Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/203

OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 181 Theodora, to have received the sacrament of baptism.^ But the faithless Chozar was soon tempted by the gold of Constanti- nople ; and, had not the design been revealed by the conjugal love of Theodora, her husband must have been assassinated or betrayed into the power of his enemies. After strangling, with his own hands, the two emissaries of the khan, Justinian sent back his wife to her brother, and embarked on the Euxine in search of new and more faithful allies. His vessel was assaulted by a violent tempest ; and one of his pious companions advised him to deserve the mercy of God by a vow of general forgive- ness, if he should be restored to the throne. " Of forgiveness. " replied the intrepid tyrant ; " may I perish this instant — may the Almighty whelm me in the waves — if I consent to spare a single head of my enemies ! " He survived this impious menace, sailed into the mouth of the Danube, trusted his person in the royal village of the Bulgarians, and purchased the aid of Terbelis, a Pagan conqueror, by the promise of his daughter and a fair partition of the treasures of the empire. The Bulgarian kingdom '^^ extended to the confines of Thrace ; and the two princes besieged Constantinople at the head of fifteen thousand horse. Apsimar was dismayed by the sudden and hostile apparition of his rival, whose head had been pro- mised by the Chozar, and of whose evasion he was yet ignorant. After an absence of ten years, the crimes of Justinian were faintly remembered, and the birth and misfortunes of their hereditary sovereign excited the pity of the multitude, ever discontented with the ruling powers ; and by the active diligence of his adherents he was introduced into the city and palace of Constantine. In rewarding his allies and recalling his wife, Justinian dis- His restora- played some sense of honour and gratitude ; and Terbelis death" a.d. retired, after sweeping away an heap of gold coin, which he ™^^" measured with his Scythian whip. But never was vow more religiously performed than the sacred oath of revenge which he had sworn amidst the stoi'ms of the Euxine. The two usurpers, for I must reserve the name of tyrant for the conqueror, were dragged into the hippodrome, the one from his prison, the other from his palace. Before their execution, Leontius and Apsimar were cast prostrate in chains beneath the throne of the emperor; ^ [It seems possible that Justinian chose the name of Theodora for her in re- collection of his namesake's illustrious consort.] ^'^ [For the foundation of the "first Bulgarian kingdom," see below, chap. Iv.]