Is he the most overrated emperor?

Is he the most overrated emperor?

fun fact:

Gokturk Khan Istemi and Byzantine Emperor Justinian corresponded regularly. They both dreamt of continental domination and a long alliance.

Ironic.

How is it ironic? The Mongols came to be the glorious savior of the Byzantines and Europe for that matter.

Imagine if he incorporated Turk horse archers into his army, made formal contact with China, exchanging gifts and envoys every few years and sharing knowledge, converted the Turk to christianity and secured the coast of the Black Sea, Byzantium getting the coastal trading cities and the Turks getting more beloved steppe. If it wasn't for that plague, this would have materialized.

Gokturks were the precursor state to Oghuz Yabgu who formed Seljuks and then Ottomans

If Justinian and Istemi could hammer out a long alliance they could have ruled their continents easily.

Goturks got ass-raped and were garbage tier.

Who the hell rates Justinian as good emperor?

Oh right, those who see the blobbing he did in the western Mediterranean, which was completely against the empire interests. It drained treasury and overstretched the military. Not to mention his personal diplomatic pettiness which made it unable to consolidate on those gains. Defeating Ostrogoths left Italy wide open for the Longobards, whose invasion was an incomparable blow to its society, culture and economy.

He conceded to the Sassanids thrice (!) each time agreeing to pay tribute.

His religious politics were beyond retarded. He managed to antagonize absolutely every faction without managing to gain any power from it which contributed to massive erosion of imperial authority.

After constructing a sort of codex of literary and jurisprudential tradition he ordered destruction and burning of all the books he included in there. Yeah, goodbye to nearly a thousand years of Roman heritage.

If Christianity has the Antichrist, Justinian was the Antiaugustus.

Seriously, fuck Justinian.

Overrated big time.

>removed all naval threats from the empire by the time of his death
>consolidated control over Italy, Southern Spain, and North Africa which checked the Visigoths to a single area as threat instead of a realm wide one
>reformed and improved taxes as well as strengthening the power of the administration of the empire's bureaucrats
>eliminated corruption of powerful nobles and older imperial officials
>left the treasury with more money then it had already had before him via Justin I and his predecessor before him
>made silk a major exotic commodity for the empire to export and sell as well as increasing its trade and traffic of merchandise and goods with its neighbors and other states
>"fuck Justinian"

>Consolidated
No he fucking didn't retard, which is why it instantly collapsed

>instantly
>until 751
okay bud

The majority of Italy was lost with his immediate successor

>instantly collapsed
You are a retard. The Byzantines held Italy for more then a century and not until the Lombards in the mid-8th century was it all lost.

>most overrated emperor

That would be Marcus Aurelius.

>left the treasury with more money then it had already had before him via Justin I and his predecessor before him

"At the start of Justinian I's reign, the Emperor had inherited a surplus 28,800,000 from Anastasius I and Justin I.[4] Before Justinian I's reconquests the state had an annual revenue of 5,000,000 solidi, which further increased after his reconquests in 550.[4] Nevertheless, Justinian I had little money left towards the end of his reign partly because of the Justinian Plague, and the Roman–Persian Wars (Justinian spent large amounts of money in annual subsidies to the Sassanian Empire[5]), which both harmed the economy."

"After Justinian's reconquest and extensive rebuilding programs, the empire's treasury was left empty.[16] The financial mess weakened the Empire; and forced his successor, Justin II, to suspend payments to the Avars."

Okay then.

Fuck justinian, the meme emperor did nothing but destroy the roman treasury and set up the empire for its fall, he should've at least not treated Belisarius like shit

Say that to my face motherfucker

>surplus of money from successors doing nothing but collecting taxes and corrupt officials taking bribes
>uses it on vast building projects, revamping the economy, increasing trade and merchant output, legal and education reforms, creating the Justinian Code and recovering important swathes of former Roman territory
>being this mad
Fuck off G*rman.

Not so fast! Let us go over the greatest hits of Theodosius the "Great":

>Retired to Hispania upon the death of his father, a truly great man, for reasons unknown but common charges include getting rekt by Sarmatians and cowardice
>recruited barbarians after Adrianople having to deal with constant treachery in the process
>decided it wasn't worth it and allowed the Goths to settle in the Empire as a united national group with their arms intact and largely autonomous
>also required them to only serve alongside the Legions and not as part of them meaning they gain combat experience while still having no loyalty at all to you
>basically used the Gothic troops as sacrificial lambs at the Frigidus River thus pissing off them and their king, Alaric, who believed they were set up; this will have no negative effects at all down the road
>also I just wiped out the western army and now there's no real army in the west further destablizing things, whoopsily doodley
>massacred a bunch of people who were rioting and killed some officials in Thessalonica because they were mad the faggot rapist charioteer they loved got arrested for being a rapist
>actually justified in that one too, those retards deserved it, but instead vile Ambrose used it as a tool to assert authority over Theodosius
>any emperor with half a sack would've removed Ambrose and exiled him but Theodosius allowed himself to be bullied thus giving greater autonomy to the church and setting up literally the next 1000 years of arrogant papal behavior in regards to rulers
>allowed Ambrose to finally kill paganism
>after ruining the western Empire decided it would be a good time to die
>his successors form the aboslute worst dynasty in Roman history eventually resulting in the destruction of the West

>set up the empire for its fall
>empire falls 900 years after his reign

hindsight's 20/20 but no world leader projects over 1000 years ahead of time

No.
It's fucking band-aid solution Diocletian

t. Procopious

to be fair the Gothic Wars literally ruined Italy, the Lombards just occupied the shattered ruin

Archaeological evidence dates most destruction and reduction of Italian rural economy to about the time of Lombard invasion. Cities also show minimal damage up until the Lombards. Goths actually had an agreeable modus vivendi with the Italics (besides sacking Rome, but oh well, who could resist?).

what would you have done, seriously
one way or another the west was boned and at least he managed to put some more sand in the hourglass

>wasted time and money losing to the Persians, conquering Italy which wasn't even worth it, ravaged after 20 years of war and ripe for conquest. Same thing with Byzantine hold on Syria

Fucking this. And the worst thing was him giving the empire to his two useless son.

>wasted time
How did he waste time when massively building up laws, tax, and education reforms are part of his legacy?
>money lost to the Persians
The Sassanids under Khosrau I and his father before him owed debts to the White Huns/Hephthalites and when Justinian and other Byzantine Emperors before them needed to pay off debts they owed to the Turkics for overthrowing the Hephthalites. When the Byzantines refused, that was the Sassanids pretext for starting wars to get more money from them, it was going to happen with Justinian or not and don't forget both of his most successful generals, Narses and Belisarius, both had major defeats inflicted on them so there was no way to keep the invasion of Italy and Western Europe going with wars going badly against the Persians in the East.
>Italy wasn't worth it
Yes it was.

>Imagine if he made formal contact with China
The byzantines were in good terms with the Chinese and traded and corresponded with them. The Romans and the Chinese had contacted long before the Empire split.

No, he accomplished great things and thought he was doing the right thing. We know with hindsight he should have been conquering Arabia instead, he had no way to foresee Islam.