Justinian’s Empire

Justinian’s Empire examines the reign of Justinian I, when the eastern Roman state attempted to restore imperial authority across the Mediterranean. Holmes covers the codification of Roman law, the Nika riots, the construction of Hagia Sophia and the campaigns led by Belisarius against the Vandals in North Africa and the Ostrogoths in Italy. Theodora and Procopius are central to an account of court politics, propaganda and the contested reputation of the emperor.

The apparent recovery is balanced against prolonged war with Persia, the devastation of Italy, heavy taxation and the first great outbreak of the Plague of Justinian. Holmes asks whether the reconquests represented a durable restoration or an expensive overextension that left the empire vulnerable after Justinian’s death. The book therefore presents the reign as both a high point of Roman ambition and a source of later military and financial weakness.