Istanbul: A History by David Jacobs

Author:David Jacobs [Jacobs, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/Middle East/Turkey and the Ottoman Empire
ISBN: 9781612309262
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2015-12-10T04:30:00+00:00

After the death or departure of a particularly strong and active leader, citizens frequently look forward to a period of calmer, though still efficient rule. During such periods, the entire citizenry has a chance to catch its breath; more importantly, this can be a time to measure and solidify the gains and changes achieved by the former leader.

When Justinian I died in A.D. 565, the people of Constantinople had every reason to believe they were about to enjoy a time of quiet. The new emperor, Justinian’s nephew Justin II, was a soft-spoken, articulate man who assumed the throne with dignity and a proper respect for protocol. After he expressed his devotion to the Orthodox Church in Hagia Sophia, officials crowned him at the palace; then he addressed the populace at the Hippodrome. In his speech, he led the citizens to believe that he was going to be a conservative ruler by promising to settle all of the many debts contracted by his extravagant predecessor.

But Justin II proved to be anything but conservative. Ill-equipped to possess power, he collapsed under power’s weight. While barbarians attacked the empire in the western regions that Justinian I had regained, and while Avars and Turks took advantage of the distraction and demanded tribute, Justin II quickly went mad. He built a golden chamber in the palace to sit in, as though solitude would make the problems go away. He had servants draw him around the palace in a toy cart. He went into frequent rages; before long, he was seriously mentally ill and incapable of ruling. Once he erected a pillar on which he intended to place a statue of himself. When workers completed the pillar and inscribed on it a list of his virtues, someone placed a tablet on it that read:

Build, build aloft the pillar,

And raise it vast and high;

Then mount it and stand upon it;

Soar proudly in the sky;

East, south and north, and westward,

Wherever thou shalt gaze,

Nought shalt thou see but ruins

The work of thine own days.

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