Vigilantia
Encyclopedia
Vigilantia was a sister of Byzantine emperor Justinian I
(r. 527–565), and mother to his successor Justin II
(r. 565–578).
for "alertness, wakefulness". Itself deriving from "vigilia" (watch, watchfulness) and "vigil" ((1)adjective: awake, watching, alert (2)noun: watchman, sentinel).
(r. 518–527), founder of the Justinian Dynasty
. The family originated in Bederiana, near Naissus (modern Niš
in Serbia
) in Dacia Mediterranea
. Procopius
, Theodorus Lector
, Zacharias Rhetor
, Victor of Tunnuna
, Theophanes the Confessor
and Georgios Kedrenos consider Justin and his family Illyrians
, though Kedrenos is uncertain. Evagrius Scholasticus
, John Malalas
, the Chronicon Paschale
, the Suda
, Joannes Zonaras
and the Patria of Constantinople
consider them Thraco-Roman
s. While Procopius reports them to be of peasant
origins, Zonaras is the only source describing Justin I as a former herder
.
Justinian was reportedly born in Tauresium
, near Scupi
, where their parents had apparently settled. Their father was named Sabbatius, while the name of their mother is not actually recorded. The name "Bigleniza" was assigned to the mother of Justinian and Vigilantia by Niccolò Alamanni
(1583–1626), citing as his source a "Life of Justinian" (Latin: Vita Iustiniani) by "Theophilus Abbas", a supposed contemporary of Procopius. Despite repeated searches, this source has never been located by another scholar. Alamanni was trusted as a reliable source by several later authors, including Edward Gibbon
, who in his The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
quotes the name Bigleniza and other details deriving from Alamanni. Since the name seemed to be Slavic
in origin, later theories would develop on the Slavic origins of Justinian and his family. In 1883, James Bryce
discovered a "Vita Justiniani" manuscript in the Palazzo Barberini
. It only dated to the 17th century and contained all the facts mentioned by Alamanni, including Bigleniza considering her daughter-in-law Theodora, "not a gift of God
but a gift of the devil
." Bryce suggested this manuscript as Alamanni's source. Its authenticity however was doubtful, and Konstantin Josef Jireček
considered this manuscript to be the work of Ivan Tomko Marnavich (1579–1639), archdeacon of Agram (Zagreb
). Any other sources he used, if any, are unclear. Marnavich was a translator of medieval texts, particularly hagiographies
. Bigleniza is merely a translation of Vigilantia to Slavic, following the long-standing theory that mother and daughter had the same name.
Whilst Vigilantia's relation to Justinian is mentioned by numerous historians, only Victor of Tunnuna
names her husband and father of Justin II, Dulcidius (his name is also rendered as Dulcissimus).
written on the occasion of the accession of Justin II. It is more a eulogy
than an actual chronicle. Both Vigilantia and her daughter-in-law Sophia
, are called "divae", Latin
for "divine ones, goddess
es", and sources of the poet's inspiration, standing in for the Muse
s in that respect. Sophia, a niece of Theodora. is likely to have been his patroness
and may have commissioned
the poem. The Byzantinist Lynda Garland suggests that both Sophia and Vigilantia were Corippus' actual sources on various events, including "behind the scenes" activities.
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
(r. 527–565), and mother to his successor Justin II
Justin II
Justin II was Byzantine Emperor from 565 to 578. He was the husband of Sophia, nephew of Justinian I and the late Empress Theodora, and was therefore a member of the Justinian Dynasty. His reign is marked by war with Persia and the loss of the greater part of Italy...
(r. 565–578).
Name
The name "Vigilantia" is LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for "alertness, wakefulness". Itself deriving from "vigilia" (watch, watchfulness) and "vigil" ((1)adjective: awake, watching, alert (2)noun: watchman, sentinel).
Family
Justinian and consequently Vigilantia were children of a sister of Justin IJustin I
Justin I was Byzantine Emperor from 518 to 527. He rose through the ranks of the army and ultimately became its Emperor, in spite of the fact he was illiterate and almost 70 years old at the time of accession...
(r. 518–527), founder of the Justinian Dynasty
Justinian Dynasty
The Justinian Dynasty is a family who ruled over the Byzantine Empire from 518 to 602. It originated with Justin I and ended with Maurice. Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople , whose father was named Justinian, might have been a descendant of the dynasty...
. The family originated in Bederiana, near Naissus (modern Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
) in Dacia Mediterranea
Dacia Aureliana
Dacia Aureliana was a province of the Roman Empire found by Emperor Aurelian, after his retreat from Dacia Traiana in 271. Between 271/275 and 285, it occupied most of what is today Bulgaria. Its capital was in Serdica...
. Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
, Theodorus Lector
Theodorus Lector
Theodorus Lector was a lector, or reader, at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople during the early sixth century. He wrote two works of history; one is a collection of sources which relates events beginning in 313, during Constantine's early reign, down to 439, in the reign Theodosius II...
, Zacharias Rhetor
Zacharias Rhetor
Zacharias of Mytilene , also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian....
, Victor of Tunnuna
Victor of Tunnuna
Victor of Tunnuna was bishop of the North African town of Tunnuna and a chronicler from Late Antiquity....
, Theophanes the Confessor
Theophanes the Confessor
Saint Theophanes Confessor was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy, who became a monk and chronicler. He is venerated on March 12 in the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church .-Biography:Theophanes was born in Constantinople of wealthy and noble iconodule parents: Isaac,...
and Georgios Kedrenos consider Justin and his family Illyrians
Illyrians
The Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited part of the western Balkans in antiquity and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula...
, though Kedrenos is uncertain. Evagrius Scholasticus
Evagrius Scholasticus
Evagrius Scholasticus was a Syrian scholar and intellectual living in the 6th century AD, and an aide to the patriarch Gregory of Antioch. His surviving work, Ecclesiastical History, comprises a six-volume collection concerning the Church's history from the First Council of Ephesus to Maurice’s...
, John Malalas
John Malalas
John Malalas or Ioannes Malalas was a Greek chronicler from Antioch. Malalas is probably a Syriac word for "rhetor", "orator"; it is first applied to him by John of Damascus .-Life:Malalas was educated in Antioch, and probably was a jurist there, but moved to...
, the Chronicon Paschale
Chronicon Paschale
Chronicon Paschale is the conventional name of a 7th-century Greek Christian chronicle of the world...
, the Suda
Suda
The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...
, Joannes Zonaras
Joannes Zonaras
Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his...
and the Patria of Constantinople
Patria of Constantinople
The Patria of Constantinople , also known by the Latin name Scriptores originum Constantinopolitarum , is a Byzantine collection of historical works on the history and monuments of the Byzantine imperial capital of Constantinople .Although in the past attributed to the 14th-century writer George...
consider them Thraco-Roman
Thraco-Roman
The terms Thraco-Roman and Daco-Roman refer to the culture and language of the Thracian and Dacian peoples who were incorporated into the Roman Empire and ultimately fell under the Roman and Latin sphere of influence.-Meaning and usage:...
s. While Procopius reports them to be of peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
origins, Zonaras is the only source describing Justin I as a former herder
Herder
A herder is a worker who lives a possibly semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, in places where these animals wander pasture lands....
.
Justinian was reportedly born in Tauresium
Tauresium
Tauresium or known as Gradište is an archaeological site in Macedonia, located approximately 20 km south-east of the capital Skopje. Tauresium is the birthplace of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and King Theodahad of the Ostrogoths .- Name :The ancient town of Tauresium is located on the...
, near Scupi
Scupi
Scupi is an archaeological site located between Zajčev Rid and the Vardar River, several kilometers from the center of Skopje, in the Republic of Macedonia. A Roman military camp was founded here in the second decade BC on the site of an older Dardanian settlement...
, where their parents had apparently settled. Their father was named Sabbatius, while the name of their mother is not actually recorded. The name "Bigleniza" was assigned to the mother of Justinian and Vigilantia by Niccolò Alamanni
Niccolò Alamanni
Niccolò Alamanni was a Roman antiquarian of Greek origin. He was educated in Rome at the Greek College, founded by Gregory XIII, but was ordained deacon and priest according to the Latin rite....
(1583–1626), citing as his source a "Life of Justinian" (Latin: Vita Iustiniani) by "Theophilus Abbas", a supposed contemporary of Procopius. Despite repeated searches, this source has never been located by another scholar. Alamanni was trusted as a reliable source by several later authors, including Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
, who in his The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is a non-fiction history book written by English historian Edward Gibbon and published in six volumes. Volume I was published in 1776, and went through six printings. Volumes II and III were published in 1781; volumes IV, V, VI in 1788–89...
quotes the name Bigleniza and other details deriving from Alamanni. Since the name seemed to be Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
in origin, later theories would develop on the Slavic origins of Justinian and his family. In 1883, James Bryce
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FBA was a British academic, jurist, historian and Liberal politician.-Background and education:...
discovered a "Vita Justiniani" manuscript in the Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome, facing the piazza of the same name in Rione Trevi and is home to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.-History:...
. It only dated to the 17th century and contained all the facts mentioned by Alamanni, including Bigleniza considering her daughter-in-law Theodora, "not a gift of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
but a gift of the devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
." Bryce suggested this manuscript as Alamanni's source. Its authenticity however was doubtful, and Konstantin Josef Jireček
Konstantin Josef Jirecek
Konstantin Josef Jireček , son of Josef Jireček, was a Czech historian, diplomat and slavist.He entered the Bulgarian service in 1879, and in 1881 became minister of education at Sofia...
considered this manuscript to be the work of Ivan Tomko Marnavich (1579–1639), archdeacon of Agram (Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
). Any other sources he used, if any, are unclear. Marnavich was a translator of medieval texts, particularly hagiographies
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
. Bigleniza is merely a translation of Vigilantia to Slavic, following the long-standing theory that mother and daughter had the same name.
Whilst Vigilantia's relation to Justinian is mentioned by numerous historians, only Victor of Tunnuna
Victor of Tunnuna
Victor of Tunnuna was bishop of the North African town of Tunnuna and a chronicler from Late Antiquity....
names her husband and father of Justin II, Dulcidius (his name is also rendered as Dulcissimus).
Succession of Justinian
Vigilantia is one of the figures featured in In laudem Justini minoris ("In praise of the younger Justin"), a poem by Flavius Cresconius CorippusFlavius Cresconius Corippus
Flavius Cresconius Corippus was a late Roman epic poet of the 6th century, who flourished under East Roman Emperors Justinian I and Justin II. His major works are the epic poem Johannis and the panegyric In laudem Justini minoris...
written on the occasion of the accession of Justin II. It is more a eulogy
Eulogy
A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
than an actual chronicle. Both Vigilantia and her daughter-in-law Sophia
Sophia (empress)
Aelia Sophia was the Empress consort of Justin II of the Byzantine Empire from 565 to 578. She was specifically interested in economic matters and was involved in financial matters during Justin's reign...
, are called "divae", Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for "divine ones, goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
es", and sources of the poet's inspiration, standing in for the Muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
s in that respect. Sophia, a niece of Theodora. is likely to have been his patroness
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
and may have commissioned
Commission (art)
In art, a commission is the hiring and payment for the creation of a piece, often on behalf of another.In classical music, ensembles often commission pieces from composers, where the ensemble secures the composer's payment from private or public organizations or donors.- Commissions for public art...
the poem. The Byzantinist Lynda Garland suggests that both Sophia and Vigilantia were Corippus' actual sources on various events, including "behind the scenes" activities.
Marriage and children
Vigilantia and Dulcidius/Dulcissimus were parents of three known children:- Justin IIJustin IIJustin II was Byzantine Emperor from 565 to 578. He was the husband of Sophia, nephew of Justinian I and the late Empress Theodora, and was therefore a member of the Justinian Dynasty. His reign is marked by war with Persia and the loss of the greater part of Italy...
, Byzantine emperor. Married SophiaSophia (empress)Aelia Sophia was the Empress consort of Justin II of the Byzantine Empire from 565 to 578. She was specifically interested in economic matters and was involved in financial matters during Justin's reign...
. - MarcellusMarcellus (brother of Justin II)Marcellus was a brother of Byzantine emperor Justin II and general under his uncle, Justinian I .Marcellus was the son of Vigilantia, the sister of Justinian, and Dulcidio , and thus the brother of Justin II and Praejecta...
. - PraejectaPraejectaPraejecta or Praiecta was a niece to Byzantine emperor Justinian I by blood and of his empress Theodora by marriage.She was a daughter of Vigilantia and Dulcidio , respectively the sister and brother-in-law of Justinian. She was also a sister of later emperor Justin II Praejecta or Praiecta was a...
.