[411] But the genius of Justin was far inferior to that of the Gothic king: the experience of a soldier had not qualified him for the government of an empire; and though personally brave, the consciousness of his own weakness was naturally attended with doubt, distrust, and political apprehension.
But the official business of the state was diligently and faithfully transacted by the quaestor Proclus; [5] and the aged emperor adopted the talents and ambition of his nephew Justinian, an aspiring youth, whom his uncle had drawn from the rustic solitude of Dacia, and educated at Constantinople, as the heir of his private fortune, and at length of the Eastern empire.
[Footnote 1: There is some difficulty in the date of his birth (Ludewig in Vit.

Justiniani, p.

125;) none in the place--the district Bederiana--the village Tauresium, which he afterwards decorated with his name and splendor, (D'Anville, Hist.

de l'Acad.

&c., tom.xxxi.