Daily Medieval

While the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I and the Sassanids under Khosrow I might have decided to stop fighting on their southern borders...

When Justinian I became emperor (527 - 565), he inherited from his uncle the war with the Sassanid Empire to the east. This Iranian Empire ...

One of Emperor Justinian's (527 - 565) goals—and it was personal as well as professional—was reconciling Chalcedonian Christianity with...

We've been talking lately about Emperor Justinian I and the Eastern Roman Empire trying to reunite with the Western Roman Empire in the...

Totila's behavior in Rome after the Siege enhanced his reputation. He did not kill very many—there weren't that many left to kill!)...

In 546, Goth King Totila walked into Rome after a year-long siege . The city was nearly empty due to starvation and suicide brought on by t...

Emperor Justinian's plan to end the Nika Riots involved bribes. One difficulty about the Riots was that two large and influential rival...

Let's look at how Emperor Justinian managed to stop the Nika Riots and save Constantinople. We saw yesterday how the Blue and Green f...

Constantinople during the reign  of Emperor   Justinian I (482 - 565) saw a tumultuous week in 532. The catalyst was a little earlier, when...

People love sports, and people love their sports teams, and rivalries abound. 'Twas ever thus, and Ancient Rome was no exception. In Rom...

Flavius Belisarius (c.500 - March 565) was Byzantine Emperor Justinian's favorite military commander. He successfully managed to gain c...

Sometimes a disaster strikes a civilization that kills so many so fast that the systems for providing support and burial cannot keep up. Suc...

One of the chief sources of the Gothic Wars and of 6th century Byzantine history is Procopius of Caesarea (c.500 - c.565), a Greek scholar a...

There were several people writing during the time of the Justinian Plague  (540s CE). One was Evagrius Scholasticus (c.536 - 594), a lawyer ...

Long, long ago I made a brief mention of the Plague of Justinian, and I've made many posts dealing with the Bubonic Plague , the Black ...

For the sake of ending the Byzantine invasion of Italy to conquer the Ostrogoths and unify the old Western Roman Empire with the Eastern Byz...

Ravenna, in the far north coast of Italy on the Adriatic, was the capital city of the Ostrogoths. Capturing it could bring the Gothic Wars t...

I thought we'd elaborate a little on the conflict mentioned yesterday about the taking of Ariminum (modern Rimini) by a Byzantine force...

Whatever the catalyst was—murder of his friend Amalasuintha , or just a desire to avenge Rome and Romans against the Goths—Byzantine Emperor...

The Ostrogothic prince Eutharic took as his wife Amalasuintha, daughter of Theodoric the Great . Eutharic was in line to succeed Theodoric ...