men, and
persisted to the last moment of her life in a fruitless rebellion,
which, according to the fashion of the age, had been predicted by
Christian hermits and Pagan magicians. While the East was afflicted by
the passions of Verina, her daughter Ariadne was distinguished by the
female virtues of mildness and fidelity; she followed her husband in his
exile, and after his restoration, she implored his clemency in favor of
her mother. On the decease of Zeno, Ariadne, the daughter, the mother,
and the widow of an emperor, gave her hand and the Imperial title to
Anastasius, an aged domestic of the palace, who survived his elevation
above twenty-seven years, and whose character is attested by the
acclamation of the people, "Reign as you have lived!" [9] [911]

[Footnote 6: Theophanes (p. 111) inserts a copy of her sacred letters to
the provinces. Such female pretensions would have astonished the slaves
of the first Caesars.]

[Footnote 7: Vol. iii. p. 504--508.]

[Footnote 8: Suidas, tom. i. p. 332, 333, edit. Kuster.]

[Footnote 811: Joannes Lydus accuses Zeno of timidity, or, rather, of
cowardice; he purchased an ignominious peace from the enemies of the
empire, whom he dared not meet in battle; and employed his whole time
at home in confiscations and executions. Lydus, de Magist. iii. 45, p.
230.--M.]

[Footnote 812: Named Illus.--M.]

[Footnote 9: The contemporary histories of Malchus and Candidus are
lost; but some extracts or fragments have been saved by Photius,
(lxxviii. lxxix. p. 100--102,) Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (Excerpt.
Leg. p. 78--97,) and in various articles of the Lexicon of Suidas. The
Chronicles of Marcellinus (Imago Historiae) are originals for the reigns
of Zeno and Anastasius; and I must acknowledge, almost for the last
time, my obligations to the large and accurate collections of Tillemont,
(Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 472--652).]

[Footnote 912: The Panegyric of Procopius of Gaza, (edited by Villoison
in his Anecdota Graeca, and reprinted in the new edition of the
Byzantine historians by Niebuhr, in the same vol. with Dexippus and
Eunapius, viii. p. 488 516,) was unknown to Gibbon. It is vague and
pedantic, and contains few facts. The same criticism will apply to the
poetical panegyric of Priscian edited from the Ms. of Bobbio by Ang.
Mai. Priscian, the gram marian, Niebuhr argues from this work, must have
been born in the African, not in either of the Asiatic Caesareas. Pref.
p. xi.--