, with whom the
tedious negotiations were conducted which ended (497) in a recognition,
perhaps a somewhat grudging recognition, by the Emperor of the right of
the Ostrogothic king to rule in Italy.

Anastasius, who was Theodoric's contemporary during twenty-five years of
his reign, was already past sixty when the widowed Empress Ariadne chose
him for her husband and her Emperor, and he had attained the age of
eighty-eight when his harassed life came to a close. A man of tall
stature and noble presence, a wise administrator of the finances of the
Empire, and therefore one who both lightened taxation and accumulated
treasure, a sovereign who chose his servants well and brought his only
considerable war, that with Persia, to a successful issue, Anastasius
would seem to be an Emperor of whom both his own subjects and posterity
should speak favourably. Unfortunately, however, for his fame he became
entangled in that most wearisome of theological debates, which is known
as the Monophysite controversy. In this controversy he took an unpopular
side; he became embroiled with the Roman Pontiff, and estranged from his
own Patriarch of Constantinople. Opposition and the weariness of age
soured a naturally sweet temper, and he was guilty of some harsh
proceedings towards his ecclesiastical opponents. Even worse than his
harshness (which did not, even on the representations of his enemies,
amount to cruelty) was a certain want of absolute truthfulness, which
made it difficult for a beaten foe to trust his promises of forgiveness,
and thus caused the fire of civil discord, once kindled, to smoulder on
almost interminably. The religious party to which he belonged had
probably the majority of the aristocracy of Constantinople on its side,
but the mob and the monks were generally against Anastasius, and some
scenes very humiliating to the Imperial dignity were the consequence of
this antagonism.

(511) Once, when he had resolved on the deposition of the orthodox
Patriarch of Constantinople, Macedonius, so great a tempest of popular
and theological fury raged through the city, that he ordered the great
gates of his palace to be barred and the ships to be made ready at what
is now called Seraglio Point, intending to seek safety in flight. A
humiliating reconciliation with the Patriarch, the order for whose
banishment he rescinded, saved him from this necessity. The citizens and
the soldiers poured through the streets shouting triumphantl