“When Gelimer reached the Hippodrome and saw the emperor sitting upon a lofty seat and the people standing on either side and realized as he looked about in what an evil plight he was, he neither wept nor cried out,” wrote Procopius.37 He recited again and again the words of the Preacher at the start of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”38 This enigmatic display was enough to convince Justinian to show mercy. Gelimer had gamely served his purpose in entertaining the public, so he was pensioned off with his family to live out a long retirement in Asia
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