lic enemy. But, in
the pursuit of fame, Justinian might have lost his present dominion over
the age and weakness of his uncle; and instead of acquiring by Scythian
or Persian trophies the applause of his countrymen, [9] the prudent
warrior solicited their favor in the churches, the circus, and the
senate, of Constantinople. The Catholics were attached to the nephew
of Justin, who, between the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies, trod the
narrow path of inflexible and intolerant orthodoxy. [10] In the first
days of the new reign, he prompted and gratified the popular enthusiasm
against the memory of the deceased emperor. After a schism of
thirty-four years, he reconciled the proud and angry spirit of the Roman
pontiff, and spread among the Latins a favorable report of his pious
respect for the apostolic see. The thrones of the East were filled with
Catholic bishops, devoted to his interest, the clergy and the monks were
gained by his liberality, and the people were taught to pray for
their future sovereign, the hope and pillar of the true religion. The
magnificence of Justinian was displayed in the superior pomp of his
public spectacles, an object not less sacred and important in the eyes
of the multitude than the creed of Nice or Chalcedon: the expense of his
consulship was esteemed at two hundred and twenty-eight thousand pieces
of gold; twenty lions, and thirty leopards, were produced at the same
time in the amphitheatre, and a numerous train of horses, with their
rich trappings, was bestowed as an extraordinary gift on the
victorious charioteers of the circus. While he indulged the people of
Constantinople, and received the addresses of foreign kings, the nephew
of Justin assiduously cultivated the friendship of the senate. That
venerable name seemed to qualify its members to declare the sense of
the nation, and to regulate the succession of the Imperial throne: the
feeble Anastasius had permitted the vigor of government to degenerate
into the form or substance of an aristocracy; and the military officers
who had obtained the senatorial rank were followed by their domestic
guards, a band of veterans, whose arms or acclamations might fix in a
tumultuous moment the diadem of the East. The treasures of the state
were lavished to procure the voices of the senators, and their unanimous
wish, that he would be pleased to adopt Justinian for his colleague,
was communicated to the emperor. But this request, which too clearly
admo