The Reign of Justinian From Secret History Paper Example

How well do the Blues and the Greens get along? What does Justinian do, if anything, to encourage them to work together?

Initially, even before Justinian ascended to power, the Green and the Blues lived in constant rage as the Blues always felt oppressed in the hand of the Greens who were in control of power (Procopius 1). With continuous victimization, the Blues had the urge to commit to a civil war and turn against the leadership of the Greens that subjected them to servitude though they lacked a strong and abiding leader to conjoin them. Justinian being an opportunist joined a neutral party that opposed the Greens' supremacy; it seemed an opportunity to the Blues to end the deprivations they had suffered. The Greens resented violently by being more brutal and reckless in the manner they handled the Blues can ever before. Thus, the Blues were oppressed to an extent where they were desperate of changing their situation. Instead of Justinian directly fighting the Greens, he created a neutral revolution movement to overturn the Emperor. It was a revolutionary movement that would see the Greens and Blues work together. The revolutionists never identified themselves as either a Green or Blue but based on the hair wearing style(Procopius 1). The hairstyle of the revolutionist spread in the entire community which boosted the fame of Justinian in all provinces of the Byzantine Empire among the Greens and the Blues until when he overthrew the Emperor from the throne.

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What obstacles were there to Justinian marrying Theodora?

Theodora was born a daughter of a keeper of Wild beast, Acacius, a peasant without a social rank in the society who died and left a family young family behind. Theodora's mother was a dancer who brought her daughters to the podium early enough to be sexually-exposed to wealthy men in the society (Procopius 2). When Justinian fall in love with Theodora, their marriage the following obstacles; initially, it was opposed with the Empress who rejected them wedding based on their background differences. Empress perceived that a person of high socio-political rank as Justinian with a Senatorial opposition could not marry a primitive girl that does not understand the state affairs. According to the Procopius, Empress hated Theodora for originating from rustic family and barbaric backgrounds (Procopius 2). Hence she was unfit to marry the Emperor as she will degrade the palatial standards. From childhood, Theodora was exposed to poor moral standards since she ended up being a courtesan. The laws of Rome dejected men from marrying courtesans which was the biggest obstacle ahead of Justinian and Theodora marriage (Procopius 2). The constitutional provision forced Justinian to abolish it and create a new law that allowed people to marry escort girls which eventually allowed him to wed Theodora.

What were some of the worst observations that the author has about Justinian? About Theodora?

The author sees Justinian as a demon considering the substantial harm he brought to man when he was an Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (Procopius 2). The observation of the author is put in God's perspective rather than human understanding. During the expansion of his territory, Justinian killed more men than the sea sand. He nearly wiped out all the population in Libya. Justinian kept excessive taxes in the new region which would not be met with the unfortunate individual. Thus he made them suffer more in poverty. The author never mentioned Theodora involvement in catastrophic operations of his husband, Justinian.

Describe the political culture during Justinian's rule as conveyed by the author. What means did one have to obtain or preserve his power?

During Justinian's rule, the political culture was rooted in scrabble and partition of territories among the superior communities. This culture prompted Justinian to fight and conquer all weak neighboring cities to expand his territory from an empire to a kingdom. To preserve the power, rulers used deadly power which includes deadly forces, the sophisticated weapons that threatened to wipe out any resisting community. As seen in Justinian actions, he used lethal power that almost exterminated the entire Mauritanian community and Libya population (Procopius 3).

Works Cited

Procopius. Secret History. Univ. Of Mich. Pr., 1927. Translated by Richard Atwater. New York: Covici-Friede.