15

they sold, and many not at all willingly set their slaves 7.34 free. And they say that some women too were forced by their own slaves [to do] many things which they did not want. 7.35 And already also the sons of prominent men, mingling with these very youths, forced their fathers to do many other things unwillingly and to give up their property to them. 7.36 And many unwilling boys, too, were forced by the partisans to come to unholy intercourse, with their fathers not being unaware. 7.37 And indeed this same thing happened to women living with their husbands to suffer. And one woman is said, wearing much jewelry, to have been sailing with her husband to a suburb on the opposite mainland; and when the partisans met them on this crossing, and tore her from her husband with threats, and put her into their own boat, she entered the boat with the youths, secretly exhorting her husband but to be of good courage and to fear no foul play concerning her; 7.38 for nothing would happen for her body to be violated; and while her husband was still looking at her with great grief, she let her body down into the sea and very suddenly vanished from among men. 7.39 Such were the things that were dared then by these very partisans in Byzantium. But these things distressed the victims less than the wrongs done by Justinian against the state, since for those who have suffered the most terrible things from evil-doers, the constant expectation of punishment from the laws and the government takes away the greatest part of the distress caused by the ensuing disorder. 7.40 For in being hopeful about the future, people bear their present circumstances more easily and with less pain, but when oppressed by the government which presides over the state, they are, as is likely, even more deeply grieved by the things that have happened and are forever turned to despair by the unexpected lack of punishment. 7.41 And he erred not only because he was not at all willing to feign ignorance of the abused, but because he by no means disdained to set himself up openly as a champion of the partisans; 7.42 for he both bestowed great sums of money upon these youths, and had many of them about him, and saw fit to call some of them to magistracies and the other offices of honor. 8.1 These things, then, were being done in Byzantium and in every city. For just like some other disease, the evil, beginning from here, spread everywhere in the Roman 8.2 empire. But the emperor cared not at all for the things being done, since no perception at all came to the man, although he was always an eye-witness of the events in the hippodromes. 8.3 For he was exceedingly foolish and very much like a sluggish ass, and of a kind to follow the one pulling the rein, 8.4 with his ears often twitching. Justinian was doing these things and stirring up all the others. Who, as soon as he took hold of his uncle's power, was eager to consume the public money immediately with no order, 8.5 since he had become master of it. For to the Huns who were always at hand he would give away very great sums to the detriment of the state; from which indeed it happened that the land of the Romans was exposed to frequent raids. 8.6 For these barbarians, having had a taste of Roman wealth, could no longer endure to let go of the road that leads here. 8.7 And he saw fit to throw away much also on certain buildings in the sea, doing violence to the everlasting surge of the waves. 8.8 For from the shore he advanced forward with heaps of stones, contending eagerly with the inflows from the sea and, as if by the power of wealth, competing in ambition against the power 8.9 of the sea. And the private properties of individual Romans from all the earth he collected for himself, bringing against some some charge or other that had not been committed, and fabricating even the intention of others of having made him a gift. 8.10 And many, having been convicted of murders and other such crimes, then by ceding to him all their property escaped not paying the penalty for what they had done wrong; 8.11 and others, improperly disputing certain lands with some of their neighbours, as it might happen, since they were in no way able to win the case against their opponents with the law standing against them, they then, having presented him as a gift with these disputed lands

15

ἀπέδοντο, πολλοὶ δὲ οὔτι ἑκούσιοι ἐλευθέρους 7.34 τοὺς οἰκέτας ἀφῆκαν. φασὶ δὲ καὶ γυναῖκάς τινας πολλὰ ὧν οὐκ ἐβούλοντο τοῖς αὐτῶν δούλοις ἀναγκα7.35 σθῆναι. ἤδη δὲ καὶ παῖδες οὐκ ἀφανῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτοις δὴ τοῖς νεανίαις ἀναμιχθέντες τοὺς πατέρας ἠνάγκαζον ἄλλα τε πολλὰ οὔτι ἐθελουσίους ποιεῖν καὶ τὰ 7.36 χρήματα σφίσι προΐεσθαι. πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ ἀκούσιοι παῖδες τοῖς στασιώταις ἐς κοίτην ἀνοσίαν οὐκ ἀγνοούν7.37 των ἠναγκάσθησαν τῶν πατέρων ἐλθεῖν. καὶ γυναιξὶ μέντοι ἀνδράσι ξυνοικούσαις ταὐτὸν τοῦτο ξυνέβη παθεῖν. καὶ λέγεται γυνὴ μία κόσμον περιβεβλημένη πολὺν πλεῖν μὲν ξὺν τῷ ἀνδρὶ ἐπί τι προάστειον τῶν ἐν τῇ ἀντιπέρας ἠπείρῳ· ἐντυχόντων δὲ σφίσιν ἐν τῷ διάπλῳ τούτῳ τῶν στασιωτῶν, καὶ τοῦ μὲν ἀνδρὸς αὐτὴν ξὺν ἀπειλῇ ἀφαιρουμένων, ἐς δὲ ἄκατον τὴν οἰκείαν ἐμβιβασάντων, ἐσελθεῖν μὲν ἐς τὴν ἄκατον ξὺν τοῖς νεανίαις, ἐγκελευσαμένη τῷ ἀνδρὶ λάθρα ἀλλὰ 7.38 θαρσεῖν τε καὶ μηδὲν ἐπ' αὐτῇ δεδιέναι φαῦλον· οὐ γάρ τι ξυμβήσεσθαι ἐς τὸ σῶμα αὐτῇ ὑβρισθῆναι· ἔτι δὲ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ξὺν πένθει μεγάλῳ ἐς αὐτὴν βλέποντος ἔς τε τὴν θάλασσαν καθεῖναι τὸ σῶμα καὶ αὐτίκα μάλα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀφανισθῆναι. 7.39 Τοιαῦτα μὲν ἦν τὰ τούτοις δὴ τότε τοῖς στασιώταις ἐν Βυζαντίῳ τετολμημένα. ἧσσον δὲ ταῦτα τοὺς παραπεπτωκότας ἠνία ἢ τὰ πρὸςἸουστινιανοῦ ἐς τὴν πολιτείαν ἁμαρτηθέντα, ἐπεὶ τοῖς παρὰ τῶν κακούργων πεπονθόσι τὰ χαλεπώτατα μέρος ἀφαιρεῖται τὸ πλεῖστον τῆς δι' ἀταξίας ἐμβάσης ἀνίας τὸ προσδοκᾶν ἀεὶ 7.40 τὴν πρὸς τῶν νόμων τε καὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς τίσιν. ἐν γὰρ τῷ πρὸς τὰ μέλλοντα εὐέλπιδες εἶναι ῥᾷόν τε καὶ ἀπονώτερον τὰ παρόντα σφίσι φέρουσιν ἄνθρωποι, βιαζόμενοι δὲ πρὸς τῆς τῇ πολιτείᾳ ἐφεστώσης ἀρχῆς τοῖς τε ξυμπεσοῦσιν ἔτι μᾶλλον, ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς, περιαλγοῦσι καὶ ἐς τὴν ἀπόγνωσιν τῷ ἀπροσδοκήτῳ τῆς τιμω7.41 ρίας ἐς ἀεὶ τρέπονται. ἡμάρτανε δὲ οὐχ ὅτι μόνον προσποιεῖσθαι τοὺς κακουμένους ἥκιστα ἤθελεν, ἀλλ' ὅτι προστάτης τῶν στασιωτῶν ἐκ τοῦ ἐμφανοῦς καθί7.42 στασθαι οὐδαμῆ ἀπηξίου· χρήματά τε γὰρ μεγάλα τοῖς νεανίαις τούτοις προΐετο, καὶ πολλοὺς μὲν ἀμφ' αὑτὸν εἶχε, τινὰς δὲ αὐτῶν ἔς τε τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἀξιώματα καλεῖν ἐδικαίου. 8.1 Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἔν τε Βυζαντίῳ ἐπράττετο καὶ πόλει ἑκάστῃ. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἄλλο τι νόσημα ἐνθένδε ἀρξάμενον τὸ κακὸν πανταχῆ ἐπέσκηψε τῆςῬωμαίων 8.2 ἀρχῆς. βασιλεῖ δὲ τῶν πρασσομένων ἥκιστα ἔμελεν, ἐπεὶ οὐδέ τις αἴσθησις τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐγένετο, καίπερ αὐτόπτῃ τῶν δρωμένων ἐν τοῖς ἱπποδρομίοις ἀεὶ γινο8.3 μένῳ. ἠλίθιός τε γὰρ ὑπερφυῶς ἦν καὶ νωθεῖ ὄνῳ ἐμφερὴς μάλιστα καὶ οἷος τῷ τὸν χαλινὸν ἕλκοντι 8.4 ἕπεσθαι, συχνά οἱ σειομένων τῶν ὤτων.Ἰουστινιανὸς ταῦτά τε ἔπρασσε καὶ ξύμπαντα τἄλλα ἐκύκα. ὅσπερ ἐπειδὴ τάχιστα ἐπελάβετο τῆς τοῦ θείου ἀρχῆς, χρήματα μὲν τὰ δημόσια εὐθὺς καταναλοῦν κόσμῳ οὐδενὶ 8.5 ἐν σπουδῇ εἶχεν ἅτε αὐτῶν κύριος γεγονώς. Οὔννων γὰρ τοῖς ἀεὶ προστυγχάνουσι πλεῖστα ἐπὶ τῇ πολιτείᾳ προΐετο· ἐξ οὗ δὴ ἐφόδοις ἀποκεῖσθαι συχναῖς ξυνέ8.6 βαινεῬωμαίων τὴν γῆν. ἀπογευσάμενοι γὰρ οἱ βάρβαροι οὗτοιῬωμαίων πλούτου μεθίεσθαι οὐκέτι ἠνείχοντο τῆς ἐνταῦθα φερούσης ὁδοῦ. 8.7 Πολλὰ δὲ ῥίπτειν καὶ ἐς θαλαττίους οἰκοδομίας τινὰς ἠξίου, βιαζόμενος τὸ τῶν κυμάτων ἐς ἀεὶ ῥόθιον. 8.8 ἐκ γὰρ τῆς ἠιόνος ταῖς τῶν λίθων ἐπιβολαῖς ἐπίπροσθεν ᾔει φιλονείκως ταῖς ἐκ τοῦ πόντου ἐπιρροαῖς ἔχων καὶ καθάπερ ἐξουσίᾳ πλούτου πρὸς τὴν 8.9 τῆς θαλάσσης ἀντιφιλοτιμούμενος δύναμιν. τάς τε τῶνῬωμαίων ἰδίας ἑκάστων οὐσίας ἐκ πάσης γῆς ἐς αὐτὸν ἤγειρε, τοῖς μὲν ὅ τι δὴ ἔγκλημα οὐχ ἁμαρτηθὲν ἐπικαλέσας, τῶν δὲ καὶ τὴν γνώμην ἅτε αὐτὸν 8.10 δεδωρημένων τερατευσάμενος. πολλοὶ δὲ φόνων τε καὶ ἄλλων ἐγκλημάτων τοιούτων ἁλόντες, εἶτα ἐξιστάμενοι αὐτῷ τῶν πάντων χρημάτων διέφυγον ὧν ἥμαρ8.11 τον μὴ δοῦναι τὴν δίκην· ἕτεροι δὲ χωρίων, οὐ δέον, τοῖς πέλας τινῶν, ἂν οὕτω τύχοι, ἀμφισβητοῦντες, ἐπεὶ καταδιαιτήσασθαι τῶν ἀντιδίκων οὐδαμῆ εἶχον τοῦ νόμου σφίσιν ἀντιστατοῦντος, οἱ δὲ τούτοις δὴ τοῖς ἀντιλεγομένοις αὐτὸν δωρησάμενοι