CHAPTER III

EXECUTION OF ÆTHERIUS AND ADDÆUS

NOT long after, the emperor brought to trial for treason Ætherius and Addæus, members of the senate, who had occupied the very highest position at the court of Justinian. Ætherius confessed to a design of poisoning the emperor, saying that he had in Addæus an accomplice in the plot and an abettor throughout. The latter, however, asseverated, with fearful imprecations, that he was utterly ignorant of the transaction. Both were accordingly beheaded, Addæus affirming, at the instant of execution, that he had been falsely accused on this point, but admitting that he received his due at the hands of all-seeing Justice, for that he had taken off Theodotus, prefect of the palace, by sorcery. How far these statements are true, I am not able to say; but both were men of bad character; Addæus being addicted to unnatural lust, and Ætherius pursuing to the utmost a system of false accusation, and plundering the property both of the living and the dead, in the name of the imperial household, of which he had been comptroller in the time of Justinian. Such was the termination of these matters.