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new section - Pope John's visit to Justin
Justin's religious policy is interpreted differently by modern historians. Traditional accounts emphasize his personal adherence to Chalcedonian Christianity. However, Volker Menze has argued that his acceptance of the papal formula also served important political purposes, particularly the restoration of relations with Rome and the consolidation of imperial authority.<ref name="Cameron" /><ref name="Menze" />
Justin's religious policy is interpreted differently by modern historians. Traditional accounts emphasize his personal adherence to Chalcedonian Christianity. However, Volker Menze has argued that his acceptance of the papal formula also served important political purposes, particularly the restoration of relations with Rome and the consolidation of imperial authority.<ref name="Cameron" /><ref name="Menze" />
==Visit of Pope John I and His Imprisonment==
The religious policies of Justin also affected the political relationship between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogothic kingdom of [[Italy]], ruled by [[Theoderic the Great]]. Theoderic was an adherent of [[Arianism]] and regarded the imperial measures against Arians in the East as a threat to his fellow-believers and to the religious settlement maintained within his own kingdom.<ref name="Sarris" /><ref name="Cristini" />
In late 525, Theoderic summoned [[Pope John I]] to [[Ravenna]] and ordered him to lead an embassy to Constantinople. The delegation included several bishops and prominent Roman senators. Its principal purpose was to persuade Justin to relax his measures against the Arians, restore their churches, and permit those who had entered into communion with the Catholic Church to return to their former Arian allegiance. Theoderic also threatened reprisals against Catholics in Italy should the emperor refuse his demands.<ref name="AnonymusValesianus" /><ref name="LiberPontificalisJohn" /><ref name="Bury" />
According to the ''[[Anonymus Valesianus]]'', John was unwilling to promise Theoderic in advance that he would secure the restoration of converts to Arianism. Nevertheless, he undertook the embassy. Justin received the pope with exceptional honour, meeting him as though he were [[Saint Peter]]. The emperor granted concessions concerning Arian worship and the churches, but refused to permit those who had embraced the Catholic faith to be restored to Arianism. The pope also celebrated Easter at the church of [[Hagia Sophia]] in Constantinople in April 526, in a public demonstration of ecclesiastical communion between Rome and Constantinople.<ref name="AnonymusValesianus" /><ref name="Bury" /><ref name="LiberPontificalisJohn" />
The embassy's reception had significant political implications. Peter Sarris observes that John returned to Italy having failed to secure the full religious concessions sought by Theoderic, while having received extraordinary honours from Justin and publicly participated in the emperor's religious settlement. Theoderic could consequently regard the pope's conduct as an alignment with Constantinople rather than the faithful execution of an Ostrogothic diplomatic commission. The wider political significance of papal journeys to Constantinople, including their implications for the competing claims of Ravenna and the Eastern Empire over Italy, has also been examined by Marco Cristini.<ref name="Sarris" /><ref name="Cristini" />
Upon his return to Italy in May 526, John was received by Theoderic with hostility and immediately imprisoned at Ravenna. The ''Anonymus Valesianus'' states that Theoderic received him ''cum dolo'' (with deceit) and ordered that he remain under royal displeasure. The ''Liber Pontificalis'' likewise describes Theoderic's reception of the pope and his accompanying senators as deceitful and hateful, recording that the king would have had them put to death but feared the reaction of Justin. John died in confinement shortly afterwards, traditionally dated to 18 May 526.<ref name="AnonymusValesianus" /><ref name="LiberPontificalisJohn" /><ref name="Bury" />
The treatment of John is consistent with Theoderic regarding the pope as a politically disloyal envoy, or even as a suspected agent of the imperial government. This suspicion must be understood against the background of growing hostility between Ravenna and Constantinople and Theoderic's increasingly severe treatment of Roman senators suspected of maintaining relations with the Eastern court. The imprisonment and death of John thus went beyond punishment for an unsuccessful diplomatic mission: they reflected the king's suspicion that the pope's position and conduct had compromised the political interests of the Ostrogothic kingdom. Although no surviving source records a formal treason trial or conviction against John, his treatment was effectively that of a man suspected of disloyalty to his sovereign.<ref name="Sarris" /><ref name="AnonymusValesianus" />
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==Foreign Relations and Conflict with Persia==
==Foreign Relations and Conflict with Persia==
<references>
<references>
<ref name="AnonymusValesianus">''Anonymus Valesianus'', ''Pars Posterior'' (''Chronica Theodericiana''), sections 15.91–93. See also the Latin text, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/l/roman/texts/Excerpta_Valesiana/2%2A.html online transcription].</ref>
<ref name="LiberPontificalisJohn">Louise Ropes Loomis (trans.), ''The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis)'', Vol. I (New York: Columbia University Press, 1916), biography of John I, pp. 132–134.</ref>
<ref name="Sarris">Peter Sarris, ''Empires of Faith: The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam, 500–700'' (Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 109–111.</ref>
<ref name="Cristini">Marco Cristini, "Sailing to Byzantium: Sixth-Century Popes under Threat in Constantinople," in Sabine Panzram and Pablo Poveda Arias (eds.), ''Bishops under Threat: Contexts and Episcopal Strategies in the Late Antique and Early Medieval West'' (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2023), pp. 183–204, especially pp. 193–196. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110778649-011 DOI].</ref>
<ref name="Bury">J. B. Bury, ''History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian'', Vol. II (London: Macmillan, 1923), Chapter XVIII, section 1, pp. 156–157.</ref>
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<ref name="Cameron">Averil Cameron, "Justin I and Justinian," in ''The Cambridge Ancient History'', Vol. XIV, ''Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425–600'', edited by Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, and Michael Whitby (Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 63–85. [https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521325912.004 DOI].</ref>
<ref name="Cameron">Averil Cameron, "Justin I and Justinian," in ''The Cambridge Ancient History'', Vol. XIV, ''Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425–600'', edited by Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, and Michael Whitby (Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 63–85. [https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521325912.004 DOI].</ref>