In four departments Justinian has won an immortal name: in warfare, in law, in architecture, and in church history. Standing on the shore of the mediæval or modern period, he cast into the waters of the future great stones which created immense circles. His military achievements decided the course of the history of Italy, and affected the development of western Europe; his legal works are inextricably woven into the web of European civilisation; his St. Sophia is one of the greatest monuments of the world, one of the visible signs of the continuity of history, a standing protest against the usurpation of the Turk; and his ecclesiastical authority influenced the distant future of Christendom.[e]
FOOTNOTES
[13] [For a fuller account of the war in Italy, see the latter part of this volume, under “The Western Empire.”]
[14] [“With the conquest of Rome by Belisarius,” says Finlay,[b] “the history of the ancient city may be considered as terminating; and with his defence against Witiges commences the history of the Middle Ages—of the time of destruction and change.” Similarly, though from different reasons, Bury[e] says of the plague of 542 A.D., “If we may speak of watersheds in history, this plague marks the watershed of what we call the ancient and what we call the mediæval age. Really nothing is more striking than the difference between the first half and the last half of Justinian’s reign.”]
[15] [According to Bury,[e] “Alexander was called ‘Scissors’ from his practice of clipping coins.” Procopius says he “alienated the minds of the Italians from Justinian; and none of the soldiers were willing to undergo the hazard of war.”]
[16] [Bury[e] says that the place is in dispute, some placing it near Sassoferrato, and others near Scheggia. He feels that we are justified in placing the date as July or August, 552.]
[17] [“Belisarius,” says Freeman,[f] “was perhaps the greatest commander that ever lived, as he did the greatest things with the smallest means.”]
[18] [This is the old theory, and Hodgkin[g] says, “I confess that, to me, the old-fashioned derivation, that which was accepted by Isidore[h] and Paulus, still seems the most probable.” The word bard, usually allied to the Latin barba, “beard,” has also been referred to the old High German barta, “axe,” and to bord, “shore,” and some writers would translate Langobards as “Long-axe-men” or “Long-shore-men.”]
[19] [Hodgkin[g] says “three hundred years.”]
[20] [Paulus Diaconus[i] tells the story, I. 20. Rodulf was then king of the Heruli, and his brother was killed by the servants of King Tato, “seventh Lombard king.”]