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Justinian I (482-565), also known as Justinian the Great or Saint Justinian the Great, was the nephew of Emperor Justin I, originally born from a peasant family in Tauresium. Justin, before he became emperor, adopted Justinian and raised him in Constantinople. Justinian served in the Imperial Guard, the Excubitors, just as his uncle had, and was made associate emperor in 527 before becoming sole emperor when Justin died in the same year.<br/><br/> Justinian was ambitious and clever, and sought to revive the empire's greatness, planning the reconquest of the western half of the Roman Empire in what was known as 'renovatio imperii' (restoration of the Empire). Justinian was hard-working and known as 'the emperor who never sleeps'. He nearly lost his throne during the Nika riots, and nearly lost his life during the Justinian Plague of the early 540s.<br/><br/> Justinian was a devout Christian and theologian, and his partial recovery of lost Roman territories led him to be called by some as one of the 'last Romans'. His uniform rewriting of Roman law, the 'Corpus Juris Civilis' is perhaps his greatest legacy, which is still used as the basis of civil law in many modern nations. His restoration activities included the building of the Hagia Sophia. He died in 565 without an heir, succeeded by his nephew Justin II.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.
In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Jesus walked past a lake and saw some fishermen at work. He called on them to follow him and be his disciples: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”—Matthew 4:19.<br/><br/> This passage is generally taken to mean that Christ was calling on the fishermen to become missionaries, convert unbelievers, and spread his word. In 1614, Adriaen Van de Venne used the idea to illustrate the fierce battle for people’s souls that was taking place at the time between Protestants and Roman Catholics. In the lake we see Protestants dressed in black on the left fighting for souls against Catholics on the right led by a bishop.<br/><br/> This allegorical masterpiece was also a political statement: Spain and the Netherlands had signed an armistice in 1609 that would last until 1621 (the 12-year Truce), but not end the 80 Years War (1568-1648). The painter depicts the Protestants as members of the Dutch House of Orange bathed in light, while the Catholics are in cloudy darkness. The tree on the left is in full bloom while the Catholics’ tree is withered. In fact, Van de Venne did not paint any nude swimmers going to the Catholics’ boats in his original canvas. Those converts were painted in later.