Authors: Ross Laidlaw
Both Palace and Gate still extant
Re the Lateran Palace, mediaeval fabric has mostly replaced Roman; the Baptistery however is entirely fifth-century work. The Asinarian Gate â perhaps the finest in the whole circuit of the Aurelian Walls â survives in all its original glory.
a condemnation of certain century-old writings
In the text, I have done my best to outline (as simply as possible, in order to spare the reader) the basic issues involved in the apocalyptic row known as the Three Chapters controversy. The Three Chapters: it sounds innocuous enough. But once I started to scratch beneath the surface and are confronted with: â. . . while the Divinity of the Logos is to be distinguished from the temple of the flesh, yet there remained but one person in the God-man . . .', or, â. . . while granting the true Divinity and humanity of Christ, he [Nestorius] denied their union in a single hypostasis . . .', I began to suspect that I had tangled with something in which I could soon find myself out of my depth. Hoping for illumination, I turned from primary sources to more modern ones. As a true son of the Enlightenment, Gibbon treats the subject with magnificent disdain, dismissing it in three contemptuous lines: â. . . the East was distracted by the Nestorian . . .
controversy, which attempted to explain the mystery of the incarnation, and hastened the ruin of Christianity in her native land . . .' So, not much help there, then. Antony Bridge (in his
Theodora
), Robert Browning (in his
Justinian and Theodora
), and Claire Sotinel (in her article âEmperors and Popes in the Sixth Century' â Chapter 11 of
The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian
), all struggle valiantly to explain the theological metaphysics of Nestorius, Theodore, Theoderet and Ibas. To them I owe a debt of gratitude for whatever (limited) understanding I've been able to glean concerning the Three Chapters.
For the sake of clarity and pace, I've somewhat telescoped the main events of the controversy, and emphasized the roles played by the
apocrisiarius
Stephen (whose denunciation of Justinian's
Edict
I have, for dramatic reasons, relocated from Constantinople to Rome), and Facundus, bishop of Hermiane. (Vigilius' self-serving vacillation needed no underscoring on my part!) This approach is justified, I think, for the following reason. Without some selective highlighting and streamlining in its presentation, the whole Three Chapters topic (which is important for our understanding both of Justinian and of his times) could appear to the average reader as an impenetrable thicket of Christological subtleties.
Theoctistus â formerly the army's most brilliant surgeon
Procopius (in his
The Wars of Justinian
) describes in graphic detail an incident that took place during the siege of Rome, in which Theoctistus successfully treated a soldier horrendously wounded by an arrow between the nose and the right eye, âthe point of the arrow penetrating as far as the neck behind', whom other physicians were reluctant to operate on, in case they caused the patient's death. Roman medical practice, especially in the army, was highly sophisticated and efficient â of a standard unrivalled until modern times. The tool-kit of a Roman
medicus
, with its array of needles, probes, catheters, lancets, forceps, scissors, etc., would be instantly recognizable to a surgeon of today. Though often brilliant in their ability to cope with âaccident and emergency' type injuries, the Romans' competence in the field of invasive surgery was limited, being primarily confined to lithotomy, the removal of fistulae and the excision of some cancers, provided they were not too deep. Though of course knowing nothing of infection caused by germs, Roman doctors were aware from experience that cleanliness could aid recovery. Roman hospitals, especially army ones, were probably a good deal more hygienic than any operating at, say, the time of Waterloo.
become in turn the Western emperor
Thus reviving Diocletian's neat but somewhat arid constitutional device known as the Tetrarchy: two âAugusti' (one for the East, one for the West), with two âCaesars' â emperors-in-waiting, who would replace the Augusti in due course. That was the theory; in practice it could break down, when power-hungry usurpers ignored the formula.
leaving his son to become the Western emperor
Germanus' son (by Matasuntha) was in fact born posthumously.
I'll be blunt, Serenity
In an age of subservience and protocol, Narses was noted for speaking his mind to Justinian â and being listened to (probably because his advice was invariably sound, and Justinian, unlike many Roman emperors, was, at bottom, a reasonable and fair-minded man).
pushing up the Via Flaminia from Rome
Losing count of the number of times Rome changed hands during the long Gothic War, I often found myself referring to a useful list compiled by Gibbon giving the various dates on which it was captured: âIn . . . 536 by Belisarius, in 546 by Totila, in 547 by Belisarius, in 549 by Totila, in 552 by Narses'. Determined to break the cycle of siege and capture, Totila was about to demolish the walls when he was dissuaded by Belisarius, who pointed out that such an act would make the Gothic king âabhorred by all civilized men'. Such generous restraint on Totila's part (for which the modern tourist, who today is able to walk around the circuit of the walls in all their splendour, can be grateful) shows that civilized attitudes between enemies could still prevail â before the long campaign descended into âtotal war', that is.
the nation of the Ostrogoths had ceased forever to exist
There is a terrible Wagnerian grandeur about the fate of the Ostrogoths â a heroic people who first emerge into the light of history, fighting (on the âwrong' side) for Attila in the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields in 451, and vanish from it following the disaster of Busta Gallorum/Tadinae in 552. The âOstrogothic century' encompasses: first,
Völkerwanderung
on an epic scale â a search for a homeland throughout the Eastern Empire, followed by mass migration to Italy under their hero-king Theoderic (vice-gerent of the Eastern emperor); then a long and bloody war against Odovacar, king of another Germanic people, the Sciri, to secure their Italian homeland;
finally â following a long period of harmonious âapartheid' with the Romans, under Theoderic's enlightened reign â their extinction as a people, resulting from Justinian's obsession with reconstructing the Western Empire. (See my
Theoderic
.)
Theoderic and Totila surely represent all that is best in the Teutonic character â courage and determination in the face of adversity, magnanimity, honour. Confronted by the overwhelming might of Narses' Roman army at Busta Gallorum, Totila must have known this was the end. Hence, I believe, his amazing war-dance before the battle; at least he and his warriors would go out in a blaze of glory. Surely this scene (which reflects a Teutonic strain of heroic resignation and defiance in the face of certain death) has echoes down the centuries: in
Beowulf
, in the great Anglo-Saxon war-poem
The Battle of Maldon
(âHeart shall be bolder, harder be purpose, more proud the spirit as our power lessens!'), in the last stand of King Harold's huscarls at Hastings, in the defence of the Alamo.
the year that witnessed the destruction of the Ostrogoths
Some sources date the introduction of sericulture into the Roman Empire as 552, others as 554. A convenient discrepancy, as it enabled me to have the monks complete the round trip in two years (the usual time), after obtaining the commission from Justinian.
a description . . . of our Church of the Holy Wisdom
Paul the Silentiary's long and detailed work, which elaborates on the coloured marbles, precious stones and gold and silver objects in the building, was indeed recited to the emperor â not in fact in 552 as I've suggested, but in 562 at the second dedication of the church.
I would not have that on my conscience
Thus echoing (fictitiously) a sentiment of Vespasian. When it was suggested to that emperor that a special new machine (pulley-system? crane?) be used to convey heavy loads in the construction of the Colosseum, Vespasian declined, saying that its adoption would deprive many poor labourers of their living (which seems to confound the popular notion that the Flavian Amphitheatre was constructed mainly by slave labour).
Gibbon laments a lost opportunity in the failure of the monks to introduce printing to the West, nearly a millennium before Gutenberg: âI reflect with some pain that if the importers of silk had introduced the art of printing, already practised by the Chinese, the comedies of Menander
and the entire decads of Livy would have been perpetuated in the editions of the sixth century'.
the imposing gateway at the end of China's Great Wall
Jiayuguan today (a rebuilding of the Ming dynasty) is an imposing spectacle, carefully restored to something like its original splendour. In Justinian's time, it marked China's western limit. Since then, a vast new province, Xinjiang, has extended China's border many hundreds of miles further to the west, taking in the lands of the Uighurs and the Kazaks. These are Turkic people â very different from the Han Chinese in ethnicity, culture, and religion (many being Muslim). Chinese occupation has resulted in considerable friction with the indigenous population, leading to political protest, which the Chinese authorities (displaying their usual horror and intolerance of dissent) invariably put down with harsh severity.
Some sources have the monks smuggling out the silkworm eggs from China itself, others from âChinese-controlled Sogdiana'. Surely the first theory is the more likely. For such an important and jealously guarded state secret as sericulture, would the Chinese have permitted it to be carried on elsewhere than within the Celestial Kingdom itself? Somehow, I doubt it. Moreover, I remain to be convinced that Sogdiana/Bactria was actually âcontrolled' by China in any meaningful sense; that it came within the Chinese sphere of influence is perhaps the most that can be argued.
a . . . species of enormous bear
This is
Ursus Torquatus
, larger even than the fearsome Kodiak. The sheep mentioned is the species now known as the Marco Polo Sheep.
this latest theological dogma
âHis [Justinian's] edict on the incorruptibility of Christ's body . . . is difficult to understand'. (Lucas Van Rompay, Chapter 10,
The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian
.) The above quotation has to be the understatement to beat all understatements! Aphthartodocetism, in the words of Van Rompay, argued that âChrist's body transcended human corruptibility and was
aphthartos
[incorruptible], even though Christ of his free will â not out of necessity â submitted himself to corruption and suffering'. Just how Justinian imagined that this impenetrable doctrine (which seems if anything to lean towards Monophysitism) was going to resolve the split between the Chalcedonians and the Monophysites, is hard to see. Robert Browning in his
Justinian and Theodora
affirms that
Justinian âhad again and again said exactly the opposite in the past', and goes on to admit that âThe matter is a mystery and will probably always remain one'. The decree containing the Aphthartodocetist dogma has not survived, but was probably promulgated in 565, a few months before the emperor's death. It seemed appropriate to introduce the doctrine into the story somewhat earlier than this, as Justinian must have thought about the matter long and hard, before issuing his decree.
bronze equestrian statue of the emperor
This occupied a prominent place in the Augusteum. Although melted down for cannon by the Turks after 1453, we know what it looked like from a drawing made before its disappearance. It is thought to have represented Achilles rather than the Roman general I've portrayed in the text.
yet another . . . tribe of steppe-nomads
Like the Huns before them and the followers of Genghis Khan after them, another fearsome Mongol horde â the Avars â swept across Europe in the sixth century, establishing a vast empire stretching from France to the Black Sea, while maintaining an uneasy alliance with the Romans. This precarious peace ended in the following century, when the Avars crossed the Danube, overran the Balkans, and nearly captured Constantinople. They introduced the use of stirrups into Europe, thus facilitating the eventual emergence of the heavily armoured mediaeval knight.
His victory against the Kotrigurs
While keeping essentially to the known facts of this bizarre and fascinating interlude, I have, for dramatic reasons, combined its two separate strands into a single event: Belisarius' tricking Zabergan into thinking his force many times larger than it really was, followed by his luring the Kotrigurs into an ambush and killing four hundred of them; Justinian's deal with Zabergan, which actually took place a little later, and his subsequent return in triumph to the capital. For a man of sedentary habits in his late seventies to become actively involved in such a
Boys' Own
adventure, is truly astonishing.
a fresh conspiracy
Apart from invented embellishments concerning the roles of Procopius and the fictitious âHoratius', my description of the plot to assassinate Justinian, and its consequences for Belisarius, closely follows Gibbon's account. (Chapter 43,
Decline and Fall
.)
Although the banquet took place in the autumn of 562, and the re-dedication of Hagia Sophia in December of the same year, it seemed appropriate, for dramatic reasons, to have these happen in the story on the same day.