reward in the six
books of the Imperial edifices. He had dexterously chosen a subject of
apparent splendor, in which he could loudly celebrate the genius, the
magnificence, and the piety of a prince, who, both as a conqueror and
legislator, had surpassed the puerile virtues of Themistocles and Cyrus.
[16] Disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret revenge; and the
first glance of favor might again tempt him to suspend and suppress
a libel, [17] in which the Roman Cyrus is degraded into an odious and
contemptible tyrant, in which both the emperor and his consort Theodora
are seriously represented as two daemons, who had assumed a human
form for the destruction of mankind. [18] Such base inconsistency
must doubtless sully the reputation, and detract from the credit, of
Procopius: yet, after the venom of his malignity has been suffered to
exhale, the residue of the anecdotes, even the most disgraceful facts,
some of which had been tenderly hinted in his public history, are
established by their internal evidence, or the authentic monuments of
the times. [19] [1911] From these various materials, I shall now proceed
to describe the reign of Justinian, which will deserve and occupy
an ample space. The present chapter will explain the elevation and
character of Theodora, the factions of the circus, and the peaceful
administration of the sovereign of the East. In the three succeeding
chapters, I shall relate the wars of Justinian, which achieved the
conquest of Africa and Italy; and I shall follow the victories of
Belisarius and Narses, without disguising the vanity of their triumphs,
or the hostile virtue of the Persian and Gothic heroes. The series
of this and the following volume will embrace the jurisprudence and
theology of the emperor; the controversies and sects which still divide
the Oriental church; the reformation of the Roman law which is obeyed or
respected by the nations of modern Europe.

[Footnote 12: See the characters of Procopius and Agathias in La Mothe
le Vayer, (tom. viii. p. 144--174,) Vossius, (de Historicis Graecis,
l. ii. c. 22,) and Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. l. v. c. 5, tom. vi.
p. 248--278.) Their religion, an honorable problem, betrays occasional
conformity, with a secret attachment to Paganism and Philosophy.]

[Footnote 13: In the seven first books, two Persic, two Vandalic,
and three Gothic, Procopius has borrowed from Appian the division of
provinces and wars: the viiith book, though it