as Belisarius assumed command in the East, Germanus returned to Constantinople. Conspiracy of Artabanes By 548, he was acknowledged as the most influential of Emperor Justinian's relatives and his heir apparent, although this was never formally recognized. In that year, his position was strengthened further by the death of Empress Theodora, who disliked him intensely. His stature at court was such that a plot was hatched by the disaffected general Artabanes and his kinsman Arsaces to assassinate Emperor Justinian and replace him with Germanus. The conspirators thought Germanus amenable to their plans, since he had been dissatisfied with Emperor Justinian's meddling in the settling of the will of his recently deceased brother Boraides. The conspirators first told Justin, Germanus's eldest son, of their intentions. He, in turn, informed his father, who then held counsel with the comes excubitorum, Marcellus. In order to find out more of their intentions, Germanus met the conspirators in person, while a trusted aide of Marcellus, named Leontius, was concealed nearby and listened in. Marcellus then informed Emperor Justinian, and the conspirators were arrested, but treated with remarkable leniency. At first, Germanus and his sons too were suspected, until the testimony of Marcellus and the commanders Constantianus and Bouzes cleared them. High command and death In the meantime, the Gothic War in Italy against the Ostrogoths had been going badly for the Byzantine Empire, with the Gothic king Totila having wrested most of the peninsula back from the Byzantine troops. In 549, Emperor Justinian decided to send a major expeditionary force to Italy with Germanus as its head. Soon, however, he changed his mind and appointed the patricius Liberius instead, before cancelling the expedition altogether. In 550, however, Emperor Justinian did finally appoint Germanus as commander-in-chief of an Italian expedition. Installing his base at Serdica (modern Sofia, Bulgaria), he began assembling an army. According to Procopius, his fame was such that soldiers, both Byzantines and barbarians, flocked to his banner. Even a Slav invasion headed for Thessalonica allegedly diverted itself towards Dalmatia at the news of his taking up command in Thrace. Germanus also took a step that he hoped would significantly decrease the resistance he would face from the Ostrogoths: he took as his second wife Matasuntha, the former queen of the Goths, granddaughter of Theodoric the Great and last surviving heir of the royal Amal line. Contemporary accounts certainly suggest that this move, combined