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Canto 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Paradiso, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Earthly and Heavenly Justice
Creation and God’s Providence
God’s Character and Will
Vision, Knowledge, and the Pursuit of God
Language and the Ineffable
Summary
Analysis
The soul Dante meets in the sphere of Mercury introduces himself as the emperor Justinian. Justinian describes his earthly work of reforming the law code of the Roman Empire. He also explains that, before he undertook that task, he held heretical beliefs about Christ, until the bishop Agapetus corrected his mistaken views. After that, Justinian committed his military efforts to his general, Belisarius.
The Roman emperor Justinian reigned during the 6th century C.E. For Dante, he is an idealized figure, symbolizing a just and powerful Roman Empire—the kind of figure who Dante wishes would set affairs right in the Italy of his own day. Justinian handles the law justly, is successful militarily, and practices orthodox Christianity—all aspects of an ideal ruler in Dante’s eyes.
Themes
Justinian surveys the history of Rome from ancient times through the time of Christ and, a few centuries later, Constantine’s conversion. Today, he says, many people try to lay claim to Rome’s mantle, including the Guelphs and Ghibellines, but Justinian finds fault with both factions. He names Romèo of Provence as an upstanding figure who fell into undeserved disgrace. Throughout Justinian’s speech, the symbol of an eagle stands for Roman power.
Dante sees the Roman Empire, and by extension the Holy Roman Empire of his day, as being part of a unified historical stream, from ancient times through Constantine’s efforts to make the empire Christian and up to the present (late medieval) day. However, battling factions in Dante’s day, like the Guelphs and Ghibellines with whom he was familiar in Florence, do not measure up to Roman standards of just and mighty rule. Romèo, a 12th- and 13th-century count of Provence, stands as an example of a faithful figure who later fell into disgrace. Though he was an obscure individual, his story is something Dante himself could identify with.
Themes
