Justinian I, who reigned in Constantinople from 527 to 565, was probably the last Roman Emperor to natively speak Latin. He is remembered as one of the greatest emperors in history, who constructed Hagia Sophia and codified Roman law into the Corpus Juris Civilis, which became one of the most influential documents in the foundation of the Western legal tradition today. Leading the Eastern Empire in the century after the West had fallen to Germanic invaders, Justinian’s most famous legacy was his attempt to restore the glory of the Roman Empire by conquering the lost Western provinces. His generals successfully destroyed the Vandal and Ostrogothic kingdoms, reclaiming North Africa and Italy for Constantinople. But the wars were especially devastating to Italy, which returned to Roman rule not as part of its rich core, but as a poor frontier province. Ironically, much of the way of life for Romans in Italy that had been preserved under the rule of the Ostrogoths was now destroyed by Justinian. And this great cost for Rome and Italy was accompanied by no lasting gain for Constantinople, which needed to recall its troops for wars in the East, leaving the Romans in Italy to deal with a new Germanic invader, the Lombards, on their own. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the ideas of identity, continuity, and innovation in the context of the post-Roman transition in Late Antiquity, to consider whether Justinian actually destroyed Rome while trying to save it.