Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/24

 they had disposed him. Caligonus he took along with himself, and all the wealth of Theodosius, and carried them to Gonstantinople: Then it was, that the Empress Theodora would give an ex­ample to all mankind, by recompensing the ser­vices of Antonina, by actions of greater cruelty, and crimes of greater infamy then her own. Antonina not long before had betrayed John of Cappadocia to the Empress; but the Empress out did her in the requital, For she caused se­veral persons to be put into Antoninaes hands, who (notwithstanding that they were inno­cent) were all of them put to death. In brief, many Friends and Relations, both to Photius and Bellisarius (whose only guilt was acquaint­ance with them) were drubbed and conveyed away where no body could ever hear of them; others were banished by her, and for no other crime, but for being intimate with them. A­mong the rest, there was one Theodosius who had accompanied Photius to Ephesus, she caused this Theodosius to be apprehended, and having seised upon his estate, she gave order to put him into a Dungeon where no day was to be seen, and made him be tied up by the Neck to a Rackstaff so short, that he was forced to con­tinue in the same posture, without being able to turn himself; so that he was forced to eat and sleep, and evacuat as he stood, without any thing but his speech, to discriminate him from a Beast. In this cruel condition he continued four Moneths; after which, (though the Em­press gave him his liberty) yet his spirits being depressed