THE SCENE: Tiberius Constantine, was, by most accounts, a good-hearted Emperor. It was no surprise to his Christian subjects, then, that God would choose to shower him with money at every opportunity.
THE TEXT: Tiberius and was managing the palace and performing many acts of charity every day, God furnished him a great abundance of gold. For while walking through the palace he saw on the pavement of the house a marble slab on which the cross of our Lord was carved, and he said: “We ought to adorn our forehead and our breast with our Lord’s cross and behold we trample it under our feet,” and this said, he quickly ordered the slab to be lifted up. And underneath the slab when it was dug out and set up, they found another having the same device. And he ordered this also to be raised, and when it was moved they found also a third, and when this too was taken away by his command, they found a great treasure, containing more than a thousand centenaria of gold, and the gold was carried away and distributed among the poor yet more abundantly than had been customary. Also Narses the patrician of Italy, since he had a great dwelling in a certain city of Italy, came to the above-mentioned city with many treasures, and there in his dwelling he secretly dug a great cistern in which he deposited many thousand centenaria of gold and silver. And when all who knew of the matter had been killed, he entrusted these to the care of one old man only, exacting from him an oath. And when Narses had died, the above-mentioned old man, coming to Caesar Tiberius, said, “If it profit me anything, I will tell you, Caesar, an important thing.” The latter said to him, ” Say what you will. It will be of advantage to you if you shall tell anything which will profit us.” “I have,” he said, “the treasure of Narses hidden away, which I, being near the end of my life, cannot longer conceal.” Then Caesar Tiberius was delighted and sent his servants up to the place, and the old man went ahead ” and they followed in astonishment, and coming to the cistern, when it was opened they entered it. So much gold and silver was found in it that it could with difficulty be emptied in many days by those carrying its contents. Almost all of this he bestowed upon the needy in bountiful distribution according to his custom.
– The History of the Langobards, Paul the Deacon, 8th Century AD
