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436 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliii till he pardoned their flagitious attempt against his throne and life. If the emperor forgave his enemies, he must cordially em- brace a friend whose victories were alone remembered, and who was endeared to his prince by the recent circumstance of their common danger. Belisarius reposed from his toils, in the high station of general of the East and count of the domestics ; and the older consuls and patricians respectfully yielded the prece- dency of rank to the peerless merit of the first of the Romans. 43 The first of the Romans still submitted to be the slave of his wife ; but the servitude of habit and affection became less dis- graceful when the death of Theodora had removed the baser influence of fear. Joannina their daughter, and the sole heiress of their fortunes, was betrothed to Anastasius the grandson, or rather the nephew, of the empress, 44 whose kind interposition forwarded the consummation of their youthful loves. But the power of Theodora expired, the parents of Joannina returned, and her honour, perhaps her happiness, were sacrificed to the revenge of an unfeeling mother, who dissolved the imperfect nuptials before they had been ratified by the ceremonies of the church. 45 Rome Before the departure of Belisarius, Perusia was besieged, by ft the aken and few cities were impregnable to the Gothic arms. Ravenna, Goths, a.d. ^ncona, and Crotona still resisted the Barbarians; and, when Totila asked in marriage one of the daughters of France, 46 he was stung by the just reproach that the king of Italy was un- worthy of his title till it was acknowledged by the Roman people. Three thousand of the bravest soldiers had been left 43 The honours of Belisarius are gladly commemorated by his secretary (Procop. Goth. 1. iii. c. 35 ; 1. iv. c. 21). The title of ^ T parvy6s is ill translated, at least in this instance, by praefectus preetorio ; and to a military character magister militum is more proper and applicable (Ducange, Gloss. Greec. p. 1458, 1459). 44 Alemannus (ad Hist. Arcanam, p. 68), Ducange (Familiaj Byzant. p. 98), and Heineccius (Hist. Juris Chilis, p. 434), all three represent Anastasius as the son of the daughter of Theodora ; and their opinion firmly reposes on the unambiguous testimony of Prooopius (Anecdot. c. 4, 5 — dvyarptScji, twice repeated). And yet I will remark, 1. Thai in the year 547, Theodora could scarcely have a grandson of the age of puberty ; 2. That we are totally ignorant of this daughter and her husband ; and, 3. That Theo- dora concealed her bastards, and that her grandson by Justinian would have been heir apparent of the empire. 45 The anapr^fxara, or sins, of the hero, in Italy and after his return, are mani- fested aTrapaKaXvTTTws, and most probably swelled, by the author of the Anecdotes (c. 4, 5). The designs of Antonina were favoured by the fluctuating jurisprudence of Justinian. On the law of marriage and divorce the emperor was trocho versatilior (Heineccius, Element. Juris Civil, ad Ordinem Pandect. P. iv. No. 233). 40 [Probably of Theudibert of Metz.]