But Justinian (527-565) was the first to interfere directly in the religious institutions of the Jewish people.
When, therefore, Justinian undertook the reconquest of Italy, his generals, Belisarius and Narses, were supported by the south.
By this time the emperor Justinian was taking energetic measures to check the Goths.
The 77th Novel of Justinian assigned death as the penalty, as did also the Capitularies.
In Constantinople he seems to have early won the notice of Justinian, one of the main objects of whose policy was the consolidation of Eastern Christianity as a bulwark against the heathen power of Persia.