Justinian

MYAKES

Constantine had that knack for looking at you- looking through you- so you knew he thought he had every right to command you, and you believed it, too. Yes, Brother Elpidios, Justinian had it, too. I was about to say so. Patience is a virtue, or so I hear tell. The veterans among the excubitores said Constans had it, so it must have run in the blood. Herakleios, now, Herakleios was forty years dead by then, but he couldn't very well have been without it, not with everything he did.

What's that, Brother? What do I think of Leo, the Emperor we have now? Aside from the icons, I expect you mean? Well, you could compare him to Constantine, I suppose, on account of they both held the Arabs away from the imperial city. But you have to remember, Brother, I knew Leo when, as they say. He may be a strong Emperor now, but he wasn't born to it, and I'd bet that shows.

And who knows what his son, his Constantine, will turn out to be like when his time comes to wear the crown? Is the story they tell true, that when he was a baby he shit himself in the baptismal font? Not the best omen you could have, no indeed it isn't.

You ask me, they don't make 'em the way they used to, and that's a fact. The world isn't the place it was when I was young, and I don't need eyes to see as much. But then, what old man doesn't say the same?