Chap, xli] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 361 Ephesus ; extorted from a trusty eunuch of his mother the full confession of her guilt ; arrested Theodosius and his treasures in the church of St. John the Apostle ; and concealed his captives, whose execution was only delayed, in a secure and sequestered fortress of Cilicia. Such a daring outrage against public justice could not pass with impunity ; and the cause of Antonina was espoused by the empress, whose favour she had deserved by the recent services of the disgrace of a praefect and the exile and murder of a pope. At the end of the campaign, Belisarius was recalled ; he complied, as usual, with the Imperial mandate. His mind was not prepared for rebellion ; his obedience, however adverse to the dictates of honour, was consonant to the wishes of his heart ; and, when he embraced his wife, at the command, and perhaps in the presence, of the empress, the tender husband was disposed to forgive or to be forgiven. The bounty of Theodora reserved for her companion a more precious favour. "I have found," she said, "my dearest patrician, a pearl of inestimable value : it has not yet been viewed by any mortal eye ; but the sight and the possession of this jewel are destined for my friend." As soon as the curiosity and impatience of Antonina were kindled, the door of a bedchamber was thrown open, and she beheld her lover, whom the diligence of the eunuchs had discovered in his secret prison. Her silent wonder burst into passionate exclamations of gratitude and joy, and she named Theodora her queen, her benefactress, and her saviour. The monk of Ephesus was nourished in the palace with luxury and ambition ; but, instead of assuming, as he was promised, the command of the Eoman armies, Theodosius expired in the first fatigues of an amorous interview. The grief of Antonina could only be assuaged by the sufferings of her son. A youth Perse- of consular rank, and a sickly constitution, was punished, without her son a trial, like a malefactor and a slave ; yet such was the constancy of his mind that Photius sustained the tortures of the scourge and the rack without violating the faith which he had sworn to Belisarius. After this fruitless cruelty, the son of Antonina, while his mother feasted with the empress, was buried in her subterraneous prisons, which admitted not the distinction of night and day. He twice escaped to the most venerable sanctuaries of Constantinople, the churches of St. Sophia and of the Virgin ; but his tyrants were insensible of religion as of
