_The Tragedy of Belisarius._
LXXVII. We find the tragedy of Belisarius set-forth in an infinite number
of books, as one of the strongest instances that ever appeared on the
theatre of the world, of the inconstancy and instability of fortune. It
is asserted, that the emperor Justinian, after that great captain had
been crowned with so many laurels, having discovered that he had been an
accomplice in a conspiracy against him, caused his eyes to be put out,
and reduced him to so low a state of misery, that he passed the remainder
of his life by being obliged for subsistence to beg alms about the
streets, and at the doors of churches.
LXXVIII. We find also this story is contradicted by Cedrenus, and other
grave authors; but what most effectually makes against it, is the
silence of Procopius upon the subject, who was the author of the Secret
History, which is a virulent satyr upon the emperor Justinian, and the
empress Theodora. This writer, who resided in Constantinople in the
reign of Justinian, and who out-lived him, could not be a stranger to
the tragedy of Belisarius, if there had been any truth in it; nor is it
credible that, in his Secret History, he should conceal an event of such
magnitude, and especially when he could have made it conducive to the
principal object of his book, which was that of exposing and aggravating
all the faults of Justinian; who could not be looked upon as excusable,
for having behaved with cruelty to a man to whom he owed so many
obligations, even if Belisarius had ever been culpable; for scarce any
other prince, had ever been more indebted to a subject, than Justinian
was to him; besides this, it might have been very easy for Procopius,
by doubting or lessening the crime, to have made the punishment of
Belisarius appear as an act of absolute cruelty in Justinian.
LXXIX. In support of the common opinion, it is said, there is still a
tower at Constantinople, which is called the Tower of Belisarius, and
is supposed to have taken the name from that great man having been
confined in it. This is but a slender argument wherewith to support
the probability of such a tragedy, for this name might have been given
to it from some other particular respecting Belisarius; or it is not
impossible, that he might have been imprisoned in it for a short space of
time; for it is a fact, that before the second expedition of Belisarius
into Italy, he had fallen off in the good graces of the emperor, through
the intrigues of the empress Theodora: and he might then have been
imprisoned in the tower for a few days; and Procopius, who informs us of
this small disgrace of Belisarius, would not have concealed the great
misfortune which is said to have befallen him, had the circumstances of
it been true.