Daily Medieval

A 7th-century Sanskrit biography of the Indian emperor Harshavardhana written by his court poet Banabhatta contains the first literary menti...

I thought we should learn about the man who was causing such trouble for Justinian I and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Khosrow was t...

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...

In May 544, General Belisarius and a mere 4000 men were camped along the Adriatic coast, sent by Emperor Justinian I to counter the Gothic...

King Totila of the Ostrogoths, although the enemy and a barbarian, was still recognized by Procopius as an impressive figure: The armour in...

Although the coins later minted during his reign as king of the Osgtrogoths name him Baduila, he has become known as Totila through the writ...

The Gothic Wars (535 - 554) under Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I were created to reunify the Western Roman Empire with the Eastern. The...

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...

Although during the horrific events of the first recorded appearance of the Bubonic Plague during the time of Justinian we read that rivals...

Just because deaths during the Justinian Plague were so numerous that they couldn't dig graves and had to resort to piling them up in s...

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

The Plague of Justinian in the 540s was determined to be an early strain of the Bubonic Plague by researchers in recent years who were able...

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...

The insubordination of John the Sanguinary that led to the division in the Byzantine army between the forces commanded by Belisarius and th...

The outcome of the insubordination of John the Sanguinary created a dangerous precedent. General Narses disagreed with General Belisarius...