I must now relate how he robbed Byzantium and other cities of their
ornaments. In the first place he resolved to humiliate the lawyers. He
deprived them of all the fees, which, after they had finished their
case, were considerable, and enriched them and increased their
distinction. He ordered that litigants should come to an agreement
upon oath, which brought the lawyers into contempt and insignificance.
After he had seized the estates of the Senators and other families
reputed wealthy, in Byzantium and throughout the Empire, the
profession had little to do, for the citizens no longer possessed
property worth disputing about. Thus, of the numerous and famous
orators who once composed this order there remained only a few, who
were everywhere despised and lived in the greatest poverty, finding
that their profession brought them nothing but insult. He also caused
physicians and professors of the liberal arts to be deprived of the
necessaries of life. He cut off from them all the supplies which
former emperors had attached to these professions, and which were paid
out of the State funds. Further, he had no scruple about transferring
to the public funds all the revenues which the inhabitants of the
cities had devoted either to public purposes or for providing
entertainments. From that time no attention was paid to physicians or
professors; no one ventured to trouble himself about the public
buildings; there were no public lights in the cities, or any
enjoyments for the inhabitants; the performances in the theatres and
hippodromes and the combats of wild beasts, in which Theodora had been
bred and brought up, were entirely discontinued. He afterwards
suppressed public exhibitions in Byzantium, to save the usual State
contribution, to the ruin of an almost countless multitude who found
their means of support in these entertainments. Their life, both in
public and private, became sad and dejected and utterly joyless, as if
some misfortune had fallen upon them from Heaven. Nothing was spoken
of in conversation at home, in the streets, or in the churches, except
misfortune and suffering. Such was the state of the cities.
I have still something important to mention. Every year two consuls
were appointed--one at Rome, the other at Byzantium. Whoever was
advanced to that dignity was expected to expend more than twenty
centenars of gold upon the public. This sum was to a small extent
furnished by the consuls themselves, while the greater part was due to
the liberality of the Emperor. This money was distributed amongst
those whom I have mentioned, above all to the most necessitous, and
principally to those employed upon the stage, which materially
increased the comfort of the citizens. But, since the accession of
Justinian, the elections never took place at the proper time;
sometimes one consul remained in office for several years, and at last
people never even dreamed of a fresh appointment. This reduced all to
the greatest distress; since the Emperor no longer granted the usual
assistance to his subjects, and at the same time deprived them of what
they had by every means in his power.
I think I have given a sufficient account of the manner in which this
destroyer swallowed up the property of the members of the Senate and
deprived them all of their substance, whether publicly or privately. I
also think that I have said enough concerning the fraudulent
accusations which he made use of, in order to get possession of the
property of other families which were reputed to be wealthy. Lastly, I
have described the wrongs he inflicted upon the soldiers and servants
of those in authority and the militia in the palace; upon countrymen,
the possessors and proprietors of estates, and professors of the arts
and sciences; upon merchants, shipmasters and sailors; mechanics,
artisans, and retail dealers; those who gained their livelihood by
performing upon the stage; in a word, upon all who were affected by
the misery of these. I must now speak of his treatment of the poor,
the lower classes, the indigent, and the sick and infirm. I will then
go on to speak of his treatment of the priests.
At first, as has been said, he got all the shops into his own hands,
and having established monopolies of all the most necessary articles
of life, exacted from his subjects more than three times their value.
But if I were to enter into the details of all these monopolies, I
should never finish my narrative, for they are innumerable.
He imposed a perpetual and most severe tax upon bread, which the
artisans, the poor, and infirm were compelled to purchase. He demanded
from this commodity a revenue of three centenars of gold every year,
and those poor wretches were obliged to support themselves upon bread
full of dust, for the Emperor did not blush to carry his avarice to
this extent. Seizing upon this as an excuse, the superintendents of
the markets, eager to fill their own pockets, in a short time acquired
great wealth, and, in spite of the cheapness of food, reduced the poor
to a state of artificial and unexpected famine; for they were not
allowed to import corn from any other parts, but were obliged to eat
bread purchased in the city.
One of the city aqueducts had broken, and a considerable portion of
the water destined for the use of the inhabitants was lost. Justinian,
however, took no notice of it, being unwilling to incur any expense
for repairs, although a great crowd continually thronged round the
fountains, and all the baths had been shut. Nevertheless, he expended
vast sums without any reason or sense upon buildings on the seashore,
and also built everywhere throughout the suburbs, as if the palaces,
in which their predecessors had always been content to live, were no
longer suitable for himself and Theodora; so that it was not merely
parsimony, but a desire for the destruction of human life, that
prevented him from repairing the aqueduct, for no one, from most
ancient times, had ever shown himself more eager than Justinian to
amass wealth, and at the same time to spend it in a most wasteful and
extravagant manner. Thus this Emperor struck at the poorest and most
miserable of his subjects through two most necessary articles of
food--bread and water, by making the one difficult to procure, and the
other too dear for them to buy.
It was not only the poor of Byzantium, however, that he harassed in
this manner, but, as I will presently mention, the inhabitants of
several other cities. When Theodoric had made himself master of Italy,
in order to preserve some trace of the old constitution, he permitted
the praetorian guards to remain in the palace and continued their
daily allowance. These soldiers were very numerous. There were the
Silentiarii, the Domestici, and the Scholares, about whom there was
nothing military except the name, and their salary was hardly
sufficient to live upon. Theodoric also ordered that their children
and descendants should have the reversion of this. To the poor, who
lived near the church of Peter the Apostle, he distributed every year
3,000 bushels of corn out of the public stores. All continued to
receive these donations until the arrival of Alexander Forficula[18]
in Italy. He resolved to deprive them of it immediately; and, when the
Emperor was informed of this, he approved of his conduct, and treated
Alexander with still greater honour. During his journey, Alexander
treated the Greeks in the following manner:--The peasants of the
district near the pass of Thermopylae had long manned the fortress,
and, each in turn, mounted guard over the wall which blocks the pass,
whenever there seemed any likelihood of an invasion of the barbarians.
But Alexander, on his arrival, pretended that it was to the interest
of the Peloponnesians not to leave the protection of the pass to the
peasants. He established a garrison of about 2,000 soldiers, who were
not paid out of the public funds, but by each of the cities in Greece.
On this pretext, he transferred to the public treasury all the
revenues of these towns which were intended for public purposes or to
cover the expenses of shows and entertainments. He pretended that it
was to be employed for the support of the soldiers, and in
consequence, from that time, no public buildings or other objects of
utility were erected or promoted either in Athens or throughout
Greece. Justinian, however, hastened to give his sanction to all the
acts of Forficula.
We must now speak of the poor of Alexandria. Amongst the lawyers of
that city was one Hephaestus, who, having been appointed governor,
suppressed popular disturbances by the terror he inspired, but at the
same time reduced the citizens to the greatest distress. He
immediately established a monopoly of all wares, which he forbade
other merchants to sell. He reserved everything for himself alone,
sold everything himself, and fixed the price by the capricious
exercise of his authority. Consequently, the city was in the greatest
distress from want of provisions; the poor no longer had a sufficient
supply of what was formerly sold at a low rate, and especially felt
the difficulty of obtaining bread; for the governor alone bought up
all the corn that came from Egypt, and did not allow anyone else to
purchase even so much as a bushel; and in this manner, he taxed the
loaves and put upon them what price he pleased. By this means he
amassed an enormous fortune, and was likewise careful to satisfy the
greed of the Emperor. So great was the terror inspired by Hephaestus,
that the people of Alexandria endured their ill-treatment in silence;
and the Emperor, out of gratitude for the money which flowed into his
exchequer from that quarter, conceived a great affection for
Hephaestus. The latter, in order to secure in a still greater degree
the favour of the Emperor, carried out the following plan. When
Diocletian became Emperor of the Romans, he ordered a yearly
distribution of corn to be made to the necessitous poor of Alexandria;
and the people, settling its distribution amongst themselves,
transmitted the right to their descendants. Hephaestus deprived the
necessitous of 2,000,000 bushels yearly, and deposited it in the
imperial granaries, declaring, in his despatch to the Emperor, that
this grant of corn had previously been made in a manner that was
neither just nor in conformity with the interests of the state. The
Emperor approved of his conduct and became more attached to him than
ever. The Alexandrians, whose hopes of existence depended upon this
distribution, felt the cruelty bitterly, especially at the time of
their distress.