JUSTINIAN THE GREAT
Justinian the Great and the rise of the Byzantine Empire
Below you'll find all the information needed to work on the exercise of Justinian the Great in Chapter 2. The Byzantine Empire. Watch the videos, read the sources and look at the maps to help you find the correct answers and complete the exercises.
FROM PEASANT TO EMPEROR
THE EXPANSION OF THE EMPIRE
JUSTINIAN OVERSEAS
JUSTINIAN'S CODE
Code of Justinian, Latin Codex Justinianus, formally Corpus Juris Civilis (“Body of Civil Law”), collections of laws and legal interpretations developed under the sponsorship of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I from 529 to 565 ce.
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The Codex Justinianus was the first book to be completed and is the foundation for the Justinian Code. Emperor Justinian appointed a ten man council of jurists to look through all known laws created by the emperors and jurist of the old Roman Empire and remove all the obsolete and contradictory laws.
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Those 10 men were able to reduce the 1600 books with laws and rules, made by the Roman lawyers and to finally create a low system with 4 books and 4000 laws. Another great improvement was the fact that this laws now were valid for the entire empire. The only problem was that the laws were written in Greek while most of the people spoke only Latin, especially in the western parts of the realm.
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The laws of the Corpus Iuris Civilis contained laws about almost every part of the human and public live, as well as religion. When it comes to religion, Justinian helped the spread of Christianity drastically. He supported the growth of Christianity in the Byzantine empire, and allowed it to become one of the biggest religions today.
SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
