deration by Justinian, and
was consulted in his most important affairs. When Justinian had restored
with the greatest splendour the still existing Church of Santa Sophia,
Eutychius consecrated it in his presence on the 24th December, 563.
Justinian then allotted to the service of the cathedral 60 priests, 100
deacons, 90 sub-deacons, 110 lectors, 120 singers, 100 ostiarii, and 40
deaconesses, a number which much increased between Justinian and Heraclius.

Justinian in his last years was minded to sanction by a formal decree a
special doctrine which, after long resisting the Eutycheans, he had taken
from them. It was that the Body of Christ was from the beginning
incorruptible, and incapable of any change. He willed that all his bishops
should set their hands to this decree. Eutychius was one of the first to
resist. On the 22nd January, 565, he was taken by force from his cathedral
to a monastery; he refused to appear before a resident council called by
the emperor, which deposed him, and appointed a successor. He was banished
to Amasea, where he died, twelve years afterwards, in the monastery which
he had formerly governed.[147]

But Justinian had become again, by the conquest of Narses, lord of Rome and
Italy, and as such, in the year 554, issued at the request of Vigilius his
Pragmatic Sanction. In Italy the struggle was at an end; the land was a
desert. Flourishing cities had become heaps of smoking ruins. Milan had
been destroyed. Three hundred thousand are said to have perished there.
Before the recal of Belisarius, fifty thousand had died of hunger in the
march of Ancona. Such facts give a notion of Rome's condition. In 554,
Narses returned, and his victorious host entered, laden with booty, crowned
with laurels. It was his task to maintain a regular government, which he
did with the title of Patricius and Commander.[148] The Pragmatic Sanction
was intended to establish a new political order of things in Italy, which
was reunited to the empire. The two supreme officials of the Italian
province were the Exarch and the Prefect. The title of Exarch then came up,
and continued to the end of the Greek dominion in Italy. He united in
himself the military and civil authority; but for the exercise of the
latter the Prefect stood at his side as the first civil officer. Obedience
to the whole body of legislation, as codified by Justinian's order, was
enacted. For the rest the provisions of Constantine were followed. The
adm