The death of the Empress Theodora at…
548 CE
The death of the Empress Theodora at forty-eight, probably of breast cancer (according to bishop Victor of Tunnuna), subtracts both intensity and purpose from Justinian’s reign.
Her body is buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.
Justinian relieves Belisarius from military service in favor of the seventy-year-old general Narses.
Germanus is by 548 acknowledged as the most influential of Emperor Justinian's relatives and his heir apparent, although this is never formally recognized.
In this year, his position is strengthened further by the death of Empress Theodora, who had disliked him intensely.
His stature at court is such that a plot is hatched by the disaffected general Artabanes and his kinsman Arsaces to assassinate Emperor Justinian and replace him with Germanus.
The conspirators think Germanus amenable to their plans, since he has been dissatisfied with Emperor Justinian's meddling in the settling of the will of his recently deceased brother Boraides.
The conspirators first tell Justin, Germanus's eldest son, of their intentions.
He, in turn, informs his father, who then holds counsel with the comes excubitorum, Marcellus.
In order to find out more of their intentions, Germanus meets the conspirators in person, while a trusted aide of Marcellus is concealed nearby and listens in.
Marcellus then informs Emperor Justinian, and the conspirators are arrested, but treated with remarkable leniency.
At first, Germanus and his sons too are suspected, until the testimony of Marcellus clears them.
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