 The Emperor found himself staring, staring across the plains to the horizon. He took a moment to admire the sun setting in the distance, thinking back to the many sunsets he had admired as a boy. The sun was setting over Syria, Byzantine lines, before the Emperor was hostile territory. The Emperor's name was Khosrow, king of the Persians, the Shahansha. As Khosrow turned from the sunset to his tent, he thought to Justinian, the Byzantine Emperor. That fool. Khosrow's circumstances had prevented him from winning the last war against Justinian, but they would not hold him back this time. Or so he thought. Little did Khosrow know just how much the circumstances of the plague would affect the coming war. The rivalry between the two emperors had gone on from the time of their youth. And from their young age, it seemed to be that both men were destined to clash. From court intrigue and drama, to the antagonistic correspondences between them, to the situations left to both men by their predecessors, their rivalry would prove to be catastrophic. Justinian grew up as a young boy from a peasant family in Alaria. At the behest of his uncle, a top military commander, he was brought to Constantinople. Here he was given a high quality education where he was able to develop his talents and grew to love reading and religion. In spite of growing up to be somewhat of an introverted homebody, Justinian during his youth developed charismatic speaking and writing skills which he would find very useful later in life. As a young boy with his nose always in a book, the child Justinian at this moment could have never come to understand the legacy he would leave and of the microscopic organisms that play such an important role in his life and dictate the course of the empire that he would one day rule. How about for now, let's just leave the young Justinian to enjoy his book. Castro, on the other hand, grew up in a much different way. Born to an ancient and storied land with a backdrop full of magnificent craggy mountains and buildings decorated with intricate floral motifs, Castro came from a privileged and noble lifestyle, but he was no less motivated to satiate his ambition, no less calculating and no less visionary than his Byzantine counterpart. At around the age of 10, Castro's father, King Cavad, seeking to ensure Castro's safety and future, attempted to negotiate Castro's adoption into the Byzantine imperial family. Justinian, who is an adult by now, was at that time an esteemed advisor to his uncle, now Emperor Justin, and was ecstatic at the prospect of adding Castro to the family. That was until another advisor came in and said, Slow down now, let's not get carried away. After all, we can't have another little title claimant running around, waiting to potentially usurp the throne now, can we? And so, the imperial family sent a response to the Persian court, essentially saying, Thank you for your consideration. We would love to give young Castro the privilege of joining our family, but only as a barbarian, it will never be a true Roman. This response torpedoed the deal, and Castro was deeply insulted. The Persians and Byzantines would be at war shortly after this happened, and while the war wasn't related to this awkward and weird moment, it definitely set the seeds for an intense rivalry between the two soon to be emperors. Justinian would become the sole Byzantine emperor in 527 after the death of his uncle Justin. Being the Byzantine emperor was slightly safer than being in charge during the days of Rome, many emperors of which it seems were assassinated, the literal second they took office, but holding the position still carried with it the risk of being brutally murdered at the hands of angry mobs of starving peasants, disgruntled soldiers, or scheming generals. Luckily for Justinian, he had spent the early years of his career heavily involved in politics, and shortly before Justin's death, Justinian was named co-emperor and took up many imperial responsibilities. Then, after maybe, possibly orchestrating an assassination or two of his own, Justinian had a sharp understanding of politics and was well situated to be ruler. Immediately after assuming the title of emperor, Justinian, with his tireless work ethic, set out to fulfill his ambitions and fundamentally changed the empire in the way he had envisioned. The Byzantine empire was in dire need of reorganization. Its legal system was a complete mess, the taxation system was inefficient and corrupt, and different religious sects threatened the unity of the empire. However, before Justinian could get to work fixing any of these problems, he needed to make sure he wouldn't be stabbed in the back by someone else with big plans. This is where Justinian showcased his aptitude in the most important skill a leader can have, selecting advisors who are both competent and loyal. Justinian would recruit several highly skilled advisors including John the Cappadocian to head up the realm's finance and Trebonian to reform its legal system. However, Justinian's two most important compatriots would be his wife, Empress Theodora and the great general Balasarius. While he was never the flamboyant, fire-breathing populace of somebody like Julius Caesar, Balasarius held a command of the military of similar fashion. He was a calm, focused man who would crush opposing forces with a steady and composed hand, but also a man of noble character who showed leniency towards captured enemy troops and benevolence towards the townspeople of the cities he conquered. Balasarius's attitude made him loved by the townspeople and led many soldiers to switch sides after being captivated by his magnanimous nature. He would be the sword of the empire and be instrumental in achieving its goals. Theodora, however, was by far the most important person in Justinian's circle. From her early days as an actress, Theodora would meet Justinian at a chariot race. The two of them immediately clicked and fell madly in love. Byzantine society at this time was relatively closed off and the two of them were barred from being married because of their different classes. Justinian pressured his uncle, Emperor Justin, to change the laws so they could marry and the two would go on without the slightest care about the scandal their marriage would cause. Way to go if you ask me. Theodora had a keen sense for politics and would prove to be just as revolutionary as Justinian and Khazro. She would find herself elevated in her position becoming more like a partner to Justinian than a subordinate. She would be consulted by Justinian before most decisions were made and her word would carry the same authority as the emperors. Her charming and charismatic personality would lead to her forming her own circles of intrigue and power but the emperor and empress would remain loyal to each other for the entirety of their lives working in tandem towards each other's goals. Each of his advisors had their own unique characteristics and stories that made them special to what Justinian was trying to do and each of them would play an important role in the difficult times to come brought by the plague. They were all very different people who in many cases despised each other. They were constantly scheming against one another and plotting to increase their own power circles. In spite of all this, they shared one crucial trait, loyalty to the emperor. Khazro's ascendance to the throne took place during a strange time. His father, King Khavad, had become ill and died unexpectedly while on military campaign against the Byzantines, leaving Khazro as the new emperor very young at around the age of 19 or 20. Whilst the time when you hand over absolute power to people barely out of their teens, well, it doesn't often go that well. Coming at you again, Commodus. Khazro, on the other hand, was not like most people barely out of their teens. Khazro had this little thing called situational awareness and political acumen. Since Khavad had died so unexpectedly, Khazro's ascendance to the throne was never really secured and there were a lot of potential title claimants running around waiting to stab him in the back too. Still at war with the Byzantines, Khazro knew he needed to reach a peace deal in order to focus on securing his power. Even though he despised the Byzantines, he went to Justinian and said, Hey, uh, maybe we can do this later? To which Justinian said, yeah, I've got better stuff to do right now anyway. And so, the two nations signed the Eternal Peace, a deal which slightly favored the Byzantines and stipulated that the two rulers would recognize each other as equals and work towards mutual prosperity. From a position of peace, Khazro could now focus on consolidating his power and stabilizing his internal realm. Which to him meant having any title claimant including his uncle, all of his brothers, and all of their male children rounded up and swiftly and brutally executed. I know just what you're thinking. How charming. With the realm at peace and internal dissidents brutally oppressed, Khazro sought to enact sweeping reforms to a broken and outdated Persian system. Seeing the military, government, treasury, and capital as all interconnected, he focused his reforms on revamping all four, but primarily on creating new administrative and military districts which would garner him more tax revenue and fund a larger military, both facets which would prove vital to the achieving of Khazro's own imperial ambitions. Across the border, Justinian, finding himself at peace with Persia and with a competent council in lockstep with his vision, also decided now was a good time for him and Theodora to enact their own sweeping reforms to a broken and outdated Byzantine society. Some of the major aspects of society Justinian and Theodora would reform first were the empire's broken legal system and its inept taxation system. The closed off Byzantine society was highly stratified between a rich aristocracy and the impoverished masses and then, well, slaves. Gender roles for women were also just as restrictive as they had been in Rome for centuries and women had scant legal rights or protections. The law was not uniform and there were shocking inconsistencies between old Roman law and the laws of different localities and religions. Justinian's vision was to, well, organize this clustered mess. He appointed a council of jurists headed up by Trebonian to compile and codify Roman legal codes into a single codex which would be distributed and uniformly enforced empire wide. However, simply collecting a codex of laws still left many problems unsolved and Justinian added his own set of laws to the codex. While his additions included theological ordinance as a linking church and state, his new laws, no doubt with significant influence from Theodora, included legal protections and a massive expansion of rights for women. Theodora and Justinian would pass laws criminalizing sex trafficking, expanded women's rights in divorce proceedings and permanently abolished the cruel Roman laws which sometimes saw women executed for committing adultery. All these things, among many other changes, no longer would the women of the empire live under the horrible conditions that they had endured for centuries in Rome with no means of seeking recourse. A variety of other laws were enacted ranging from edicts against slavery to settling inheritance disputes which were added to the codex. The new Corpus Urus Sevilus revised just about every aspect of Byzantine legal life. It's difficult to express just how massive an undertaking this legal project was. Even more impressive was the fact it was completed in just a few years. While the reforms did much to expand the rights of the citizenry to the citizen body, it probably also felt like a lot of radical changes were just forced on to them. To rectify the issue with the taxation system, Justinian appointed his financial advisor, John the Cappadocian, to the task. The taxation system was rampant with corruption and many people got away with paying little to no taxes, especially the rich aristocracy. John the Cappadocian would successfully enforce new and higher taxation laws and crack down on the rampant corruption. Though he wouldn't let any of that get in the way of him sneaking his own hand into the pot every now and then. Our story has progressed to this point with little mention of one important group who had been watching this all play out. The people of the Byzantine Empire. And they were angry. Really angry. Here we have this new emperor from a peasant family who manipulated the last emperor and changed the laws so he could marry a prostitute of all people. He never sleeps, he never leaves Constantinople and he has a weird obsession with his brand of Christianity. He's just plain weird. He's making us adopt all sorts of new laws that radically changes our way of life and to top it all off he's making us actually pay taxes now. Just who the hell did this guy think he was? The people had had enough. On next week's episode, things get spicy. Join us as we go over just how the angry people of Constantinople react. What did they do? Were the Byzantine lower classes doing these things on their own or were their shadier figures leading them on and provoking them? How did Justinian get through it? Find out next week on Contagions. Be sure to like and subscribe to stay tuned. This week over on Patreon, our host, Sean Sharp, is going to be taking us back to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Together, we'll be taking a closer look into that pivotal event. Who were some of the major figures around it? What were some of the immediate consequences? Did it really happen in 476 like they say it did? By becoming a patron, you can have all these questions answered and more with the extended discussions by Sean Sharp. That's it for us today. We'll catch you next time, viewer.