The establishment of Justiniana Prima

Actually, according to the Latin orthography,
the name is Iustiniana Prima. Justinian was spelled Iustinian:

Iustiniana Prima has different meanings. It could mean a city, which is today preserved as an archaeological site, or it could mean an archbishopric, which survived as the Archbishopric of Ochrid (one of the titles of the archbishopric was that of Iustiniana Prima). Justinian established the archbishopric in its Novel XI from 535 , independent from the Archbishop of Thessalonica . The establishment is seen as part of the feud between Justinian and the Archbishop of Eastern Illyricum , who was a papal vicar.Procopius, around 554 in his De Aedificiis ("On Buildings"), which is a panegyric on Justinian's building activity in the empire says that Justiniana Prima had become the capital of Dardania. In the vicinity of his birthplace, Emperor Justinian had built Justiniana Prima to become a city “worthy to be the metropolis of the whole region. In addition, it has been chosen as the see of Illyricum…”. Probably, already in 535, Justiniana Prima was part of the Mediterranean Dacia, and later, together with its region, joined Dardania as its capital. Mediterranean Dacia is not mentioned by its capital, Sardica, but by the regions (chora) of eight cities (polis) among them Sardica, Kabetso, Germania, Pautalia, Casseta, and Remisiana, but no mention of Justiniana Prima in this list. The list of Dardanian forts mentions neither the capital, nor the cities which are previously said to have been built or restored by Emperor Justinian – Justiniana Prima and Secunda, Justinopolis, and Scupi. Obviously, significant changes took place in the system of government, where more significance was attached to the cities (polis). According to Procopius there is an identity between πόλις (polis) and χώρα (chora). Polis is the city, chora is the region around the city. πόλις ἁπλῶς μεγάλη καὶ/ πολυάνθρωπος καὶ τὰ ἄλλα εὐδαίμων καὶ οἵα τῆς χώρας / ἁπάσης μητρόπολις εἶναι. εἰς ἀξιώματος γὰρ τοσόνδε / ἥκει. ("It became an important institution in the state, in a word it is a big city, populated, and rich, which is the metropolitan of the whole region.").During the 6th century the empire is undergoing a fundamental change of its administrative structures, chora and polis became interchangeable.

At that time the largest administrative unit was the province of the empire, led by a pro praetore legatus Augusti. In the Balkans at the beginning of the 2nd century the Roman Empire was divided in 8 provinces: Lower Pannonia, Dacia, Illyris (consisting of Liburna and Dalmatia), two Moesias (Upper and Lower, the latter extending to the northern arm of Istria), and Thrace insouth of Haemus, with all of the land of Pontus and Propontis and the Aegean except Thracian Chersonese, Macedonia and Greece, each with its historical divisions.There were also autonomous territories such that of the Iazygi Metanasti and Thracian Chersonese.Ptolemy implies that Rome controlled also the Sarmatians located immediately north of the Danube Delta.The provinces were subdivided into regions (regiones), which appear not to have been built on the same model as the Dominance.Thracia kept, even during Diocletian, traditional divisions called military strategies / στρατηγίαι.Pliny says that they were 50 in number, and Ptolemy named 15 of them.The division immediately below (and last in the hierarchy) was the village, as many inscriptions mention it.The tracian name of this division, namely Midna, still in use at 266, as the Rome inscription CIL 6, 32,567 instructs cives prov(inciae) Tracie, reg(ione) Serdicens(e), midne Potelense. The administrative-territorial reforms of the III and IV-th centuries were radical transformations. The emperor Aurelian,by 275 gave up the territories north of the Danubius, Trajan's Dacia being moved right to the river, framing out of the two Moesias a Dacia Aureliana (according to Eutropius), or Dacia Nova (according to other authors). But the great reform of the empire took place in the last decade of that century, around 294 or 296, when Diocletian, primarily due to military reasons, split the empire into two parts, West and East, each ruled by an Augustus.

His reform was completed several decades later by Constantine, which is why the reform is usually attributed to both.In one form or another, this separation lasted until the two empires were separated officially in 395. Each of the two sides were divided by Diocletian in two prefectures (praefecturae), so four in total, each of them will be headed by a praefectus, which gave a direct account only to the Augustus or the Caesar(the empire being divided in two, each side being ruled by an Augustus and a Caesar, such as the president and vice-president of a modern republic, the system was called tetraharchy). This scheme, abandoned by the direct descendants of Diocletian , however, proved functional, and was revived in 318 by Constantine in the form of Praetorian prefectures, under the direct command of the praetorian prefect (praefectus praetorio). Constantine build a new capital for the eastern empire, transforming - within five years of intense construction - old Byzantium in Constantinopolis (Nova Roma), led by a Praefectus Urbis, similar to Rome. A prefecture was subdivided into several dioceses (dioeceses), each listening to a vicarius.

Diocletian, the Roman Emperor to end Rome’s third century crisis in imperial succession, is known best by Catholics for the launching last great persecution of Christians before Constantine’s so-called Edict of Milan in 313 AD. His administrative reforms, however, would have far reaching impact. For example, the tetrarchy (rule of four), which Diocletian instituted for smoother imperial succession, introduced a new east-west dichotomy which persists to this day. Another good example is his introduction of the diocese. The dioceses were established as part of Emperor Diocletian’s broader provincial reforms. In order to keep provincial governors from gaining too much power, which could once again plunge the Empire into another civil war, Diocletian doubled the number of Roman provinces from 50 to 100. But in order administer all 100 provinces efficiently, Diocletian grouped the provinces into twelve dioceses (see map). Unbeknownst to Diocletian, the term diocese would one day be used to describe the territory of a local church under a bishop, who is himself a successor to one of the twelve Apostles.

As imperial power began to collapse in “the West” after 476, the Church began to step in to fill the vacuum of stability – and it was natural for her to continue using the term diocese, even if the seven westernmost dioceses established by Diocletian would be broken up into smaller and smaller units. Nevertheless, with a bishop at the head of each diocese, the Church in the middle ages began to see herself as the rightful leader of both ecclesial and secular affairs rather than an interim caretaker during years of political and economic instability. Perhaps it was providential that the anti-Christian Diocletian would establish the first twelve dioceses, but we must also remember that it was providential that many God-fearing men would establish the nations.

In turn, dioceses were divided into a number of provinces (Provinciaal / g. Ἐπαρχίαι), under the command of governors (Provinciaal rector) who were either consulares or praesides. Border provinces (limitaneae) had a special role: the first line of defense against the barbarians. They were more militarized, housing a large number of troops, placed in castellums (Procopius describes it) and, therefore, governors had among others also military duties, being appointed duces, respectively ἡγεμόνες, according to Hierocles. Initially, the Balkan dioceses belonged to the Eastern Empire, the prefecture of Illyricum and the Middle East were led by the tetrarchs (Augustus and Caesar) of the East. But Theodosius, in 394, when he reinstated the administrative-territorial empire rather based on cultural and linguistic affiliation of dioceses and provinces, embedded Pannonia to the Latin-Western Empire.

According to Laterculus Veronensis(year 297), Laterculus Polemii Silvii (year 449p), Breviarium written by Rufius Festus (year 369), and Notitia Dignitatum (sometimes after year 429) we have following major administrative divisions in the Balkans:

	Laterc. Veronensis 297	Laterc. Polemii Silvii 350	Festi Breviarium 369	ND 400
	d.Thracia	in Thraciis VI	Thracia	d.Thracia
1	Europa	Europa	Europa	Europa
2	Rhodope	Rhodope	Rhodope	Rhodope
3	Thracia	*Thracia†Thracia prima	Thracia	Thracia
4	Haemus mons	°Haemimontus†Thracia secunda	Haemimontus	Haemimontus
5	Scythia	°Scythia†Scythia inferior	Scythia	Scythia
6	Moesia  inf.	Moesia inf.	Moesia inf.	Moesia  sec.
	d.Moesia	in Illyrico XVIIII	(Illyricus)	d.Dacia
7	Dacia	Dacia	Dacia	Dacia ripensis
8	Moesia Superior/Margensis	Moesia superior	Moesia	Moesia prima
9	Dardania	Dardania	Dacia	Dardania
10	Praevalitana	Praevalis	Praevalis	Praevalitana
11	—	—	—	Dacia mediterr. (exista de la 386 )
12	—	—	—	pars Maced. Salut.
	(d.Moesia)	?( in Illyrico)	d.Macedonia	d.Macedonia
13	Macedonia	Macedonia	Macedonia	Macedonia
14	Thessalia	Thessalia	Thessalia	Thessalia
15	[Achaia]	Achaia	Achaia	Achaia
16	Epirus nova	Epirus nova	Epirus	Epirus nova
17	Epirus vetus	Epirus vetus	Epirus	Epirus vetus
18	Creta	Creta	Creta	Creta
19	—	—	—	pars Maced. Salut.
20		†Haemimontus
21		†Scythia

Balkan urban development during Justinian's reign in 6th century.

Iustiniana Prima

By AD 500, late-Roman towns underwent extraordinary changes, due to the downfall of the public domain in most of the  cities, while at the same time, those urban centres, which didn't perish, inherited the roles of manufacturing vici as production and distribution centers. As a consequence the poleis of the sixth century have no continuity with those of the fourth, let alone those of the second century. They became centres of imperial and ecclesiastical administration, and the civilian population has been left outside of this development, largely excluded from, these Byzantine citadels, even when accepted inside to provide work and services. This process started already in the 4th century, but by the end of the 6th century the transfer of authority from secular officials to ecclesiastical leaders was a widely distributed process, because the areas of ecclesiastical administration always coincided with those of the Roman civil administration.

This process underwent similar changes both in the East and West of the Roman Empire European territories. The Balkans (Eastern Roman Empire) became a land  which by the end of the sixth century, changed its urban outlook, resembling very much like Medieval Europe of the 12th century, when towns were surrounded by walls, being built around a castle, mainly an ecclesiastic one. The western part of the Balkans was a Latinophone region