
He Couldn’t Stop Himself: The Codex of Justinian - allthebest
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n06/michael-kulikowski/he-couldnt-stop-himself
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justinian
Man, I thought personal attacks against other users were against the
guidelines.

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vmh1928
A follower of the Edward Gibbon school of Byzantine bashing.

" Justinian’s reign destroyed the Roman world." and "his ambitions enfeebled
the state he tried to restore and the future he bequeathed to Europe was one
of poverty and schism."

Seems like a pretty harsh assessment. Empires acquire territory, that's why
they're called empires. If you get kicked out of some place you try to take it
back.

    
    
      The Eastern Empire continued on for another 900 years or so which is pretty good for a "destroyed" world.  Europe? As in France, Spain, Italy, the British Isles?  Justinian bequeathed poverty and schism to that Europe?  
    

I think it's far more complicated than this article portrays.

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cafard
Procopius piles on to the point that one reflexively doubts him.

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djur
Yes, all of the dirt about corruption or sexual license kind of gets
overwhelmed by the claims about Justinian's head flying around independent of
his body, or that he depopulated Africa, or that he was personally responsible
for pretty much every earthquake and plague in the known world, etc. And of
course there's the fact that he also wrote an incredibly glowing official
history of Justinian. If he lied in one, it seems pretty easy to assume he
lied in the other.

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man-and-laptop
Is there any way to actually read this? Pay wall.

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c22
The 'web' link worked for me.

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man-and-laptop
This comment comes across as snarky.

You should be happy you're behind a computer screen.

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c22
I apologize, I did not intend any offense. What wording would you have found
more appropriate?

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man-and-laptop
Apologies, I guess I overreacted. I do that sometimes.

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graeme
The user was referring to a hacker news feature. Under the main link, there is
one titled ‘web’ that searches the web for the aeticle. This sometimes
bypasses paywalls.

Commenting as I read your other comment; you may have misinterpreted OP m

