Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/748

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T28 JUSTINIAN power on the death of her son Athalaric, the profligate grandson of Theodoric the Great. Belisarins successively reduced Sicily and con- quered Naples ; Theodatus was deposed by his people and assassinated ; and Rome opened its gates to the array which fought in its name (53fi). In 539 Ravenna was reduced, but Jus- tinian from envy recalled the conqueror. Chos- roes, king of Persia, was driven from Syria in 541, and Belisarius, after a short period of dis- grace, was again sent into Italy to prevent the capture of Rome by Totila. Tbe attempt to relieve it was unsuccessful, and Belisarius was finally succeeded in the command by Narses. In 552 Justinian once more received the keys of the ancient capital, which in his reign had been five times taken and recovered. Totila had fallen in the battle of Tagina, and his suc- cessor Teias, the last of the Ostrogothic kings, shared the same fate on the Sarnus in the fol- lowing year. Another great victory of Narses over the Franks and Alemanni, who then in- vaded Italy, secured the possession of that country, which he governed as exarch, resi- ding in Ravenna. In the East, Justinian ter- minated a protracted war with the Persians by a peace (561), in which Ohosroes extorted the ignominious promise of an annual tribute. The northern frontiers of the empire were in part secured against the invasions of the bar- barians by similar treaties, and a vast line of fortifications, especially along the Danube, was added from a feeling of precaution which the degeneracy of the empire made but too natu- ral. The imperial armies themselves consisted mainly of barbarian hirelings. In the interior the reign of Justinian was marked by tyranny, extortion, and lavish expenditure, especially in the erection of sumptuous buildings, of which the rebuilt church of St. Sophia was the most magnificent; by a continual meddling in the affairs of the church, and the severe persecu- tion of heretics, Samaritans, Jews, and pagans, involving the dissolution of the Athenian school of philosophy ; and by uninterrupted intrigues at the court, which, among others, finally suc- ceeded in ruining Belisarius. Justinian, how- ever, who was fond of studies as well as of arts, has the great merit of having, through Tribonian and other lawyers, prepared that code of Roman laws which bears his name and is the great monument of his reign. (See CIVIL LAW.) The introduction of silkworms from China through some missionaries, who brought the eggs in hollow sticks, is another of its last- ing merits. Justinian was patient, frugal, and diligent, but vain, selfish, and ungrateful. " He was neither beloved in his life nor regretted at his death." He was succeeded by Justin II., his nephew. II. Surnamed RHINOTMETUS (Shorn Nose), a Byzantine emperor, born in 660, died in December, 711. He succeeded his father Constantine IV. (Pogonatus) in 685. His reign was marked chiefly by wars with the Saracens, persecutions of the Manichajans, and the rapa- city and exactions of his ministers. In 688 he JUSTIN MARTYR broke the peace which his father had made with the Bulgarians, and, although at first success- ful, was finally routed by them in the defiles of Mount Rhodope, and narrowly escaped with his life. The Arabs, equally provoked, inva- ded Africa and ravaged Cyprus, subsequently overran Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, and con- quered Armenia. In 695 his general Leontius drove him from the throne, cut off his nose, and banished him to the Crimea. Leontius was soon after deposed by Tiberius Apsimerus, who reigned seven years. In 705 Justinian recovered his throne through the assistance of the Bul- garians, and put to a cruel death Leontius and Tiberius, and many others. His atrocities at last aroused a new rebellion, and he was de- throned and killed by Philippicus Bardanes, who succeeded him. JUSTIN MARTYR (FLAVIUS JUSTINUS), the ear- liest of the church fathers after the apostolic age, born at Flavia Neapolis (the modern Na- blus), in Samaria, about 105, died in Rome about 165. His parents were Greeks who had joined the colony sent by Vespasian to the desolated city of Shechem, which was now called after him Flavia. He appears to have been educa- ted in the schools of Asia Minor, Greece, and Egypt, and to have studied first under a Stoic, whose teaching on the nature of God left him unsatisfied. He then attached himself to a Peripatetic, who disgusted him by his greed for money; and, unwilling to undergo the mathematical course exacted by the Pythago- reans, he finally embraced the Platonic phi- losophy. The objections raised by an aged Christian against its doctrines led him to study the Old Testament writings, and the heroism of the Christian confessors and martyrs induced him to profess Christianity (about 132). He appears to have continued to wear his philoso- pher's mantle after his conversion. About 145 he composed a polemical work against heretics, particularly against Marcion. During the persecution of Antoninus Pius he ad- dressed a first plea (airohoyia) for the Chris- tian cause to that emperor and the Roman people. About 150 he met, probably at Ephe- sus, but according to some at Corinth, with a learned Jew named Tryphon, who was attract- ed by Justin's philosophical garb, and had a discussion with him on the divinity of the Christian religion, which was soon afterward published. The persecution of the Christians being renewed under Marcus Aurelius, Justin addressed to that emperor a second and supple- mentary plea. At this time his usual residence appears to have been at Rome ; and his zeal in unmasking the hypocrisy of one Crescentius, a prominent persecutor of the Christians, is thought by Eusebius to have been the occasion of his imprisonment and death. Besides the two "Apologies" and the "Dialogue with Tryphon," the authenticity of which is gener- ally acknowledged, three other works have been attributed to him, an "Address to the Greeks," an "Admonition to the Greeks," and