[53] [Footnote 53: Marcellinus says in general terms, innumeris populis in circotrucidatis.

Procopius numbers 30,000 victims: and the 35,000 of Theophanes are swelled to 40,000 by the more recent Zonaras.

Such is the usual progress of exaggeration.] III.

That empire, after Rome was barbarous, still embraced the nations whom she had conquered beyond the Adriatic, and as far as the frontiers of Aethiopia and Persia.

Justinian reigned over sixty-four provinces, and nine hundred and thirty-five cities; [54] his dominions were blessed by nature with the advantages of soil, situation, and climate: and the improvements of human art had been perpetually diffused along the coast of the Mediterranean and the banks of the Nile from ancient Troy to the Egyptian Thebes.