two portions—one half to be returned to the owner, the other she presented to the Emperor. Jealous even of so much wealth remaining in private hands, she now sought to cement a marriage between a young relative of her own and Joannina, the only child of Belisarius.[1]
The general now petitioned to be reinstated in his military rank, in order that he might march against the Persians, but Antonina protested that she would never again visit a country where she had been subjected to such outrageous treatment. He was appointed, therefore, to the equivocal position of Count of the Stables, which left the rulers of his destiny the option of employing him on any opportune service.[2]
The sequels of two episodes related in a previous portion of this work may form a fitting conclusion to the present
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
