I must now briefly relate how he unhesitatingly abolished the laws
when money was in question. There was in Emesa a man named Priscus,
who was an expert forger and very clever in his art. The church of
Emesa, many years before, had been instituted sole heir to the
property of one of the most distinguished inhabitants named Mammianus,
a patrician of noble birth and of great wealth. During the reign of
Justinian, Priscus made a list of all the families of the town, taking
care to notice which were wealthy and able to disburse large sums. He
carefully hunted up the names of their ancestors, and, having found
some old documents in their handwriting, forged a number of
acknowledgments, in which they confessed that they were largely
indebted to Mammianus in sums of money which had been left with them
by him as a deposit. The amount of these forged acknowledgments was no
less than a hundred centenars of gold. He also imitated in a
marvellous manner the handwriting of a public notary, a man of
conspicuous honesty and virtue, who during the lifetime of Mammianus
used to draw up all their documents for the citizens, sealing them
with his own hand, and delivered these forged documents to those who
managed the ecclesiastical affairs of Emesa, on condition that he
should receive part of the money which might be obtained in this
manner.
But, since there was a law which limited all legal processes to a
period of thirty years, except in cases of mortgage and certain
others, in which the prescription extended to forty years, they
resolved to go to Byzantium and, offering a large sum of money to the
Emperor, to beg him to assist them in their project of ruining their
fellow-citizens.
The Emperor accepted the money, and immediately published a decree
which ordained that affairs relating to the Church should not be
restricted to the ordinary prescription, but that anything might be
recovered, if claimed within a hundred years: which regulation was to
be observed not only in Emesa, but throughout the whole of the Roman
Empire. In order to see that the new rule was put into execution, he
sent Longinus to Emesa, a man of great vigour and bodily strength, who
was afterwards made praefect of Byzantium. Those who had the
management of the affairs of the church of Emesa, acting upon the
forged documents, sued some of the citizens for two centenars of gold,
which they were condemned to pay, being unable to raise any objection,
by reason of the length of time elapsed and their ignorance of the
facts. All the inhabitants, and especially the principal citizens,
were in great distress and highly incensed against their accusers.
When ruin already threatened the majority of the citizens, Providence
came to their assistance in a most unexpected manner. Longinus ordered
Priscus, the contriver of this detestable invention, to bring him all
the acknowledgments; and, when he showed himself unwilling to do so,
he dealt him a violent blow in the face. Priscus, unable to resist
the blow dealt by a man of such bodily strength, fell backwards upon
the ground, trembling and affrighted. Believing that Longinus had
discovered the whole affair, he confessed; and, the whole trick being
thus brought to light, the suits were stopped.
Justinian, not content with subverting the laws of the Roman Empire
every day, exerted himself in like manner to do away with those of the
Jews; for, if Easter came sooner in their calendar than in that of the
Christians, he did not allow them to celebrate the Passover on their
own proper day or to make their offerings to God, or to perform any of
their usual solemnities. The magistrates even inflicted heavy fines
upon several of them, upon information that they had eaten the
paschal lamb during that time, as if it were an infraction of the laws
of the state. Although I could mention countless acts of this nature
committed by Justinian, I will not do so, for I must draw my narrative
to a close. What I have said will be sufficient to indicate the
character of the man.