The Samaritans, having been quiet for two generations, revolt during the reign of Justinian.

Local Christians in 547 massacre Samaritans and …

…Jews.

The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, begun by Bishop Ecclesius in 526, when Ravenna was under the rule of the Ostrogoths, is completed by the twenty-seventh Bishop of Ravenna, Maximian.

The architect of the church is unknown.

Ravenna is at this time the capital of the Empire’s territories in Italy, and Maximianus's role may have included secular political functions.

Belisarius recaptures Rome from the Ostrogoths but his Italian campaign is unsuccessful, starved as it is of supplies and reinforcements from Constantinople.

John Troglitas decisively defeats Antalas and his allies in early 547 and drives them from Byzacena.

As Procopius recounts: And this John, immediately upon arriving in Libya, had an engagement with Antalas and the Moors in Byzacium, and conquering them in battle, slew many; and he wrested from these barbarians all the standards of Solomon, and sent them to the emperor—standards which they had previously secured as plunder, when Solomon had been taken from the world.

—Procopius, The Vandalic War II.XXVIII A few months later, however, the tribe of the Leuathae (Laguatan), in Tripolitania, rises up, and inflicts a severe defeat upon the imperial forces in the plain of Gallica.

John Troglita flees to …

…Lunci (nine kilometers south of Mahares) and is forced to withdraw north to …

…the fortress of Laribus (near modern El Kef).

The Leuathae are joined by Antalas, and the Moors once again raid freely as far as Carthage.

Ly Nam De, killed by Laotian tribesmen while on retreat from the Hong River Plain in 548, is succeeded by his elder brother Ly Thien Bao.

The death of the Empress Theodora at forty-eight, probably of breast cancer (according to bishop Victor of Tunnuna), subtracts both intensity and purpose from Justinian’s reign.

Her body is buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Justinian relieves Belisarius from military service in favor of the seventy-year-old general Narses.

Germanus is by 548 acknowledged as the most influential of Emperor Justinian's relatives and his heir apparent, although this is never formally recognized.

In this year, his position is strengthened further by the death of Empress Theodora, who had disliked him intensely.

His stature at court is such that a plot is hatched by the disaffected general Artabanes and his kinsman Arsaces to assassinate Emperor Justinian and replace him with Germanus.

The conspirators think Germanus amenable to their plans, since he has been dissatisfied with Emperor Justinian's meddling in the settling of the will of his recently deceased brother Boraides.

The conspirators first tell Justin, Germanus's eldest son, of their intentions.

He, in turn, informs his father, who then holds counsel with the comes excubitorum, Marcellus.

In order to find out more of their intentions, Germanus meets the conspirators in person, while a trusted aide of Marcellus is concealed nearby and listens in.

Marcellus then informs Emperor Justinian, and the conspirators are arrested, but treated with remarkable leniency.

At first, Germanus and his sons too are suspected, until the testimony of Marcellus clears them.