Today I want to tell you a story about an Eastern Roman emperor, or Byzantine as it is commonly said: Justinian II who bears the fascinating nickname of Rinotmetos (slit-nosed), and already the nickname should make you understand that he had an interesting life, only that you can't even imagine how much interesting.Justinian II (with nose) in the church of St Vitale in Ravenna
First of all, we must not confuse him with the more famous Justinian I, the one who built Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, tried to reconquer the West and married the fearsome Theodora, they are two different emperor. Our Justinian was born in Constantinople in 668 AD (or perhaps in 669 it is not clear), in a family that would have put some psychological pressure on anyone.
He was a descendant of another character not to be underestimated, Heraclius, one of the most glorious soldier-emperors in history. He saved the Empire from the Persian invasion, defeating Khosrau II Parviz (the Victorious) the Sassanid Shah in the Battle of Nineveh (and I challenge any Hollywood screenwriter to come up with a similar catch phrase for a screenplay, but this is not unbridled fantasy, but real history), he reconquered Egypt and, in addition, brought the relics of the true cross back to Constantinople in triumph. Heraclius, unfortunately, did not have the opportunity to enjoy the victory too much, taking advantage of the two great empires exhausted by the war, the Arabs arrived, fresh from the preaching of Mohammed, they left the Arabian peninsula and, under the 4 Well Guided Caliphs, overwhelmed everything in their path.
The result was that for the next 40 years Justinian's great-grandfather, grandfather and father fought an increasingly desperate rearguard battle to save the Empire from the rising tide of the new Arab Caliphate.
It was the father of Justinian, Constantine IV who, in 678, finally managed to stop the Arab advance under the walls of Constantinople, saving the Empire and Europe, a victory probably much more crucial than Poitiers. won by Charles The Hammer , 50 years later.
It is difficult to live up to your ancestors, when you have similar ones, but if that wasn't enough, he was even baptized Justinian, like his predecessor who had reconquered the West. In short, it is to be believed that the young prince felt the weight of expectation.
His father Constantine IV died in 685, leaving him with a strengthened Empire and a secure throne (he had taken steps, as a precaution to imprison his two brothers, a little too ambitious, a delightfully dysfunctional family one would say today). Justinian II became the new ruler of what remained of the Roman Empire at the age of 17.
The first years of his reign were quite peaceful, and rather trivial... if you are a Roman Emperor: He won a war against the Arabs obtaining a very advantageous peace, campaigned in the Balkans subduing the Slavic tribes that had penetrated there and defeated the Bulgarians, he called an ecumenical council, ordered the deposition and arrest of a Pope (he did not succeed, the Roman plebs rebelled and the Imperial Exarch had to flee the city), in short boring routine, compared to what he will do next.
Unfortunately, his initial successes were not replicated in the following years. The Byzantines were defeated by the Arabs in a new war, his extremely rigid religious policy was not loved, above all his military ambitions were very expensive, and to finance them he made a mistake: he raised taxes.
Now this is a constant in the stories I've found myself telling, raising taxes never makes people happy. Raising them too much makes everyone so unhappy, nobles and plebeians, the former do not like their richness being taken away, the latter being deprived of even the little they have.A golden solidus of Justinian II
There is a joke that the Byzantine Empire was "An absolute monarchy tempered by regicide" (historians have a strange sense of humor), there is some truth and Justinian II was about to discover it at his expense.
In 695 the people of Constantinople rose up, stirred up by the great aristocratic families and the opposition consolidated behind a certain Leontius, one of the generals punished by Justinian as a scapegoat for recent defeats.
Justinian was deposed and Leontius was crowned new emperor, acclaimed by the cheering crowd. According to a deep-rooted Byzantine tradition, Justinian was dragged to the Hippodrome of Constantinople and, at the height of the celebrations, he was inflicted with the mutilation for which he went down in history: his nose was cut off.
It was not a matter of simple cruelty, there was a fundamental legal reason behind it.
The reigning Emperor had to be perfectly sane in mind and body, in order to defend and govern the Empire, mutilating someone eliminated him from the ranks of possible rivals. Usually up to Justinian II, the use was just to cut off the nose, after him, it was decided to be more drastic and to gouge out the eyes ... you will soon find out why.
To settle and close the affair Justinian was exiled to the most remote place of the Empire: the Crimean peninsula, he was 28 years old.
If it ended here, this would be a decidedly banal story similar to that of dozens of emperors before and after him. Victories, defeats, deposition, death or mutilation and exile, but the history of Justinian is still long.
We do not know how a deposed emperor in remote and semi-barbaric Crimea could spend his days, the chroniclers tell us that he was bloodthirsty and voted for revenge, but the authors of the Byzantine chronicles sometimes seem like journalists of The Sun so much they seek the scandals and astonishing news.
In the meantime, however, in Constantinople, things had changed: a new emperor had conquered the throne, Tiberius III, deposing, and obviously mutilating of the nose, Leontius. Perhaps the new emperor did not feel safe leaving an emperor deposed so far away and was thinking of resolving the issue definitively, or perhaps something else had changed, whatever it was after a few years of exile, in 702 Justinian escaped from his captivity.
But where could he take refuge? To the north and east of the Crimea stretched a great kingdom: the Khanate of the Khazars. A semi-nomadic Turkish-speaking population that had settled in the south of present-day Russia a few centuries earlier and had recently converted to Judaism. That's right, you read that right, Turkish-speaking nomads from Central Asia of Jewish religion, you don't need to invent anything to find fantastic stories, you can just open a history book.
The Khazars ruled that region for a few centuries before being defeated by the Kiev Russians and disappearing. What happened to the Khazars is a still debated mystery: did they join the Hungarians in their move westward? Were they submerged by the successive peoples of the steppes who occupied these lands? Are the Ashkenazi Jews of Ukraine their direct heirs? It is still discussed, but maybe I will talk to you about the Khazars another time. Personally I am of the opinion that among their descendants there are the Karaites, a small ethnic minority, also them Jewish, who still lives in Lithuania around the town of Trakai, where they were transferred by the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Vitautas, after he had defeated the “Golden Horde” in the 12th century, but even this, you can understand from this simple phrase, is a story fantastic enough to deserve a space of its own on another occasion (or maybe a couple of epic movies).
Let's get back to us, we have enough to write with Justinian alone. As we said, Justinian escaped from Crimea and made these 1,500 km of steppe up to the capital of the Khazars, the mythical, and now disappeared (its remains have never been identified with certainty), city of Itil, built on the islands of Volga delta.
I don't know about you, but if I had been a fugitive, thousands of kilometers away from home and even without a nose, I would not have known what to say in front of Busir Glavan, the Khagan of the Khazars, in his palace built on an island in the Volga, but Justinian was not the type to be embarrassed: he was the legitimate Roman Emperor, son of Constantine IV who had defeated the Arabs, descendant of Heraclius the Great conqueror of the Persians. We do not know what he said or what he came to promise, but apparently, he convinced Busir who promised to help him to regain the throne and above all gave him his sister in marriage. A Roman Emperor who married a barbarian, a princess, but still a barbarian, had never been seen.
Just after a marriage to his bride, who quickly converted to Christianity and was baptized Theodora as the wife of the first Justinian, the two moved from Itil to Phanagoria, a port on the Black Sea controlled by the khazars, from which they could receive news more quickly from Constantinople and plot properly.
The story, however, is a rather imaginative and perverse screenwriter and does not write straightforward and quiet plots. In Constantinople, Tiberius III was certainly not idle, knowing of Justinian's flight he had unleashed his spies, discovered the agreements made with the Khazars and reacted immediately by sending an embassy to Itil.
The proposal for the Khagan was simple: forget that hopeless suitor, I am the Emperor on the throne. Send me his head, properly preserved under salt and tell me what you want in return.
The proposal must have sounded interesting to Busir and Justinian did not fail to notice that the Khazar guards who were supposed to protect him now seemed to be watching him.
You will have understood by now, it was certainly not an easily discouraged guy, he fled with a few followers on a small fishing boat. He was helped by his wife who distracted the guards, but who remained in Phanagoria: she was pregnant, she certainly could not face such a journey and she was sure that no one would touch the Khan's sister
Justinian crossed the whole Black Sea, and the chronicles tell of various adventures, until he landed at the mouth of the Danube, where he found what he was looking for: a patrol of Bulgarian horsemen. Frankly, I can now picture him, with his back straight and his head held high, proudly without a nose and with all the confidence he was capable of:
"Hey you, barbarians, I'm Emperor Justinian, take me to your chief."
The chief in question was called Tervel, he had settled in the city of Pliska and was the Khan of the Bulgarians.
Bulgaria, I guess you all know it, is today a small state in the southern Balkans, a member of the European Union and the Bulgarians are of Orthodox religion, of Slavic language and they invented Yogurt.
The Bulgarians of the seventh century were a different thread, they were, like the Khazars, a population of Turkish nomads, but of pagan religion, who had moved westwards to cross the Danube becoming the thorn in the side of the northern frontier of the Byzantine Empire , only in the following centuries they would convert to Christianity and begin to speak the Slavic language of the populations of the countries they had conquered.
Tervel knew very well who he was dealing with, after all his father, Asparuch had defeated Constantine IV, the father of Justinian, in battle, only to be defeated in turn by Justinian himself. In short, old family friends, by the 7th century standard.
Even here Justinian managed to make a good impression, certainly he could not offer to marry a sister or a daughter of Tervel, he had already used the trick with the Khazars, but in Constantinople he had a daughter born from his first marriage, when he was still on the throne. He would have given her in marriage to Tervel or, if this had not been possible (after all he hadn't heard from her for years, she could have even been dead) alternatively he would have crowned him with the imperial title of Caesar. A rank inferior only to his as Emperor of the Romans.
The fact that this was enough to convince the Bulgarian Khan should make us reflect how strong the prestige of the Empire was.
Finally, in 705, after 10 years of exile, Justinian set out for Constantinople, accompanied by Tervel and his army.His travels
They reached Constantinople easily and without much resistance. The problems of would-be conquerors usually began right in front of its walls, the Theodosian walls.
Built almost three centuries earlier by Theodosius II, the triple walls still exist today and cover the entire land side of the ancient city, for about 7 km. They are unanimously recognized as one of the most impressive fortifications ever built, the pinnacle of Roman construction techniques and engineering.
They had never been violated by force until then and they won't be for another 750 years until Mohammed II arrives with his huge guns.
Certainly, the Bulgarians of Tervel had no hope of taking the city, Justinian tried to flatter the population by asking to spontaneously open the doors, he failed, he tried to bribe some guards, he failed too. Time passed and Tiberius III played along, comfortably accommodated in the imperial palace he had only to wait for the Bulgarians to finish their supplies or to be decimated by some nice epidemic.
If you have come this far you should have realized by now that Justinian was certainly not the type to surrender. With a small band of chosen warriors he managed to penetrate the walls passing inside the Valens aqueduct which had been cut almost a century earlier during another siege, from there he took possession of one of the doors and left the citizens a choice: they could hand him Tiberius III or he would have let in the Bulgarian army and they would plunder the city, have fun.
Guess the choice of the population?
Tiberius III tried to escape, but was captured and handed over to Justinian II who had resumed his place in the imperial palace and had immediately sent a message of thanks to Tervel, but he had been careful to keep the door closed and the Bulgarian out of the city.
Justinian immediately took the satisfaction that he had been waiting for years: he had Leontius fetched rom the monastery where he had been imprisoned and had him taken to the Hippodrome with Tiberius.
First of all Tiberius had his nose sliced off, just in order to put him on a par, then made the two usurpers make an act of submission. At the end, since he had returned from exile and imprisonment and wanted to be sure, he eliminated the risk definitively by having the rest of their head cut off as well.
Two emperors beheaded in public on the same day, the crowd had a lot of fun.
After that, he had to deal with 15,000 Bulgarians encamped outside the walls. Promises made to Tervel had to be fulfilled.
Anastasia did not marry the Bulgarian king, we do not know the reason, perhaps she was dead, perhaps she had entered some monastery (typical fate for women linked to a deposed emperor) for sure Justinian offered Tervel the second option, the coronation to Caesar. There was likely an adequate hostage exchange and the Khan entered the city with a small escort. We have to imagine what Tervel felt as he entered the city through the main gate, the "Porta Aurea;" surmounted by a golden quadriga pulled by four elephants, it traveled the "Mese" the main street of the city, surrounded by arcades and monuments, passed the forum of Arcadius, the forum of Theodosius and finally the great forum of Constantine in the center of which stood the triumphal column of that emperor, he arrived in the Augusteon square in front of the "Chalke" the gates of the Imperial Palace to be then led to the Hagia Sophia, the largest church in Christianity.
Here he was covered with imperial vestments and surrounded by the splendor of the golden mosaics of Santa Sofia, Justinian crowned him Caesar.
The two sovereigns now brothers for eternity (that in politics at time just as today, means until the first useful opportunity to betray each other) separated and Tervel returned north, with his new crown and rich gifts.Tervel with Justinian II (the one without nose, of course)
Justinian had risen to the throne for the second time, he was 36 years old. His first act was to take revenge on all those who had betrayed him, the executioners had a lot of work, and the crowd certainly enjoyed seeing all those aristocrats and men of power dragged into the Hippodrome to be tortured and killed, the crowd always enjoys a lot when the heads of the mighty roll in the dust, but that was just the beginning.
Before continuing to tell you about the second, bloody reign of Justinian, there is a doubt to be resolved. Justinian was, as the name Rhinotmetos implies, with a cut nose, but then how could he be legitimized to reign despite his mutilation? The first, very logical hypothesis is that he simply didn't give a damn and no one was suicidal enough to raise the issue. In fact, Justinian is often represented with a fake golden nose used to cover his mutilation.
The greatest scholar about his reign, Constance Head, has instead proposed a different hypothesis, arguing that Justinian at some point in his exile underwent a primitive ante litteram plastic surgery operation to replace his cut nose with a reconstructed one. Fascinating hypothesis.
Whatever the truth, the Justinian who took the throne was no longer the ambitious and possibly megalomaniac young man he had been, he had become a paranoid, vindictive, and mentally unstable man. After all the things he got through not too strange in my opinion.
First he sent an embassy to his brother-in-law, the Khan of the Khazars, requesting that his wife be returned to him immediately. Theodora arrived in Constantinople in 706, bringing a happy gift, the son born after his escape, Tiberius, and in the same year she was crowned Empress.
The new reign of Justinian is described by commentators as a period of unfortunate wars and tyranny, of unjustified executions and gratuitous violence, very often the chroniclers refer to the excesses of Caligula and Nero.
In short, they speak very badly of it. The chronicles of the time must always be read with some attention, they are too often politically motivated, but certainly the second reign of Justinian does not seem a happy period: he broke the pacts with the Bulgarians of Tervel by attacking them by surprise and was defeated, the raids Arabs in Anatolia were continuous, Ravenna and Cherson were sacked and destroyed for opposing the Emperor.
The only positive result was making peace with the Roman Pontiff, in 710, Pope Constantine traveled to Constantinople where he was a guest of the Emperor and celebrated mass in Santa Sofia. He was the last Pope to visit that city for more than twelve centuries, the next one was Paul VI in 1967.
Dissatisfaction among the population and among the great families was growing again, but it was, symbolically, Justinian's ruthlessness that caused its downfall.
In 711 Crimea rebelled, led by Philippicus Bardanes, a former general that Justinian had exiled. Immediately a fleet and an army were assembled to defeat him and punish the rebel province.
When he arrived in Crimea, however, the general who commanded the army discovered that Philippicus had many more troops than him and attacking him would have been suicidal, but he was aware that going back without a fight would have meant his death sentence. To try to save his life, he chose another way, joined Philippicus, providing him with a fleet to invade Constantinople.
The arrival of the rebel fleet found the city unguarded, fatally Justinian had left the city with the rest of the army to face an Arab raid.
Constantinople opened the doors to the invader who immediately proclaimed himself Emperor, at the news Justinian immediately tried to go back, but it was too late and the wind had changed.
The troops abandoned him and he was made prisoner, delivered to Philippicus and beheaded. Another version claims that abandoned by his troops he still challenged Philippicus to a single duel in front of the walls of Sinope and was killed by him. I honestly prefer this second, romantic, version, definitely much more in character. It was the 711 and with him the dynasty of Heraclius ended.
His severed head was exhibited in Constantinople, and then went on a grand tour of the Empire ending in Rome.
His son Tiberius, who was then 6 or 7 years old, tried to find refuge in the church of St. Mary in Blancherne, the soldiers of Philppicus, in order not to commit sacrilege, dragged him out to the churchyard before slicing his throat.
Nothing is known about Theodora destiny, but being the sister of a foreign sovereign it is unlikely she was killed, much more likely she ended up in a monastery or sent back to her brother.
Thus, at the age of only 42, the story of Justinian II Rhinotmetos, the emperor with the severed nose who reigned twice, ended.
If you want to know more about him, you can read the Chronographia of Theophanes the Confessor or the Historia Syntomos of Patriarch Nikephoros, but if, like me, you do not find at easy reading manuscripts in medieval Greek, there is "Justinian II of Byzantium" by Constance Head. Harry Turtledove has also written a novel "Justinian", about his life, under the pseudonym of Tartletaub.
No one has ever made a movie about it so far… maybe because more than a single movie a six season tv series would be needed.
Two last things, before closing. Justinian's successor, Philippicus did not have much luck, reigned only a couple of years, and once deposed as the precedents showed that cutting the nose was not enough to prevent the return of former emperor, his eyes were gouged out before being locked up in a monastery. More, you may believe it or not, but Justinian II Rinotmeto is also a saint for the Orthodox church: St. Justinian, July 15.
In what ever way you want to judge him… it was not a boring life.
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