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For this reason not one of his relatives or other acquaintances ever had any sure hope for him, but his mind was forever shifting in its pursuit of occupations. 22.32 And so, being easy of access to the poisoners, as was said, he had become subject to Theodora with no trouble, and for this reason especially the empress, since Peter was zealous in such matters, 22.33 loved him exceedingly. So the emperor with difficulty removed him from the office which he formerly held, but with Theodora insisting, not much later he appointed him master of the treasuries, removing John from this very honor, who happened to have received it only a few months 22.34 before. This was a man of Palestinian race, gentle and exceedingly good, and he neither knew how to devise means for gaining unjust wealth, nor had he ever harmed 22.35 any man in the world. Indeed, all the people loved him exceptionally. For this very reason he was in no way pleasing to Justinian and his consort, who, whenever they saw one of their subordinates to be unexpectedly fine and good, becoming dizzy and greatly distressed, they made it their business to push him aside as quickly as possible by every means. 22.36 So then Peter, succeeding this John, was put in charge of the imperial treasuries and again became the chief cause of great misfortunes for all. 22.37 For by cutting off the greatest part of the funds, 22.37 which by ancient ordinance of the emperor are supplied to many each year by way of solace, he himself grew improperly rich from the public funds and brought a share from them 22.38 to the emperor. But those who had been deprived of their money sat around in great grief, since he did not deign to issue the gold coin as was customary, but having made it less, a thing that had never happened before. 22.39 Matters concerning the emperor's magistrates were in some such state. I shall now proceed to tell how he ruined landowners everywhere. 22.40 It would have been sufficient for us, having mentioned not long before the magistrates sent to all the cities, to indicate the sufferings of these people also. For these magistrates first plundered the owners of the estates by violence, and yet the rest will all be told. 23.1 First, although it had been the custom from ancient times for each ruler of the Roman Empire not just once, but many times, to present all his subjects with the arrears of public debts, so that neither those who were in want and had no means whatever to pay off these arrears should be perpetually choked, nor should pretexts be furnished to the tax-collectors for attempting to blackmail those taxpayers who owed nothing, this man for a period of thirty-two years did nothing of the sort for his subjects. 23.2 And as a result it was necessary for those in want both to run away and 23.3 to return to no one ever again. And the blackmailers wore down the more respectable citizens, brandishing the accusation that from of old they had been paying their tax at a lower rate than the assessment laid upon 23.4 the land. For the poor wretches did not so much fear the new tax-payment, but also being burdened with taxes for so great a number of years which were in no way 23.5 due. Many, at any rate, gave up their own property to the blackmailers or to the treasury and got away. 23.6 Then, while the Medes and Saracens plundered the greater part of Asia, and the Huns and Sclaveni and Antae all of Europe, and while they razed some of the cities to the ground, and levied tribute from others with the utmost accuracy, and enslaved the inhabitants with all their property, and made each land desolate of its inhabitants by their daily raids, he remitted the tax to none of all these, except only for a year to the cities that had been 23.7 captured. And yet if, like the emperor Anastasius, he had decided to grant the captured cities a seven-year remission of taxes, I think that even so he would not have done what was needed, since Cavades departed having damaged the buildings as little as possible, whereas Chosroes, after burning everything to the ground

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ταῦτά τοι οὐδέ τις τῶν αὐτοῦ ξυγγενῶν ἢ ἄλλως γνωρίμων ἐλπίδα τινά ποτε ἀσφαλῆ ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἔσχεν, ἀλλὰ μεταναστάσεις αὐτῷ ἐς ἀεὶ τῆς ἐς τὰ ἐπι22.32 τηδεύματα ἐγίνοντο γνώμης. οὕτω τε καὶ τοῖς φαρμακεῦσιν, ὅπερ ἐρρήθη, εὐέφοδος ὢν καὶ τῇ Θεοδώρᾳ πόνῳ οὐδενὶ ὑποχείριος ἐγεγόνει, καὶ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ μάλιστα ἡ βασιλὶς ἅτε σπουδαῖον τὰ τοιαῦτα τὸν Πέτρον 22.33 ὄντα ὑπερηγάπα. ἀρχῆς μὲν οὖν ἧς τὰ πρότερα εἶχε βασιλεὺς αὐτὸν παρέλυσε μόλις, Θεοδώρας δὲ ἐγκειμένης οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον ἄρχοντα τῶν θησαυρῶν αὐτὸν κατεστήσατο,Ἰωάννην παραλύσας ταύτης δὴ τῆς τιμῆς, ὅσπερ αὐτὴν παρειληφὼς μησί που ὀλίγοις 22.34 πρότερον ἔτυχεν. ἦν δὲ οὗτος ἀνὴρ γένος μὲν Παλαιστῖνος, πρᾷος δὲ καὶ ἀγαθὸς ἄγαν, καὶ οὔτε πορίζεσθαι χρημάτων ἀδίκων πόρους εἰδὼς, οὔτε τῳ λυμη22.35 νάμενος πώποτε τῶν πάντων ἀνθρώπων. ἀμέλει καὶ διαφερόντως ἠγάπων αὐτὸν ὁ λεὼς ἅπας. διά τοι τοῦτοἸουστινιανόν τε καὶ τὴν ὁμόζυγα οὐδαμῆ ἤρεσκεν, οἵπερ ἐπειδὴ τῶν σφίσιν ὑπουργούντων καλόν τε καὶ ἀγαθὸν παρὰ δόξαν τινὰ ἴδοιεν, ἰλιγγιῶντες καὶ δυσφορούμενοι ἐς τὰ μάλιστα πάσῃ μηχανῇ αὐτὸν ὅτι τάχιστα διωθεῖσθαι ἐν σπουδῇ ἐποιοῦντο. 22.36 Οὕτω γοῦν καὶ τοῦτον τὸνἸωάννην ὁ Πέτρος ἐκδεξάμενος θησαυρῶν τε τῶν βασιλικῶν προὔστη καὶ ξυμφορῶν αὖθις μεγάλων αἰτιώτατος ἅπασι γέγονεν. 22.37 ἀποτεμνόμενος γὰρ τῶν χρημάτων τὸ πλεῖστον μέρος, 22.37 ἅπερ ἐν παραψυχῆς λόγῳ πολλοῖς χορηγεῖσθαι ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος πρὸς βασιλέως ἐκ παλαιοῦ διατέτακται, αὐτὸς μὲν τοῖς δημοσίοις οὐ δέον ἐπλούτει καὶ μοῖραν ἐν22.38 θένδε βασιλεῖ ἀνέφερεν. οἱ δὲ τὰ χρήματα περιῃρημένοι ἐν πένθει μεγάλῳ περιεκάθηντο, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ χρυσοῦν νόμισμα οὐχ ᾗπερ εἰώθει ἐκφέρειν ἠξίου, ἀλλ' ἔλασσον αὐτὸ καταστησάμενος, πρᾶγμα οὐδεπώποτε γεγονὸς πρότερον. 22.39 Τὰ μὲν ἀμφὶ τοῖς ἄρχουσι βασιλεῖ ταύτῃ πη εἶχεν. ὅπως δὲ τοὺς τὰ χωρία κεκτημένους πανταχῆ διέφθειρεν 22.40 ἐρῶν ἔρχομαι. ἀπέχρη μὲν οὖν ἡμῖν τῶν ἐς τὰς πόλεις ἁπάσας στελλομένων ἀρχόντων ἐπιμνησθεῖσιν οὐ πολλῷ πρότερον καὶ τούτων δὴ τῶν ἀνθρώπων σημῆναι τὰ πάθη. πρώτους γὰρ οἱ ἄρχοντες οὗτοι τοὺς τῶν χωρίων κυρίους βιαζόμενοι ἐληΐζοντο, καὶ ὣς δὲ τἄλλα εἰρήσεται πάντα. 23.1 Πρῶτον μὲν εἰθισμένον ὂν ἐκ παλαιοῦ ἕκαστον τὴνῬωμαίων ἀρχὴν ἔχοντα οὐχ ἅπαξ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλάκις τοῖς τῶν δημοσίων ὀφλημάτων λειψάνοις τοὺς κατηκόους δωρεῖσθαι πάντας, τοῦ μήτε τοὺς ἀπορουμένους τε καὶ ὅθεν ἂν ἐκτίνοιεν τὰ λείψανα ταῦτα οὐδαμῆ ἔχοντας διηνεκὲς ἀποπνίγεσθαι μήτε τοῖς φορολόγοις σκήψεις παρέχεσθαι, συκοφαντεῖν ἐγχειροῦσι τῶν τοῦ φόρου ὑποτελῶν τοὺς οὐδὲν ὀφείλοντας, οὗτος ἐς δύο καὶ τριάκοντα ἐτῶν χρόνον οὐδὲν 23.2 τοιοῦτο ἐς τοὺς κατηκόους εἰργάσατο. καὶ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ τοῖς μὲν ἀπορουμένοις ἀναγκαῖον ἦν ἀποδρᾶναί τε καὶ 23.3 μηδενὶ ἔτι ἐπανιέναι. καὶ οἱ συκοφάνται τοὺς ἐπιεικεστέρους ἀπέκναιον κατηγορίαν ἐπανασείοντες ἅτε τὸ τέλος ἐνδεεστέρως ἐκ παλαιοῦ καταβάλλοντας τῆς ἐγ23.4 κειμένης τῷ χωρίῳ φορᾶς. οὐ γὰρ ὅσον οἱ ταλαίπωροι τὴν καινὴν τοῦ φόρου ἀπαγωγὴν ἐδεδίεσαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ χρόνων τοσούτων τὸ πλῆθος οὐδὲν προσῆκον βαρύ23.5 νεσθαι φόροις. πολλοὶ γοῦν ἀμέλει τὰ σφέτερα αὐτῶν τοῖς συκοφάνταις ἢ τῷ δημοσίῳ προέμενοι ἀπηλλάσ23.6 σοντο. ἔπειτα δὲ Μήδων μὲν καὶ Σαρακηνῶν τῆςἈσίας γῆν τὴν πολλὴν, τῶν δὲ δὴ Οὔννων καὶ Σκλαβηνῶν καὶ Ἀντῶν ξύμπασαν Εὐρώπην ληϊσαμένων, καὶ τῶν πόλεων τὰς μὲν καθελόντων ἐς ἔδαφος, τὰς δὲ ἀργυρολογησάντων ἐς τὸ ἀκριβὲς μάλιστα, τοὺς δὲ ἀνθρώπους ἐξανδραποδισάντων ξὺν χρήμασι πᾶσιν, ἔρημόν τε τῶν οἰκητόρων καταστησαμένων χώραν ἑκάστην ταῖς καθ' ἡμέραν ἐπιδρομαῖς, φόρον μὲν οὐδενὶ τῶν ἁπάντων ἀφῆκε, πλήν γε δὴ ὅσον ἐνιαυτοῦ ταῖς 23.7 ἁλούσαις τῶν πόλεων μόνον. καίτοι εἰ καθάπερἈναστάσιος βασιλεὺς ἑπτάετες ταῖς ἁλούσαις τὰ τέλη ἐπιχωρεῖν ἔγνω, οἶμαι δ' ἂν οὐδ' ὣς αὐτὸν πεποιῆσθαι τὰ δέοντα, ἐπεὶ Καβάδης μὲν ταῖς οἰκοδομίαις ὡς ἥκιστα λυμηνάμενος ἀπιὼν ᾤχετο, Χοσρόης δὲ ἅπαντα πυρπολήσας ἐς ἔδαφος