Justinus (12) I., proclaimed emperor (July 9, 518) on the death of the emperor Anastasius by the troops under his command and by the people ( Chron. Pasch. 331, in Patr. Gk. xcii. 858), the choice being approved by the senate (Marcell. Chron. ). He was a man of no education, and the affairs of the state were managed chiefly by his prudent minister Proclus the quaestor and afterwards by his nephew and eventual successor Justinian. For the most memorable event of his reign, the end of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches, see HORMISDAS. For his relations with Persia see CHOSROES I. in D. C. B. (4-vol. ed.).
In 523 Justin issued a constitution against the Manicheans and other heretics (Codex , i. tit. v. 12). The former were punished with exile or death; other heretics, pagans, Jews, and Samaritans, were declared incapable of holding a magistracy or entering military service. The allied Goths were exempted from these provisions. Because of the persecution of his Arian co-religionists, Theodoric sent pope John I. in 525 to Constantinople to remonstrate with the emperor. [See EPIPHANIUS (17)]
In Apr. 527 Justin caused Justinian, who had long taken the chief part in government, to be proclaimed emperor and crowned, and on Aug. 1 died, in his 75th year.
[F.D.]