1. Quarter 3–Week 8: Clovis, Justinian, and Others
Universal Theme Six: The Preservation of God's People ( AD). In the readings of this week, we will read of two towering historical figures: Clovis, the first King of the Franks, and the Emperor Justinian. Both were Christians who sought to expand the influence of the faith through their exercise of power.
We also read of the background for the legend of King Arthur and the conflicts between Byzantium and Persia.

2. Key Events in the West
481: Childeric, who claimed the title “King of the Franks,” achieves some success but, at his death, was still a chieftan, and is succeeded by Clovis (Chlodovocar), his 15-year old son.
496: Clovis, whose wife Clotid was a Christian, after successfully uniting many of the Franks, is converted to Christianity after winning a decisive battle against the Alemanni. He and 3,000 of his army are later baptized.
507: Clovis pushes the Visigoths out of southern Gaul and, with Constantinople’s approval, proclaimed himself “Augustus, Counsul of the West.”
: Clovis unites and rules as the Christian “King of the Franks” in his new capital, Paris, a new Constantine.

3. 485: Ambrosius Aurelianus, chief warlord of Britain, after initial defeats in 473 and 477, wins a famous victory over the Saxons at Mount Badon, driving many of the Saxons out of Britain, impeding the influx of Saxons. One of his generals was named Arthur!
511: Ambrosius dies after ‘saving Britain,’ but was immortalized under the legend of Arthur, King of the Britons.
524: Chlodomer, the first of Clovis’ fours sons among whom his kingdom was given, dies in battle, and the Frankish kingdom begins to fall apart.
531: Theudis, an Ostrogoth soldier-official, is elected king of the Visogoths after Amalaric’s death, ending ancestry as the basis for Visogoth rule.

4. Clovis, King of the Franks—the New Constantine (466 - 511, d. in Paris)

5. Frankish Kingdoms Before Rise of Clovis

7. Clovis
Clovis ( ) was born a pagan who worshipped the Roman gods but converted to the Christian faith through the influence of his wife, Clotilde. While Arianism was the dominant form of Christianity in northern Europe, both Clovis and Clotilde were Catholics. Bauer points out some similarities between the conversions of Clovis and Constantine. Both saw that “Romanness” was a dying cultural influence that was not of sufficient depth to unify their territories. On Christmas Day in 508, Clovis and over three thousand soldiers of his army were baptized into the faith. The faith quickly spread throughout the kingdom of the Franks, and gained a permanent foothold in Western Europe. Clovis conquered most of northern and western Gaul (present day France) and held German territories as well. He consolidated his power and transformed the Kingdom of the Franks from a confederacy into a hereditary monarchy. He

8. called himself “Augustus of the West,” and was the first Frankish king to set up his court in Paris. Clovis also transformed the law code of the Frankish Kingdom to Roman Law, which was to remain the standard in France until the early 1800s, when the Napoleonic Code was adopted (Bauer, p. 175). The Kingdom of the Franks was weakened soon after Clovis’ death. In his will, he divided the kingdom into four equal parts, one for each of his sons. This arrangement seems to be borne out of the desire of Clovis to divide his estate equally. While Clovis may have succeeded in this aim, the effect was that it undermined his legacy by becoming the wellspring of much internal discord and strife.

9. Tapestry of King Arthur (c. 1385)
King Arthur is among the most famous literary characters of all time. The Arthurian legend of the Knights of the Round Table, Camelot, the Quest for the Holy Grail, the love affair of Lancelot and Guinevere, and the wizard Merlin have informed and inspired literary, musical, and other major artistic visions for centuries. There have been countless books, major films, operas, television shows, games, toys, plays, and graphic novels either re-telling or inspired by the Arthurian legend which developed in Europe between CE, was revived in the 19th century CE, and remains popular in the present day. (
Tapestry of King Arthur (c. 1385)

10. Key Events—Byzantium, 471-579 AD
488: Kavadh I rises to rule the Persian (Sassanian) Empire,ruling until 531. He was an able ruler and repeatedly threatened Constantinople (Byzantium).
491: Zeno the Isaurian dies without an heir. His widow marries Anastasius (the Two-Eyed), a “devout but undistinguished general,” who is declared Byzantium’s emperor.
: Persia and Byzantium fight an indecisive war ending in a peace treaty, but Byzantium’s eastern holdings are reduced.
512: Anastasius builds the Long Wall to keep out the Slavs and Bulgars, who are invading & threatening from Thracia.
: By the time of Anastasius’ death, Byzantium is racked with riots by fanatic chariot-racing fans, particularly the Blues and Greens, threatening Byzantium from within.

11. 518, 521: The Imperial Guard elects Justin, 80, one of their own, to become emperor (518). Justin, in 521, appoints his nephew Justinian, 30, as consul, 2nd to the emperor.
525: Justinian marries the former prostitute/actress Theodora, now a devout but monophysite Christian and a remarkable woman who greatly aided Justinian.
527: Justinian is crowned co-emperor by Justin on April 1, and in August, at Justin’s death, becomes emperor. Theodora is empress. Justinian did his duty to protect the empire “but he was, above all, a Christian emperor; and he took his duties as God’s representative on earth more seriously that any emperor since Theodosius I” (Bauer, p. 200).
529: The Code of Justinian, which among other things made adherence to the old Roman and Greek religions illegal and made Christianity the state religion, was largely completed.
532: The Nika (‘victory’) Riots. The Blues and Greens challenge Justinian’s power but Theodora convinces

12. Justinian to man up and resist, which he did
Justinian to man up and resist, which he did. This was the last challenge to Justinian's power.
: Justinian rebuilds the city with the Hagia Sophia as his crowning jewel. With the efforts of the able general Beisarius, much of the west, including Italy and North Africa, are recovered.
: Khosru, the son and heir of the dead Persian king Kavadh, threatens and gains ground in the east.
542: Bubonic plague decimates Byzantium and weakens it militarily.
544: Khosur almost takes Ephesus but is forced to withdraw—and get a ransom. Five years of peace follow, allowing both countries to recover from the plague. The ‘miracle’ of the Mandylion.

13. : Justinian now is able to send Narses to Italy who, with Lombards and Gepids as mercenaries, ends Ostrogoth domination. By 554 southern Spain is won.
565: Justinian's nephew Justin II accedes to the Byzantine throne at Justinian’s death (Theodora died childless at age 48) and the empire begins to fall apart by plague and foreign conquest.
: The Lombards, under Alboin, invade and capture most of Italy. The Visigoths re-take southern Spain. Byzantium fails to reclaim the old Roman lands.
578: Justin II, by now apparently mad, dies. Prior to this his wife Sophia convinced him to make Tiberius his Caesar who with control the empire. But Tiberius, crowned emperor, rules alone.
579: Khosru dies.

15. Emperor Justinian (525-548) and Theodora

19. The Code of Justinian

20. The Nika Riots—January, 532 AD

21. The Nika Riots—January, 532 AD
The Mandylion

23. Emperor Justinian
Justinian ( ) became Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire in 527 and ruled until his death in He is sometimes called “the last Roman.” He was a devout Christian who regained much of the western lands of the earlier Roman Empire, and sought to return the empire to its former glory. Like Clovis, Justinian revamped the law code of his kingdom, issuing the Corpus Juris Civilis, which became the basis of much of the European law code of today. His marriage to Theodora in 525 was extremely controversial. Not only was she a commoner, but she was an actress and former prostitute. However, in this marriage, Justinian showed he was a shrewd judge of character. Theodora was incorporated as an equal partner in Justinian’s reign, and possessed great authority and influence.

24. Justinian is perhaps best known for the construction of Hagia Sophia, the Church of the Holy Wisdom in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). This church is still known as the most beautiful church in the East. Many of the Eastern Orthodox cathedrals of today are modeled after Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia was used for Christian worship until 1453, when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople. It was then reconfigured as a mosque, and the Christian appointments were either destroyed or covered over, and Islamic features were added. The Turkish government converted the building into a museum in 1935, and restored some of the historic Christian features of the building. The bubonic plague broke out in Constantinople in 542. The city is said to have experienced over 200,000 deaths. This put a halt to many of Justinian’s building projects.

25. Justinian reigned until his death in 567
Justinian reigned until his death in With his death, the hope of regaining the former glories of the Roman Empire were lost. Theodora had died childless, so Justinian had no heir. The throne passed to his nephew, Justin, who was not his equal. The western parts of the empire that Justinian conquered were lost almost immediately, and the empire would never regain the power and influence that it held under Justinian.

26. The King as Lawgiver
Both Clovis and Justinian extensively rewrote law codes and issued them to their kingdoms. One’s first impression upon hearing this is that both were using the law to consolidate their power. While this is often the case, there are other reasons for kings issuing law codes. Clovis and Justinian, as Christian kings, sought to reform the law to bring truer justice to their kingdoms. For example, Justinian reformed laws on prosti- tution so that women could not be forced to enter prostitution, and upheld the rights of the wife in the case of divorce. The law has a function of “do this and you shall live” (Lev. 18:5). But, in God’s law, there is also “the grace of law.” In the book of Exodus, grace precedes law. God delivers his people out of bondage in Egypt, and then he reveals his law, which is the perfect revelation of his character and shows his people how they are to live.

27. Laws are representations of the lawgiver and his subjects
Laws are representations of the lawgiver and his subjects. Both Clovis and Justinian sought to bring forth the image of God in setting up law codes to promote greater justice. Christian legislators are called to do the same, rather than enact measures that will benefit their supporters or their constituents. Justice is a transcendental norm that is revealed in the Scripture. While the laws of man will not bring about perfect justice, this does not mean that Christians are to sit idly. Christians are to work for reform so that civil laws have greater proximity to the divine law. In following this course, Christians will not be held hostage by either of the major political parties. Instead, by “letting their light shine before men” (Matt. 5:16) in this way, they will keep in mind that they answer to a higher tribunal, and provide a witness of greater integrity.

28. The King as Lawgiver
Both Clovis and Justinian extensively rewrote law codes and issued them to their kingdoms. One’s first impression upon hearing this is that both were using the law to consolidate their power. While this is often the case, there are other reasons for kings issuing law codes. Clovis and Justinian, as Christian kings, sought to reform the law to bring truer justice to their kingdoms. For example, Justinian reformed laws on prosti-tution so that women could not be forced to enter prostitution, and upheld the rights of the wife in the case of divorce. The law has a function of “do this and you shall live” (Lev. 18:5). But, in God’s law, there is also “the grace of law.” In the book of Exodus, grace precedes law. God delivers his people out of bondage in Egypt, and then he reveals his law, which is the perfect revelation of his character and shows his people how they are to live.

29. Justinian and the Byzantine Empire (Khan Academy)