Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.—Part I

Elevation Of Justin The Elder.—Reign Of Justinian.—I. The Empress Theodora.—II. Factions Of The Circus, And Sedition Of Constantinople.—III. Trade And Manufacture Of Silk.—IV. Finances And Taxes.—V. Edifices Of Justinian.—Church Of St. Sophia.—Fortifications And Frontiers Of The Eastern Empire.—Abolition Of The Schools Of Athens, And The Consulship Of Rome.

The emperor Justinian was born 1 near the ruins of Sardica, (the
modern Sophia,) of an obscure race 2 of Barbarians, 3 the
inhabitants of a wild and desolate country, to which the names of
Dardania, of Dacia, and of Bulgaria, have been successively
applied. His elevation was prepared by the adventurous spirit of
his uncle Justin, who, with two other peasants of the same
village, deserted, for the profession of arms, the more useful
employment of husbandmen or shepherds. 4 On foot, with a scanty
provision of biscuit in their knapsacks, the three youths
followed the high road of Constantinople, and were soon enrolled,
for their strength and stature, among the guards of the emperor
Leo. Under the two succeeding reigns, the fortunate peasant
emerged to wealth and honors; and his escape from some dangers
which threatened his life was afterwards ascribed to the guardian
angel who watches over the fate of kings. His long and laudable
service in the Isaurian and Persian wars would not have preserved
from oblivion the name of Justin; yet they might warrant the
military promotion, which in the course of fifty years he
gradually obtained; the rank of tribune, of count, and of
general; the dignity of senator, and the command of the guards,
who obeyed him as their chief, at the important crisis when the
emperor Anastasius was removed from the world. The powerful
kinsmen whom he had raised and enriched were excluded from the
throne; and the eunuch Amantius, who reigned in the palace, had
secretly resolved to fix the diadem on the head of the most
obsequious of his creatures. A liberal donative, to conciliate
the suffrage of the guards, was intrusted for that purpose in the
hands of their commander. But these weighty arguments were
treacherously employed by Justin in his own favor; and as no
competitor presumed to appear, the Dacian peasant was invested
with the purple by the unanimous consent of the soldiers, who
knew him to be brave and gentle, of the clergy and people, who
believed him to be orthodox, and of the provincials, who yielded
a blind and implicit submission to the will of the capital. The
elder Justin, as he is distinguished from another emperor of the
same family and name, ascended the Byzantine throne at the age of
sixty-eight years; and, had he been left to his own guidance,
every moment of a nine years’ reign must have exposed to his
subjects the impropriety of their choice. His ignorance was
similar to that of Theodoric; and it is remarkable that in an age
not destitute of learning, two contemporary monarchs had never
been instructed in the knowledge of the alphabet. 411 But the
genius of Justin was far inferior to that of the Gothic king: the
experience of a soldier had not qualified him for the government
of an empire; and though personally brave, the consciousness of
his own weakness was naturally attended with doubt, distrust, and
political apprehension. But the official business of the state
was diligently and faithfully transacted by the quaestor Proclus;
5 and the aged emperor adopted the talents and ambition of his
nephew Justinian, an aspiring youth, whom his uncle had drawn
from the rustic solitude of Dacia, and educated at
Constantinople, as the heir of his private fortune, and at length
of the Eastern empire.

1 (return) [ There is some difficulty in the date of his birth
(Ludewig in Vit. Justiniani, p. 125;) none in the place—the
district Bederiana—the village Tauresium, which he afterwards
decorated with his name and splendor, (D’Anville, Hist. de
l’Acad. &c., tom. xxxi. p. 287—292.)]

2 (return) [ The names of these Dardanian peasants are Gothic,
and almost English: Justinian is a translation of uprauda,
(upright;) his father Sabatius (in Graeco-barbarous language
stipes) was styled in his village Istock, (Stock;) his mother
Bigleniza was softened into Vigilantia.]

3 (return) [ Ludewig (p. 127—135) attempts to justify the Anician
name of Justinian and Theodora, and to connect them with a family
from which the house of Austria has been derived.]

4 (return) [ See the anecdotes of Procopius, (c. 6,) with the
notes of N. Alemannus. The satirist would not have sunk, in the
vague and decent appellation of Zonaras. Yet why are those names
disgraceful?—and what German baron would not be proud to descend
from the Eumaeus of the Odyssey! Note: It is whimsical enough
that, in our own days, we should have, even in jest, a claimant
to lineal descent from the godlike swineherd not in the person of
a German baron, but in that of a professor of the Ionian
University. Constantine Koliades, or some malicious wit under
this name, has written a tall folio to prove Ulysses to be Homer,
and himself the descendant, the heir (?), of the Eumaeus of the
Odyssey.—M]

411 (return) [ St. Martin questions the fact in both cases. The
ignorance of Justin rests on the secret history of Procopius,
vol. viii. p. 8. St. Martin’s notes on Le Beau.—M]

5 (return) [ His virtues are praised by Procopius, (Persic. l. i.
c. 11.) The quaestor Proclus was the friend of Justinian, and the
enemy of every other adoption.]

Since the eunuch Amantius had been defrauded of his money, it
became necessary to deprive him of his life. The task was easily
accomplished by the charge of a real or fictitious conspiracy;
and the judges were informed, as an accumulation of guilt, that
he was secretly addicted to the Manichaean heresy. 6 Amantius
lost his head; three of his companions, the first domestics of
the palace, were punished either with death or exile; and their
unfortunate candidate for the purple was cast into a deep
dungeon, overwhelmed with stones, and ignominiously thrown,
without burial, into the sea. The ruin of Vitalian was a work of
more difficulty and danger. That Gothic chief had rendered
himself popular by the civil war which he boldly waged against
Anastasius for the defence of the orthodox faith, and after the
conclusion of an advantageous treaty, he still remained in the
neighborhood of Constantinople at the head of a formidable and
victorious army of Barbarians. By the frail security of oaths, he
was tempted to relinquish this advantageous situation, and to
trust his person within the walls of a city, whose inhabitants,
particularly the blue faction, were artfully incensed against him
by the remembrance even of his pious hostilities. The emperor and
his nephew embraced him as the faithful and worthy champion of
the church and state; and gratefully adorned their favorite with
the titles of consul and general; but in the seventh month of his
consulship, Vitalian was stabbed with seventeen wounds at the
royal banquet; 7 and Justinian, who inherited the spoil, was
accused as the assassin of a spiritual brother, to whom he had
recently pledged his faith in the participation of the Christian
mysteries. 8 After the fall of his rival, he was promoted,
without any claim of military service, to the office of
master-general of the Eastern armies, whom it was his duty to
lead into the field against the public enemy. But, in the pursuit
of fame, Justinian might have lost his present dominion over the
age and weakness of his uncle; and instead of acquiring by
Scythian or Persian trophies the applause of his countrymen, 9
the prudent warrior solicited their favor in the churches, the
circus, and the senate, of Constantinople. The Catholics were
attached to the nephew of Justin, who, between the Nestorian and
Eutychian heresies, trod the narrow path of inflexible and
intolerant orthodoxy. 10 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 favorable 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 expense of his consulship was esteemed at two
hundred and twenty-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 he indulged the
people of Constantinople, and received the addresses 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
succession of the Imperial throne: the feeble Anastasius had
permitted the vigor 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 acclamations 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 communicated 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, holding his purple with both his hands,
advised them to prefer, since an election was so profitable, some
older candidate. Not withstanding 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 guardian. 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, in the
forty-fifth year of his age, for the lawful sovereign of the
East. 11

6 (return) [ Manichaean signifies Eutychian. Hear the furious
acclamations of Constantinople and Tyre, the former no more than
six days after the decease of Anastasius. They produced, the
latter applauded, the eunuch’s death, (Baronius, A.D. 518, P. ii.
No. 15. Fleury, Hist Eccles. tom. vii. p. 200, 205, from the
Councils, tom. v. p. 182, 207.)]

7 (return) [ His power, character, and intentions, are perfectly
explained by the court de Buat, (tom. ix. p. 54—81.) He was
great-grandson of Aspar, hereditary prince in the Lesser Scythia,
and count of the Gothic foederati of Thrace. The Bessi, whom he
could influence, are the minor Goths of Jornandes, (c. 51.)]

8 (return) [ Justiniani patricii factione dicitur interfectus
fuisse, (Victor Tu nunensis, Chron. in Thesaur. Temp. Scaliger,
P. ii. p. 7.) Procopius (Anecdot. c. 7) styles him a tyrant, but
acknowledges something which is well explained by Alemannus.]

9 (return) [ In his earliest youth (plane adolescens) he had
passed some time as a hostage with Theodoric. For this curious
fact, Alemannus (ad Procop. Anecdot. c. 9, p. 34, of the first
edition) quotes a Ms. history of Justinian, by his preceptor
Theophilus. Ludewig (p. 143) wishes to make him a soldier.]

10 (return) [ The ecclesiastical history of Justinian will be
shown hereafter. See Baronius, A.D. 518—521, and the copious
article Justinianas in the index to the viith volume of his
Annals.]

11 (return) [ The reign of the elder Justin may be found in the
three Chronicles of Marcellinus, Victor, 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, (l. iv. c. 1, 2, 3, 9,) and the Excerpta of Theodorus
Lector, (No. 37,) and in Cedrenus, (p. 362—366,) and Zonaras, (l.
xiv. p. 58—61,) who may pass for an original. * Note: Dindorf, in
his preface to the new edition of Malala, p. vi., concurs with
this opinion of Gibbon, which was also that of Reiske, as to the
age of the chronicler.—M.]

From his elevation to his death, Justinian governed 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 senator and præfect of Constantinople.
According to the vicissitudes of courage or servitude, of favor
or disgrace, Procopius 12 successively composed the history, the
panegyric, and the satire of his own times. The eight books of
the Persian, Vandalic, and Gothic wars, 13 which are continued in
the five books of Agathias, deserve our esteem as a laborious and
successful imitation of the Attic, or at least of the Asiatic,
writers of ancient Greece. His facts are collected from the
personal experience 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
14 were read and applauded by his contemporaries: 15 but,
although he respectfully laid them at the foot of the throne, the
pride of Justinian must have been wounded by the praise of a
hero, who perpetually eclipses the glory of his inactive
sovereign. The conscious dignity of independence was subdued by
the hopes and fears of a slave; and the secretary of Belisarius
labored for pardon and reward in the six books of the Imperial
edifices. He had dexterously chosen a subject of apparent
splendor, 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. 16 Disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret
revenge; and the first glance of favor might again tempt him to
suspend and suppress a libel, 17 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 daemons, who had assumed a human form for the destruction of
mankind. 18 Such base inconsistency must doubtless sully the
reputation, and detract from the credit, of Procopius: yet, after
the venom of his malignity has been suffered to exhale, the
residue of the anecdotes, even the most disgraceful facts, some
of which had been tenderly hinted in his public history, are
established by their internal evidence, or the authentic
monuments of the times. 19 1911 From these various materials, I
shall now proceed to describe the reign of Justinian, which will
deserve and occupy an ample space. The present chapter will
explain the elevation and character of Theodora, the factions of
the circus, and the peaceful administration of the sovereign of
the East. In the three succeeding chapters, I shall relate the
wars of Justinian, which achieved the conquest of Africa and
Italy; and I shall follow the victories of Belisarius and Narses,
without disguising the vanity of their triumphs, or the hostile
virtue of the Persian and Gothic heroes. The series of this and
the following volume will embrace the jurisprudence and theology
of the emperor; the controversies and sects which still divide
the Oriental church; the reformation of the Roman law which is
obeyed or respected by the nations of modern Europe.

12 (return) [ See the characters of Procopius and Agathias in La
Mothe le Vayer, (tom. viii. p. 144—174,) Vossius, (de Historicis
Graecis, l. ii. c. 22,) and Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. l. v. c.
5, tom. vi. p. 248—278.) Their religion, an honorable problem,
betrays occasional conformity, with a secret attachment to
Paganism and Philosophy.]

13 (return) [ 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 continued by Agathias
till 559, (Pagi, Critica, A.D. 579, No. 5.)]

14 (return) [ The literary fate of Procopius has been somewhat
unlucky.

1. His book 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 Praefat Anecdot.) 3. The Greek
text was not printed till 1607, by Hoeschelius of Augsburg,
(Dictionnaire de Bayle, tom. ii. p. 782.)

4. The Paris edition was imperfectly executed by Claude Maltret,
a Jesuit of Toulouse, (in 1663,) far distant from the Louvre
press and the Vatican Ms., from which, however, he obtained some
supplements. His promised commentaries, &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, (Huet, p. 176.)

* Note: Procopius forms a part of the new Byzantine collection
under the superintendence of Dindorf.—M.]

15 (return) [ Agathias in Praefat. p. 7, 8, l. iv. p. 137.
Evagrius, l. iv. c. 12. See likewise Photius, cod. lxiii. p. 65.]

16 (return) [ Says, he, Praefat. ad l. de Edificiis is no more
than a pun! In these five books, Procopius affects a Christian as
well as a courtly style.]

17 (return) [ Procopius discloses himself, (Praefat. ad Anecdot.
c. 1, 2, 5,) and the anecdotes are reckoned as the ninth 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.)]

18 (return) [ Justinian an ass—the perfect likeness of
Domitian—Anecdot. c. 8.—Theodora’s lovers driven from her bed by
rival daemons—her marriage foretold with a great daemon—a monk
saw the prince of the daemons, 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.)]

19 (return) [ Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la
Decadence des Romains, c. xx.) gives credit to these anecdotes,
as connected, 1. with the weakness of the empire, and, 2. with
the instability of Justinian’s laws.]

1911 (return) [ The Anecdota of Procopius, compared with the
former works of the same author, appear to me the basest and most
disgraceful work in literature. The wars, which he has described
in the former volumes as glorious or necessary, are become
unprofitable and wanton massacres; the buildings which he
celebrated, as raised to the immortal honor of the great emperor,
and his admirable queen, either as magnificent embellishments of
the city, or useful fortifications for the defence of the
frontier, are become works of vain prodigality and useless
ostentation. I doubt whether Gibbon has made sufficient allowance
for the “malignity” of the Anecdota; at all events, the extreme
and disgusting profligacy of Theodora’s early life rests entirely
on this viratent libel—M.]

I. In the exercise of supreme power, the first act of Justinian
was to divide it with the woman whom he loved, the famous
Theodora, 20 whose strange elevation cannot be applauded as the
triumph of female virtue. Under the reign of Anastasius, the care
of the wild beasts maintained by the green faction at
Constantinople was intrusted to Acacius, a native of the Isle of
Cyprus, who, from his employment, was surnamed the master of the
bears. This honorable office was given after his death to another
candidate, notwithstanding the diligence of his widow, who had
already provided a husband and a successor. Acacius had left
three daughters, Comito, 21 Theodora, and Anastasia, the eldest
of whom did not then exceed the age of seven years. On a solemn
festival, these helpless orphans were sent by their distressed
and indignant mother, in the garb of suppliants, into the midst
of the theatre: the green faction received them with contempt,
the blues with compassion; and this difference, which sunk deep
into the mind of Theodora, was felt long afterwards in the
administration of the empire. As they improved in age and beauty,
the three sisters were successively devoted to the public and
private pleasures of the Byzantine people: and Theodora, after
following Comito on the stage, in the dress of a slave, with a
stool on her head, was at length permitted to exercise her
independent talents. She neither danced, nor sung, nor played on
the flute; her skill was confined to the pantomime arts; she
excelled in buffoon characters, and as often as the comedian
swelled her cheeks, and complained with a ridiculous tone and
gesture of the blows that were inflicted, the whole theatre of
Constantinople resounded with laughter and applause. The beauty
of Theodora 22 was the subject of more flattering praise, and the
source of more exquisite delight. Her features were delicate and
regular; her complexion, though somewhat pale, was tinged with a
natural color; every sensation was instantly expressed by the
vivacity of her eyes; her easy motions displayed the graces of a
small but elegant figure; and either love or adulation might
proclaim, that painting and poetry were incapable of delineating
the matchless excellence of her form. But this form was degraded
by the facility with which it was exposed to the public eye, and
prostituted to licentious desire. Her venal charms were abandoned
to a promiscuous crowd of citizens and strangers of every rank,
and of every profession: the fortunate lover who had been
promised a night of enjoyment, was often driven from her bed by a
stronger or more wealthy favorite; and when she passed through
the streets, her presence was avoided by all who wished to escape
either the scandal or the temptation. The satirical historian has
not blushed 23 to describe the naked scenes which Theodora was
not ashamed to exhibit in the theatre. 24 After exhausting the
arts of sensual pleasure, 25 she most ungratefully murmured
against the parsimony of Nature; 26 but her murmurs, her
pleasures, and her arts, must be veiled in the obscurity of a
learned language. After reigning for some time, the delight and
contempt of the capital, she condescended to accompany Ecebolus,
a native of Tyre, who had obtained the government of the African
Pentapolis. But this union was frail and transient; Ecebolus soon
rejected an expensive or faithless concubine; she was reduced at
Alexandria to extreme distress; and in her laborious return to
Constantinople, every city of the East admired and enjoyed the
fair Cyprian, whose merit appeared to justify her descent from
the peculiar island of Venus. The vague commerce of Theodora, and
the most detestable precautions, preserved her from the danger
which she feared; yet once, and once only, she became a mother.
The infant was saved and educated in Arabia, by his father, who
imparted to him on his death-bed, that he was the son of an
empress. Filled with ambitious hopes, the unsuspecting youth
immediately hastened to the palace of Constantinople, and was
admitted to the presence of his mother. As he was never more
seen, even after the decease of Theodora, she deserves the foul
imputation of extinguishing with his life a secret so offensive
to her Imperial virtue. 2611

20 (return) [ For the life and manners of the empress Theodora
see the Anecdotes; more especially c. 1—5, 9, 10—15, 16, 17, with
the learned notes of Alemannus—a reference which is always
implied.]

21 (return) [ Comito was afterwards married to Sittas, duke of
Armenia, the father, perhaps, at least she might be the mother,
of the empress Sophia. Two nephews of Theodora may be the sons of
Anastasia, (Aleman. p. 30, 31.)]

22 (return) [ Her statute was raised at Constantinople, on a
porphyry column. See Procopius, (de Edif. l. i. c. 11,) who gives
her portrait in the Anecdotes, (c. 10.) Aleman. (p. 47) produces
one from a Mosaic at Ravenna, loaded with pearls and jewels, and
yet handsome.]

23 (return) [ A fragment of the Anecdotes, (c. 9,) somewhat too
naked, was suppressed by Alemannus, though extant in the Vatican
Ms.; nor has the defect been supplied in the Paris or Venice
editions. La Mothe le Vayer (tom. viii. p. 155) gave the first
hint of this curious and genuine passage, (Jortin’s Remarks, vol.
iv. p. 366,) which he had received from Rome, and it has been
since published in the Menagiana (tom. iii. p. 254—259) with a
Latin version.]

24 (return) [ After the mention of a narrow girdle, (as none
could appear stark naked in the theatre,) Procopius thus
proceeds. I have heard that a learned prelate, now deceased, was
fond of quoting this passage in conversation.]

25 (return) [ Theodora surpassed the Crispa of Ausonius, (Epigram
lxxi.,) who imitated the capitalis luxus of the females of Nola.
See Quintilian Institut. viii. 6, and Torrentius ad Horat.
Sermon. l. i. sat. 2, v. 101. At a memorable supper, thirty
slaves waited round the table ten young men feasted with
Theodora. Her charity was universal. Et lassata viris, necdum
satiata, recessit.]

26 (return) [ She wished for a fourth altar, on which she might
pour libations to the god of love.]

2611 (return) [ Gibbon should have remembered the axiom which he
quotes in another piece, scelera ostendi oportet dum puniantur
abscondi flagitia.—M.]

In the most abject state of her fortune, and reputation, some
vision, either of sleep or of fancy, had whispered to Theodora
the pleasing assurance that she was destined to become the spouse
of a potent monarch. Conscious of her approaching greatness, she
returned from Paphlagonia to Constantinople; assumed, like a
skilful actress, a more decent character; relieved her poverty by
the laudable industry of spinning wool; and affected a life of
chastity and solitude in a small house, which she afterwards
changed into a magnificent temple. 27 Her beauty, assisted by art
or accident, soon attracted, captivated, and fixed, the patrician
Justinian, who already reigned with absolute sway under the name
of his uncle. Perhaps she contrived to enhance the value of a
gift which she had so often lavished on the meanest of mankind;
perhaps she inflamed, at first by modest delays, and at last by
sensual allurements, the desires of a lover, who, from nature or
devotion, was addicted to long vigils and abstemious diet. When
his first transports had subsided, she still maintained the same
ascendant over his mind, by the more solid merit of temper and
understanding. Justinian delighted to ennoble and enrich the
object of his affection; the treasures of the East were poured at
her feet, and the nephew of Justin was determined, perhaps by
religious scruples, to bestow on his concubine the sacred and
legal character of a wife. But the laws of Rome expressly
prohibited the marriage of a senator with any female who had been
dishonored by a servile origin or theatrical profession: the
empress Lupicina, or Euphemia, a Barbarian of rustic manners, but
of irreproachable virtue, refused to accept a prostitute for her
niece; and even Vigilantia, the superstitious mother of
Justinian, though she acknowledged the wit and beauty of
Theodora, was seriously apprehensive, lest the levity and
arrogance of that artful paramour might corrupt the piety and
happiness of her son. These obstacles were removed by the
inflexible constancy of Justinian. He patiently expected the
death of the empress; he despised the tears of his mother, who
soon sunk under the weight of her affliction; and a law was
promulgated in the name of the emperor Justin, which abolished
the rigid jurisprudence of antiquity. A glorious repentance (the
words of the edict) was left open for the unhappy females who had
prostituted their persons on the theatre, and they were permitted
to contract a legal union with the most illustrious of the
Romans. 28 This indulgence was speedily followed by the solemn
nuptials of Justinian and Theodora; her dignity was gradually
exalted with that of her lover, and, as soon as Justin had
invested his nephew with the purple, the patriarch of
Constantinople placed the diadem on the heads of the emperor and
empress of the East. But the usual honors which the severity of
Roman manners had allowed to the wives of princes, could not
satisfy either the ambition of Theodora or the fondness of
Justinian. He seated her on the throne as an equal and
independent colleague in the sovereignty of the empire, and an
oath of allegiance was imposed on the governors of the provinces
in the joint names of Justinian and Theodora. 29 The Eastern
world fell prostrate before the genius and fortune of the
daughter of Acacius. The prostitute who, in the presence of
innumerable spectators, had polluted the theatre of
Constantinople, was adored as a queen in the same city, by grave
magistrates, orthodox bishops, victorious generals, and captive
monarchs. 30

27 (return) [ Anonym. de Antiquitat. C. P. l. iii. 132, in
Banduri Imperium Orient. tom. i. p. 48. Ludewig (p. 154) argues
sensibly that Theodora would not have immortalized a brothel: but
I apply this fact to her second and chaster residence at
Constantinople.]

28 (return) [ See the old law in Justinian’s Code, (l. v. tit. v.
leg. 7, tit. xxvii. leg. 1,) under the years 336 and 454. The new
edict (about the year 521 or 522, Aleman. p. 38, 96) very
awkwardly repeals no more than the clause of mulieres scenicoe,
libertinae, tabernariae. See the novels 89 and 117, and a Greek
rescript from Justinian to the bishops, (Aleman. p. 41.)]

29 (return) [ I swear by the Father, &c., by the Virgin Mary, by
the four Gospels, quae in manibus teneo, and by the Holy
Archangels Michael and Gabriel, puram conscientiam germanumque
servitium me servaturum, sacratissimis DDNN. Justiniano et
Theodorae conjugi ejus, (Novell. viii. tit. 3.) Would the oath
have been binding in favor of the widow? Communes tituli et
triumphi, &c., (Aleman. p. 47, 48.)]

30 (return) [ “Let greatness own her, and she’s mean no more,”
&c. Without Warburton’s critical telescope, I should never have
seen, in this general picture of triumphant vice, any personal
allusion to Theodora.]