The Empire at War

Abstract

Imperial majesty should not only be graced with arms but also armed with laws, so that good government may prevail in time of war and peace alike. The head of the Roman state can then stand victorious not only over enemies in war but also over troublemakers, driving out their wickedness through the paths of the law, and can triumph as much by his devotion to the law as for his conquests in battle. Long hours of work and careful planning have, with God’s help, given us success in both these fields. Barbarian nations brought beneath our yoke know the scale of our exertions in war. Africa and countless other provinces, restored to Roman jurisdiction and brought back within our empire after so long an interval, bear witness to the victories granted to us by the will of heaven. However, it is by the laws that we have already managed to enact and collect that all our peoples are ruled. – Justinian, Institutes , pr., Nov . 21, 533, trans. P. Birks and G. McLeod War was undoubtedly an important feature of the Age of Justinian, most famously in the campaigns of reconquest that recovered North Africa from the Vandals and Italy from the Goths, but also in relations with Persia to the east, and with various tribal peoples along the lower Danube. As this extract from the preface to Justinian’s handbook for law students makes clear, Justinian took an elevated view of the waging of war, presenting it, alongside law making, as one of his central, God-given duties.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 105 citations exist upstream.