history of justin and his two brothers, poor illyrian husbandmen—their enrolment in the army—their admission into the palace guards, in the reign of leo—justin condemned to death, during the reign of anastasius, by the general john kyrtus, for some breach of discipline—his escape by divine intervention—he becomes praefect of the praetorian guards—in spite of his ignorance, he is proclaimed emperor—the way in which he was assisted to sign imperial documents—the empress lupicina–euphemia—justinian, the nephew of justin, the real master of the empire—his cruelty, his avarice, his inconsistency in regard to the laws—he oppresses italy, africa, and the rest of the empire—amantius condemned, to avenge an outrage upon the bishop john—perjury towards vitalianus.
i now come to the description of the private life and character of justinian and theodora, and of the manner in which they rent the roman empire asunder.
at the time when leo occupied the imperial throne, three young husbandmen, of illyrian birth, named zimarchus, ditybistus, and justin of bederiane, in order to escape from their utter poverty at home, determined to enlist in the army. they made their way to byzantium on foot, with knapsacks of goat’s-hair on their shoulders, containing nothing but a few biscuits which they had brought from home. on their arrival they were enrolled in the army, and chosen by the emperor amongst the palace guards, being all three very handsome young men.
afterwards, when anastasius succeeded to the throne, war broke out with the isaurians who had rebelled against him. he sent a considerable army against them, under the command of john, surnamed “the hunchback.” this john arrested justin for some offence and imprisoned him, and on the following day would have put him to death, had not a vision which he beheld in his sleep prevented him. he said that, in his dream, a man of great stature, and in every way more than human, bade him release the man whom he had that day cast into prison. when he awoke, he made light of this vision; and, although he saw again the same vision and heard the same words on the following night, not even then would he obey the command. but the vision appeared for the third time, and threatened him terribly if he did not do what he was commanded, and warned him that he would thereafter stand in great need of this man and his family when his wrath should fall upon him. thus did justin escape death.
as time went on, this justin rose to great power. the emperor anastasius appointed him commander of the palace guard, and when that prince died, he, by the influence of his position, seized the throne. he was by this time an old man with one foot in the grave, so utterly ignorant of letters, that one may say that he did not know the alphabet—a thing which had never happened before amongst the romans. it had been customary for the emperor to sign the decrees which were issued by him with his own hand, whereas he neither made decrees, nor was capable of conducting affairs; but proclus, who acted as his quaestor and colleague, arranged everything at his own pleasure. however, in order that the emperor’s signature might appear in public documents, his officers invented the following device. they had the shapes of four latin letters cut in a thin piece of wood, and then, having dipped the pen in the imperial ink used by the emperors in writing, they put it in the emperor’s hand, and laying the piece of wood on the paper to be signed, they guided the emperor’s hand and pen round the outline of the four letters, making it follow all the convolutions cut in the wood, and then retired with the result as the emperor’s signature. this was how the affairs of the empire were managed under justin. his wife was named lupicina; she was a slave and a barbarian, whom he had bought for his mistress, and at the close of his life she ascended the throne with him. justin was not strong enough to do his subjects either good or harm; he was utterly simple, a very poor speaker, and a complete boor. justinian was his sister’s son, who, when quite a young man, practically governed the state, and brought more woe upon the romans than anyone we have ever heard of before. he was ever ready to commit unrighteous murders and rob men of their estates, and thought nothing of making away with tens of thousands of men who had given him no cause for doing so. he had no respect for established institutions, but loved innovations in everything, and was, in short, the greatest destroyer of all the best of his country’s institutions. as for the plague, of which i have made mention in the former books of my history, although it ravaged the whole earth, yet as many men escaped it as perished by it, some of them never taking the contagion, and others recovering from it. but no human being in all the roman empire could escape from this man, for he was like some second plague sent down from heaven to prey upon the whole human race, which left no man untouched. some he slew without cause, others he reduced to a struggle with poverty, so that their case was more piteous than that of the dead, and they prayed daily to be relieved from their misery even by the most cruel death, while he robbed others of their lives and their property at the same time.
not content with ruining the roman empire, he carried out the conquest of italy and africa, merely that he might treat them in the same way, and destroy the inhabitants, together with those who were already his subjects. he had not been in authority ten days before he put to death amantius, the chief of the palace eunuchs, with several others. he had no complaint whatever against the man beyond that he had said something offensive about john the archbishop of the city. owing to this, he became the most dreaded of all men in the world.
immediately afterwards he sent for the usurper vitalianus, to whom he had given the most solemn pledges for his safety, and had partaken of the christian sacrament with him. shortly afterwards, he conceived some suspicion of him, and made away with him and his companions in the palace, for no reason whatever, thus showing that he scorned to observe even the most solemn oaths.
