Editing Justin II (section)

=== Foreign policy ===
He discontinued Justinian's practice of buying off potential enemies. Immediately after his accession, Justin halted the payment of subsidies to the [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]], ending a truce that had existed since 558. This move upset the delicate balance of power in the [[Pannonian Basin]], since the Avar elites were forced to seek new sources of wealth to maintain their position and client networks. At first, this was agreeable for the Romans, since the Avars decided to raid the [[Franks]] instead of going into the Roman territory.{{sfn|Lin|2021|p=142}} But after the Avars and the neighbouring tribe of the [[Lombards]] had combined to [[Lombard–Gepid War (567)|destroy]] the [[Gepids]], from whom Justin had obtained the Danube fortress of [[Sirmium]] and the Gepid treasury, Avar pressure caused the Lombards to migrate West, and in 568 they invaded [[Italy]] under their king [[Alboin]]. They quickly overran the [[Po Valley]], and within a few years acquired a vast share of the [[Italian peninsula]].{{sfn|Kaldellis|2023|pp=322-323}} The Avars themselves crossed the Danube in 573 or 574, when the Empire's attention was distracted by troubles on the Persian frontier. They were only placated by the payment of a subsidy of 80,000 [[Solidus (coin)|solidi]] by Justin's successor Tiberius.{{sfn|Kaldellis|2023|p=326}}<ref name="Nor2">Norwich, John J. ''Byzanptium: the Early Centuries'' (London:Penguin 1988) p.571 gives this subsidy to Avars as 80,000 silver pieces.</ref>

The North and East frontiers were the main focus of Justin's attention. Justin began to cement an alliance with the [[First Turkic Khaganate|Turks]], the new [[Central Asian]] power that threatened both the Avars and [[Sassanian Empire|Persia]] from the mid 6th century. In 572 his refusal to pay tribute to the Persians in combination with overtures to the Turks led to [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591|a war]] with the Sassanid Empire. After two disastrous campaigns, in which the Persians under [[Khosrow I]] overran [[Roman Syria|Syria]] and [[Siege of Dara (573)|captured]] the strategically important fortress of [[Dara (Mesopotamia)|Dara]], Justin became inflicted with a severe mental illness.{{sfn|Nicholson|Canepa|Daryaee|2018}}
[[File:100 Nummi - Justin II - Carthage.jpg|thumb|right|300px|100 [[nummus|nummi]] coin of Justin II minted in Carthage. Helmeted and cuirass-wearing facing bust, holding shield Monogram; cross above, 100 below]]
Shortly after the [[smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire]] from [[Northern and Southern Dynasties|China]] by [[Nestorianism|Nestorian Christian]] monks, the 6th-century Byzantine historian [[Menander Protector]] writes of how the [[Sogdia]]ns attempted to establish a direct trade of [[Silk Road|Chinese silk]] with the Byzantine Empire. After forming an alliance with the Sassanid ruler Khosrow I to defeat the [[Hephthalites|Hephthalite Empire]], [[Istämi]], the Göktürk ruler of the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]], was approached by Sogdian merchants requesting permission to seek an audience with the Sassanid king of kings for the privilege of traveling through Persian territories in order to trade with the Byzantines.<ref name="howard 2012 p133">Howard, Michael C., ''Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies'', the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel, McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 133.</ref> Istämi refused the first request, but when he sanctioned the second one and had the Sogdian embassy sent to the Sassanid king, the latter had the members of the embassy poisoned to death.<ref name="howard 2012 p133"/> Maniah, a Sogdian diplomat, convinced Istämi to send an embassy directly to Constantinople, which arrived in 568 and offered not only silk as a gift to Justin, but also proposed an alliance against Sassanid Persia. Justin agreed and sent an embassy to the Turkic Khaganate, ensuring the direct silk trade desired by the Sogdians.<ref name="howard 2012 p133"/><ref>Liu, Xinru, "The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia", in ''Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History'', ed. Michael Adas, American Historical Association, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, p. 168.</ref>

His foreign policy has received unfavorable assessments in the 20th century. In 1937, historian Previte-Orton criticized Justin as lacking realism, having overestimated Roman strength against foreign enemies.{{efn|Previte-Orton describes Justin as "a rigid man, dazzled by his predecessor's glories, to whom fell the task of guiding an exhausted, ill-defended Empire through a crisis of the first magnitude and a new movement of peoples". Previte-Orton continues, "In foreign affairs he took the attitude of the invincible, unbending Roman, and in the disasters which his lack of realism occasioned, his reason ultimately gave way. It was foreign powers which he underrated and hoped to bluff by a lofty inflexibility, for he was well aware of the desperate state of the finances and the army and of the need to reconcile the [[Monophysitism|Monophysites]]."<ref>[[Charles William Previté-Orton|Previte-Orton, Charles William]], ''The shorter Cambridge medieval history'' (Cambridge: University Press, 1952), p. 201.</ref>}}