I, Elpidios, the sinful monk, set down these words on the last leaf of the codex in which the Emperor Justinian recorded the deeds of his life, reckoning up and arranging what occurred in each period thereof without confusion, so that the reader might at once understand what events, whether warlike or ecclesiastical or of any other sort, occurred at any time during the Emperor's life on earth.
Not ignorant of my own lack of knowledge and paucity of expression, I hesitate now in the task I had previously set myself, of adding the events recounted in this life to the chronicle of the history of the world I have been contemplating. I hesitate also because of the multitude and variety of sins Justinian showed forth during his lifetime, sins of which any reader might better be left unaware.
For, as I think, in most circumstances one enjoys no small aid in reading of the deeds of those long ago. If I should write such a book and anyone was to find therein anything useful, he ought to give the appropriate thanks to God and pray for the Lord's aid to my lack of knowledge and sinfulness. Though I may be guilty in this regard of ignorance and of the laziness of a groveling mind, I think I shall set aside this life of Justinian, on the grounds that separating sin from virtue in the said life is beyond my poor talents. Let this codex go on a shelf in the monastic library, in the hope that, some day, a man with greater talent than mine may find for it a fitting use.
If I do come to write my chronicle, I shall craft it from sources more malleable and more in accordance with my own judgment and understanding. The Lord will surely forgive my errors, for working according to one's ability is pleasing to God. Amen.