Justinian

So if you have heard of the powerful emperor Justinian of the Byzantine empire his parents were not the rulers and they were just farmers working in the fields. But Justinian didn't want to work in the fields he wanted to be a great emperor. He was always learning and studying about math reading and writing. He pleaded his parents to let him go the capital Constantinople. After some time they let him go and his mother made some meat and bread for the long, long, long, journey to Constantinople. It was about one hundred miles from where he was. But when he got there he was amazed at how big it was. It was harder for him to learn though but he did it. Then he joined the army. He helped the general with the supplies and the battle tactics. The people liked him and they agreed that he would be a good leader. So after the king died he became king. But it was hard because there were a lot of laws in different parts of the empire like in one part a thief could steal and then be killed and then in the other part a thief would only have to pay for it. So he made his own rules. Here are some of the laws.

• The beach is everyone's, and no one can say that this mine and get off
• The rivers belong to everyone, everyone can fish in it without being told this is mine not yours.
• If you find a treasure on the beach then you can keep it and no one can take it away from you.
• you are allowed to have slaves, but you can not mistreat them or beat unless they are disobedient.
• A thief who steals something must pay the owner four times what the thing he stole is worth. 

But Justinian had a wife of course, her name was Theodora. When she was younger her father was a head of a circus. She liked it and when she got older she became a clown and painted her face and mad the people laugh. The people like her a lot. But then she heard of Christianity and she wanted to become a Christian. Then she stopped the circus stuff and she became a woman who made clothes out of sheep wool and sold it to people. Then when Justinian was still in the army she saw him walking by and thought he was very handsome. Justinian saw her and thought she was very beautiful and wanted to find out where she lived. After some time he found out where she lived and fell in love with her and got married. Then he became the emperor and she became the empress. He never mad a decision without asking her her thought. But then the people wanted him to get rid of two of his advisers but when he refused they began to tear up the city and they even put the Hagia Sophia to fire. He was afraid that they would destroy the palace and kill him and Theodora. But Theodora told him that he had to stay otherwise they would take his throne. After some time of arguing Theodora got him to stay and send an army to go attack the people. Justinian's men won the battle. He made his workers rebuild the Hagia Sophia and he made it even more beautiful then it was before.