Justinian_I_Reign

Justinian I also known as Justinian the Great had a very significant role in world history which left behind a legacy of remarkable proportions. As an Emperor, he is glorified and ridiculed for being too ambitious and straining his resources. Justinian ruled for forty years and during those forty years he made several significant changes to the then known civilization. One of the most outstanding accomplishments of Justinian’s rule was the recovery of huge stretches of territory around the Western Mediterranean, which had fell out of imperial control prior to Justinian reign. Secondly, while Justinian’s armies were recovering territories for the kingdom, Justinian himself was preoccupied with improving architecture and various things in Constantinople, which was the capital of the new Roman Empire. Under Justinian’s reign, several buildings where built like the San Vitale in Ravenna. The most remarkable of them was the very magnificent cathedral of St. Sophia. Well-known in particular for its gigantic dome, it is considered the personification of Byzantine architecture. This magnificent church still exists in all its radiance and greatness which and for a long time was the best designed church in world. But the most significant and memorable thing that Justinian did was the cultivating and gathering of the laws. According to the book, Justinian made several brilliant new laws and improved many of the old laws which, is why I believe he’s one of the greatest world's policymakers. For a very long period of time the Roman laws had been hard to understand, due to several different interpretations from several different writers. According to the book, Justinian then hired a great lawyer, named Tribonian, to gather and simplify the main laws. The collection which he made was called the Code of Justinian also known as Corpus Juris Civilis. Currently, the Code of Justinian still exists and is the blueprint of most countries in Europe.