less favourably as a compromiser with Monophysism. He began well. As soon as he came to the throne he commanded acceptance of the four councils (Nicæa, Constantinople I, Ephesus, Chalcedon) from all his subjects. Even in Egypt he tried to establish the orthodox faith. When the Monophysite Timothy III died in 538, Justinian insisted on the appointment of a Catholic successor, Paul (538-542). But his wife led him astray. In 523 he had married Theodora. She had been a public dancing lady, and was always a strong Monophysite. The Empress Theodora, who takes a prominent place in our story (she secured a Monophysite hierarchy for Syria; see p. 324), is a very strange figure. Procopius of Cæsarea, the chronicler of the scandals of this time,[1] gives an appalling account of her career; Gibbon accepts this with his usual sneer.[2] Later writers have some doubt as to whether we are to accept all Procopius's foul anecdotes with confidence.[3] In any case, the lady who faces her husband in the mosaics of San Vitale at Ravenna had a career romantic rather than commendable. Perhaps the strangest thing about her is that this ardent Monophysite of not even doubtful reputation is now a saint in the Orthodox Calendar — so easy for princesses is the Byzantine road to heaven.[4]
- ↑ Secret History (ed. Dindorf, Bonn, 1833-1838). See Gibbon, chap. xl. (ed. cit. vol. iv. pp. 210-218).
- ↑ "If the creed of Theodora had not been tainted with heresy, her exemplary devotion might have atoned, in the opinion of her contemporaries, for pride, avarice and cruelty" (ib. p. 217).
- ↑ So Charles Diehl: Figures Byzantines, i. (Paris, 1906), 51-53.
- ↑ Orth. Eastern Church, p. 104. For Theodora's strange career see Diehl: Théodora, Impératrice de Byzance (Paris, 1904).
his good fortune in finding statesmen and generals to do it for him. It remains true that Justinian's reign is the most glorious episode of the Empire in the East, that he stands out as one of the five or six mightiest, most brilliant rulers in the history of the world. Dante puts him in the heaven of Mercury: "Cesare fui, e son Giustiniano," makes him confess his temporary Monophysism:
"E prima ch'io all 'ovra fossi attento,
Una natura in Cristo esser, non piue,
Credeva, e di tal fede era contento,"
and his conversion by Pope Agapitus (Paradiso, vi. 10-21). Gibbon has little respect for his victories, but cannot withhold his admiration for his legislation: "the laws of Justinian still command the respect or obedience of independent nations" (Decline and Fall, chap. xliv., ed. Bury, vol. iv. p. 441).
