they served him too well;--conquering
Persians, Vandals, Goths; all but re-conquering, in fact, the carcase
Roman Empire;--and then trying (with a deep discernment of the value of
Roman law) to put a galvanic life into the carcase by codifying that law.

In whatever work I find this man, during his long life, he is to me
inexplicable. Louis XI of France is the man most like Justinian whom I
know, but he, too, is a man not to be fathomed by me. All the facts
about Justinian you will find in Gibbon. I have no theory by which to
arrange and explain them, and therefore can tell you no more than Gibbon
does.

So to this Gothic war; which, you must remember, became possible for
Justinian by Belisarius' having just destroyed the Vandals out of Africa.
It began by Belisarius invading the south of Italy. Witigis was elected
war-king of the Goths, 'the man of witty counsels,' who did not fulfil
his name; while Theodatus (Theod-aht 'esteemed by the people' as his name
meant) had fallen into utter disesteem, after some last villainy about
money; had been struck down in the road by the man he had injured; and
there had his throat cut, 'resupinus instar victimae jugulatus.'

He had consulted a Jew diviner just before, who had given him a warning.
Thirty pigs, signifying the unclean Gentiles, the Jew shut up in three
sties; naming ten Goths, ten Romans, and ten Imperialists of Belisarius'
army, and left them to starve. At the end they found dead all the Goths
but two, hardly any of the Imperialists, and half the Romans: but the
five Roman pigs who were left had lost their bristles--bare to the skin,
as the event proved.

After that Theodatus had no heart to fight, and ended his dog's life by a
dog's death, as we have seen.

Note also this, that there was a general feeling of coming ruin; that
there were quaint signs and omens. We have heard of the pigs which
warned the Goths. Here is another. There was a Mosaic picture of
Theodoric at Naples; it had been crumbling to pieces at intervals, and
every fresh downfall had marked the death of an Amal. Now the last
remains went down, to the very feet, and the Romans believed that it
foretold the end of the Amal dynasty. There was a Sibylline oracle too;

'Quintili mense Roma nihil Geticum metuet.'

Here, too, we find the last trace of heathenism, of that political
mythology which had so inextricably interwoven itself with the life and
history of the city. The shrine of J