What were Justinian's goals as leader?

Answer 1

Justin I had several goals during his reign:

1) to recover the lands lost to the Germanic invasions by the western part of the Roman Empire. He succeed in recovering Italy from the Ostrogoths, northwestern Africa from the Vandals and part of Spain from the Visigoths.

2) to review imperial laws going back 400 years (to the time of Hadrian), scrap obsolete or unnecessary laws, make changes when necessary and clarify obscure passages. This was done through the Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) which was also given the name Justinian Code in the 16th century. Its aim was to put the laws in a single book (previously they were written on many different scrolls), harmonise conflicting views among jurists which arose from centuries of poorly organised development of Roman law and have a coherent body of law.

3) to protect the purity of the official church (the Orthodox Church) and persecute dissident Christian sects and paganism. He secured the rights of the Orthodox church and the clergy and protected and expanded the monastic orders. He granted the monks the right to inherit property from private individuals and to receive annual gits for the state or from taxes and banned the confiscation of monastic property. He gave the canons of the church legal force and issued laws regarding the administration of church property, the elections and rights and obligations of the clergy, the conduct of service and episcopal jurisdiction. Justinian I was one of the most important emperors in the history of the Orthodox Church. He has been described as a 'nursing father' of the church, put it on a more solid footing, and redefined its structure.

4) to undertake an ambitious programme of public works to improve the infrastructure of his empire and to build or restore Christian Churches. He rebuilt the damaged Church of the Holy Apostles and the Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople, which were both badly damaged, and built the church of San Vitale in Ravenna (the centre of Byzantine rule in Italy). He built underground cisterns to secure water supply for Constantinople, including the massive Basilica Cistern (453 by 212 feet and 30 ft. high)). He built a dam is southwestern Turkey to prevent flood and the Sangiarius bridge in northwestern Turkey to secure a supply route to the east for the army. He built border fortifications from Africa to the East. Justinian restored towns damaged by an earthquake and built a new city, Justiniana Prima, as the new capital of the province of Illyria. He built a massive granary on an island near Constantinople to make the grain traffic form Egypt more efficient. He was helped in undertaking all this by the large revenues the conquests and the gaining control over the western Mediterranean generated. State revenues increased by 20%.

Justinian I also established diplomatic relations with Ethiopia to bypass the land Silk Road through Persia because there were wars with Persia and managed to establish a local production of silk.