[Son] of Macedonianus, [descended?] from advocates of the prefects.[1]
This Tribonian was a Greek and an atheist, disinclined toward the faith of the Christians in all respects; he was also a flatterer and a rogue, persuading Justinian the emperor that he would not die, but that he would be taken up into the heavens with [his] body.[2] And he was Justinian’s quaestor.
This man enjoyed natural strength and had arrived at the pinnacle of education less than that of no one at his time: and he, bizarrely enthusiastic in his love of money, was always able to sell justice for profit. Concerning laws, on each day, as far as was in his power, he used to annul some and write others, selling one or the other to those who asked according to their desire.[3] But having survived for many years in this post, he died from disease, having suffered nothing disagreeable from anyone. For he was both wily and especially likable and he was most capable of overshadowing the disease of avarice by the abundance of his education.[4]