The assembly, in silence and in tears, applauded the counsels and sympathised with the repentance of their prince: the patriarch rehearsed the prayers of the church; Tiberius received the diadem on his knees, and Justin, who in his abdication appeared most worthy to reign, addressed the new monarch in the following words: “If you consent, I live; if you command, I die; may the God of heaven and earth infuse into your heart whatever I have neglected or forgotten.” The four last years of the emperor Justin were passed in tranquil obscurity; his conscience was no longer tormented by the remembrance of those duties which he was incapable of discharging, and his choice was justified by the filial reverence and gratitude of Tiberius.[b] The reigns of Justinian and Justin mark a significant turning-point in history. As early as the reign of Justinian the official fiction, by which Latin was assumed to be the language of the empire, had shown signs of breaking down; from this time forward it steadily yields ground to Greek. The Lombard and Syrian annalists were not slow to mark the change; they indicate it by heading the list of “Greek” emperors with the name of Maurice.[h] Johannes of Ephesus[d] quotes a satire pasted up by some wit reflecting the opinion of the time in a manner unflattering to Justin: “Build, build aloft thy pillar, And raise it vast and high; Then mount and stand upon it, Soaring proudly in the sky: Eastward, south and north and westward, Wherever thou shalt gaze, Nought thou’lt see but desolations, The work of thy own days.” REIGN OF TIBERIUS [Sidenote: [578-582 A.D.]]