A History of Rome to 565 A. D.

by Arthur E. R. Boak

The expansion of the Franks. The foreign policy of Theoderic was directed towards strengthening his position in Italy by establishing friendly relations with the western Germanic kingdoms and main[pg 373]taining peace and a balance of power among them. To this end he contracted a series of family alliances with the rulers of these states. In 492 he himself wedded a sister of Clovis the Frank, and gave his own sister in marriage to the Vandal king Thrasamund. One of his daughters became the wife of Sigismund, king of the Burgundians, and another was married to Alaric II, who succeeded Euric as king of the Visigoths.

However, Theoderic’s scheme was rudely disturbed by the ambitions of Clovis. In 496 the latter conquered the Alamanni. He next forced the Burgundians to acknowledge his overlordship, and with these as his allies in 507 he attacked the Visigothic kingdom. The conquests of Euric in Gaul and Spain had overtaxed the strength of the Visigothic people and weakened their hold upon the territory they occupied. Furthermore, their Roman subjects gave active aid to the orthodox Clovis. In a battle near Poitiers the Visigoths were defeated and their king, Alaric II, slain. Theoderic had been hindered from intervening previously by the outbreak of hostilities between himself and the emperor Anastasius, who gave his sanction to the action of Clovis and sent him the insignia of the consulship. Now, however, the Ostrogothic king came to the aid of the Visigoths. He repulsed the Franks and Burgundians before Arles (508 A. D.). and recovered Narbonese Gaul. However, the greater part of Aquitania remained in the hands of the Franks. Theoderic established his grandson Amalaric as king of the Visigoths and exercised a regency in his name (510 A. D.). Clovis died in 511 and the expansion of the Franks ceased for a time. However, the death of Theoderic in 526 was the signal for fresh disturbances. The Visigothic king Amalaric at once asserted his independence in southern Gaul and in Spain. But not long afterwards, in 531, he fell in battle against the Franks, who seized the remaining Visigothic possessions in Gaul except Septimania—the coast district between the Pyrenees and the Rhone. Three years later they overthrew the kingdom of the Burgundians and so brought under their sway the whole of Gaul outside of Septimania and Provence.

In 533 A. D. the situation in the west was as follows. Gaul was mainly in the hands of the Franks, Spain was under the Visigoths, the Vandals were still established in Africa, and the Ostrogoths in Italy. Both of the latter kingdoms, however, were showing signs of internal weakness. In addition to the hostility between the Germanic [pg 374]conquerors and the subject Roman population, factional strife had broken out over the succession to the throne. Evidence of the declining power of the Vandals in particular was the success of the Moorish tribes in winning their independence. By 525 both Mauretania and Numidia had been abandoned to them, and the tribes of Tripolis had shaken off the Vandal yoke. In 530 the Moors of southern Byzacene inflicted a severe defeat on the Vandals, which led to the deposition of the ruling king. The weakness of these states seemed to offer a favorable opportunity for the reëstablishment of the imperial authority in the West.

II. The Restoration of the Imperial Power in the West: 553–554 a. d.

Justin I, 518–527 A. D. Anastasius died in 518 and was succeeded by Justin, an Illyrian of humble origin who had risen to the important post of commander of the imperial body guard (comes excubitorum). Unlike his predecessor Justin was an adherent of the orthodox faith, and at the opening of his reign an exceedingly influential position was held by the general Vitalian, who had been the champion of orthodoxy against Anastasius. He became master of the soldiers at Constantinople and in 520 was honored with the consulship. But his power and unscrupulous ambitions constituted a real menace to the emperor and induced the latter to procure his murder. Justin ruled for nine years. He was an experienced soldier, but illiterate, and personally unequal to the task of imperial government. The guiding spirit of his administration was his nephew Justinian, who was largely responsible for Vitalian’s removal. In fact the reign of Justin served as a brief introduction to the long rule of Justinian himself, whom his uncle crowned as his colleague in 527 A. D., and who became sole emperor at the latter’s death in the same year.

Justinian’s imperial policy. Justinian was by birth a Latin peasant from near Scupi (modern Uskub) in Upper Moesia, but through his uncle he had been able to enjoy all the educational advantages offered by the schools of Constantinople. In public life he showed himself a laborious and careful administrator, of an extremely autocratic, and yet at the same time somewhat vacillating, character. He was a devout Christian, zealous for the propagation of the ortho[pg 375]dox faith, with a strong liking for, and considerable learning in, questions of dogmatic theology. He regarded religious and secular affairs as equally subject to the imperial will, and in each sphere he exercised absolute authority. In him the ideal of autocracy found its most perfect embodiment.

The goal of Justinian’s imperial policy was the recovery of the lands of the western empire from their Germanic rulers and the reëstablishment of imperial unity in the person of the eastern emperor. The attainment of unity of belief throughout the Christian world he regarded as no less important than that of political unity: one empire, one church, was his motto.

Reconciliation with the western Church: 519 A. D. The way was paved for the reconquest of the Roman West by a reconciliation with the Roman bishop Hormisdas, as a result of which orthodoxy was once more formally received at Constantinople and a persecution of the monophysites and other heretics inaugurated in the eastern empire (519 A. D.). Although this union with Rome was brought about while the influence of Vitalian was predominant, it had the cordial support of Justinian, who recognized that the good will of the clergy and the Roman population of the western provinces would in this way be won for the eastern emperor. Such proved to be the case, and the subsequent wars for the recovery of the West assumed the aspect of crusades for the deliverance of the followers of the orthodox church from Arian domination.

Outbreak of the Vandal war, 533 A. D. The deposition of Hilderic, who had been on friendly terms with the eastern empire, and the accession of Gelimer who reverted to an anti-Roman policy, afforded Justinian a pretext for intervention in the Vandal kingdom. In conformity with his policy of treating the Germanic kings as vassal princes of the empire, he demanded the reinstatement of Hilderic, and when this was refused, he prepared to invade Africa. An expeditionary force of ten thousand foot and five thousand horse, accompanied by a powerful fleet, was placed under the command of the able general Belisarius and despatched from Constantinople in 533 A. D. An alliance concluded with the Ostrogoths forestalled the possibility of their coming to the aid of the Vandals.