Justinian

MYAKES

Those last four years of his life, Constantine wasn't the same man he'd been before. Better? Worse? I don't know, but different. Maybe some of it had to do with losing to the Bulgars. Up till then, he must have thought he was invincible. And why not? He'd beaten every foe he faced, and the Arabs seemed more dangerous than anyone imagined the Bulgars could be. So what happened with the barbarians likely had something to do with clipping his feathers.

But it wasn't only that Constantine didn't go to war with his neighbors any more. He softened, you might say: the bursts of temper he'd loose against anyone who got in his way- the same sort Justinian had and, from what I heard, the same sort Constans had had, too- they stopped coming.

Again, part of the reason for that may be that he didn't have to worry about his brothers any more. But more of it, I do believe, sprang from his being sick so much of the time. He suffered a lot from stone. From all I've heard, there's no worse pain a man can know. A woman in childbed, maybe, but not a man.

I must say I don't see the justice of it. Never have. He knew what he'd done. Justinian puts the words in his mouth: he'd saved the Roman Empire and reunited the church. And what did he get? Hell on earth and an early grave. No, I don't see any justice there.

What's that, Brother Elpidios? Who am I, to question God's judgment? Nobody at all- just an old blind man. And I don't question, not really. But I don't understand, either.