work is done for you gratuitously, you feign to sleep,
and the tenth you wake from your deceitful slumber; like the roused
lion, you look round where grazes the fattest prey, stretch your ample
claw, crush your devoted victim, and make every drop of his blood, so
long withheld from your appetite, at last flow into the capacious bowels
of your insatiable _hazne_"--(treasury).[31]

Belisarius was certainly a fatted prey, and it is no wonder that his
inordinate wealth excited the cravings of the minister of finance of the
lavish Justinian and the luxurious Theodora. After his return from the
conquest of Italy, he lived at Constantinople in a degree of
magnificence unrivalled by the proudest modern sovereign. His household
consisted, as we have already seen, of a small army; and as he was fond
of parade, he rarely appeared in public without a splendid staff of
mounted officers. His liberality and his military renown ensured him the
applause of the people whenever he presented himself among them. Such
wealth, such a train of guards, and such popularity, not unnaturally
excited both envy and alarm. Accordingly, when the unsuccessful issue of
the campaigns against the Persians under Chosroes, in 541 and 542, had
diminished the popularity of Belisarius, the Emperor seized the occasion
of rendering him less an object of fear by depriving him of a
considerable number of his guards and great part of his treasures.[32]
The picture Procopius has drawn of Belisarius in his disgrace, is by no
means flattering to the general; it represents him as a mean-spirited
and uxorious courtier. "It was a strange spectacle, and incredible, had
we not been eye-witnesses of the fact, to behold Belisarius, deprived of
all his official rank, walking in the streets of Constantinople almost
alone, dejected, melancholy, and fearing for his life."[33]

Shortly after, Belisarius was partially reinstated in favour and sent to
command in Italy against Totila. In 548, he quitted that country for the
second time, after struggling unsuccessfully against the Gothic monarch.
The jealousy of Justinian had prevented his receiving the supplies
necessary for carrying on the war with vigour; and the want of success
is not to be considered as any stain on the military reputation of
Belisarius. Though he returned ingloriously to Constantinople, still,
even amidst the misfortunes of the Roman arms in Italy, he had not
neglected to save or accumulate wealth, and he was