Under the rule of the emperor Justinian I from 527 to 565, your term paper should report that the Byzantine Empire reached its zenith, recapturing much of northern Africa, Italy and the southeaster coast of Spain. You could discuss in your term paper that his greatest contribution was the collection of laws known as the Justinian Code, a body of work that would become the foundation of the legal system of many European countries and is still required reading for students of the law. he term paper should also show that, although the Romans were proud of their legal system, a great deal of efficiency had been lost over time as more and more laws were enacted resulting in redundancy and confusion. Justinian appointed a committee to study and recodify the laws of the Empire. Completed in 528, the Justinian code was officially adopted as the law of the land. Subsequent to the issuing of the code, a body of work containing the responses of great jurists was compiled and arranged into a set of 50 books known as the Digest.
Justinian not only commissioned a new codified set of laws, he formulated new ones. Under his rule, he attempted to reduce governmental corruption, prohibited pagans from public teaching and made pederasty punishable by castration. Justinian also built Hagia Sophia, a concrete example of the Empire’s legacy, a magnificent Christian church that, to this day, draws thousands of tourists to Istanbul, thus completing the Byzantine link between ancient and modern civilizations.