ted the most learned civilians of the East, to labor with their
sovereign in the work of reformation. The theory of professors was
assisted by the practice of advocates and the experience of magistrates,
and the whole undertaking was animated by the spirit of Tribonian.

This extraordinary man, the object of so much praise and censure, was a
native of Side in Pamphylia; and his genius, like that of Bacon,
embraced as his own all the business and knowledge of the age. Tribonian
composed, both in prose and verse, on a strange diversity of curious and
abstruse subjects; a double panegyric of Justinian and the life of the
philosopher Theodotus; the nature of happiness and the duties of
government; Homer's catalogue and the four-and-twenty sorts of metre;
the astronomical canon of Ptolemy; the changes of the months; the houses
of the planets; and the harmonic system of the world. To the literature
of Greece he added the use of the Latin tongue; the Roman civilians were
deposited in his library and in his mind; and he most assiduously
cultivated those arts which opened the road of wealth and preferment.
From the bar of the praetorian prefects he raised himself to the honors
of quaestor, of consul, and of master of the offices: the council of
Justinian listened to his eloquence and wisdom, and envy was mitigated
by the gentleness and affability of his manners.

The reproaches of impiety and avarice have stained the virtues or the
reputation of Tribonian. In a bigoted and persecuting court the
principal minister was accused of a secret aversion to the Christian
faith, and was supposed to entertain the sentiments of an atheist and a
pagan, which have been imputed, inconsistently enough, to the last
philosophers of Greece. His avarice was more clearly proved and more
sensibly felt. If he were swayed by gifts in the administration of
justice, the example of Bacon will again occur: nor can the merit of
Tribonian atone for his baseness, if he degraded the sanctity of his
profession; and if laws were every day enacted, modified, or repealed,
for the base consideration of his private emolument. In the sedition of
Constantinople his removal was granted to the clamors, perhaps to the
just indignation, of the people; but the quaestor was speedily restored,
and, till the hour of his death, he possessed above twenty years the
favor and confidence of the Emperor. His passive and dutiful submission
has been honored with the praise of Justini