Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/354

 282 jealous at the honorable entertainment he had met with from Justin the defender of the Catholic religion; Theodoric had in the same year, in the consulship of the younger Probus, put to death Symraachus the patrician at Ravenna, and in the year following, himself died suddenly, leaving his grandson Athalaric, to succeed him on the throne. Hilderic, king of the Vandals, gave orders for the return of the bishops from exile, and for the restoration of the churches, after 74 years of heretical profanation. The abbot Benedict was conspicuous for his glorious miracles; of which the blessed Pope Gregory has given an account in his book of Dialogues.

A.M. 4518 [567].

Justinian, son of Justin's sister, reigned 38 years. Belisarius the Patrician was sent by Justin into Africa, where he overthrew the Vandals. Carthage too was recovered in the 96th year from its loss, the Vandals utterly routed, and their king Gelismer made prisoner, and sent to Constantinople. The body of St. Antony the monk is discovered by revelation, and brought to Alexandria, where it is interred in the church of Saint John the Baptist. Dionysius gives the cycles of Easter, beginning at the 532nd year from our Lord's incarnation, which is the 248th year from Diocletian, from the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, being the year in which the Code of Justinian was given to the world. Victor, also, bishop of Capua, in a book which he wrote on Easter, confutes the errors of Victorius.

A.M. 5529 [578].

Justin the youuger, reigned 11 years. Narsis the Patrician, conquered and slew Totila king of the Goths in Italy; but by the envy of the Romans, for whom he had done such great things against the Goths, being accused before Justin and his wife Sophia, of having enslaved Italy, he retired to Naples in Campania, and