Empress Theodora.--II. Factions Of The Circus, And Sedition
Of Constantinople.--III. Trade And Manufacture Of Silk.--
IV. Finances And Taxes.--V. Edifices Of Justinian.--Church
Of St. Sophia.--Fortifications And Frontiers Of The Eastern
Empire.--Abolition Of The Schools Of Athens, And The
Consulship Of Rome.

The emperor Justinian was born [1] near the ruins of Sardica,
(the modern Sophia,) of an obscure race [2] of Barbarians, [3] the
inhabitants of a wild and desolate country, to which the names of
Dardania, of Dacia, and of Bulgaria, have been successively applied. His
elevation was prepared by the adventurous spirit of his uncle Justin,
who, with two other peasants of the same village, deserted, for
the profession of arms, the more useful employment of husbandmen or
shepherds. [4] On foot, with a scanty provision of biscuit in their
knapsacks, the three youths followed the high road of Constantinople,
and were soon enrolled, for their strength and stature, among the guards
of the emperor Leo. Under the two succeeding reigns, the fortunate
peasant emerged to wealth and honors; and his escape from some dangers
which threatened his life was afterwards ascribed to the guardian angel
who watches over the fate of kings. His long and laudable service in
the Isaurian and Persian wars would not have preserved from oblivion the
name of Justin; yet they might warrant the military promotion, which in
the course of fifty years he gradually obtained; the rank of tribune,
of count, and of general; the dignity of senator, and the command of the
guards, who obeyed him as their chief, at the important crisis when the
emperor Anastasius was removed from the world. The powerful kinsmen whom
he had raised and enriched were excluded from the throne; and the eunuch
Amantius, who reigned in the palace, had secretly resolved to fix the
diadem on the head of the most obsequious of his creatures. A liberal
donative, to conciliate the suffrage of the guards, was intrusted
for that purpose in the hands of their commander. But these weighty
arguments were treacherously employed by Justin in his own favor; and as
no competitor presumed to appear, the Dacian peasant was invested with
the purple by the unanimous consent of the soldiers, who knew him to
be brave and gentle, of the clergy and people, who believed him to
be orthodox, and of the provincials, who yielded a blind and implicit
submission to the will of the