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Basil 1st. He came later, but the Byzantines never considered themselves anything other than Romans. Basil helped to beat back the Islamic threat and strengthen the empire so it acted as a bulwark that enabled Constantinople to check the spread of Islam until 1492.
Julian the Apostate? returned to paganism.
Not sure Heraclius, who lost Jerusalem and Syria to the Muslim Arabs belongs on that list.
Leo III and Constantine IV, who held off the Muslims in the late seventh and early eighth centuries certainly deserve honorable mention.
Thanks for posting a stimulating interest peek into Roman history.
Thanks for posting a stimulating interest peek into Roman history.
I think it’s an omission when listing Justinian I, not to include his wife and by some accounts, coregent Theodora and her influence. She was according to contemporary accounts, responsible for persuading Justinian not to flee the city during the Nica Riots thus saving his rule.
Theodora participated in Justinian’s legal and spiritual reforms, and her involvement in the increase of the rights of women was substantial. She had laws passed that prohibited forced prostitution “and was known for buying girls who had been sold into prostitution, freeing them, and providing for their future.”[22] She closed brothels and made pimping a criminal offense. She created a convent on the Asian side of the Dardanelles called the Metanoia (Repentance), where the ex-prostitutes could support themselves.[12] She also expanded the rights of women in divorce and property ownership, instituted the death penalty for rape, forbade exposure of unwanted infants, gave mothers some guardianship rights over their children, and forbade the killing of a wife who committed adultery. Procopius wrote that she was naturally inclined to assist women in misfortune.[23] After Theodora’s death, “little effective legislation was passed by Justinian.”[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodora_(6th_century)