The Secret History of the Court of Justinian | Page 5

a man, causes the destruction of millions of men--His policy towards the Vandals, Goths, and other barbarians--Chosroes and the Persians--Invasion of the Huns, Saracens, and others--Justinian's theological studies--Religious persecution--Divine anger--Inundations, earthquakes, and the plague.
CHAPTER XIX
A dream relating to Justinian's avarice--The vast treasures of Anastasius squandered by Justinian--He makes himself master of the fortunes of private individuals by false accusations, and squanders them in presents of money to the barbarians, who plunder the Empire--Fulfilment of the dream.
CHAPTER XX
Justinian impoverishes private individuals by "monopolies"--Two new magistrates appointed at Constantinople--Praetor of the People to judge cases of robbery--Legislation in regard to paederasty and female morality--Establishment of an inquisition against heretics--Condemnations and confiscations--Degradation of the quaestorship in the hands of Junilus and Constantine--Their venality.
CHAPTER XXI
The impost called "Aerikon"--Exactions authorised by Justinian--The property of John the Cappadocian confiscated--The farming of the taxes entrusted to salaried commissioners--Increased spoliation--Oath taken against venality--Increasing corruption of officials--The Thracians and Illyrians at first check the depredations of the Huns, Goths, and other barbarians, and then, in turn, take to plundering themselves.
CHAPTER XXII
John of Cappadocia replaced by Theodotus, and Theodotus by Peter Barsyames, the Syrian, an old usurer--His greed--He suppresses the gratuities to the soldiers--Traffic in every kind of employment--Speculation in wheat--Scarcity of provisions at Byzantium--Discontent--Barsyames upheld by Theodora and his own sorceries--His connection with the Manicheans--Their influence over Justinian--Barsyames supersedes John of Palestine as treasury minister--He abolishes the assistance rendered to the unfortunate.
CHAPTER XXIII
Ruin of private properties--Abolition of the remission of arrears of taxes, even in the case of cities taken by the barbarians--The imposts called Syn[=o]n[=e], Epibol[=e], and Diagraph[=e]--Soldiers billeted in private houses.
CHAPTER XXIV
Oppression of the soldiers by the Logothetes--Division of the soldiers into three classes--Their promotion suspended--Their pay diverted to other purposes--The diminishing army--Praetorian soldiers disbanded--Alexander the Logothete in Italy--The general's aides-de-camp--The frontier garrisons abandoned--Palace guards, Scholares, and supernumeraries--Armenians--Peter, the Master of Offices, the murderer of Amalasunta--Palace officials, Domestics, and Protectors--Suppression of the quinquennial gratuity--The imperial officers and dignitaries.
CHAPTER XXV
Unjust treatment of merchants, mariners, and artisans--The straits of the Bosphorus and the Hellespont burdened with custom-house dues--Enormous dues levied by Addeus in the port of Byzantium--Change in the silver coinage: its depreciation--Monopoly of the silk trade--Ruin of Berytus and Tyre--Malversations of Peter Barsyames and his successors--Tyranny of Theodora and avarice of Justinian.
CHAPTER XXVI
Destruction of city decorations and ornaments--Advocates deprived of their fees by the institution of arbitrators--Physicians and professors deprived of their pensions--Public spectacles discontinued--The consulship suppressed--Scarcity of corn and water at Byzantium, Rome, and Alexandria--Generosity of Theodoric, the conqueror of Italy--Greed of Alexander Forficula--Disbanding of the garrison of Thermopylae--Spoliation of Athens and other Greek cities--Hephaestus and Diocletian.
CHAPTER XXVII
Conduct of Justinian and Theodora in regard to the clergy and council of Chalcedon--Arsenius the Samaritan persecutes the Christians of Scythopolis with impunity--Paul, archbishop of Alexandria, has the deacon Psoes put to death--Rhodon, the governor, by his orders, tortures him: but he is dismissed, and then put to death, together with Arsenius, through the influence of Theodora--Liberius, the new governor, and Pelagius, legate of Pope Vigilius at Alexandria, depose Paul, who buys back the favour of Justinian--Resistance of Vigilius--Faustinus, governor of Palestine, denounced by the Christians as a Samaritan--His condemnation by the Senate--The sentence annulled by Justinian--Outrages upon the Christians.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Laws changed for money considerations--Affair of the church of Emesa--Priscus the forger--A hundred years' prescription granted to the churches--Mission of Longinus--Persecution of the Jews at the Passover--Justinian's intolerance.
CHAPTER XXIX
Justinian's hypocrisy--Letters sent to both Liberius and John Laxarion, confirming them as governors of Egypt--Intervention of Pelagius and Eudaemon--Murder of John--Liberius acquitted by the Senate--Fine inflicted by Justinian--Confiscation of the inheritances of Eudaemon, Euphratas, and Irenaeus--New law as to the inheritances of municipal councillors--Spoliation of the daughter of Anatolia and Ascalon, the widow of Mamilianus--Affair of Tarsus--Malthanes and the Blues of Cilicia--Unpunished assassinations--Justinian's corruptness--Leo the Referendary.
CHAPTER XXX
The "posts" and "spies"--Rapidity of the imperial couriers--Their chief routes--Superiority of the Persians--Reverses of the Romans in Lazica at the hands of Chosroes--The army commissariat--Spoliation of the lawyer Evangelius--Justinian's sarcasm--He and Theodora required their feet to be kissed by those who had audience of them--Their titles of "master" and "mistress"--The palace crowded by applicants for audiences--The death of Justinian alone will show how the vast wealth of the Empire has been spent.

INTRODUCTION
I have thus described the fortunes of the Romans in their wars up to the present day, as far as possible assigning the description of events to their proper times and places. What follows will not be arranged with the same exactness, but everything shall be written down as it took place throughout the whole extent of the Roman empire. My reason for this is, that it would not have been expedient for me to describe these events fully while those who were their authors were still alive; for, had I done so, I could neither have escaped the notice of the multitude of spies,