CHAPTER I

ACCESSION OF JUSTIN

AFTER Anastasius had, as I have said, departed for the better lot, Justin, a Thracian by birth, assumes the purple, in the five hundred and sixty-sixth year of the Era of Antioch, on the ninth day of the month Panemus, which the Romans call July. He was proclaimed emperor by the imperial body-guards, of which he was also the commander, having been appointed prefect of the household troops. His elevation was, however, contrary to all expectation, since there were many most distinguished and flourishing members of the family of Anastasius, possessed also of sufficient influence to have secured for themselves the supreme power.