Eutychius, considered a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions, was the patriarch of Constantinople from 552 to 565, and from 577 to 582. His feast is kept by the Orthodox Church on 6 April, and he is mentioned in the Catholic Church's "Corpus Juris". His terms of office, occurring during the reign of Emperor Justinian the Great, were marked by controversies with both imperial and papal authority.

Belisarius was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. Belisarius was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean territory belonging to the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century prior. Belisarius is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and the greatest of all Byzantine generals.