The Closing Of The Western Mind Quotes

“150 years later, Constantinople suffers an even worse fate. The emperor Justinian, faced with similar violence, the Nika revolt of 532, was encouraged by his wife, Theodora, to send in troops. Between 30,000 and 50,000 citizens are believed to have been massacred. It was the arbitrary exercise of this absolute power that was most unsettling. The fact that Justinian supposed himself to be a quintessentially Christian monarch made no difference. It was, after all, fully accepted that God might act punitively, and there were dozens of Old Testament texts to back the point. So why should his representative on earth be different? In any case, as the contemporary historian proposes, the king did not see it as murder, as the victims did not share his beliefs.”
― Charles Freeman, The Closing Of The Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman