and Theodora.




CHAPTER I


The wife of Belisarius, whom I have spoken of in my previous writings,
was the daughter and grand-daughter of chariot-drivers, men who had
practised their art in the circus at Byzantium and at Thessalonica.
Her mother was one of the prostitutes of the theatre. She herself at
first lived a lewd life, giving herself up to unbridled debauchery;
besides this, she devoted herself to the study of the drugs which had
long been used in her family, and learned the properties of those
which were essential for carrying out her plans. At last she was
betrothed and married to Belisarius, although she had already borne
many children.

She formed adulterous connections as soon as she was married, but took
pains to conceal the fact, by making use of familiar artifices, not
out of any respect for her husband (for she never felt any shame at
any crime whatever, and hoodwinked him by enchantments), but because
she dreaded the vengeance of the Empress; for Theodora was very bitter
against her, and had already shown her teeth. But, after she had made
Theodora her humble friend by helping her when in the greatest
difficulties, first of all by making away with Silverius, as shall be
told hereafter, and afterwards by ruining John of Cappadocia, as I
have already described, she became less timid, and, scorning all
concealment, shrank from no kind of wickedness.