Justinian & Theodora

Constantinople in the sixth century was probably the most impressive city on earth. Perhaps five hundred thousand people. A harbor that could swallow entire merchant fleets. Walls that had not been breached in over a century. Markets where Egyptian grain, Syrian silk, Black Sea furs, and Arabian spices changed hands in a single afternoon. The city sat at the narrows between Europe and Asia, and it knew exactly what that meant: everyone who wanted to move goods or armies between continents had to deal with whoever controlled this point.

The eastern Roman Empire — what historians now call the Byzantine Empire, though no one living there called it that — had survived the collapse that destroyed Rome in the west. It had survived by being wealthier, more defensible, and more administratively coherent than any rival. The city itself was the empire's greatest argument for its own legitimacy. Look at us, it said. This is what Roman civilization actually looks like.

Into this world, in 527 CE, came Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 527 to 565 CE. Born Petrus Sabbatius in Illyria (modern Serbia), he took his uncle Justin's family name upon adoption. He oversaw a massive attempt to reconquer the western Mediterranean, the codification of Roman law, and a building program that reshaped Constantinople. He is one of the most consequential rulers of late antiquity. as sole emperor after his uncle Justin died. He was forty-five years old and he intended to be remembered.