Note 580 — Chapter XII · PRIVATE LIFE IN THE IMPERIAL CIRCLE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

Procopius, Anecd., 1. Except where indicated, nearly the whole of this chapter depends on the first four sections of this work.

[581] On this occasion Constantine, a sub-general, who has been mentioned (pp. 564, 567), remarked: "I should rather have got rid of the woman than of the young man." During the siege of Rome by the Goths this Constantine was summoned before Belisarius on a charge of appropriating some valuable spoils. An altercation ensued, and the offender, concluding rather hastily that he was about to be condemned to death, made a rush at the Master of Soldiers with his drawn sword. He was immediately seized and slaughtered in the antechamber at the command of Belisarius, or, at least, with his acquiescence. This somewhat arbitrary execution was attributed to the vengeance of Antonina, to whom the above remark had been reported; Anecd., 1; De Bel. Goth., ii, 8.

[582] Anecd., 2. Belisarius earnestly exhorts his step-son to co-operate with him, claiming his allegiance as due to him in return for the care he had bestowed on him during his youth. Cf. De Bel. Goth. i, 5.

[583] See p. 550.

[584] Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., x, 20, 23.

[585] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., i, 4, with the elucidation in Anecd., 16, 24. In a letter from Gudelina to Theodora (Cassiod., loc. cit., 20), we find the statement, "Your remarks respecting a certain person have reached our ears with titillating effect (titillatio). Well, I may tell you that we are going to do what will please you." There is no plausible explanation of these sentences except that the two jealous women were plotting against Amalasuntha. Soon after (Ibid., 23) Gudelina again writes: "I am glad you approve of what has lately taken place in this Kingdom"; a palpable allusion to the death of the Queen. The lightest warning from Peter to the shuffling and scared Theodahad would have deterred him from any hostile act against his royal colleague; but he never spoke it, and, when the King affirmed that the murder was perpetrated without his knowledge or consent, it is most probable that he was stating a truth. It may be taken as certain, therefore, that the death-blow of Amalasuntha was aimed from Byzantium.

[586] Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 64, etc.

[587] On winning the favour of Theodora she received a Court appointment, viz., "Mistress of the Wardrobe," in modern phraseology; Codinus, pp. 108, 125.

[588] Procopius, Anecd., 2.

[589] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 25, where all the circumstances relative to the fall of John are narrated at length. His disappearance, however, was in no way a public benefit, as, after a few months Peter Barsymes took his place. Although a man of higher stamp, his hand weighed just as heavily on the taxpayers; Anecd., 22, 25.

[590] Photius now disappears for ever from the pages of Procopius; but he turns up again in John Ephes. (Hist., p. 66, Smith), who says that, having taken the tonsure for some reason, he afterwards went up to Justinian in his monkish habit and received from him a military command in Syria, where he made himself obnoxious to the "orthodox" (Monoph.) by his harsh treatment of them.

[591] See p. 328.

[592] His name was Anastasius, and he is represented as her grandson by a daughter. The young people, one or both, were apparently not of marriageable age, and so the wedding was put off. But they had arrived at puberty by 547 at latest, so the birth of Theodora's daughter could not have been later than 515. See below. Here is further evidence as to the antiquity of the relations of Justinian and Theodora. If she could try to bury her past in this way, perhaps Justinian never knew of it. Hence a long interval may have separated her dissolute life from their first meeting. But a daughter born in 515, before Justinian could have thought of the succession? If we have the facts correctly, Theodora's age should be much greater than is generally supposed. In John Ephes. (Hist., pp. 51, 53, 59, Smith) the youth is called Athanasius, "the son of Queen Theodora's daughter." Possibly this was another illegitimate child (see p. 343) who was born before her meeting with Justinian. This Athanasius appears in Church history as the founder of a peculiar heresy.

[593] Procopius, Anecd., 3, 4, where the details of this collision with Theodora, chiefly re Antonina and her incontinence, are given at length. Without this revelation we should be puzzled to understand the subsequent career of Belisarius, his never returning to Persia, etc. Cf. Marcel. Com. an. 545. This title of Comes Stabuli, that is, Constable, was afterwards a very lofty one in the West, e.g., the Constable of Bourbon, etc.

[594] Procopius, Anecd., 17. Procopius (Anecd., 16) states that Theodora kept a number of spies, who reported all that was said about the Court in the public places and in private mansions. When she wished to get rid of some one of position secretly she had him seized late at night, and conveyed, with his head veiled, on board a ship, by which he was carried to some distant place of confinement. Such persons generally succumbed to harsh treatment, but occasionally obtained the forgiveness of the Empress and reappeared in society.

[595] Irrespective of rectitude, as shown by the case of Antonina; and not invariably, as seen in the instance of Amalasuntha. On another occasion she forced two noble ladies to marry men of low rank, through some caprice or spite. Although they took sanctuary in a church, she succeeded in starving them out; Anecd., 17.

[596] He married Matasuentha, widow of Vitigis, who died two or three years after his exile to CP.; Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 39. Jordanes calls this a union of the Amalian and Anician families (De Reb. Get., lx), which shows that this ridiculous adulation as to Justinian's pedigree was practically rife in the West.

[597] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 31, 32.

[598] Ibid., 39.