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Presenter: Roger Scott
Entry: Free

Synopsis

The long reign (527-565) of the emperor Justinian is usually presented as one of great success with the recovery of the western part of the empire, the building of Hagia Sophia and the Codification of Roman Law.

Hence a book published in 1967 by a distinguished French scholar has the title The Golden Age of Justinian, though another distinguished Oxford scholar compares Justinian to Hitler. His colourful wife Theodora also has a mixed reputation.

A contemporary source attributes to her alone Justinian’s survival from a major revolt early in his reign (the Nika riot, January 532), but that same source in another work also describes Theodora as a prostitute and likens both Justinian and Theodora to demons. The paper will look at Justinian and Theodora and the treatment of their reign in two contemporary sources, Prokopios and Malalas.  

Biography

Roger Scott is a Principal Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at Melbourne University after retiring as Associate Professor and Reader in Classical Studies.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and a former President of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies and of the Classical Association of Victoria. His most recent book is Byzantine Chronicles and the Sixth Century (2012).

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