We may take the years on either side of 550 as constituting a high water
mark of Byzantine influence in the west. Economic links between east
and west were strengthened; the export of African pottery to the east,
which had declined during the Vandal period, seems to have grown during
the early period of Byzantine rule. Byzantine relations with the west were
particularly in evidence in Ravenna, the capital of Italy, where Bishop
Maximianus obtained from Justinian the title of archbishop and relics of
St Andrew, a saint whose cult could be seen as constituting a possible rival
to that of St Peter in Rome. It is possible that Maximianus’ splendid ivory
throne, now to be seen in the Museo Arcivescovile in Ravenna, was made
in Constantinople, and it was he who consecrated the church of San Vitale,
with its glowing mosaics of Justinian and Theodora. Justinian failed to visit
the west, but no one could doubt that the mosaics of San Vitale, whatever
the precise liturgical significance of the scenes they portray, were powerful
statements of imperial power in the conquered territories.
Strange as it may seem, the clearest sign of the centrality of Byzantium
in western affairs in the mid-sixth century is to be seen in Constantinople
itself and in the variety of westerners, the influential, the ambitious and
the captive, who were there. Liberius, whom Theoderic had successively
appointed praetorian prefect of Italy and praetorian prefect of Gaul, had
defected while on an embassy to Constantinople shortly before the Gothic
war. He later participated in Byzantine campaigns in Italy and Spain, and
returned to Italy, where he was buried at Rimini. During the war, and in
particular after Totila’s capture of Rome in 546, many Roman aristocrats
made their way to the royal city. These included Cassiodorus, formerly
prominent in Theoderic’s administration, and the leader of the senate,
Cethegus; in 554 Justinian gave senators permission to live in Constantinople.
The Roman deacon Vigilius was on hand in Constantinople in 537,
well placed to become pope when Silverius fell out of imperial favour; when
Vigilius died in 555, his successor Pelagius was likewise there, standing in
the wings. From the time of Vigilius, imperial confirmation of the election
of a pope was needed before he could be consecrated; this accounts for the
long intermissions between pontificates that characterised the following
period of papal history. Pope Gregory the Great had served as papal legate
in Constantinople (c. 579–c. 586) before being appointed as pope in 590.
His two successors would likewise serve in this position before becoming
pope. Clearly, after the conquest of Italy, a stint in Constantinople was a
valuable item in the curriculum vitae of prospective popes.Maximianus was
appointed to the see of Ravenna while at Constantinople in 546 and he was
to travel there again, while in 552 the clergy of the province ofMilan asked
a legate travelling to Constantinople to see what he could do to secure the
return of bishop Datius; he had been absent from his see for fifteen or sixteen
years, and in the royal city for much of the time. One of Gregory the
Great’s acquaintances while he was in Constantinople, the Milanese deacon
Constantius, was appointed bishop of his city in 593, while another,
the Spaniard Leander, was to become bishop of Seville. In 551 Reparatus of
Carthage and other African bishops were summoned to Constantinople; in
the following year Justinian exiled Reparatus and replaced him, against the
will of the clergy and people of Carthage, with Primosus, his former legate
in Constantinople. Members of various Germanic royal families, such as
the Ostrogoth Amalasuntha, were also on hand. An eye could be kept on
their activities in the City, and they could be called into action as imperial
needs required.
No less striking is the centrality of Constantinople in the intellectual life
of the west. A large volume of literature in Latin was produced there during,
and immediately after, the reign of Justinian. It was in Constantinople
that the Illyrian, Marcellinus, and the African, Victor of Tunnuna, wrote
their chronicles; and although the chronicle of the Spanish Goth, John
of Biclaro, was produced in Spain, he wrote it after spending some years
in the City. It was in Constantinople that the Goth, Jordanes, wrote his
histories of theRomans and theGoths. Cassiodorus worked on his Expositio
psalmorum in the City, and it was there that the African, Junillus, wrote his
introduction to the study of the Bible, while another African, Corippus,
witnessed the accession of Justin II, which he described in a panegyric; and it
was from Constantinople that various African theologians came to operate.
Somewhat later, the future pope Gregory delivered there the talks which
formed the basis of his massive Moralia in Job. Scholars have sometimes
doubted Gregory’s assertion that he did not know Greek, on the basis that
it would have been difficult for the representative of the pope to have
functioned in Constantinople without knowing the language. However,
given the flourishing and influential community of Latin-speakers there,
Gregory may not have found a command of Greek necessary.
World History
