Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/270

 *sarius. Next year, when he was absent with the army in the East, a report was spread that the Emperor, resident in the plague-stricken capital, was himself in the throes of a fatal attack of the malady. The question of the throne becoming vacant was anxiously debated by the generals, and some of them observed that, if the people of Constantinople proceeded to elect a successor, he should not have the allegigiance of the army. Justinian, however, recovered unexpectedly, and the attitude adopted by the military council was divulged at Court. Theodora was especially enraged, as she assumed it to be part of her prerogative, in the case of her husband's death, to nominate the next occupant of the throne. When the generals returned to Constantinople for the season, she instituted an inquiry, and chose to see in Belisarius, though without proof, the leader of the culprits. She denounced him in the bitterest terms to the Emperor, who was doubtless only too pleased at finding a pretext to subdue the excessive popularity of his eminent subordinate. He was forthwith deprived of his post of General of the East; his veteran guards, who had followed him into so many battles, were divided into parcels and assigned to various magnates of the Court, and his fortunes were seized for the benefit of the fisc. As a mere private citizen he might be seen daily walking dejectedly alone between his house and the Court, where he was viewed with neglect and disfavour, but feared to absent himself lest a worse fate might befall him. In the meantime Antonina enjoyed the highest favour with the Empress, whilst the intercourse between husband and wife was of the coldest description. For several weeks the great general languished in the abject condition to which he had been reduced,