and of the state of the
finances which he alone could administer, he regarded himself as
indispensable. But he did not correctly gauge the subtlety of Theodora.
She first endeavored to convince the emperor of the sufferings which the
prefect inflicted on his subjects and then to arouse his suspicions as
to the dangers with which the throne was menaced by the ambition of
John: but the emperor, like all feeble natures, hesitated to separate
from himself a counsellor to whom by long habit and association he had
become attached. Then Theodora conceived a Machiavelian plot.

Theodora's most intimate friend was Antonina, the wife of Belisarius,
whom Procopius describes as a woman "more capable than anyone else to
manage the impracticable." The two clever women devised an unscrupulous
bit of strategy which, if successful, would surely cause the downfall of
the much execrated minister of finance. Antonina, at Theodora's
suggestion, cultivated the friendship of John's daughter, Euphemia, and
intimated to her that her husband Belisarius was seriously disaffected
toward the emperor, because of the poor requital which his distinguished
services had received, but that he could not attempt to throw off the
imperial yoke unless he was assured of the sympathy and support of some
one of the important civil officials. Euphemia naturally told the news
to her father, who, seeing in the circumstance an opportunity to ascend
the throne with the aid of the powerful general, easily fell into the
trap. To perfect the plot the Cappadocian arranged a secret interview at
Rufinianum, one of the country seats of Belisarius. The empress arranged
to have two faithful officials, Marcellus and Narses, concealed in the
villa, with orders to arrest John if his treason became manifest, and,
if he resisted, straightway to put him to death. They overheard the
treasonable plot, but the minister succeeded in escaping arrest and fled
to the inviolable asylum of Saint Sophia. He was, however, exiled in
disgrace to Cyzicus; but the ruthless hatred of Theodora followed him,
and, after all his ill-gotten gains had been confiscated, he was exiled
to Egypt, where he remained until the death of the empress. He finally
returned to Constantinople, but Justinian had no further need of the
services of his quondam counsellor, and the latter, in the rude garb of
a priest, died upon the scene of his former triumphs.

In her ruthless persecution of her opponents, as illustrat