In the fourth book of his In Laudem Iustini Augusti Minoris Corippus turns to the ceremonies marking the new emperor's assumption of the consulship on the first of January, 566. When the morning of the auspicious day arrives the palace officials convey a great quantity of gold and silver to a large hall. Next, the emperor makes his way there and takes his seat on a splendid throne from which he receives the loyal obeisance of the senate (4. 1-141). This done, Justin orders the conscript fathers to be loaded with the gifts traditional on this occasion, whereupon the court orators shower him with the equally traditional panegyrics. Corippus celebrates the good fortune of these professionals who, in the magnificence of Justin, have no shortage of material for their compositions, though with the aid of an elaborate simile he adds that no one orator would be able to absorb so much inspiration any more than one man could drink the Nile on his own (4. 142-72). At this point there is a lacuna of several lines in the manuscript (M), and when the extant text resumes Corippus has switched to the first person plural: quae circa dominos habeamus vota, probamus, dum canimus colimusque pios, veneramus ovantes. quos dum laudamus, laudem de laude meremur, et fruimur maiore bono. nam diva propago humanae nil opus eget, sed vota clientum pensat, devotosque sibi pietate coronat.(4. 173-8)