Justinian/The Byzantine Empire

>>3161967
Justinian was terrible at prosecuting wars, he relied on diplomatic subterfuge to get everything done and used belisarius as a crutch. Literally the only reason the byzantines beat the vandals was because he managed to cause revolts in other areas of their kingdom.

So no, against a strong and competent empire like sassanid persia, Justinian would have gotten dickstomped. That's why he was so willing to bend over and give the Persians mountains of gold to leave him alone.

>>3161967
no
memestinian is easily one of the most overrated emperor in "roman" history

>>3161967
No, Justinian was retarded and his projects of restoring Rome were not odd or unique at all. Leo sent expeditions against the vandals, Anastasius against the Ostrogoths, both way more well prepared and funded than Justinian's. Justinian just was lucky to have Belisarius, a man able to conquer Africa in a flash despite literally having 0 support from Constantinople. And also lucky to not live in the same generation as Theodoric and Geiseric.

Belisaurius is the only reason Justinian was successful when compared to other emperors

>>3161967
The Byzantine empire did triumph against the Persians, though. This was only a few years before the Arab breakout, but still.

>>3162481
it wasnt a triumph as all it did was drain both empires of its vitality without any significant change in the balance of power in the region

heraclius temporarily saved the byzantine empire but at the same time the war crippled the empire in the long term because it allowed the arab scum to take vast swaths of land while the empire was depopulated and weakened