Vigilantia

Vigilantia (, born 490) was a sister of Byzantine emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565), and mother to his successor Justin II (r. 565–574). Name The name "Vigilantia" is Latin for "alertness, wakefulness". Itself deriving from "vigilia" (watch, watchfulness) and "vigil" ((1)adjective: awake, watching, alert (2)noun: watchman, sentinel). Family Justinian (born 482) and Vigilantia were children of Vigilantia (born 455), a sister of Justin I (r. 518–527), founder of the Justinian dynasty. The family originated in Bederiana, near Naissus (modern Niš in Serbia) in Dacia Mediterranea. Procopius, Theodorus Lector, Zacharias Rhetor, Victor of Tunnuna, Theophanes the Confessor and Georgios Kedrenos consider Justin and his family Illyrians, though Kedrenos is uncertain. Evagrius Scholasticus, John Malalas, the Chronicon Paschale, the Suda, Joannes Zonaras and the Patria of Constantinople consider them Thraco-Romans. While Procopius reports them to be of peasant origins, Zonaras is the only source describing Justin I as a former herder.