After Justinian: foreign policy in the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of Justin II and Tiberius II Constantine (565-582)

Thesis

This thesis focuses on state and society in the reigns of two emperors which have not been fully explored by scholars, namely those of Justin II (565-578) and Tiberius II (578-582). It sets out to provide valuable insight about the transitional period the empire underwent in the late sixth century by examining the roles of emperors Justin II and Tiberius II in regards to foreign policy. By comparison, most of the scholarship of this period focuses on the policies and reforms of either Justinian (527-565) or Maurice (582-602). This thesis attempts to provide a necessary bridge in the scholarship between these two emperors and seeks to highlight the importance of this period to the wider development of Late Antique society in the sixth century. The dissertation takes a comparative approach, by focusing on the literary and archaeological evidence available, and determining the changes that took place after the reign of Justinian. It also adopts a holistic approach. After an analysis of each set of policies separately, it will attempt to draw conclusions on how these policies influenced each other as a whole and how this contributed to the shifting frontiers that occurred during the late sixth century.

Authors: Main, R

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: foreign policy; Justin II; Byzantine; Justinian; Tiberius II
• Subjects: Byzantine Empire--History--527-1081