o successfully maintained, was
broken, and the later years of Justin's reign were disgraced by the
persecution of the Monophysites, so that great disaffection toward the
throne was created throughout the East.

The religious ceremony was soon followed by the acclamations of the
populace in the Hippodrome, which were made all the more hearty through
the act of Justin in discharging the vast debts of his uncle Justinian;
and, before three years had elapsed, his example was imitated and
surpassed by the empress, who delivered many indigent citizens from the
weight of debt and usury--an act of benevolence which won for her the
gratitude and adoration of the populace.

Thus auspiciously began the reign of Justin and Sophia, which the royal
pair had proclaimed was to be an new era of happiness and glory for
mankind; but, though the sentiments of the emperor were pure and
benevolent and it was the ambition of the empress to surpass her aunt
Theodora, neither had the intellectual gifts equal to the task, and
during their reign the Empire was subjected to disgrace abroad and to
wretchedness at home.

Much the same ingratitude which Belisarius had experienced at the hand
of his imperial mistress was visited upon his eminent successor, Narses,
by the new empress. She sent Longinus, as the new exarch, to supersede
the conqueror of Italy, and in most insulting language recalled the
eunuch Narses to Constantinople. "Let him leave to men," she said, "the
exercise of arms, and return to his proper station among the maidens of
the palace, where a distaff should be again placed in the hands of the
eunuch." "I will spin her such a thread as she shall not easily
unravel!" is said to have been the indignant reply of the hero, who
alone had saved Italy to the Empire. Instead of returning to the
Byzantine palace, he returned to Naples and later dwelt at Rome, where
he passed away and with him the only military genius great enough to
ward off the invasion of the Lombards.

After a reign of a few years the faculties of Justin, which were
impaired by disease, began to fail, and in 574 he became a hopeless
lunatic. The only son of the imperial pair had died in infancy, and the
question of a successor now became a serious one. The daughter, Arabia,
was the wife of Baduarius, superintendent of the palace, who vainly
aspired to the honor of adoption as the Caesar. Domestic animosities
turned the empress elsewhere.

The artful empress found a s