Justinian I

Born Petrus Sabbatius in Tauresium, a village in what is now North Macedonia. His uncle Justin, a former pig farmer who'd risen through the imperial guard, adopts him and brings him to Constantinople for an education.

Becomes sole emperor after his uncle Justin I dies. He's 45 and already running the empire behind the scenes. He marries Theodora, a former actress from the lowest social class. The court is scandalized. She becomes his closest advisor.

Orders the Corpus Juris Civilis, a comprehensive rewriting of Roman law. His legal commission, led by Tribonian, distills a thousand years of contradictory statutes into a single code. European legal systems will use it as a foundation for the next 1,500 years.

The Nika riots nearly overthrow him. Chariot racing factions unite and burn half of Constantinople. Justinian is ready to flee. Theodora tells him a dying man should choose a throne over a ship. He stays. His generals slaughter 30,000 rioters in the Hippodrome.

Hagia Sophia is completed. Five years of construction. 10,000 workers. He walks in, looks up at the dome, and supposedly says: 'Solomon, I have outdone thee.' The dome is 180 feet high and will remain the largest in the world for a thousand years.

The Plague of Justinian arrives. It kills an estimated 25 to 50 million people across the Mediterranean. Justinian himself catches it and recovers. Constantinople loses 300,000. His reconquest of the Western Roman Empire stalls. The treasury empties.

Dies in Constantinople at approximately 83. He leaves no heir. His reconquests in Italy, North Africa, and Spain don't outlast him by long. His law code does.