solvent tributaries, with their
heads downwards, over a slow and smoky fire. Since the days of Commodus
and Caracalla, the cruelty of the Roman princes had most commonly been
the effect of their fear; but Justinian, who possessed some vigor
of character, enjoyed the sufferings, and braved the revenge, of his
subjects, about ten years, till the measure was full, of his crimes and
of their patience. In a dark dungeon, Leontius, a general of reputation,
had groaned above three years, with some of the noblest and most
deserving of the patricians: he was suddenly drawn forth to assume the
government of Greece; and this promotion of an injured man was a mark
of the contempt rather than of the confidence of his prince. As he
was followed to the port by the kind offices of his friends, Leontius
observed, with a sigh, that he was a victim adorned for sacrifice,
and that inevitable death would pursue his footsteps. They ventured
to reply, that glory and empire might be the recompense of a generous
resolution; that every order of men abhorred the reign of a monster; and
that the hands of two hundred thousand patriots expected only the voice
of a leader. The night was chosen for their deliverance; and in the
first effort of the conspirators, the praefect was slain, and the
prisons were forced open: the emissaries of Leontius proclaimed in every
street, "Christians, to St. Sophia!" and the seasonable text of
the patriarch, "This is the day of the Lord!" was the prelude of
an inflammatory sermon. From the church the people adjourned to the
hippodrome: Justinian, in whose cause not a sword had been drawn, was
dragged before these tumultuary judges, and their clamors demanded the
instant death of the tyrant. But Leontius, who was already clothed
with the purple, cast an eye of pity on the prostrate son of his own
benefactor and of so many emperors. The life of Justinian was spared;
the amputation of his nose, perhaps of his tongue, was imperfectly
performed: the happy flexibility of the Greek language could impose the
name of Rhinotmetus; and the mutilated tyrant was banished to Chersonae
in Crim-Tartary, a lonely settlement, where corn, wine, and oil, were
imported as foreign luxuries.

On the edge of the Scythian wilderness, Justinian still cherished the
pride of his birth, and the hope of his restoration. After three years'
exile, he received the pleasing intelligence that his injury was avenged
by a second revolution, and that Leon