Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/120

 odour of incense, and from private windows and balconies particoloured and embroidered fabrics are suspended by the inhabitants. Wherever the royal cavalcade passes, cries of "Long live the Emperor" rise from every throat. At night the thoroughfares are illuminated by frequent lamps displayed from windows and doorways. But on occasions of public calamity, such as ruinous earthquakes or prolonged drought, this scene of splendour is reversed; and the Emperor, on foot and uncrowned, proceeds amidst the clergy and populace, all clad in sombre garments, to one of the sacred shrines outside the walls to offer up supplications for a remission of the scourge. And again the Emperor may be seen as a humble pedestrian, whilst the Patriarch, who usually rides upon an ass, is seated in the Imperial carriage, on his way to the consecration of a new church, or holding on his knees the relics of some saint prior to their deposition in one of the sacred edifices.

At this date conventional titles of distinction or adulation have attained to the stage of full development. The Emperor, in Greek Basileus or Autocrator, the sole Augustus, is also styled Lord and Master, and is often addressed as "Your Clemency." His appointed heir receives the dignity of Caesar and perhaps the title of Nobilissimus, an epithet confined to the nearest associates of the throne. Below the Imperial eminence and its attachments the great officers of