nished him of his approaching end, was unwelcome to the jealous
temper of an aged monarch, desirous to retain the power which he was
incapable of exercising; and Justin, holding his purple with both his
hands, advised them to prefer, since an election was so profitable, some
older candidate. Not withstanding this reproach, the senate proceeded
to decorate Justinian with the royal epithet of nobilissimus; and their
decree was ratified by the affection or the fears of his uncle. After
some time the languor of mind and body, to which he was reduced by
an incurable wound in his thigh, indispensably required the aid of a
guardian. He summoned the patriarch and senators; and in their presence
solemnly placed the diadem on the head of his nephew, who was conducted
from the palace to the circus, and saluted by the loud and joyful
applause of the people. The life of Justin was prolonged about four
months; but from the instant of this ceremony, he was considered as dead
to the empire, which acknowledged Justinian, in the forty-fifth year of
his age, for the lawful sovereign of the East. [11]

[Footnote 6: Manichaean signifies Eutychian. Hear the furious
acclamations of Constantinople and Tyre, the former no more than
six days after the decease of Anastasius. They produced, the latter
applauded, the eunuch's death, (Baronius, A.D. 518, P. ii. No. 15.
Fleury, Hist Eccles. tom. vii. p. 200, 205, from the Councils, tom. v.
p. 182, 207.)]

[Footnote 7: His power, character, and intentions, are perfectly
explained by the court de Buat, (tom. ix. p. 54--81.) He was
great-grandson of Aspar, hereditary prince in the Lesser Scythia,
and count of the Gothic foederati of Thrace. The Bessi, whom he could
influence, are the minor Goths of Jornandes, (c. 51.)]

[Footnote 8: Justiniani patricii factione dicitur interfectus fuisse,
(Victor Tu nunensis, Chron. in Thesaur. Temp. Scaliger, P. ii. p.
7.) Procopius (Anecdot. c. 7) styles him a tyrant, but acknowledges
something which is well explained by Alemannus.]

[Footnote 9: In his earliest youth (plane adolescens) he had passed some
time as a hostage with Theodoric. For this curious fact, Alemannus (ad
Procop. Anecdot. c. 9, p. 34, of the first edition) quotes a Ms. history
of Justinian, by his preceptor Theophilus. Ludewig (p. 143) wishes to
make him a soldier.]

[Footnote 10: The ecclesiastical history of Justinian will be shown
hereafter. See Baronius, A.D. 518--521, and the copious arti