red the public hatred; and consult the experience, rather than the
example, of your predecessor. As a man, I have sinned; as a sinner, even
in this life, I have been severely punished: but these servants, (and we
pointed to his ministers,) who have abused my confidence, and inflamed
my passions, will appear with me before the tribunal of Christ. I have
been dazzled by the splendor of the diadem: be thou wise and modest;
remember what you have been, remember what you are. You see around
us your slaves, and your children: with the authority, assume the
tenderness, of a parent. Love your people like yourself; cultivate the
affections, maintain the discipline, of the army; protect the fortunes
of the rich, relieve the necessities of the poor." [27] The assembly, in
silence and in tears, applauded the counsels, and sympathized with the
repentance, of their prince the patriarch rehearsed the prayers of the
church; Tiberius received the diadem on his knees; and Justin, who in
his abdication appeared most worthy to reign, addressed the new monarch
in the following words: "If you consent, I live; if you command, I die:
may the God of heaven and earth infuse into your heart whatever I have
neglected or forgotten." The four last years of the emperor Justin were
passed in tranquil obscurity: his conscience was no longer tormented by
the remembrance of those duties which he was incapable of discharging;
and his choice was justified by the filial reverence and gratitude of
Tiberius.

[Footnote 23: The original authors for the reign of Justin the younger
are Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. l. v. c. 1--12; Theophanes, in Chonograph.
p. 204--210; Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 70-72; Cedrenus, in Compend.
p. 388--392.]

[Footnote 24: Dispositorque novus sacrae Baduarius aulae. Successor
soceri mox factus Cura-palati.--Cerippus. Baduarius is enumerated among
the descendants and allies of the house of Justinian. A family of noble
Venetians (Casa Badoero) built churches and gave dukes to the republic
as early as the ninth century; and, if their descent be admitted, no
kings in Europe can produce a pedigree so ancient and illustrious.
Ducange, Fam. Byzantin, p. 99 Amelot de la Houssaye, Gouvernement de
Venise, tom. ii. p. 555.]

[Footnote 25: The praise bestowed on princes before their elevation is
the purest and most weighty. Corippus has celebrated Tiberius at the
time of the accession of Justin, (l. i. 212--222.) Yet even a captain of
the guard