I will now relate how he everywhere ruined the possessors of estates,
although, to show their misery, it would really be sufficient to refer
to what has been said, just before this, concerning the governors
dispatched to all the provinces and cities, for it was they who
plundered those who possessed landed estates, as before related.
It had long been an established custom that the Roman Emperor should,
not only once, but on several occasions, remit to his subjects all the
arrears that were owing to the treasury, so that those who were in
difficulties and had no means of settling these arrears might not be
continually pressed, and that the tax collectors might not have an
excuse for vexatiously attempting to exact money from those liable to
tribute, where in many cases it was not due. Justinian, however, for
thirty-two years made no concession of the kind to his subjects, the
result of which was that the poor people were forced to quit the
country without any hope of return. The more honest were perpetually
harassed by these false accusers, who threatened to charge them with
having paid less than the amount at which they were rated. These
unhappy individuals were less afraid of the imposition of new taxes
than of the insupportable weight of the unjust exactions which for
many years they had been compelled to pay, whereupon many of them
abandoned their property to their accusers or to the rise.
The Medes and Saracens had ravaged the greater part of Asia, and the
Huns and Slavs had plundered the whole of Europe. Cities had been
razed to the ground or subjected to severe exactions; the inhabitants
had been carried away into slavery with all they possessed, and every
district had been deserted by its inhabitants in consequence of the
daily inroads. Justinian, however, remitted no tax or impost to any
one of them, except in the case of cities that had been taken by the
enemy, and then only for a year, although, had he granted them
exemption for seven years, as the Emperor Anastasius had done, I do
not think that even then he would have done enough: for Cabades
retired after having inflicted but little damage upon the buildings,
but Chosroes, by ravaging the country with fire and sword and razing
all its dwellings to the ground, brought greater calamities upon the
inhabitants. Justinian only granted this absurd remission of tribute
to these people and to others who had several times submitted to an
invasion of the Medes and the continuous depredations of the Huns and
Saracen barbarians in the East, while the Romans, settled in the
different parts of Europe, who had equally suffered by the attacks of
the barbarians, found Justinian more cruel than any of their foreign
foes; for, immediately after the enemy withdrew, the proprietors of
estates found themselves overwhelmed with requisitions for
provisions,[13] impositions,[14] and edicts[15] of various kinds, the
meaning of which I will now explain. Those who possessed landed
property were obliged to furnish provisions for the soldiers in
proportion to the amount imposed upon each, and these dues were fixed,
not in consideration of the necessities of the moment, but according
to an authorised imperial assessment; and, if at any time they had not
a sufficient supply upon their lands for the needs of the horses and
soldiers, these unhappy persons were forced to purchase them even at a
price far above their proper value, and to convey them in many cases
from a considerable distance to the place where the troops were
encamped, and to distribute them to the adjutants in what quantity and
at what rate the latter pleased, not at a fair and reasonable price.
This import was called "the import of victualling," which, as it were,
cut the sinews of all the landed proprietors; for they had to pay an
annual tribute ten times greater than before, and were obliged not
only to furnish supplies the soldiers, but on several occasions to
convey corn to Byzantium. Barsyames was not the only man who had the
audacity to introduce this cursed exaction, John of Cappadocia had set
the example, and the successors of Barsyames in his office followed
it. Such was the nature of the Syn[=o]n[=e], as it was called.
The "Epibol[=e]" was a kind of unforeseen ruin, which suddenly
attacked the landed proprietors and utterly deprived them of the hope
of subsistence; for, in the case of estates that were deserted and
unproductive, the owners or tenants of which had either died or
abandoned their country and hidden themselves after the misfortunes
they had undergone, Justinian did not hesitate to impose a tax. Such
were these "impositions," which were of frequent occurrence during
that time.
A few words will suffice for the impost called "Diagraph[=e]." At this
time especially, the cities were afflicted with heavy losses, the
causes and extent of which I will say nothing about, for it would be
an endless tale. These losses had to be repaired by the landed
proprietors in proportion to the rate at which they were assessed.
Their misery, however, did not stop there, but, although pestilence
had attacked the whole world, and, especially, the Roman Empire;
although most of the farmers had fallen victims, and their properties
had become deserted, Justinian did not show the least clemency towards
the owners. He continued to exact the yearly tribute from them, not
only their own proportion, but that of their neighbours who had died
of the plague.[16] Further, they were obliged to treat the soldiers
with the greatest civility, and to allow them to take up their
quarters in their finest and richest apartments, while they themselves
all the time had to content themselves with the poorest and meanest
rooms. Such were the calamities that without intermission befell
mankind during the reign of Justinian and Theodora, for there was no
cessation of war or any other most terrible calamities. Since I have
mentioned the word "quarters," I must not forget to say that at one
time there were 70,000 barbarians at Constantinople, whom house owners
were obliged to quarter, being thus shut out from all enjoyment of
their own, and in many other ways inconvenienced.