AE 40 Nummi

Struck: A.D. 538 - 539
Mint: Constantinople
Size: 42.5mm
Weight: 23.28g
Die Axis: 180°
Grade: VF
Ref: MIBE 95a; SB 163.

Obv: D N IVSTINI ANVS P P AVG, helmeted and cuirassed bust facing, holding globus cruciger and shield with figure on horseback; cross to right.
Rev: Large M, ANNO to left, cross above, XII to right, B below; CON in ex.
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Justinian was born in Tauresium around 482 and was Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. One of the most important figures of late antiquity, Justinian's reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct western Roman empire. His general, Belisarius, swiftly conquered the Vandal kingdom in North Africa, extending Byzantine control to the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome itself to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths.

Another aspect of his legacy was the uniform rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, which is still the basis of civil law in many modern states. This work was carried out primarily by his quaestor Tribonian. His reign also marked by a strong economy and a blossoming of Byzantine culture. His building program yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia, which was to be the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity for many centuries.

A devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in the early 540s marked a down turn in this age of prosperity. The Empire entered a period of territorial decline not to be reversed until the 9th century. Justinian died on 14 November 565, he left no children, though his wife Theodora had given birth to a stillborn son several years into his reign. He was succeeded by Justin II, who was the son of his sister Vigilantia and married to Sophia, the niece of Empress Theodora. Justinian's body was entombed in a specially built mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles. He is considered a saint amongst Eastern Orthodox Christians.