so audacious as to attempt a Magistrate in the Palace and before the eyes of their Emperor In short Malthanes and his assasins remained equally unpunished which may easily insinuate the temper of Justinian Yet for further eviction and to show how much he applied himself to the good of the Commonwealth I shall only add his behavior towards the Posts and the Spies The Emperors which had Reigned before him had Established ways of Intelligence for the speedier understanding the Motions and Attempts of their Enemies upon the Frontiers and particularly they had setled a Correspondency in every City and Village in those Provinces that thereby they might be advertised of any Sedition or other accident that might happen as also of the Deportment of their Governors and Lieutenant Generals and for the safer and more speedy Conveyance of such sums of Money as should be raised in the Provinces more immediately under the Jurisdiction of the Empire or in such as were only tributary To this purpose in every days journey they had setled a Man who was to Post Eight Stages a day but in some places their Stages were not so many though five were the fewest In these several Stages there were about forty layd Horses and a just proportion of Grooms Those therefore who had any important Affairs made use of this way and by frequent change of Horses which were always in Breath they would make as much way easily in one day as in ten any other way This was not only convenient to such as had business of importance but was likewise of great advantage to those whose Lands lay in the middle of the Provinces and yielded them a considerable Revenue by giving them opportunity of putting off their Grain and other Commodities to such as had the Charge of those Horses and were to provide for the Passengers These Post Masters likewise conveying into the Emperors Tresurie the Moneys which were returned had the liberty to difalke what Wages was due to them for their pains so that all was very well ordered for the good of the State and this was the Method which had been Established of old But Justinian having ruined the Post betwixt Calcedonia and Dacibile all who had business that way were constrained to pass betwixt Constantinople and Helenopolis in the little Boats which were used before only to wast them over the Streight whereby they were perpetually obnoxious to the Tempests which are very frequent in that passage for when a Man is pressed by the Necessity of his Affairs he stands not to consider whether it be fair or fowl or what danger there is of the Weather The Road to Persia Justinian left as he found it established but for all the rest either into the East or Egypt in every days journey he would not suffer those stables of Horses to be continued for the convenience of Travellers but the passage was made upon Asses and those very few By which means it came to pass that Advertisements were very slow from the Provinces and most commonly too late for any Remedy to be applyed Those whose Estates lay upon the Roads were exceedingly impoverished having no vent nor utterance for their Commodities and so much for the Messengers or Posts I shall speak now of the Spyes There were great numbers of them entertained by the State who under pretence of Trading or some other Invention went every day among the Enemies and some of them into the very Court of the King of Persia where having discovered the Intrigues of the Barbarians they returned with all diligence to make Report to the Emperors who thereby had time not only to foresee but to prevent most of their Designs as having Advertisement a long time before T is now many years since the Persians have taken this Custome from us but Cosroes made better use of it then any of his Predecessors having given more then ordinary Wages to his Spyes and great and magnificent Rewards when any thing did happily succeed never employing any that was born a Subject of Rome But Justinian having cut off this Entercourse was the occasion of very great Losses and particularly of the Country of the Laziens which was Conquered by the Enemy because Justinian could never get Intelligence of the place against which the King of the Persians designed It had been likewise a Custome of old to keep a great number of Cammels at the Charges of the State which were to follow the Army upon its March in time of War to carry the Baggage that the Country people might not be disturbed in their Business and that nothing might be wanting to the Souldiers But Justinian Retrenched them likewise for the greatest part so that at present when one has any accasion more then ordinary and desires to make more then ordinary Expedition he wants every thing that is necessary as having no convenience to carry his Baggage And this was the great care he took of things which were of the greatest consequence for the Conservation of the State and to which he ought to have applied himself with particular diligence Though this that has been said has been sufficient I cannot contain from adding another story of him which in my judgment is very ridiculous There was in Cesarea an Advocate called Evangelus who having had very good fortune was grown so rich that he bought for Three hundred Livers of Gold a great Town called Porphyrian which is scituate upon the Sea-shore The news of his purchase being brought to Justinian he took it from him returning but a very inconsiderable part of what it cost and alledging only That it was not a decent thing to see so great and so beautiful a Town in the hands of such a Lawyer as Evangelus But enough of this subject what remains to be spoken of is only of some things which were innovated by Justinian and Theodora When the Senators went to salute the Emperor they did it as follows Every one who was of a Patrician family kissed the Emperors right Cheek when he came in and when he went out the Emperor kissed his Head All the rest that were of inferior rank retired after they had clapped their right knee upon the ground and for the Empress the Men never made any compliments to her But those who came to salute Justinian and Theodora whether Senators or of inferior degree prostrated themselves upon their face stretched our their hands and their feet kissed both his feet one after another and then retired Theodora suffered the same houors to be done to her receiving at her own Palace the Ambassadors from Persia and other Foreign Nations and which was never practiced before at least since History has presented us with the occurences of passed ages giving them rich and magnificent presents to let them see that she was absolute Mistress and governed the whole Empire Formerly when the Emperor was spoken of he was called Caesar and his Wife Augusta and other Princes had their Titles according to their qualities But when any Address was made to Theodora or Justinian if they were called only Emperor and Empress without the addition of Soveraign Lord or Soveraign Princess the person was not only looked upon as ill-bred and a Clown but he was sure to be ill received and turned out as one that was guilty of some hainous offence Formerly few persons went to Court and those few who did go went very rarely but since the Government of Justinian and Theodora all the Magistrates and all other persons were continuity in the Palace and the reason of it was because heretofore the Magistrates might freely administer Justice and execute their Sentences and Decrees among themselves according to Custom and the parties never troubled the Emperor with their importunities being perswaded within themselves that no injustice would be done them But Justinian having ingrossed all business that thereby he might more easily ruine his subjects he brought them to a condition that was little better then slavery The Courts of Justice were always empty and scarce a Man to be seen whereas in the Palace infinite multitudes were continually to be seen pressing and crouding to out-do one another in the servility of their obedience Those who were in most favor with them and seemed to have the greatest interest in their affection waited whole days and a great part of the night but they got nothing but their labor for their pains having no other compensation for all their assiduity and attendance then a vain image of felicity and good fortune Others who were not intangled in those cares and formalities had yet their troubles to think what was become of all the Treasure and Riches of the Empire Some said the Barbarians had divided it among them others that the Emperor had hid it in several places which very few knew For my part I will not speak my sentiment only this I will say That when Justinian dies for he is but a Man and mortal as we or when he has ruined and confounded every thing if he be a Devil as many imagine those who are then living will be able to judge of the truth FINIS
sence would not have accepted them and hazarded his own fortune to destroy other people When Justinian had received the Money he agreed for with those he was to prefer he suffered them to pillage the people and the Provinces that they might inrich themselves in a short time and they complied with his design For having borrowed at great interest the Money which they paid for their places when they were possessed of their Governments or other places they treated the subjects with all manner of Tyranny to discharge themselves of the debts which they had contracted in the purchase and to lay up for themselves And this they did with the greater liberty because they were in no apprehension of being questioned much less condemned for their exaction but on the contrary were assured That the excess of their violences their murders their thefts and all their other cruelties would rather be a means to gain them honor and reputation seeing all those Frauds and Extortions passed with that Prince for marks of their industry and address But for all that when Justinian observed they were sufficiently rich he intangled them in some pretended charge or other and took all from them in a moment There was a Law made by which it was injoyned to all persons who were to be advanced to any Office or Government to swear upon the Evangelists That they would not commit any violence or extortions upon the Subject and that there was nothing either given or taken for their places and that whoever was guilty of transgressing that Law should be accursed according to the custom of the Antients But the said Law had not been in force a full year but in despight of that Law and the malediction that was pronounced he sold those Offices himself not only privately but with inimitable impudence in the face of the whole World and the Merchants which bought them notwithstanding their Oaths to the contrary plundred and ravaged the State more then ever before Besides these he had another invention which perhaps is not so easily to be believed and that was not to sell the great Offices in Constantinople as formerly but to keep them in his own hands and execute them by certain persons to whom he allowed sallaries for their pains and received all the rest of the profits to himself and they like Farmers having received what they were to expect from their Master with insupportable boldness squeezed and extorted whatever they could to satisfie him and indeed brought him in most prodigious sums These Mercenary Magistrates and Governors were to be seen passing from one Province to another plaguing and tormenting the poor people under the fair pretence of their dignity Justinian had always a great care to put the worst men in his Empire into the best places and his design commonly succeeded When he first advanced his wicked agents to the principal Dignities and their power had discovered their ill inclinations it was much admired that the heart of man could be capable of such malice But after a considerable interval those who succeeded having infinitely out-done them the people were at as great a loss to comprehend how it should be possible for them to exceed their Predecessors who had passed among them for such abominable Creatures and yet compared with the present Officers were very honest men But the third succession and those who came after them exceeded the second as much as the second had done the first and did in a manner vindicate their Predecessors by the transcendency of their crimes and the extream industry which they expressed in the conduct of their execrable actions insomuch as they restored them who were before them to some degree of reputation though in their times it was thought impossible for any to have been more impious and cruel In this manner the miseries of the State daily increasing it was manifest by experience That certain bounds cannot be prescribed to the wickedness of Man and that when it is confirmed by precedent examples and maintained and supported by great persons and power and authority gives it means to exert and show its self against Inferiors no man can tell how far it will extend but by the greatness of the miseries which it pulls down upon the people And these were the Magistrates in fashion under the Reign of Justinian It often fell out that the Huns invaded the Lands of the Empire and the Commanders in Thracia and Illyrium having resolved to charge them in their Retreat they received express Orders from the Emperor to the contrary as being allied with him against the Goths and the rest which were Enemies to the very name of the Romans The Barbarians making use of that occasion retreated after they had committed a thousand outrages upon the Subjects of the Empire and the more because they found they should pass as Allies though they carried with them a vast deal of plunder and great quantity of prisoners The Peasants unable to endure that their Wives and Children should be carried into captivity got together in considerable numbers pursued overtook charged defeated the Barbarians and having taken all their Baggage they recovered their prisoners and all the spoil that they had lost But this victory was very unfortunate to the Peasants for the Emperor sent Soldiers amongst them who beat and wounded and abused them and eat up the whole Countrey till they had surrendred the Horses which they had taken from the Barbarians When Justinian and Theodora had quit themselves of John de Cappadocia they looked out for another to put in his place but they resolved to chuse none but the worst that they could find that he might be a faithful minister of the cruelty and oppression which they designed against their Subjects For this reason they were very curious in examining the spirit and humors of all people about the Court but finding none of them bad enough they gave the place pro tempore to one Theodotus who though no Saint was not so wicked as they desired at length after long and diligent search they found out a certain Syrian called Peter Barzames who had been a Banker by profession this Rascal had got a great sum of Money together by his cunning and juggling cheating the receivers and other persons with the greatest dexterity in the World nimming their Money as they were telling it so neatly it was hard to perceive him and when he was taken he had the impudence to swear them down that it stuck to his singers This fellow as I have discribed him having listed himself first in the Pretorian Bands came by degrees to that perfection of wickedness that he was always the first who offered his service to Theodora when ever any of her impious resolutions were to be put in execution Upon this score they put him in the place of Theodotus who succeeded John of Cappadocia as not being able to make choice of another man so proper to assist in their barbarous designs
The Emperor taking no notice to Eudemon of the Commission which he had delivered for Liberius to the Pope gave Eudemon another to put his Nephew Laxarion into the said Government and declaring That he did still retain the same good will towards him that he had always expressed John believing himself safe under the Authority of his Commission sent to require Liberius to remove out of the Governors Palace as having to do there no farther Liberius refused it and to justifie himself produced the Emperors Patents John seeing he would not obey caused his friends to take Arms and try to remove him by force Liberius defended himself with his Guards and the conflict was so bloody that several persons were slain and Laxarion among the rest Eudemon followed the business very close afterwards and upon his solicitation Liberius was sent for to Constantinople where being heard before the Senate he was acquitted of the murder as done in his own defence Nevertheless Justinian would not let him escape so but forced him to give him a good sum of Money before he could be quiet By this we may see an instance of the friendship which Justinian bare to the truth and of the great care he took never to offend against if I shall now make and I suppose not impertinently a little digression in this place and insert it by way of addition to my Book Eudemon whom I mentioned but now died not long after without either Children or Will but his heirs general were numerous About the same time the cheif Eunuch of the Court called Euphratas died likewise without disposing of any thing of the great riches which he possessed because he left a Sisters Son who was in Law to be his heir But the Emperor got both their estates into his hands giving only a third part to their heirs and that was the way he expressed his tenderness for the Laws and his moderation to the Children of those Persons who had been his great Favorites whilest they were living He seised likewise all the estate of Irenaeus who had been dead a long time without any right or so much as reasonable pretence And there was another thing hapned about this time which I cannot omit There was at Ascalone a person called Anatolius without contradiction the cheif Man in the Senate of that Town whose only Daughter Mammilianus who was of the same quality in Cesaria had married and by her had the inheritance of his estate There was an antient Law by which it was provided That when ever a Senator died without Issue-male the fourth part of his estate should go to the use of the Senate and the rest to the heirs at Law In this case also Justinian gave great testimony of his good nature for he decreed That for the future when any Senator died without Issue-male the Custom should be inverted the fourth part only descending to the heirs and the three other parts to go to the use of the Senate or to the Coffers of the Emperor though in no time it had been known That the estate of any Senator had been confiscated or sequestred to the use of the Publick or for the Purse of the Emperor After the publication of this Ordinance Anatolius died and his Daughter was preparing to divide her Inheritance with the Emperor and the Senate when she received a Letter from each of them importing a remission of what belonged to them Not long after Mammilâ—ian died also leaving only one Daughter who being married to a person of quality died without issue during the life of her Mother On a sudden Justinian seised upon all pretending forsooth That it was not fit the Daughter of Anatolius at that age should be suffered to be rich by two ways at once that is by her Patrimony from her Father and her estate by her Husband But to keep her from want he granted her an allowance of one Statera of Gold a day to continue whilest she lived and in the Grant which he gave her there were these following words We have ordered her a Statera of Gold only in Charity for we have been accustomed by our Actions to give constant marks of our vertuous inclinations But enough of this subject I fear the length of my Book would dissatisfie should I write any farther though indeed I think it a hard matter for the memory of one man to retain all yet I cannot but add That he considered nothing at all when Money was in the case and this appeared by his comportment with the Venetes which faction had always stood for him and he had ever professed himself as cordially for it He made choice of Malthanes Son in Law to Leo the Referendary and a Cilician as he was to send into that Countrey to appease the Seditions which had some times since been raised in those parts This new Governor finding the power in his own hands used several of the Cilicians very ill caused them to suffer a thousand indignities and of the Money which he extorted unjustly from that Province part he transported into the Emperors Coffers and the rest he kept himself to augment the great riches which he had gotten before Some there were who swallowed their grievances without any complaint but those of the faction of the Venetes who were in Tarsis seeing themselves supported by their reputation and interest with the Empress complained publickly of the proceedings of Malthanes who was not then there to defend himself The news of it coming to his ears he got his Troops together and marching to Tarsis in the night by break of day he caused them to enter into the houses with orders to spare no body The Venetes supposing the Town was surprised by the Enemy took Armes and stood upon their guard Several Charges and Engagements hapned in the Town in one of which Damianus the Senator who was cheif of the party of the Venetes in Tarsis was slain with an Arrow This news arriving at Constantinople the Venetes began to assemble in the streets and to murmur highly at their usage they complained to the Emperor of the violences which had been exercised against their Brethren and threatned to revenge themselves upon Leo and Malthanes But Leo by a magnificent present prevented the execution of the Order which Justinian had passed and abated so much of the ardor which he had always shown for that faction that the Process was stopped and when Malthanes came to Court a while after the Emperor received him very honorably and treated him as kindly as he could wish But the Venetes inraged having set upon him as he was passing from the Emperors apartment wounded him severely and had certainly killed him had not some of their own party whom Leo had corrupted with his Money preserved him Is there any man living that thinks not that State in an unhappy condition where the Prince suffering himself to be bribed and corrupted with Money leaves offences unpunished and where the Malecontents are