Isidore of Miletus was one of the two main Byzantine Greek architects ( Anthemius of Tralles was the other ) that Emperor Justinian I commissioned to design the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople from 532-537A. D.

Sicily was the first part of Italy to be taken under control of General Belisarius who was commissioned by Eastern Emperor Justinian I who solidified his rule in the following years.

Also, cathedrals influenced or commissioned by Justinian employed the Byzantine style of domes and a Greek cross ( resembling a plus sign ), with the altar located in the sanctuary on the east side of the church.

In Ravenna, we have the longitudinal basilica of Sant ' Apollinare Nuovo, and the octagonal, centralized structure of the church of San Vitale, commissioned by Emperor Justinian but never seen by him.

In 1876 Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned Neo-Byzantine interiors of the Neuschwanstein Castle, complete with mosaic images of Justinian I and Greek saints.

Lydus was also commissioned by Justinian to compose a panegyric on the emperor, and a history of his campaign against Sassanid Persia ; but these, as well as some poetical compositions, are lost.

Christian monks fleeing persecutions had been present since the 3rd century, and the Raithu monastery ( or Rutho ) was commissioned in the 6th century by Byzantine emperor Justinian.

Anthemius of Tralles ( c. 474 – before 558 ; ) was a Greek professor of Geometry in Constantinople ( present-day Istanbul in Turkey ) and architect, who collaborated with Isidore of Miletus to build the church of Hagia Sophia by the order of Justinian I. Anthemius came from an educated family, one of five sons of Stephanus of Tralles, a physician.

Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles built by Constantine with a new church under the same dedication.

Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles originally planned on a main hall of the Hagia Sophia that measured 230 feet by 250 feet, making it the largest church in Constantinople, but the original dome was nearly 20 feet lower than it was constructed, “ Justinian suppressed these riots and took the opportunity of marking his victory by erecting in 532-7 the new Hagia Sophia, one of the largest, most lavish, and most expensive buildings of all time .” Although Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles were not formally educated in architecture, they were scientists that could organize the logistics of drawing thousands of laborers and unprecedented loads of rare raw materials from around the Roman Empire to create the Hagia Sophia for Emperor Justinian I.

Isidore of Miletus was a renowned scientist and mathematician before Emperor Justinian I hired him, “ Isidorus taught stereometry and physics at the universities, first of Alexandria then of Constantinople, and wrote a commentary on an older treatise on vaulting .” Emperor Justinian I appointed his architects to rebuild the Hagia Sophia following his victory over protesters within the capital city of his Roman Empire, Constantinople.

Isidore of Seville offers two conflicting stories: in the section on Agila, the Goths surrounding him killed him out of fear " that Roman soldiers might invade Spain on the pretext of giving help "; while in the following section Isidore states Athanagild had asked Justinian for his help, but once they arrived in Spain " he was unable to remove them from the territory of the kingdom despite his efforts.

This story survived in the works of Hesychius of Miletus, who in all probability lived in the time of Justinian I.

Hesychius of Miletus, Greek chronicler and biographer, surnamed Illustrius, son of an advocate, flourished at Constantinople in the 6th century AD during the reign of Justinian.

This story survived in the works Hesychius of Miletus, who in all probability lived in the time of Justinian I.

They forced him to dismiss Tribonian and two of his other ministers, and then attempted to overthrow Justinian himself and replace him by the senator Hypatius, who was a nephew of the late emperor Anastasius.

Furthermore, Justinian restored cities damaged by earthquake or war and built a new city near his place of birth called Justiniana Prima, which was intended to replace Thessalonica as the political and religious center of the Illyricum.

Eventually, on the day Mennas died, Eutychius was nominated by Justinian the Great to replace the position Mennas had held.

His stature at court was such that a plot was hatched by the disaffected general Artabanes and his kinsman Arsaces to assassinate Emperor Justinian and replace him with Germanus.

Actually an underground cistern, its roof supported by rows and rows of pillars, it was built by Justinian in the Sixth Century to supply the palace with water.

Moreover, Justin II was moving away from the foreign policy of Justinian, and believed in dealing more strictly with bordering states and peoples.

In particular the so-called Plague of Justinian had ravaged the region and conflict remained endemic, with the Three-Chapter Controversy sparking religious opposition and administration at a standstill after the able governor of the peninsula, Narses, was recalled.

Conscious of her unpopularity she banished, and afterwards put to death, three Gothic nobles whom she suspected of intriguing against her rule, and at the same time opened negotiations with the emperor Justinian I with the view of removing herself and the Gothic treasure to Constantinople.

Justinian was also concerned with other aspects of the city's built environment, legislating against the abuse of laws prohibiting building within of the sea front, in order to protect the view.

In its preparation, centuries of material was examined, scrutinized for authenticity by leading experts, and harmonized as much as possible with opposing canons and even other codes, from the Codex of Justinian to the Napoleonic Code.

The Historian Procopius, in his Secret History, claims that the emperor Justinian attempted to interfere with the Jewish calendar in the 6th century, and a modern writer has suggested that this measure may have been directed against the protopaschites.

Emperor Justinian I ensured that his new structure would not be burned down, like its predecessors, by commissioning architects that would build the church mainly out of stone, rather than wood, “ He compacted it of baked brick and mortar, and in many places bound it together with iron, but made no use of wood, so that the church should no longer prove combustible .”

Justinian served for some time with the Excubitors but the details of his early career are unknown.

When Emperor Anastasius died in 518, Justin was proclaimed the new Emperor, with significant help from Justinian.

While the crowd was rioting in the streets, Justinian considered fleeing the capital, but he remained in the city on the stirring words of Theodora ( according to Procopius, she said " For an Emperor to become a fugitive is not a thing to be endured ... I hold with the old saying that the purple makes an excellent shroud ".

The destruction that had taken place during the revolt provided Justinian with an opportunity to tie his name to a series of splendid new buildings, most notably the architectural innovation of the domed Hagia Sophia.

From his uncle, Justinian inherited ongoing hostilities with the Sassanid Empire.

When king Kavadh I of Persia died ( September 531 ), Justinian concluded an " Eternal Peace " ( which cost him 11, 000 pounds of gold ) with his successor Khosrau I ( 532 ).

King Hilderic, who had maintained good relations with Justinian and the North African Catholic clergy, had been overthrown by his cousin Gelimer in 530.

Then, having been recalled by Justinian, Belisarius returned to Constantinople, taking the captured Vitigis and his wife Matasuntha with him.

By degrees, however, Justinian came to understand that the formula at issue not only appeared orthodox, but might also serve as a conciliatory measure toward the Monophysites, and he made a vain attempt to do this in the religious conference with the followers of Severus of Antioch, in 533.

Justinian, however, felt restrained by the complications that would have ensued with the West.

Justinian also tried to find new routes for the eastern trade, which was suffering badly from the wars with the Persians.

In order to bypass the Persian landroute, Justinian established friendly relations with the Abyssinians, whom he wanted to act as trade mediators by transporting Indian silk to the Empire ; the Abyssinians, however, were unable to compete with the Persian merchants in India.

* 532 – Byzantine Emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia.

After Scupi was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 518 AD, Justinian, according to his historian Procopius in " De Aedificiis " ( On the Buildings ), built a new city near his birthplace Tauresium and Bederiana ( believed to be today's villages Taor and Bader ) at the fertile entry point of the River Lepenec into the Vardar, making Skopje the city of Justiniana Prima.

* February 23 – Emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia.

It was through the use of the restored Justinian code that Frederick came to view himself as a new Roman emperor.

With the help of his new troops, Justinian won a battle against the enemy in Armenia in 693, but they were soon bribed to revolt by the Arabs.

Justinian contributed to the development of the thematic organization of the Empire, creating a new theme of Hellas in southern Greece and numbering the heads of the five major themes-Thrace in Europe, Opsikion, the Anatolikon, and Armeniakon themes in Asia Minor, and the maritime corps of the Karabisianoi-among the senior administrators of the Empire.

It has been suggested that the 681 peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire that established the new Bulgarian state was concluded at Varna and the first Bulgarian capital south of the Danube may have been provisionally located in its vicinity — possibly in an ancient city near Lake Varna's north shore named Theodorias ( Θεοδωριάς ) by Justinian I — before it moved to Pliska 70 km to the west.

In the sixth century under Emperor Justinian I the city was extended with new public buildings.

In 528, Emperor Justinian I created the new province of Theodorias out of the coastal belt around Laodicea, which was rebuilt and fortified against the increasing Persian threat.

During the reign of Emperor Justinian I, with increasing military threats and the expansion of the Eastern Empire, three new posts were created: the magister militum per Armeniam in the Armenian provinces, formerly part of the jurisdiction of the magister militum per Orientem, the magister militum per Africam in the reconquered African provinces ( 534 ), with a subordinate magister peditum, and the magister militum Spaniae ( ca.

Emperor Alexios I Komnenos ( 1081 – 1118 ) established a new military force from the ground up, which was directly responsible for transforming the aging Byzantine Empire from one of the weakest periods in its existence into a major economic and military power, akin to its existence during the golden age of Justinian I.

Some of the senators saw this as an opportunity to overthrow Justinian, as they were opposed to his new taxes and his lack of support for the nobility.

They conspired to overthrow the Emperor: if the plot had been successful, Justinian would have become the new Emperor.

He became a successful lawyer in Constantinople, and was appointed by Justinian in 528 as one of the commissioners to prepare the new imperial legal code, the Corpus Juris Civilis, released in 529.

In 534 the full Codex Justinianus was released, along with a series of new laws created by Justinian to reflect contemporary needs ( the Novellae ).

Around 555, according to Procopius, Emperor Justinian ( 527-565 ) renovated the fortifications of Nikopolis, as part of his huge program involving the renewal of city fortifications and the erection of new defences.