In the year 578 AD, Tiberius was made Byzantine emperor. His predecessor Justinian II5, to whose imperial guard Tiberius belonged, had praised Tiberius´ outstanding character to reign. Although Tiberius had stated that he had no desire to be Emperor, divine advice caused him to accept the title.
Tiberius immediately showed that he differed from Justinian. While the latter was a formidable warrior and had amassed unmeasurable wealth, Tiberius sat on the throne in peace and distributed the amassed wealth freely to the needy.
His wife Sophia6 criticized him for his squandering, claiming that the wealth would soon be exhausted. But Tiberius countered that God would provide counsel.
This trust was not ill placed because one day as Tiberius strolled the palace, he noticed that the sign of the cross was buried in the floor. He immediately had the stone floor taken up and found beneath three stone tiles bearing the same sign. Beneath the tiles was a huge treasure of gold and silver that, when weighed, was valued at 100,000 marks7.
Through an old man it was discovered that King Narcissus Patricius8 had the treasure buried, which no one had begrudged him. As a result Tiberius was able to continue his good deeds.
5(Translator’s note: Tiberius was the adoptive son and friend of Justinian II.)
6(Translator’s note: Sophia, wife of Justinian II, was actually to become Tiberius’ wife to preserve her station. But he was already married to Ino Anastasia and so refused. History shows that Sophia actually conspired to overthrow Tiberius, but unsuccessfully.
7The coin standard under Tiberius was the gold “solidus” of Justin II. The correlation to a “mark” is unclear.
8In reality, this probably refers to Narcissus the Patrician. There is no record regarding his kingship.