37,) and in Cedrenus, (p.

362--366,) and Zonaras, (l.xiv.p.

58--61,) who may pass for an original.

* Note: Dindorf, in his preface to the new edition of Malala, p.vi., concurs with this opinion of Gibbon, which was also that of Reiske, as to the age of the chronicler .-- M.] From his elevation to his death, Justinian governed the Roman empire thirty-eight years, seven months, and thirteen days.
The events of his reign, which excite our curious attention by their number, variety, and importance, are diligently related by the secretary of Belisarius, a rhetorician, whom eloquence had promoted to the rank of senator and praefect of Constantinople.

According to the vicissitudes of courage or servitude, of favor or disgrace, Procopius [12] successively composed the history, the panegyric, and the satire of his own times.
The eight books of the Persian, Vandalic, and Gothic wars, [13] which are continued in the five books of Agathias, deserve our esteem as a laborious and successful imitation of the Attic, or at least of the Asiatic, writers of ancient Greece.