How good of a ruler was he really?

How good of a ruler was he really?

Considering the circumstances, his achievements were extremely remarkable. But it was already too late by then.

He wasn't, for the most part. With the exception of the Code Justinian he was a net negative for the Empire and its citizens. He constantly put citizens in the border regions at risk from the Huns and Sassanids because he sent the army off on completely pointless wars in Italy, which also brought the Empire into near bankruptcy. His wars left Italy - a once fertile and rich land - completely destroyed and ruined, meaning it would take centuries to begin to recover. And all for "muh glory" and "muh reconquest". The wars in Italy happened solely to satisfy his own ego. He also introduced harsh laws oppressing religious dissenters and "heretics", and forcing them to convert or suffer exile and death. He treated his greatest general and servant like shit, and he also married a literal whore.

Justinian is a meme. Normies only worship him because of the highly glorified Extra Credits bullshit.

>his achievements were extremely remarkable.
>Puts the pope under house arrest to force him to sign some treaty
What did he mean by this

He is shit and overrated, he would have been nothing if it wasn't for Belisarius.

>Be Justinian
>I will retake North Africa and Italy
>Bulgars and Sklavinoi assravaging the Balkans
>Better build some fancy buildings, muh glory
>Oh yeah I'll build some forts in the balkans, but won't commit a lot of garrisons cause muh RECONQUEST
>Also I'll spend more money on making barbarians fight one another and stretch my empire's fiscal capacity further
>East and West split regards to religion
>Decide to persecute Eastern heretic sect
>Somehow fails
>Decide to renounce one of the sects to comply to the Eastern Monophysites
>Demand Latin Pope to sign the denouncement of 3 authors, refuses
>Put him under house arrest until he complies and signs the treaty
>Piss off the Western Latins for leaning too much to the Eastern side and force my shitty dogma on them
>Get so confused by Christ's nature I make a statement that contradicts the following I associate myself with
>Basically become a heretic
>Plague comes in
>Sassanids also attacking us
>Still need those Italian lands mofugga
>Slavs break through my frontier after 5 years of peace.
>Eventually Barbarian superstate forms that wants to conquer our land
>wtf why is West and East still split and angry

Napoleon basically did the same. They showed the popes that valuable lesson of "talk shit, get hit".

My ancestor :)

>talk shit, get hit
>Pope stays true to his belief and doesn't like Justinian comforting to Monophysites who are deemed heretics
>Even Justinian considered them heretics and persecuted them
>Justinian fucks him over for no reason and makes himself less popular among the Roman Catholics in Italy that he wants to reconquer
>based Justinian!!!!!!!

Justinian came to rule the empire only a few years before a massive volcanic eruption sent much of Europe into chaos, followed up by the aptly named Justinian plague sweeping in and killing off masses across the Mediterranean. Altogether, it was quite remarkable that he managed through it.

By killing hundreds of millions of Romans, literally the antichrist.

>mfw reading about what the 4th crusade did to his temples
>mfw reading about what the Turkroaches did to his statues

>Kizushits defending Justinian's statues
Of course.

What was wrong with them?

They depicted a wh*Tey, by Allah it is forbidden.

Delusional buffoon. Anyone half-competent could have done the same thing he did, except without all those vain ambitions that over-compensating cuck had.

>and he also married a literal whore.
t. Procopius "dude Justinian took his head off at night and it flew around his Palace like a demon lmao" Caesariensis

Except his wife being a whore is perfectly believable given the business she was in.

Procopius was right about everything, though.

Actresses for a *very* long time also doubled as whores. That's just how the job worked back then.

Procopius' lewd writings about loli Theodora still stand up to this day.

>The Code of Justinian I called for sodomites to be burned at the stake in public.
>"The principle of "Servitude of the Jews" (Servitus Judaeorum) was established by the new laws, and determined the status of Jews throughout the Empire for hundreds of years. The Jews were disadvantaged in a number of ways. Jews could not testify against Christians and were disqualified from holding a public office. Jewish civil and religious rights were restricted: "they shall enjoy no honors". The use of the Hebrew language in worship was forbidden."

Based JUSTinian was /ourguy/.

>Napoleon and Justinian showed them a lesson
>Napoleon and Justinian are dead, their empires long gone, the Papacy lives on

get rekt, temporal powers

One of the greatest Roman Emperor.

>pointless wars in Italy
Rome used to be capital city of Roman Empire so it wasn't so pointless
especially when you think about owning city of the pope

>Implying that's not how it is today
Harvey Weinstein would like to have a word with you..

The problem with Justinian's conquest of Italy was that his empire was already riddled with problems and going on an epic expedition when the barbarians and Sassanids are knocking at your door isn't really the greatest of ideas. He could have used those men to strengthen the Balkan frontier instead or something.

funny how Orthodox reject use of Hebrew in worship but Protestants refuse Greek and Latin language in favor of Hebrew language and reject Greek and Latin canon in favor of Hebrew canon.

Justinian's biggest (and really only mistake) was making Justin II his heir. It was under Justin's reign (and through his incompetence/mental instability) that Rome found itself in a fucked up situation that eventually lead to the death of Maurice.

But in all honesty, the plague did more damage than any actual ruler or policy.

>The empire's population at the end of Justinian's reign was the same as at the start

Says a lot about how many people died due to the plague.

Trillions died!

Because Rome's population was even close to 100 million at the time.

It's not like Justinian's conquests were without merit. Despite the plague and warfare, the empire's revenue rose sharply. The destruction of Vandals and Goths ensured the empire's naval supremacy would go unchallenged for another century. Control over the major cities in Italy stalled the Pope's political drift for some time. The restored territories provided support (and emperors) during the following eastern wars. Honestly there were plenty of good reasons for Justinian's conquests. They were a risk, but a calculated one. It wasn't his fault God decided to kick them in the balls halfway through.

He literally killed 100,000,000, though. Some regions in Libya were straight up deserted.

Rome's population wasn't anywhere near 100 million, you dumb fuck. At it's height it's population was around 90 million during the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. At most the population of the empire under Justinian was around 20 million. And that steep decline in population is what hurt the empire more so than any single emperor's policies.

It was literally 100 million, you fucking nigger. Justinian literally murdered 100 million Romans throughout his reign, why do you think Libya was straight up deserted?

Do you have autism? You understand that he's referencing Procopius who basically wrote the most hilarious shittalking on Justinian's reign in history?
>Justinian's head would turn into a blob
>Justinian killed "ten thousand times ten thousand" Romans
>Justinian's head would disappear
>When the priest approached Justinian, the priest ran away saying he saw the devil himself sitting on the throne
>Justinian's mother was impregnated by the devil
>His wife was a turboslut

Yes. Yes I do. I'll go into my hole now

>Rome used to be capital city of Roman Empire
Rome stopped being capital 286, also Rome was a shithole, and whole of Italy was a net loss given their lack of any kind of contribution and the constant need to feed them with bread from Algieria, France and Egypt
>especially when you think about owning city of the pope
The Patriarch of Rome had nowhere as much power back then as he does now, the whole "fuck pentarchy, we wuz Peterz n sheeeit" was a later construct

Not to mention by controlling the Latin you now basically have 2 extremes of Christianity in your empire. The Eastern Sect that REEEEEEEEEEEEs at the Western Catholic Sect. And the western Catholics that REEEEEEEEE at the Eastern sect. Have fun satisfying both of them