both these men from office. And
Phocas, a patrician, he appointed praetorian prefect, a man of the
greatest discretion and fitted by nature to be a guardian of justice;
Basilides he commanded to fill the office of quaestor, a man known among
the patricians for his agreeable qualities and a notable besides.
However, the insurrection continued no less violently under them. Now on
the fifth day of the insurrection in the late afternoon the Emperor
Justinian gave orders to Hypatius and Pompeius, nephews of the late
emperor, Anastasius, to go home as quickly as possible, either because
he suspected that some plot was being matured by them against his own
person, or, it may be, because destiny brought them to this. But they
feared that the people would force them to the throne (as in fact fell
out), and they said that they would be doing wrong if they should
abandon their sovereign when he found himself in such danger. When the
Emperor Justinian heard this, he inclined still more to his suspicion,
and he bade them quit the palace instantly. Thus, then, these two men
betook themselves to their homes, and, as long as it was night, they
remained there quietly.

But on the following day at sunrise it became known to the people that
both men had quit the palace where they had been staying. So the whole
population ran to them, and they declared Hypatius emperor and prepared
to lead him to the market-place to assume the power. But the wife of
Hypatius, Mary, a discreet woman, who had the greatest reputation for
prudence, laid hold of her husband and would not let go, but cried out
with loud lamentation and with entreaties to all her kinsmen that the
people were leading him on the road to death. But since the throng
overpowered her, she unwillingly released her husband, and he by no will
of his own came to the Forum of Constantine, where they summoned him to
the throne; then since they had neither diadem nor anything else with
which it is customary for a king to be clothed, they placed a golden
necklace upon his head and proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans. By this
time the members of the senate were assembling,--as many of them as had
not been left in the emperor's residence,--and many expressed the
opinion that they should go to the palace to fight. But Origenes, a man
of the senate, came forward and spoke as follows: "Fellow Romans, it is
impossible that the situation which is upon us be solved in any way
except by war. Now war