CHAPTER X

As long as the Empress Euphemia was alive, Justinian could not contrive to marry Theodora.  Though she did not oppose him on any other point, she obstinately refused her consent to this one thing.  She was altogether free from vice, although she was a homely person and of barbarian descent, as I have already said.  She never cultivated any active virtues, but remained utterly ignorant of State affairs.  She did not bear her own name, which was a ridiculous one, when she came to the palace, but was re-named Euphemia.  Soon afterwards, however, she died.

Justin was in his second childhood and so sunk in senility that he was the laughing-stock of his subjects.  All despised him utterly, and disregarded him because he was incompetent to control State affairs, but they paid their court to Justinian with awe, for he terrified them all by his love of disturbance and reckless innovations.

He then resolved to bring about his marriage with Theodora.  It was forbidden by the most ancient laws of the State that anyone of the senatorial order should marry a courtesan; so he prevailed upon the Emperor to repeal the existing law and introduce a new one, whereby he was allowed to live with Theodora as his legitimate wife, and it became possible for anyone else to marry a courtesan.  He also straightway assumed the demeanour of absolute despot, veiling his forcible seizure of power under the pretext of reasons of State.  He was proclaimed Emperor of the Romans, as his uncle’s colleague.  Whether this was legal or not may be doubted, since he owed his election to the terror with which he inspired those who gave him their votes.

So Justinian and Theodora ascended the Imperial throne three days before Easter, at a time when it is forbidden to make visits or even to greet one’s friends.  A few days later Justin was carried off by disease, after a reign of nine years, and Justinian and Theodora reigned alone.

Thus did Theodora, as I have told you, in spite of her birth and bringing-up, reach the throne without finding any obstacle in her way.  Justinian felt no shame at having wedded her, although he might have chosen the best born, the best educated, the most modest and virtuously nurtured virgin in all the Roman Empire, with outstanding breasts, as the saying is; whereas he preferred to take to himself the common refuse of all mankind, and without a thought of all that has been told, married a woman stained with the shame of many abortions and many other crimes.  Nothing more, I conceive, need be said about this creature’s character, for all the vices of his heart are thoroughly displayed in the fact of so unworthy a marriage.  When a man feels no shame at an act of this kind, and braves the loathing of the world, there is thereafter no path of wickedness which may not be trodden by him, but, with a face incapable of blushing, he plunges, utterly devoid of scruple, into the deepest baseness.