Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

108 4. the successors of justinian
killed at Chalcedon, an act that would provide Khusro II with an excuse to
attack the Romans to revenge his former protector and usher in twenty-five
years of exhausting conflict. 47
iv. conclusion
Thus the grand hopes of imperial renewal proclaimed by Justin II and
resuscitated by the achievements of Maurice’s second decade were finally
dashed, but long-term failure should not prejudice assessments of individuals
or trends. In the late sixth century the Roman empire was still the
mightiest single political institution in the Mediterranean or near eastern
world, even if it was not powerful enough to dominate simultaneously on
all frontiers. The emperor controlled this great machine, a leader whose
images could excite envy in Gaul, whose grandeur prompted first submission
and later imitation from the Avar Chagan, and whose legitimate
authority led a fugitive Persian monarch to beg for assistance. These emperors
were civilian figures, palace officials or notaries by background, who
dominated the administrative and military infrastructures through their
secular authority. In time-honoured fashion this authority was reinforced
by association with religious symbols, such as relics or festivals, which
influenced contemporaries and sustained the potent symbolism of the
heaven-endowed earthly empire. Such was the authority of the emperor
that even imperial madness or severe personal unpopularity did not at once
prompt a change of ruler: Justin remained sole Augustus for over four
years after the onset of insanity, while Maurice even in 602 could have survived
by making timely concessions to the Balkan mutineers, or might at
least have been replaced by a close relative.
These reigns have been analysed in terms of differing relationships
between emperors on the one hand and the senatorial aristocracy and
urban populace on the other, 48 but the evidence is insufficient to permit
detailed investigation. With regard to the senate, the emperor was the
supreme patron throughout; senators desired stability as the guarantee of
their privileged position – hence their support for the rapid proclamation
of Justin II inside the palace to avoid public debate in the Hippodrome and
their pleas to Maurice not to leave the capital on a risky military expedition.
Undoubtedly there were tensions in this relationship, but there was also a
fundamental community of interest. With regard to the populace, emperors
seem to have managed to achieve a more secure control over the circus
factions, the most prominent or vocal representatives of public opinion: in
602 for the first time demarchs, official controllers, of the Blues and Greens
are mentioned, and these now maintained lists of registered followers who
47 Ibid. 24–7. 48 Bury, LRE ii.92–4; Ostrogorsky (1956) 82–3.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008