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The Byzantine Empire
Peoples & Kingdoms
The Eastern Roman Empire at Its Justinianic Height
Historical Accuracy
Real, extensively documented empire. Justinian I and Theodora are real historical figures; the Nika riots, the Gothic War, the Codex Justinianus, and the Justinianic Plague are all real historical events with modern scholarly consensus behind them.
Historical Significance
Sources:
Procopius, History of the Wars, Buildings, and Secret History (contemporary court historian — note the Secret History is a hostile, likely exaggerated account); John Malalas, Chronicle. Modern: J.A.S. Evans, The Age of Justinian; Peter Sarris.
Under Justinian I, the Byzantine Empire reached its greatest territorial and cultural extent since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and its legal, architectural, and religious legacy — the Codex Justinianus and Hagia Sophia chief among them — shaped the following thousand years of European and Near Eastern history.
Historical Era
540 AD · Reign of Justinian I
Book II
Novel Canon Role:
The Byzantine Empire is the imperial power Merona enters in Book II's second half, encountering Hagia Sophia, the Great Palace, and the makeshift church hospitals of Constantinople as the Justinianic Plague begins to unfold. Individual Constantinople locations (Hagia Sophia, the Great Palace, the Ancient Catacombs) and the Justinianic Plague itself each have their own dossier; this entry covers the empire as the overarching political power behind them.
540 AD · Reign of Justinian I
Key Facts:
Direct continuation of the Roman Empire's eastern half, ruled from Constantinople since 330 AD.
Ruled in 540 AD by Emperor Justinian I and Empress Theodora, at the height of a campaign to reclaim the lost western Roman provinces.
Survived the near-catastrophic Nika riots of 532 AD; Hagia Sophia, completed 537 AD, stands as this era's defining monument.
Struck by the Justinianic Plague within two years of Book II's setting — the first recorded pandemic in history.
the-byzantine-empire
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