[1] Like many country youths, he went to Constantinople and enlisted in the army, where, due to his physical abilities, he became a part of the Excubitors, the palace guards.

After much arguing, Justin emerged as the consensus candidate; and he was crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople, John of Cappadocia, on 10 July 518.

Justinian may have exerted great influence on his uncle and is considered by some historians, such as Procopius, to be the real power behind the throne.

Past emperors had supported the Monophysites' position, which was in direct conflict with the Chalcedonian teachings of the papacy, and this strife led to the Acacian schism.

In 525, perhaps at the insistence of Justinian, Justin repealed a law which effectively forbade court officials from marrying people of low class.

Their king, Theodoric the Great, was suspicious of plots by the Byzantines; and turned on the Roman senatorial class, going so far as executing the philosopher Boethius, who was attempting to end the persecution.

The Sasanian Empire, likewise, resumed hostilities with the Byzantines, and the Iberian War began in the east; which would not reach its conclusion until the reign of Justinian.

This impasse of sorts led to Justinian negotiating the "Perpetual Peace" in 532 in which he agreed to pay 11,000 pounds of gold in return for a cease in hostilities and the defense of several mountain passes.

The Vandal king, Gelimer, attempted to surround the Byzantines at the Battle of Ad Decimum; he defeated Belisarius but was said to have become depressed after finding the body of his dead brother.

In Italy, dynastic squabbles amongst the Ostrogothic rulers, Amalasuintha and Theodahad, gave Justinian an opportunity to invade, and in 535 he sent Belisarius to Sicily with 7,500 men.

After putting down a mutiny in recently conquered North Africa, Belisarius landed in mainland Italy, finding the same token resistance.

[15] Justinian's wars of reconquest had expanded the empire to include the former Roman provinces of Italia, Baetica, and Africa Proconsularis.

While the Byzantines were distracted with the Persians, Lombard hordes under king Alboin invaded Italy and quickly conquered most of the peninsula.

After this setback, Tiberius ate some bad food, which may have been intentionally poisoned, fell ill, and died.Maurice, the fifth and final emperor of the Justinian dynasty, reportedly came from Armenia and began his career in Constantinople as a notarius.

With the full attention of the army, the Byzantines drove back the Slavs, expelled them from the empire, and then ravaged their lands beyond the Danube.

The Byzantines, after this decisive victory, were now easily able to hold the frontier on the Danube as it had been since the Roman Empire, as well as gain control over some minor territories in southern Dacia.