romance which would have united one of the most brilliant
generals of the Empire to a niece of Justinian.

Praejecta, the emperor's niece, had fallen into the hands of Gontharis, a
usurper who had slain her husband, Areobindus. She had given up all as
lost when an unexpected savior appeared in the person of a handsome
Armenian officer, Artabanes, the commander in Africa, who overthrew the
usurper and restored her to liberty. From gratitude, Praejecta could
refuse her deliverer nothing, and she promised him her hand. The
ambitious Armenian saw in this brilliant marriage rapid promotion to the
height of power. The princess returned to Constantinople, and the Count
of Africa hastened to surrender his honorable office and sought a recall
to Constantinople to join his prospective bride. He was lionized in the
capital; his dignified demeanor, his burning eloquence and his unbounded
generosity won the admiration of all. To remove the social distance
between him and his fiancee he was loaded down with honors and
dignities. All went well until an unexpected and troublesome obstacle to
the nuptials presented itself. Artabanes had overlooked or forgotten the
fact that years before he had espoused an Armenian lady. They had been
separated a long time, and the warrior had never been heard to speak of
her. So long as he was an obscure soldier his wife was contented to
leave him in peace; but not so after his unexpected rise to fame.
Suddenly she appeared in Constantinople, claiming the rights of a lawful
spouse, and as a wronged woman she implored the sympathetic aid of
Theodora.

The empress was inflexible when the sacred bonds of marriage were at
stake, and she forced the reluctant general to renounce all claims to
the princess and to take back his forsaken wife. By way of precaution,
she speedily married Praejecta to John, the grandson of the emperor
Anastasius, and the pretty romance was at an end.

With equal regard to the sanctity of marriage, Theodora employed
numerous devices to reconcile Belisarius, the celebrated general, with
his wife Antonina, to whom the scandal of the _Secret History_
attributes serious lapses from moral rectitude, though the charge cannot
be regarded as proved.

A portrait of the Byzantine empress would be incomplete if it did not
speak of her religious sentiments and the prominent part she took in
ecclesiastical politics. In religious matters we see not only the best
side of Theodora's nature, bu