Introduction & Overview
Introduction & Overview
Justinian: The most fascinating yet overlooked Emperor of all the Roman Emperors that I know about in the 1500 years of Empire in OTL was an arrogant, stubborn, cruel and oppressive individual who ended his days in insanity and blood-soaked revenge of all those he thought had wronged him. However, Justinian also had incredible courage, energy, intelligence, determination, more than competent fighting skills, even flashes of brilliance at times, was extremely pious and had very good relations with the Papacy late in his reign.
He was also scion of a great dynasty that stretched back a century at the time of his death. He was the son of the extremely competent Emperor Constantine who won some great victories against the Arabs, and also had great success in his religious policies, although towards the end, he did lose a battle against the Bulgars due to various unfortunate occurrences, including his gout which meant that he had no choice but to withdraw from the campaign due to extreme pain, and a rumour spread that he had deserted his troops.
Before I go to the POD, I think some more background regarding this relatively unknown Roman Emperor may be of use to those not familiar with him.
I am talking of course of the Rhinotmetos (Cut-nose), Justinian II (Ιουστινιανός Β' ο Ρινότμητος) of the House of Heraclius, Emperor of the Romans and son of the Emperor Constantine IV. He reigned from 685 when he was 16 until 695, and was deposed because he managed to anger the nobles whom his rule depended upon with his excessive taxation for his wars, preference for improving the lot of the peasantry, and mania for constructing buildings in an effort to match the first Justinian whom he wished to live up to because of his name. He had his nose cut off when overthrown, the theory being that an Emperor must have no obvious physical defects in order to rule. He was exiled to Cherson in the Crimea, and nothing was expected to be heard from him again.
But they were wrong.
In one of the most extraordinary comebacks in history, he defied the odds, assassination attempts, poverty and 10 years of obscurity, and his mutilation acting as a barrier, to gather an army, and retake Constantinople. He was unable to take the city directly, but in a very brave move, and stroke of genius, crawled through the dark pipe of a disused aqueduct with a handful of followers and entered the city at night. Confronted by guards on the street he boldly proclaimed who he was, and some fled, raising the alarm, whilst others were loyal to him and also shouted his name in the streets creating chaos. Before long, the ruling Emperor was terrified, leaving the city so fast, he left his robes behind.
He had the Emperor that had deposed him (Leontius, who had had his nose cut off by his successor), and Tiberius III who had deposed Leontius (and was captured later on after his night flight), both paraded around the city pelted with odure and other objects, and then put his feet on their necks during the races in the Hippodrome. Then he had their heads chopped off and displayed on poles at the palace gates. Following that, he had everyone who he in anyway thought was connected with them executed in various inventive ways. It is said that he went insane and had such paranoia that no one was safe, and large numbers of people, real and imagined enemies, some guilty, some innocent were massacred. His second reign lasted from 705 until 711.
In the end, an expedition sent to punish the authorties in Cherson for their treatment of him during his exile there took the city, but the new governor Elias rebelled against Justinian, refusing to kill the children there. A second one was sent out with orders to raze it to the ground on pain of death - if they returned without doing that, all their lives would be forfeit. The second expedition could not achieve this, and fearful of the consequences they ended up joining the rebels in Cherson, and declared the commander of the fleet, Bardanes Philippicus as their Emperor. Justinian was away from Constantinople at that time, putting down a minor uprising. He raced back to the city on news of the approaching fleet, but he didn't get back first, only making it to the tenth milestone before being captured and executed. His little son and co-emperor, Tiberius, who was just 6 years old, was stripped naked and slaughtered in the porch of a church by the soldiers of the new emperor. Nothing is known of what happened to Justinian's mother, but maybe she ended up in a convent as his daughter from his first wife who had died giving birth had during his exile.
Justinian II bucked tradition in many ways:
He returned to rule even though his mutilation meant that he should not have been able to, it being commonly accepted that a man without a nose being unacceptable to rule. His sheer determination and courage, and refusing to give up against every single obstacle put against him was incredible. After he was restored, it was never used as a punishment again, blinding being preferred.
He married a Khazar in exile, who converted to Christianity, and who was renamed Theodora, the first time the Byzantines had a barbarian Empress.
He awarded the crown of Caesar to Tervel, Khan of the Bulgars for his help in retaking the city, the first time a barbarian had been awarded such a title, the second highest in the Empire after his own of Augustus/Basileus.
All the above acts were utterly unthinkable and caused his people to gasp with shock, yet he did them anyway, and such things became more acceptable in the future as a result.
Other achievements:
Farmer's Law that benefited farmers over landowners, and improved their lot considerably.
Successful wars against the Slavs and Bulgarians in his first reign, relocating all his prisoners (tens of thousands) in large empty parts of Anatolia which strengthened the theme system with more soldiers being made available, and increasing agricultural output.
Successful wars against the Arabs, resulting in a much larger tribute than his father had secured. Instead of 3000 nomismata per year, a thousand a week as well as other tributes in terms of horses and slaves. However, in the latter part of his first reign, the general Leontius disobeyed direct orders for troop deployments (thinking he could do better), and coupled with the defection of Slav troops managed to lose a battle Justinian looked like winning. He was thrown into gaol, but was later released in a moment of generosity when Justinian decided he needed someone to administer a particularly troublesome and dangerous theme where Leontius could be expected to have his hands too full to plot anything against him. Unfortunately, security to the ship supposed to take him to his new posting from Constantinople was lax, and he escaped to overthrow Justinian with the help of those angry landowners who had lost out from his Farmer's Law and the nobles he had been taxing. Justinian, however, remained quite popular with the lower classes.
The first Emperor to put the image of Christ on his coinage, probably down to his piousness, but also possibly part of an attempt to affect the Arabs' economy since they were averse to use such coins as the image was too blasphemous for many of them.
Resettlement of some of the fierce warrior tribes of Christian Mardiates which had caused the Arabs such trouble into his western themes, subsequently causing the Slavs and Bulgars no end of headaches. This also considerably strengthened the navy as many were recruited from their numbers, and Justinian did put a signifiant focus on reform of the fleet.
Holding a successful new ecumenical council, the Quinisextium in his first reign that further codified and refined issues set out by there previous two large synods in the first Justinian's time (553 - Constantinople II) and in his father's reign (680 - Constantinople III).
Excellent relations with the Papacy at the end of his second reign, where the Pope Constantine I visited Constantinople, the last time that a reigning Pope would do so until Pope Paul did the same in the 1960s. Important agreements were signed that smoothed relations between East and West.
However, there is a good POD that could mean that he is not deposed a second time.
On his escape from Cherson in 704, he took a small fishing boat with a handful of followers. It was caught in a storm that was so bad, it looked certain the little boat would be swamped and all drowned, motivating a member of his retinue named Myakes to beg Justinian to promise God that he would have mercy on all his enemies if he reclaimed the throne. Justinian, entirely characteristically shook his fist at the heavens, and vowed, "What? Mercy?? If I show any single one of them mercy, may God drown me right now!". The storm blew off shortly afterwards, and the boat reached safety. However, Justinian saw that as divine sanction for carrying out revenge (remember he was a very pious man), and indeed feared that if he did not, God would punish him for not carrying out his will.
So, what if during that storm, Justinian had been tossed overboard, and nearly drowned, and seeing that as a threat from God to change his ways, he did indeed have mercy, saw the excesses of his previous rule as punishment from God, and decided to rule less oppressively and with more kindness? Not being utterly consumed with revenge to the detriment of the Empire (his neighbours took full advantage of his distractions caused by him rooting out people to attack and take more land from the Romans), he would have instead concentrated his considerable energies, skills, determination and other positive attributes to sorting out his Empire.
There would most likely be no Emperor Leo III the Iconoclast of the Isaurian dynasty (717-741), which has huge implications for the religious and political situation of the Empire since he followed on from the short reigns of Bardanes Philippicus (711-713), Anastasius II (713-716) and Theodosius III (716-717).
Note that Justinian did not become so cruel until he sought divine revenge in his second reign, and that probably helped to unhinge him in some respect. He was only 42 when he died, so could have been around for up to another 30 or 40 years. Given that he was an energetic emperor, with a skill for battle when rational, could he have done something to retake territories lost to the Arab advance in North Africa under Leontius and Tiberius III?
I find him far more interesting than the first Justinian since his life reads like an adventure story and despite his excesses, he is certainly an extraordinary individual, however you look at it. And PODs for the first Justinian have been done to death, so how about one regarding this incredible individual who is unjustly overlooked in my view.
Myakes existed, but it is not known what position he held. Turtledove (as H. N. Turtletaub) wrote a novel where he is portrayed as a former imperial officer who remains loyal to the Emperor. This TL will be influenced by that take since as we don't fully know all the details, we have a bit of room to work with.
Thoughts? Ideas?
Sargon
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