Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/368

 ill-omen. Animated by a genius so restless and aspiring, it is evident that such a woman needed only transference to a field of higher potential, to become one of the most notable characters of the age. Such a place had been prepared for her by fate, and she was destined to renew on the throne of the Empire the triumphs she had won on the boards of the theatre.

previously:
 * [Footnote: she was emulating the activities of the Empress Messalina five centuries

Claudius audi Quae tulerit: dormire virum cum senserat uxor Intravit calidum veteri centone lupanar Excepit blanda intrantes, atque aera poposcit: Mox lenone suas jam dimittente puellas, Tristis abit; etc.

Juvenal, Sat. vi, 115, et seq.

Pliny discusses her proclivities in the inquiring mood of a physiologist; Hist. Nat., x, 83.]