Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 4 (1897).djvu/225

CHAPTER XL.

Elevation of Justin the Elder — Reign of Justinian: — I. The Empress Theodora — II. Factious of the Circus, and Sedition of Constantinople — III. Trade and Manufacture of Silk — IV. Finances and Taxes — V. Edifices of Justinian — Church of St. Sophia — Fortifications and Frontiers of the Eastern Empire — Abolition of the Schools of Athens and the Consulship of Rome

Birth of the emperor Justinian. A.D 482, May 5, or A.D. 483, May 11 The emperor Justinian was born^[1] near the ruins of Sardica (the modern Sophia), of an obscure race^[2] of Barbarians,^[3] the inhabitants of a wild and desolate country, to which the names of Dardania, of Dacia, and of Bulgaria have been successively applied. His elevation was prepared by the adventurous spirit of his uncle Justin, who, with two other peasants of the same village, deserted, for the profession of arms, the more useful employment of husbandmen or shepherds.^[4] On foot, with a scanty provision of

1. There is some difficulty in the date of his birth (Ludewig in Vit. Justiniani, p. 125); none in the place — the district Bederiana — the village Tauresium, which he afterwards decorated with his name and splendour (D'Anville, Mém. de l'Acad. &c. tom. xxxi. p. 287-292).[See below, p. 251, n. 114.]
2. The names of these Dardanian peasants are Gothic, and almost English: Justinian is a translation of uprauda (upright); his father Sabatius (in Græco-barbarous language stipes) was styled in his village istock (stock); his mother Bigleniza was softened into Vigilantia. [For the name of Justinian's father Sabatius we have the authority of Procopius; it is a Thracian word, connected with the name of the Thracian sun-god. But it was the family name, for Justinian himself also bore it; see his full name below, note 9. The other names are Slavonic (not Gothic) and are derived from the Justiniani Vita of Theophilus, quoted by Alemanni and rediscovered by Mr. Bryce (see above, vol. i., Introduction, p. lix., lx.). Mediæval Slavonic legend (if it is represented in this work) conceived Justinian as a Slav. Upravda is a translation of Justinianus (and not vice versa); istok means a fountain; Biglenizza is explained as coming from bieli "white". But these (and other Slavonic names in the Vita) are late and bad formations (compare C. Jireček, Eng. Hist. Review, 1887, p. 685). The only result from the Vita, Mr. Bryce thinks, is "to give us a glimpse into a sort of cyclus of Slavonic legends, attaching themselves to the great name of Justinian" (ib. p. 684). Prof. Jagič thinks the names are mainly a fabrication of Luccari (Copioso ristretto degli Annali di Rausa, 1605) and other Dalmatian scholars of the time. Arch, für slavische Philologie, xi. 300-4, 1888.]
3. Ludewig (p. 127-135) attempts to justify the Anician name of Justinian and Theodora, and to connect them with a family from which the house of Austria has been derived.
4. See the anecdotes of Procopius (c. 6) with the notes of N. Alemannus. The satirist would not have sunk, in the vague and decent appellation of γεωργός, the