Justin II

Justin II was emperor of the eastern Romans from 565 to 578. He received the Göktürk embassy of 568 and sent his own to Istemi. He made the first alliance between Byzantium and the Göktürks.^[1] Menander dates the Göktürk embassies by the years of Justin’s reign. He is the witness for all of it.^[2]

The embassy of 568

At the beginning of the fourth year of Justin’s reign an embassy of the Göktürks came to Constantinople.^[2] Its leader was the Sogdian Maniakh, whom Istemi had sent after the Persian king refused the Sogdians’ silk.^[2] Justin had the “Scythian letter” read to him through interpreters. He received the embassy very gladly.^[2] He asked the envoys about the government and the country of the Göktürks.^[2] They told him that the Göktürks had four principalities, but that power over the whole nation lay with Istemi alone.^[2]

The emperor asked whether they had made the whole power of the Hephthalites their own. The envoys answered, “entirely”.^[2] He asked how many Avars had thrown off Göktürk rule. He was told that some still held to the Göktürks and that about twenty thousand had fled.^[2] The envoys then asked for peace and a military alliance. They swore the greatest oath, with curses on themselves, on Istemi and on their whole nation if they lied.^[2] In this way, Menander writes, the Göktürk people became friends of the Romans.^[2]

Theophanes of Byzantium adds that Justin showed the Göktürk envoys the silkworms that Constantinople had come to possess. The envoys, he says, were astonished.^[3] Justin may be seen as the emperor who began the first strategic alliance between Byzantium and the Göktürks. The alliance is said to have set the balance of power for decades.^[1]

Zemarchos and the war with Persia

Justin decided to answer with an embassy of his own. He chose Zemarchos, the Cilician, then general of the eastern cities.^[2] Zemarchos set out at the beginning of August, as the fourth year of Justin’s reign was ending.^[2] By that reckoning he left in August 569. The departure is dated to August 568.^[4] At Ektag Zemarchos greeted Istemi in Justin’s name. The tribes of the Göktürks and all their subjects were the emperor’s friends, and Istemi should be the same toward the Romans.^[2]

The Göktürks, Menander says, did more than anything else to move Justin to war with Persia.^[2] They invaded Media and ravaged it. They sent an embassy to Justin asking him to make war on the Persians together with them, so that Persia would be destroyed between the two.^[2] Justin was elated by these hopes. He believed he could easily overthrow the Persian power and did everything to keep the Göktürk friendship firm.^[2] Menander does not say whether this raid is the campaign on which Istemi took Zemarchos in 569. The Romans in turn incited the Göktürks without cease. This was one of the causes of the twenty years’ war between Rome and Persia that began in 572.^[5]

The Avars and the steppe peoples

In 568 the Avar khagan Baian demanded of Justin the yearly payments that Justinian had given the Kutrigurs and the Utigurs, as their new master.^[2] Justin refused.^[2] He said that what Justinian had given “to the former Huns” had been given out of pity. Those peoples, he said, had partly fled and partly been destroyed.^[2] Justin’s rejection of the Avar refugees and his cooperation with Istemi against Persia, it is held, shaped the power politics of Eurasia.^[1]

The end of the alliance

In 574 Justin made Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius ruled as emperor after him from 578.^[6] In 576 Valentinos went to the Göktürks. He reminded them of the treaties that Istemi and Justin had made when Zemarchos first came. He also reminded them of Istemi’s word that the friend of the Romans would be his friend and their enemy his enemy.^[2] The Göktürk prince who received him answered that the emperor had made a treaty with the Avars, the Göktürks’ runaway slaves. The emperor, he said, would pay for it.^[2]

Justin’s alliance of 568 began the Göktürks’ diplomacy with Rome. Heraclius renewed it half a century later.

References

^ a b c Yavuz 2025, p. 450
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Menander Protector
^ Chavannes 1903, p. 233
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 290
^ Nöldeke 1879, p. 158
^ Golden 1992, p. 130

Sources

Menander Protector

Literature

Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Theodor Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden. Aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari übersetzt und mit ausführlichen Erläuterungen und Ergänzungen versehn (1879)
Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)
Ludwig Dindorf (ed.), Historici Graeci minores, Bd. II: Menander Protector et Agathias (1871)