How Did Justinian Build The Byzantine Empire

DBQ 5: Byzantine Empire under Justinian When Justinian became emperor in 527, he wanted to build a new Rome by incorporating the ancient Roman Empire. He made Constantinople the capital of the Byzantine Empire and kept the Roman culture along with the Greek culture for more than a thousand years. Justinian helped rebuild the Roman Empire by the many contributions he gave to the empire; he was able to rule a well-structured empire. Justinian was known partly for rebuilding the Roman Empire; he restored what was left after the defeat between the Romans and the barbaric tribes. But according to document 2 Justinian was hypocritical, secretive by temperament, and two faced. But he was very clever and had a great ability to hide his real opinion. Justinian had such a great power over his empire that he was able to make the people of Constantinople convert to the Christian religion, making them believe in only one God. According to document 3 the emperor was equal to all men in nature of his
As shown in document 5, Justinian built the Hippodrome which was modeled after The Circus Maximus. Justinian started restoring the Roman Empire by trying to conquer the land that first belonged to the eastern Roman Empire. He gained back southern Spain, all of Italy, and northern Africa. Once he started gaining all this land he had to start to find a way the gain back all the money he spent on conquering land. As shown in document 6, The Byzantine Empire reached its greatest size under Justinian. Because of the location the Constantinople, Justinian had a great advantage because it was right in the center of two cross roads between Asia and Europe, so the empire gained a lot of money in trade because if its location. Because of all these advantages of Constantinople, it was known as the center of