The Rise and Fall of Justin the Great

Justin was born about 452 in the Balkans. He joined the army and rose through the ranks to become the leader or count of the elite palace regiment. His wife Lupikina could claim to have topped him as she was an ex-slave, an ex-concubine slave, who Justin had purchased and then married. Now she was the empress and changed her name to the more imperial sounding Eufemia.