Was Byzantine Emperor Justinian a populist?
Wherein I reason through a history question on a forum
The forum will remain unlinked and the person seeking knowledge will remain unidentified to protect the guilty.
The following question with a paragraph of facts to help the respondents was posted somewhere on the web:
Was Byzantine Emperor Justinian a populist?
On the one hand he enacted historic changes to protect the poor and sick and marginalized working class. On the other hand he responded to a tax rebellion by slaughtering 30,000 unarmed civilians.
Here was my response:
Well, let's look at this from Justinian's point of view:
He helped the poor, sick and marginalized. So that's good populism.
He slaughtered 30,000 unarmed civilians because they didn't pay their taxes. That makes him a Democrat.
On the other hand, as Emperor, he was running a business. And 30,000 of his customers decided they didn't want to pay for his services. So he nipped that shit in the bud.
Justinian WAS A FUCKING CAPITALIST!!!