"Criminals are easier to deal with," he answered, then turned to Stephen the Persian. "Bring Theodore of Koloneia to me."
The eunuch bowed and soon returned with the patrician. Theodore was a blocky, muscular man with features that looked chiseled from granite- if you allow that the sculptor, after thinking he was done, went back and started several new cuts he then decided not to finish: half a dozen scars seamed Theodore's cheeks and nose and forehead. Although he was only the mandator- the chief deputy- to Christopher the count of the excubitores, he had far more to do with commanding them from day to day than the count did.
MYAKES
Ah, Theodore. Been a good many years since I thought of him, and that's a fact. What? Justinian mentioned him before? I missed it. I am sorry. I am old. He was one harsh man, every bit as rough as Justinian makes him out to be here. A few years after this, still far from an old man, he retired to a monastery. I wonder how he fared as a monk: he was used to having people obey him, not to obeying other folk himself.
But if he was harsh, he was also able. He had to be, to rise so high with a nature like that. Give him time in a monastery and he'd probably wind up the abbot there. And then Kyrie eleison on all the monks under him! He'd enforce every last rule St. Basil ever thought of, and likely a good many Basil never imagined.
Unseemly levity, Brother Elpidios? What? You think I was joking? Read on about Theodore, then. Did I tell you he was sneaky, too? You don't have to believe me. Justinian will tell you. He was there, along with me.
JUSTINIAN
My father and Theodore put their heads together. My father was all for mustering the excubitores and turning them loose on the Anatolian rabble. "If they ran away from the Bulgars, they'll shatter like glass facing real soldiers," he growled.