the same time Antonina managed to persuade her husband that she had been calumniated, with the result that he surrendered the three witnesses to her discretion. They perished by a cruel death at the hands of their mistress, who killed them by torture, and had their bodies thrown into the sea. In the next phase of the intrigue we see Antonina in conflict with her son Photius, whose animosity against Theodosius was such that the latter refused to return to the embraces of his mistress unless he were expelled from the household. This end was achieved by domestic persecution, and the paramour was shortly afterwards reinstated with the connivance of Belisarius himself. When the Master of Soldiers was sent into Mesopotamia against Chosroes, Antonina, contrary to precedent, remained at Constantinople to enjoy the society of her lover. Dreading, however, the interference of her son, she plotted to encompass his death. In self-defence he brought forward irrefragable evidence of the adulterous life that his mother was leading, whereupon Belisarius engaged him by a solemn compact to punish the enemy of his conjugal peace.[1] With this design Antonina was summoned to join her husband, and consequently, as had been foreseen, Theodosius betook himself to his retreat at Ephesus, where he had attached himself to a religions fraternity. Photius followed on and, having made himself master of his person, caused him to be detained under strict surveillance.
It was in this year (541) that Chosroes undertook his expedition into Lazica, thereby denuding Persia of his most effective troops. For an enterprising Roman general the
- ↑ 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.
