Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/328

 in a manner befitting a youth of high rank. On the completion of his studies, it was natural that Sabbatius should be claimed for military service, wherein his guardian's influence was centred, and he was drafted forthwith into the ranks of the Candidati or bodyguards of the Emperor. Finally Justin legally adopted Sabbatius; and in token of the fact the latter assumed the derivative name of Justinian.

On the death of Anastasius, as at his accession, the Grand Chamberlain appeared to be master of the situation. But the chief eunuch of the day, Amantius, was less influential than his predecessor, Urbicius, who, with the Empress Ariadne as an ally, had invested the popular silentiary with the purple; and the means he devised to ensure the acceptance of his candidate were the actual cause of his rejection. He decided to bribe the palace guards to proclaim his favourite, Count Theocritus, and placed a large sum of money in the hands of Justin for that purpose; but the procedure only served to render those soldiers conscious of their power to elect an emperor, and they immediately acclaimed their own commandant as the fittest occupant of the throne. *