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Justinian and the Empire of the East
Justinian (r. A.D. 527-65) laid the
foundation on which the Byzantine Empire would rest for nearly a
century. An ambitious and dynamic leader, he greatly expanded the
empire's territory by conquering the southern Levant, northern Africa,
and Italy, in an effort to recreate the domain of the old Roman
Empire. Justinian's administrative reforms created a centralized
bureaucracy, a new fiscal system, and a provincial administration. The
codes of Roman law were revised and unified in the Justinianic Code,
which remains to this day a cornerstone of European jurisprudence.
These reforms greatly advanced the unification of the diverse peoples
of the empire in a Hellenic context. In the end, Justinian's
institutional reforms proved far more lasting than his military
conquests.
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