CHAPTER XIX.
I will now relate the manner in which he got possession of the wealth of the world, after I have first mentioned a vision which was seen in a dream by a person of distinction at the commencement of his reign.
He thought he was standing on the coast at Byzantium, opposite Chalcedon, and saw Justinian standing in the midst of the channel.

The latter drank up all the water of the sea, so that it seemed as if he were standing on dry land, since the water no longer filled the strait.

After this, other streams of water, full of filth and rubbish, flowing in from the underground sewers on either side, covered the dry land.

Justinian again swallowed these, and the bed of the channel again became dry.

Such was the vision this person beheld in his dream.
This Justinian, when his uncle Justin succeeded to the throne, found the treasury well filled, for Anastasius, the most provident and economical of all the Emperors, fearing (what actually happened) that his successor, if he found himself in want of money, would probably plunder his subjects, filled the treasure-houses with vast stores of gold before his death.