any experience of finance, administration, or legal procedure. Yet he governed well, because he had prudence and exercised discretion in the appointment of his officers. His reign is chiefly remarkable because it led to the succession of his more illustrious nephew Justinian, like himself the son of a peasant.
No name in Byzantine history has acquired more general renown than that of Justinian, yet his qualities appear to have been singularly mediocre. The great things that were done for him rather than by him have illustrated his reign, and given it the splendour which belongs to that of a strong emperor. Under him Belisarius reduced the Vandals, added Africa to the empire, seized Italy, raised the siege of Rome, and rescued Constantinople from the Bulgarians. Under him Narses reduced the Goths, defeated the Franks and Alemanni, and governed Italy as exarch. Under Justinian, too, the capital was enriched by the great church of St. Sophia, not to mention five and twenty others; the Byzantine palace was repaired, that of the Heræum erected, and the long walls of Anastasius were rebuilt. And it was under Justinian that the great Corpus of Jurisprudence was arranged and published.
The first act of Justinian, in commencing his long reign of nearly thirty-nine years, was to raise to the throne beside him a woman whose character had been notorious, whose birth was humble, and whose disposition was cruel to ferocity. Theodora was the daughter of a Cyprian named Acacius, who had the charge of the bears at Constantinople. The death of the father left
