Justin II Byzantine Emperor 565-578 A.D.
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Buy authentic ancient
coins of Justin II Byzantine Emperor. Justin II was Eastern Roman
emperor from 565 to 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I, and husband
of Sophia, the niece of the late empress Theodora, and therefore member
of the Justinian Dynasty. His reign is marked by war with Persia and the
loss of the greater part of Italy. Get incredible value, with the
beautiful, custom-made, full-color, professionally researched
certificate of authenticity, a $50-$100 value all in itself, absolutely
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Example of Authentic Ancient
Coin of:
Byzantine - Justin II & Queen Sophia -
Justin II & Queen Sophia
Bronze Follis Nicomedia mint circa 565-578 A.D.
Reference: Sear 369
D N IVSTINVS PP AVG - Justin, on left, and Sophia on right, seated
facing on double throne, both nimbate;
he holds globe cross, she holds cruciform scepter.
Large M; above ┼; to left, A / N / N O ; to right, numerals representing
regnal year; beneath,
officina letter, in exergue NIKO.
Flavius Iustinus (Iunior) Augustus
(c. 520 - 5 October 578) was
Eastern Roman emperor from 565 to 578.
He was the nephew of
Justinian I, and husband of
Sophia, the niece of the late empress
Theodora, and therefore member of the
Justinian Dynasty. His reign is marked
by war with
Persia and the loss of the greater part
of
Italy.
Reign
When Justinian died on
November 14,
565, Justin was elevated to the
imperial throne by a group of court officials claiming that Justinian
had named him as his successor on his deathbed, thus passing by another
possible candidate for imperial succession, a nephew of Justinian
Germanus, also called Justin, who was
not present in the capital at the time of the emperor's death.
In the first few days of his reign Justin paid his
uncle's debts, administered justice in person, and proclaimed universal
religious toleration. Contrary to his uncle, Justin relied completely on
the support of the aristocratic party.
Proud of character, and faced with an empty treasury,
he discontinued Justinian's practice of buying off potential enemies.
Immediately after his accession, Justin halted the payment of subsidies
to the
Avars, ending a truce that had existed
since 558. After the Avars and the neighbouring tribe of the
Lombards had combined to destroy the
Gepids, from whom Justin had obtained
the Danube fortress of
Sirmium, Avar pressure caused the
Lombards to migrate West, and in
568 they invaded
Italy under their king
Alboin. They quickly overran the Po
valley, and within a few years they had made themselves masters of
nearly the entire country. The Avars themselves crossed the Danube in
573 or 574, when the empire's attention was distracted by troubles on
the Persian frontier. They were only placated by the payment of a
subsidy of 60,000
silver pieces by Justin's successor
Tiberius.
The North and East frontiers were the main focus of
Justin's attention. In 572 his refusal to pay tribute to the
Persians in combination with overtures
to the Turks led to a war with the Sassanid Empire. After two disastrous
campaigns, in which the Persians overran
Syria and captured the strategically
important fortress of
Dara, Justin reportedly lost his mind.
The temporary fits of insanity into which he fell warned him to name a
colleague. Passing over his own relatives, he raised, on the advice of
Sophia, the general
Tiberius to be Caesar in December 574
and withdrew into retirement. In 574, Sophia paid 45,000 solidi
to Chosroes in return for a year's truce.[2]
Sophia and Tiberius ruled together as joint regents for four years,
while Justin sank into growing
insanity. When he died in 578 Tiberius
succeeded him as
Tiberius II Constantine.
Personal traits
The historian Previte-Orton describes Justin as "a
rigid man, dazzled by his predecessor's glories, to whom fell the task
of guiding an exhausted, ill-defended Empire through a crisis of the
first magnitude and a new movement of peoples". Previte-Orton continues,
In foreign affairs he took the attitude of the
invincible, unbending Roman, and in the disasters which his lack of
realism occasioned, his reason ultimately gave way. It was foreign
powers which he underrated and hoped to bluff by a lofty
inflexibility, for he was well aware of the desperate state of the
finances and the army and of the need to reconcile the
Monophysites."[3]
Speech at abdication
The tardy knowledge of his own impotence determined
him to lay down the weight of the diadem; he showed some symptoms of a
discerning and even magnanimous spirit when he addressed his assembly,
"You behold", said the emperor, "the ensigns of
supreme power. You are about to receive them, not from my hand, but
from the hand of God. Honor them, and from them you will derive
honor. Respect the empress your mother: you are now her son; before,
you were her servant. Delight not in blood; abstain from revenge;
avoid those actions by which I have incurred the public hatred; and
consult the experience, rather than the example, of your
predecessor. As a man, I have sinned; as a sinner, even in this
life, I have been severely punished: but these servants, (and we
pointed to his ministers,) who have abused my confidence, and
inflamed my passions, will appear with me before the tribunal of
Christ. I have been dazzled by the splendor of the diadem: be thou
wise and modest; remember what you have been, remember what you are.
You see around us your slaves, and your children: with the
authority, assume the tenderness, of a parent. Love your people like
yourself; cultivate the affections, maintain the discipline, of the
army; protect the fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of
the poor."
In silence and in tears, the assembly applauded the
counsels, and sympathized with the repentance of their prince. Tiberius
received the diadem on his knees; and Justin, who in his abdication
appeared most worthy to reign, addressed the new monarch in the
following words: "If you consent, I live; if you command, I die: may the
God of heaven and earth infuse into your heart whatever I have neglected
or forgotten." The four last years of the emperor Justin were passed in
tranquil obscurity: his conscience was no longer tormented by the
remembrance of those duties which he was incapable of discharging; and
his choice was justified by the filial reverence and gratitude of
Tiberius.
Justin's insanity
According to
John of Ephesus, as Justin II slipped
into the unbridled madness of his final days he was pulled through the
palace on a wheeled throne, biting attendants as he passed. He
reportedly ordered organ music to be played constantly throughout the
palace in an attempt to soothe his frenzied mind, and it was rumoured
that his taste for attendants extended as far as devouring a number of
them during his reign.
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