Justinian I

Biography

The last Latin speaking emperor, Justinian compiled the Corpus Juris Civilis, Roman law distilled, the base of most civil law systems today. Theodora, his empress, ex actress, anchored him in the Nika riots. Belisarius reconquered Africa and Italy from the Vandals and Ostrogoths, exhausting both. Hagia Sophia, built in five years, its dome the largest for a millennium.