Justin I

In a recent post it was mentioned that Byzantine Emperor Justin I was really a puppet Emperor, an illeterate peasant whose rule was overshadowed by the workings of his brilliant nephew and heir Justinian.

What I am questioning, is whether such a view is correct. IIRC the claims that Justin was a mere puppet were put forward in Procopius's Secret History which clearly goes above and beyond to portray Justinian as the ultimate power obsessed megalomaniac (even going so far as to claim he is a demon from the underworld!)

It is clear that during Justin's reign the Empire suffered no disasters. Justin himself rose to power through the military. While Procopius may attribute this to divine intercession the logical historian can only conclude that for a poor Thracian peasant with no family contacts or wealth to back him, Justin must have shown himself to have outstanding command ability and been a natural leader of men to rise to captain of the Imperial Guard.

Furthermore, Procopius himself admits that Justinian's attempts to have himself crowned and married to his love Theodora were thwarted simply by Justin's order. Clearly, Justin had more authority and power than one would normally attribute to a dottery old fool. Only when Justin himself became gravely ill and the end was in sight was Justinian allowed to go ahead with both his wishes.

So what is your view? Was Justin the helpless puppet of his brilliant nephew or was he the sort of man who fitted comfortably into the autocratic robes of a Roman Emperor?

If i remember right there was one imperial chamberlain named Amandios or sth like that, who had the ambition of being emperor himself but since he was an eunouch, he tried to put in the throne one of his own men, theocritos. So he gave money to Justin in order to bribe whoever was needed but unfortunately for him the recipiers of the bribes instead of supporting Theocritos, chose Justin as emperor. First thing Justin did after the start of his reign was to send to death Amandios and his men. 

I read about how Justin appropriated the bribery cash for himself, a great story. He still had the Thracian peasant cunning he developed in his youth.

One thing I like about Justin I is that he appears to have been a ruler who realised his limitations and let someone else do the job where he could not. Very few rulers in history, fully aware of their own incapability, ever acknowledge it by simply parcelling off these duties to an excellant subordinate.

Justin's reign was overall pretty peaceful. The other major unrest aside from the Monophysites was the revolt in Thrace of a certain Vitalian. In his case Justinian simply had the man murdered after inviting him to a peace making dinner.

I think that Justin knew he must have been resented as an illiterate peasant. While the Empire remained largely at peace during his reign, he did a responsibly job of choosing an extremely gifted successor and allowing that young man to play an important role in civil and political affairs. Justin clearly realised that Justinian was able to hold up the intellectual and cultural tradition on a level which he could not.