Eutychian heresies, trod the narrow path of inflex- CHAP. ible and intolerant orthodoxy *. In the first days of the new reign, he prompted and gratified the popular enthusiasm against the memory of the deceased emperor. After a schism of thirty-four years, he reconciled the proud and angry spirit of the Roman pontiff, and spread among the Latins a favourable report of his pious respect for the apostolic see. The thrones of the East were filled with Catholic bishops devoted to his interest, the clergy and the monks were gained by his liberality, and the people were taught to pray for their future sovereign, the hope and pillar of the true religion. The magnificence of Justinian was displayed in the superior pomp of his public spectacles, an object not less sacred and important in the eyes of the multitude, than the creed of Nice or Chalcedon : the expence of his consulship was estimated at two hundred and eighty-eight thousand pieces of gold; twenty lions, and thirty leopards, were produced at the same time in the amphitheatre, and a numerous train of horses, with their rich trappings, was bestowed as an extraordinary gift on the victorious charioteers of the circus. While be indulged the people of Constantinople, and received the ad. dresses of foreign kings; the nephew of Justin assiduously cultivated the friendship of the senate. That venerable name seemed to qualify its members to declare the sense of the nation, and to regulate the

CHA P. succession of the Imperial throne: the feeble Ana. XL. stasius had permitted the vigour of government to

degenerate into the form or substance of an aristocracy; and the military officers who had obtained the senatorial rank, were followed by their domestic guards, a band of veterans, whose arms or accla. mations might fix in a tumultuous moment the diadem of the East. The treasures of the state were lavished to procure the voices of the senators, and their unanimous wish, that he would be pleased to adopt Justinian for his colleague, was commu. nicated to the emperor. But this request, which too clearly admonished him of his approaching end, was unwelcome to the jealous temper of an aged monarch, desirous to retain the power which he was incapable of exercising; and Justin, hold. ing his purple with both his hands, advised them to prefer, since an election was so profitable, some older candidate. Notwithstanding this reproach, the senate proceeded to decorate Justinian with the royal epithet of nobilissimus; and their decree was ratified by the affection or the fears of his uncle. After some time the languor of mind and body, to which he was reduced by an incurable wound in his thigh, indispensably required the aid of a guar. dian. He summoned the patriarch and senators; and in their presence solemnly placed the diadem on the head of his nephew, who was conducted from the palace to the circus, and saluted by the loud and joyful applause of the people. The life of Justin was prolonged about four months, but from the instant of this ceremony, he was considered as

dead to the empire, which acknowledged Justinian, c HAP. in the forty-fifth year of his age, for the lawful so- XL. veregn of the East *.

of Justini.

an, A. D.

527, April

I-A. D.

565. Nov.

14.

From his elevation to his death. Justinian go- The reign verned the Roman empire thirty-eight years, seven months and thirteen days. The events of his reign, which excite our curious attention by their number, variety and importance, are diligently related by the secretary of Belisarius, a rhetorician whom eloquence had promoted to the rank of se→ nator and præfect of Constantinople. According to the vicissitudes of courage or servitude, of favour or disgrace, Procopius + successively composed the Character history, the panegyric, and the satire of his own ries of Protimes. The eight books of the Persian, Vandalic, copius. and Gothic wars ‡, which are continued in the five books of Agathias, deserve our esteem as a laborious and successful imitation of the Attic, or

at

and histo.

The feign of the elder Justin may be found in the three Chronicles of Marcellinus, Victór, and John Malala (tom, ii. P. 130-150.), the last of whom, (in spite of Hody, Prolegom. No. 14. 39. edit. Oxon.) lived soon after Justinian (Jortin's Remarks, &c. vol. iv. p. 383.): in the Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius (1. iv. c. 1, 2, 3. 9.), and the Excerpta of Theodorus (Lector. No. 37.), and in Cedrenus (p. 362-366.) and Zonaras (1. xiv. p. 58-61.), who may pass for an original.

See the characters of Procopius and Agathias in La Mothe le Vayer (tom. viii. p. 144-174.), Vossius (de Historicts Græcis, l. ii. c. 22.), and Fabricius (Bibliot. Græc. 1. v. c. 5. tom. vi. p. 248-278.). Their religion, an honourable problem, betrays occasional conformity, with a secret attachment to Paganism and Philosophy.

In the seven first books, two Persic, two Vandalic, and three Gothic, Procopius has borrowed from Appian the division of provinces and wars: the viiith book, though it bears the name of Gothic, is a miscellaneous and general supplement down to the spring of the year 553, from whence it is conti nued by Agathias till 559 (Pagi, Critica, A. D. 579, No. 5.).

1

CHAP, at least of the Asiatic writers of ancient Greece, XL, His facts are collected from the personal experi

ence and free conversation of a soldier, a statesman, and a traveller; his style continually aspires, and often attains to the merit of strength and elegance ; his reflections, more especially in the speeches, which he too frequently inserts, contain a rich fund of political knowledge; and the historian, excited by the generous ambition of pleasing and instructing posterity, appears to disdain the prejudices of the people, and the flattery of courts. The writings of Procopius * were read and applauded by his contemporaries t; but, although he respectfully laid them at the foot of the throne, the pride of Justinian must have been wounded by the praise of an hero, who perpetually eclipses the glory of his inactive sovereign. The conscious

dignity

* The literary fate of Procopius has been somewhat unlucky. 1. His books de Bello Gothico were stolen by Leonard Aretin, and published (Fulginii, 1470. Venet. 1471. apud Janson. Mattaire Annal. Typograph. tom. i. edit. posterior, p. 290. 304. 279. 299.) in his own name (See Vossius de Hist. Lat.l. iii. c. 5. and the feeble defence of the Venice Giornale de Letterati, tom. xix. p. 207.). 2. His works were mutilated by the first Latin translators, Christopher Persona (Giornale, tom. xix. p. 340-348 ) and Raphael de Volaterra (Huet, de Claris. Interpretibus, p. 166.) who did not even consult the MS, of the Vatican library, of which they were præfects (Aleman. in Præfat. Anecdot.). 3. The Greek text was not printed till 1607, by Hoeschelius of Ausburgh (Dictionaire de Bayle, tom. ii. p.782.). 4. The Paris edition was imperfectly executed by Claude Maltret, a Jesuit of Thoulouse (in 1663), far distant from the Louvre press and the Vatican MS. from which, however, he obtained some supplements. His promised commantaries, &c. have never appeared. The Agathias of Leyden (1594) has been wisely reprinted by the Paris editor, with the Latin version of Bonaventura Vulcanius, a learned interpreter (Huct, p. 176.).

+ Agathias in Præfat. P:7, 8. 1. iv. p. 137. Evagrius, liv. C. 12. See likewise Photius, cod. lxiii. p. 65.

XL.

dignity of independence was subdued by the hopes C H A P. and fears of a slave; and the secretary of Belisarius

; laboured for pardon and reward in the six books of the Imperial edifices. He had dexterously cho- . sen a subject of apparent splendour, in which he could loudly celebrate the genius, the magnificence, and the piety of a prince, who, both as a conqueror and legislator, had surpassed the puerile virtues of Themistocles and Cyrus *. Disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret revenge ; and the first glance of favour might again tempt him to suspend and suppress a libelt, in which the Roman Cyrus is degraded into an odious and contemptible tyrant, in which both the emperor and his consort Theodora are seriously represented as two dæmons, who had assumed an human form for the destruction of mankind I. Such base in. consistency must doubtless sully the reputation, and detract from the credit of Procopius : yet, af

ter

* Kupu radu (says he, Præfat. ad 1. de Edificiis #ips Tirpatuv) is no more than Kues raidia pun! In these five books, Procopius affects a Christian, as well as a courtly style.

+ Procopius discloses himself (Prefat. ad Anecdot. c. 1, 2. 5.), and the anecdotes are reckoned as the ixth book by Suidas (tom. iii. p. 186. edit. Kuster). The silence of Evagrius is a poor objection. Baronius (A. D. 548, No. 24.) regrets the loss of this secret history : it was then in the Vatican library, in his own custody, and was first published sixteen years after his death, with the learned, but partial, notes of Nicholas Alemannus (Lugd. 1623.).

I Justinian an ass--the perfect likeness of Domitian-(Anecdot. c. 8.)- Theodora's lovers driven from her bed by rival dæmons-her marriage foretold with a great dæmon a monk saw the prince of the dæmons instead of Justinian, on the throne—the servants who watched, beheld a face without features, a body walking without a head, &c. &c. Procopius declares his own and his friends' belief in these diabolical stories. (c. 12.).