopius was not a fan of Justinian or his wife Theodora. In fact, he portrays Justinian as a coward who wants to flee during the Nike Riot but is convinced to stay by Theodora. Justinian stays and puts down the rebellion with the help of his generals.
Procopius had great distaste for the amount of power and influence that Theodora had in Justinian’s affairs. In Procopius’ opinion Theodora was an immoral woman (she had been a courtesan before marrying Justinian) who was leading Justinian astray by using his lust for her to control him (Procopius and Dewing). Although he refused to blame any of their actions solely on them. Procopius attributed any questionable acts on both their upbringings and as being the “will of God,” Later, he would describe them as being possessed by demons sent to wreak havoc. Procopius in his writing accuses Justinian of pushing Rome into becoming a brutal dictatorship under his despotic rule because of the legal and political reforms Justinian put into place. According to Procopius Justinian banned sodomy and had the privates of anyone caught cut off and the person paraded through the streets. He also banned astrology and had astrologists paraded backwards on a camel through the streets.
Procopius also says that Justinian felt a strong responsibility to help the poor and misfortunate. Procopius does give Justinian praise in The Secret History for creating philanthropic institutions and for the work that Justinian did to help the people following the bubonic plague (Procopius and Dewing). Justinian also felt a strong tie (Procopius et.al) to the apostles Andrew, Luke and Timothy and when his men found their coffins lying neglected he had them reburied and preserved a spot for him beside them. Procopius also says that Justinian had a lot of renovation projects done and that he had a number of building built, as well as roads to help the soldiers and civilians travel better and faster (Procopius et.al).
In conclusion it does not appear that Procopius cared for Justinian’s sense of morality. It seems that he felt that Justinian went too far when it came to passing laws or judging others. He also did not care for the number of wars that Justinian had going on and the fact the Justinian barely ever actively engaged in battle himself. He did however support Justinian’s attempts to better the conditions for the people living in the Empire.
References
Procopius., et al. Of The Buildings of Justinian. Print.
Procopius, and Henry B Dewing. The Anecdota Or Secret History. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: Harvard Univ. Press, 1993. Print.
Rosenwein, Barbara. "Short History of the Middle Ages, Third Edition." Short History of the Middle Ages, Third Edition. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
