Justinian I

“I pardon your offence against me. Pray that God also may pardon you.”

“We have good hopes that God will grant us to restore the authority over the remaining countries which the ancient Romans possessed to the limit of both oceans and lost by subsequent neglect.”

“Certainly in architectural brilliance and innovation alone his age deserves to be rated as a great one. Haghía Sophia, one of the greatest achievements of Christian, or human, architecture, and the Corpus juris civilis, a supreme landmark of Roman, and European, Law, stand forth as Justinian's most enviable monuments. What ruler could hope to leave finer ones?”