Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

64 3. justin i and justinian
involved, according to Procopius and others, in the murders in 518 of the
pro-Monophysite eunuch Amantius and in 520 of Vitalian, his own closest
rival and the consul of the year. 8 In 519 he was already building a basilica
to Sts Peter and Paul in the palace of Hormisdas, and requesting relics from
Rome. 9 The fall of Vitalian was followed by Justinian’s consulship in a.d.
521, inaugurated by brilliant consular games and from which three sets of
diptychs survive; 10 he was now magister militum praesentalis, also an office held
by Vitalian. Also in the reign of his uncle, and before April 527, he married
the Hippodrome performer Theodora, whose early career and exploits
Procopius recounts in prurient detail in the Secret History (SH 9.1–30); the
marriage was made possible only after the death of Justin’s wife Euphemia,
who was strongly opposed to it, and by the passage of a special law allowing
retired and reformed actresses to petition the emperor for the right to
marry even into the highest rank. 11 Theodora is praised in the Monophysite
tradition for her piety; however, it is not denied there that she was originally
a prostitute. 12
Both Justin I and Justinian were supporters of Chalcedon. Under
popular pressure, within days of Justin’s accession, the patriarch John of
Constantinople recognized Chalcedon and condemned Severus of
Antioch, while a series of eastern synods sought to overturn the religious
measures taken by Anastasius. Justin reopened relations with Rome;
Theoderic’s son-in-law Eutharic became western consul for 519 with Justin
himself as his eastern colleague, and the ending of the Acacian schism
between Constantinople and the papacy was announced in Constantinople
in terms favourable to Rome at the end of March, 519. 13 Predictably, this
led to discontent among eastern Christians, which was met by repression;
this was to cause difficulties for Justinian later, 14 and the 520s also saw the
appearance of other doctrinal issues, with which he had to struggle as
emperor. 15 In Africa Hilderic, king of the Vandals from 523 to 530, developed
a warm relationship with Justinian and lifted the persecution of
Catholics in his kingdom, but the alliance with Theoderic in Italy did not
prove straightforward; in 524, suspicious of possible plots with
Constantinople, the aged king turned on members of the Roman senatorial
class, and when the philosopher Boethius, whose sons had both been
8 SH 6.27–8; Zach. Rhet. HE viii.1–2; Vict. Tunn. Chron. s.a. 523; PLRE ii, s.v. Amantius 4;
Vitalianus 2. 9 Procop. Buildings i.4.
10 Procop. SH 18.33; 23.1; 24.29; Cyril of Scythopolis, V. Sabae 68. Procop. SH 6.27–28; career of
Justinian: PLRE ii.645–8; Bagnall et al., Consuls 576–7.
11 CJ v.4.23, 1–4 (a.d. 520–3); Procop. SH 9.51; PLRE iii, s.v. Theodora 1. The name Euphemia was
given to the empress on Justin’s accession in preference to the unsuitable Lupicina; Procopius alleges
that she had originally been bought by Justin as a slave (SH 6.17; see PLRE ii, s.v. Euphemia 5).
12 For John of Ephesus’ Lives of the Eastern Saints, an important source for Theodora, see Harvey,
Asceticism and Society in Crisis. 13 Stein, Bas-Empire ii.224–8.
14 Ibid., 228–325; Egypt escaped the persecution and was able to offer haven to Monophysite exiles.
15 See below and ch. 27, p.811 below.
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