Temple of the Jews to the city of
Jerusalem, an event of less importance, in a superstitious age, than the
destruction of a barbarian monarchy. Among the spoils of the Vandals at
Carthage, Belisarius had found in the treasury those sacred vessels
which Titus, nearly five centuries before, had carried away to Rome from
the ruins of Jerusalem. Genseric had transported these relics to Africa,
when he plundered Rome in the year 455. Justinian was generous enough to
revive the long forgotten ceremony of a Roman triumph in order to
augment the glory of Belisarius; and the sacred plate of the Jews was
exhibited to the people of Constantinople amidst the pomp of the
gorgeous pageant. The emperor then commanded them to be removed to
Jerusalem, to be preserved in a Christian church.[19]

The restoration of the sacred spoils of Jerusalem rendered the name of
Belisarius renowned in the eastern world, far beyond the bounds of the
Roman empire; the glory of refusing the throne of the Caesars of the
west, amazed the barbarians of Europe as far as the filiation of the
Gothic and Germanic races extended. The glory of being deemed worthy of
the empire, was eclipsed by the singular display of personal dignity
which could refuse the honour. When Belisarius was on the eve of putting
an end to the Gothic monarchy by the conquest of Ravenna and the capture
of Witiges, the Goths, reflecting on their national position in the days
of Alaric and Theoderic, when they were only the soldiers of the empire,
offered their submission to Belisarius, and invited him to assume the
dignity of Emperor of the West. Belisarius refused the offer. He had
seen in his Italian campaigns, that the Gothic nobles of Italy were no
longer the same soldiers as the Gothic mercenaries of the imperial
armies.[20] The merit of refusing the empire must have been deeply felt
by Justinian; but the jealousy excited by the renown, which conferred
the option of accepting such power, gradually effaced the impression of
that merit in the breasts both of the feeble emperor, and of his
energetic and ambitious consort, Theodora. Though Belisarius loved money
and splendour, and had more of Pompey than Caesar in his character, still
the boldest cabinet minister must have felt that lie could no longer
safely be entrusted with the whole military power of the empire. Though
his fidelity remained inviolable, a seditious army could compel him,
even if unwilling, to become its instrument. From