Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/394

 when his faculties were more acute. With one foot in the grave he became convinced that the Aphthartodocetae or Incorruptibles had arrived at the true view as to the properties of the flesh of Christ; and the octogenarian Emperor embarked on the enterprise of elevating this tenet to the rank of an Orthodox dogma. The resistance of Eutychius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who had presided at the Fifth General Council, was punished by expulsion from his see; and Anastasius, the Patriarch of Antioch, was threatened with a similar fate. To enforce conformity with the Emperor's most recent conviction an edict was prepared, which would have excited a commotion among the Orthodox communions throughout the Empire, but its issue was prevented by the unexpected death of its author.

Justinian died in November, 565, at an early hour of the morning, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, and the eighty-third of his age. The news was at once conveyed to the Senate, who forthwith aroused Justin, the son of Vigilantia, and besought him to accept the Crown. He occupied the post of Curopalates, or intendant of the Imperial household, and his succession had doubtless been privately arranged for some time previously. After his formal acquiescence the funeral rites of the deceased monarch were the first care. The body was placed upon a golden bier in a hall of the Palace, and Sophia, the wife of Justin, and a niece of Theodora, herself enshrouded it in a purple robe, on which were pictorially embroidered all the great events of Justinian's reign. By sunrise the people had become informed, and the assemblage in the Hippodrome followed in accordance with time-honoured precedent.