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will look upon the affairs. 43 So much I say with tears concerning the empire. But nothing will prevent me from mentioning, as if in a sketch, the gradual decline; for one could not clearly show the removal, without first enumerating those things which, existing before, were later taken away. So then after Theodosius and the moderate Marcian, Leo came, and finding the wealth which Attila, the enemy of the world, was about to take—and it was over one hundred thousand pounds of gold—puffed up with power, he decided to make war on the Vandals, a Germanic nation, who from the north had descended upon Spain through the Pyrenees into Libya. Therefore, by setting out with ten thousand long ships, which they call Liburnians, an army such as long ages had not yet marveled at, he brought the empire into extreme want, stretching it and straining it, and demanding that the expense suffice for forty myriads of men for a sea battle, and for the difficulty of a land fortified with harborless bays, and for the power of barbarians who were rich beyond measure. For there was spent on that ill-fated war, with Basiliscus leading the terrible affair, sixty-five thousand pounds of gold, seven hundred thousand pounds of silver, and as many horses, arms, and men as one might well determine to be lacking for all time. 44 And after all this, the shipwreck of the entire state. For since the public money was not sufficient, nor that which was the private property of the imperial house, all the complements of the armies were utterly lost in the failures of the war. And, not to be lengthy, from that catastrophe the treasury no longer sufficed for itself, but it spends in advance 202 on affairs before the time things not yet in expectation or, at any rate, in the possession of the taxpayers, so that the public want is endless. Time would fail us if we were to recount the disasters of the state which fell under Leo. To the domestic evil at that time of things consumed in the midst of fire was joined the misfortune of the wars of that time and of ten thousand other calamities, so that he himself, the emperor I mean, being troubled by his own evils, not only left the court to live elsewhere, as phantoms like an unmanly Orestes were disturbing him, but also considered leaving the all-golden city itself, alas, city! and to turn the empire into such a state, had not God preserved this power which He gave to the city. 45 And so Leo eventually departed, but the empire was being submerged by his floods, as Zeno from that point took over the power of his father-in-law. But he was a coward, or rather a wretch, and he sold off the wars, not even enduring to see a battle in images, and he urged the prefect to buy peace with much gold, while he himself was intent upon confiscations and the destruction of the officials of the state. Nevertheless, he himself also came to an ill-omened end. When so many evils had been poured upon the formerly happy empire, Fortune, laughing a short but genuine laugh, set Anastasius over the subjects with deadly results, who by every means sought to repay the public deficit and, like a certain master of a house, having adjusted the taxes—as many as could in truth be saved—to the expenditures, he both demanded accounts of the expenditures and established them justly, avoiding immoderation; not like Nero once, and any others who imitated him, who made immoderate expenditures, but did not deign either to receive from the prefecture 204 or to render to it accounts even for the record, thinking that rivers or perhaps the whole sea gushed forth gold for them. 46 But Fortune, alas, becoming indignant and with a view to administration, paralyzed the sinews of the state. For while the senatorial bodies were administering the cities and restraining the soldiery and truly managing affairs, a certain Marinus from the so-called scriniarii of the eastern diocese, having artfully crept in with the emperor, persuades him to entrust to him all the taxes, having assessed the whole state, promising to procure gold for the emperor. For he happened to be quietly avaricious, like a Taulantian, and of Epidamnus of Illyria, Dyrrachium itself, Cretans having colonized there

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τὰ πράγματα εἰσβλέψουσιν. 43 Τοσαῦτα περὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐπιδακρύσας φημί. κωλύσει δὲ οὐδέν, ὥσπερ ἐν ὑποτυπώσει, μνησθῆναι τῆς κατὰ μικρὸν ἐλαττώσεως· οὐ γὰρ ἄν τις ἐπιδείξει σαφῶς τὴν ἀφαίρεσιν, μὴ προαριθμησάμενος ταῦθ' ἅπερ ὄντα τὸ πρὶν ὕστερον ἀφῃρέθη. μετὰ γ' οὖν Θεοδόσιον καὶ Μαρκιανὸν τὸν μέτριον ἐλθὼν ὁ Λέων καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον εὑρὼν ὃν Ἀττίλας ὁ τῆς οἰκουμένης πολέμιος λαμβάνειν ἤμελλεν ἦν δὲ ὑπὲρ τὰς χιλίας ἑκατοντάδας τοῦ χρυσίου λιτρῶν, ὀγκωθεὶς τῇ δυνάμει ἔγνω Βανδίλοις, ἔθνει Γερμανικῷ, ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρκτῴας ἐπὶ τὰς Ἱσπανίας διὰ τοῦ Πυρηναίου ἐνσκήψαντι τῇ Λιβύῃ, πολεμεῖν. μυρίαις οὖν ναυσὶ μακραῖς, ἃς καλοῦσι λιβύρνας, ἐπιστήσας στρατὸν οἷον ὁ μακρὸς οὔπω ἀπεθαύμασε χρόνος εἰς ἐσχάτην ἀπορίαν περιέστησε τὴν ἀρχήν, ἀποτείνων αὐτὴν καὶ βιαζόμενος καὶ δαπάνην τεσσαράκοντα μυριάσιν ἀνδρῶν πρὸς μάχην διαπόντιον καὶ γῆς ἀλιμένοις ὅρμοις ὠχυρωμένης δυσχωρίαν καὶ βαρβάρων ὑπὲρ λόγον πλουτούντων δύναμιν ἀρκεῖν. ἀνάλωται γὰρ περὶ τὸν κακοδαίμονα πόλεμον ἐκεῖνον, Βασιλίσκου τῶν δεινῶν ἡγησαμένου, χρυσίου μὲν λιτρῶν μυριάδες ἓξ πρὸς πεντακισχιλίαις, ἀργύρου δὲ χιλιάδες λιτρῶν ἑπτακόσιαι, ἵππων δὲ καὶ ὅπλων καὶ ἀνδρῶν τοσοῦτον ὅσον ἄν τις τῷ παντὶ χρόνῳ ἐλλιπεῖν καλῶς ἀφορίσηται. 44 Καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πάντα ναυάγιον τῆς ὅλης πολιτείας. οὐ γὰρ ἀρκέσαντος τοῦ δημοσίου χρήματος ἢ ὃ καὶ ὅσον ἦν ἴδιον τῇ βασιλείᾳ, πάντα τὰ τῶν στρατιῶν πληρώματα ταῖς ἀστοχίαις ἐναπώλετο τοῦ πολέμου. καὶ ἵνα μὴ μακρηγορῶ, ἐξ ἐκείνου τοῦ συμπτώματος οὐκέτι τὸ ταμιεῖον ἐπήρκεσεν ἑαυτῷ, ἀλλὰ προσ 202 δαπανᾷ τοῖς πράγμασι πρὸ καιροῦ τὰ μήπω ἐν ἐλπίδι ἤ γ' οὖν τοῖς ὑποτελέσιν ὄντα, ὡς ἀπέραντον εἶναι τὴν ἀπορίαν τοῦ δημοσίου. ἐπιλίποι δὲ ἂν ἡμᾶς ὁ χρόνος, εἰ τὰς ὑπὸ Λέοντι πεσούσης τῆς πολιτείας ἀπαριθμησώμεθα συμφοράς. τῷ τότε οἴκοι κακῷ τῶν ἐν μέσῳ πυρὶ δαπανηθέντων συνέμιξεν τῶν τότε πολέμων τὸ δυστυχὲς καὶ ἄλλων μυρίων ἀτυχημάτων, ὡς αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον, τὸν βασιλέα λέγω, τοῖς οἰκείοις κακοῖς ταραττόμενον μὴ μόνον τὴν αὐλὴν ἀπολιπεῖν φασμάτων αὐτὸν ὥσπερ Ὀρέστην ἄνανδρον ἐνοχλούντων ἑτέρωθι διαιτᾶσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν πάγχρυσον ἀπολιπεῖν διασκέψασθαι, ἆ, πόλιν· καὶ εἷς τοιαύτην βασιλείαν μετατρέψαι εἰ μὴ θεὸς τοῦθ' ὃ δέδωκε τῇ πόλει διεσώσατο κράτος. 45 Καὶ Λέων μέν ποτε ἀπηλλάττετο, ἡ δὲ ἀρχὴ τοῖς ἐκείνου κατακλυσμοῖς ἐβυθίζετο, Ζήνωνος ἔνθεν τὸ τοῦ κηδεστοῦ κράτος ὑπεξελθόντος. δειλὸς δὲ ἦν, μᾶλλον δὲ δείλαιος, καὶ τοὺς πολέμους ἀπηργυρίζετο μηδὲ ἐν εἰκόσι μάχην ὑπομένων ὁρᾶν καὶ συνώθει τὸν ὕπαρχον χρυσίῳ πολλῷ τὴν εἰρήνην ὠνεῖσθαι, αὐτὸς περὶ δημεύσεις καὶ ὄλεθρον τῶν ἐν τέλει τῆς πολιτείας ἀγρυπνῶν. ἔσχε δὲ ὅμως καὶ αὐτὸς ἀναίσιον πέρας. τοσούτων κακῶν ἐπιχεθέντων τῇ πρόσθεν εὐδαίμονι τῶν ἀρχῶν, ἡ Τύχη, βραχύ τι γνήσιον δὲ γελῶσα, τὸν Ἀναστάσιον θανατῶσιν ἐπέστησε τοῖς ὑπηκόοις, ὃς διὰ πάσης ἦλθεν ὁδοῦ τὴν ἔνδειαν τῶν κοινῶν ἀποτίσασθαι καὶ δίκην οἰκοδεσπότου τινὸς τοὺς φόρους, ὅσοι σῴζεσθαι δύναιντο ταῖς ἀληθείαις, ταῖς δαπάναις προσαρμόσας καὶ λογισμοὺς ἀπῄτει τῶν δαπανῶν καὶ δικαίως ἐτίθετο, τὴν ἀμετρίαν διαφεύγων· οὐχ ὥσπερ ὁ Νέρων ποτὲ καὶ εἴ τινες ἐκεῖνον ζηλώσαντες δαπάνας μὲν ἀμέτρους ἐποιήσαντο, λογισμοὺς δὲ μηδὲ μέχρι μνήμης ἢ λαβεῖν πρὸς τῆς ἐπαρχότητος 204 ἢ πρᾶξαι πρὸς αὐτὴν ἠξίωσαν, ποταμοὺς ἢ τάχα θάλασσαν ὅλην βλύζειν αὐτοῖς τὸ χρυσίον οἰόμενοι. 46 Νεμεσήσασα δ' οἴμ' ὡς ἡ Τύχη καὶ σκοπῷ διοικήσεως τὰ νεῦρα παρέλυσε τῆς πολιτείας. τῶν γὰρ βουλευτικῶν συστημάτων διοικούντων τὰς πόλεις καὶ τὸν στρατιώτην ἀποτρεφόντων καὶ ἀληθῶς πολιτευομένων τοῖς πράγμασιν, Μαρῖνός τις ἐκ τῶν λεγομένων σκρινιαρίων τῆς ἑῴας διοικήσεως παρεισδὺς ἐντέχνως τῷ βασιλεῖ ἀναπείθει πᾶσαν αὐτῷ τὴν πολιτείαν διαψηφίσαντι τοὺς φόρους καταπιστεῦσαι, ὁμολογήσας χρυσίον τῷ βασιλεῖ περιποιεῖν. φιλοκερδὴς δὲ ἠρέμα ἐτύγχανεν ἐκεῖνος, οἷα Ταυλάντιος, καὶ Ἐπιδάμνου τῆς Ἰλλυρίδος ∆ουρράχιον αὐτὴν Κρῆτες ἀποικήσαντες ἐκεῖ