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he judged the standing of the orators. For he immediately took away from them all the prizes, in which they were formerly accustomed to revel and take pride when they were free from their advocacy, and he commanded the litigants to be bound by a decisive oath, and from this, being greatly 26.3 insulted, they fell into great dejection. And since he took away all the property, as has been said, of those from the senatorial council and of the others who were thought to be prosperous, both in Byzantium and in the whole Roman empire, it was left for this 26.4 profession to be idle for the future. For men had nothing of any account at all about which they might dispute with one another. Forthwith, therefore, from being many they became few, and from being highly renowned they became utterly obscure everywhere on earth, and they were held, as was likely, in great poverty, and carrying away only the dishonor from their work, they departed. 26.5 But he also caused the physicians and teachers of the liberal arts to be in want of the necessities. For the stipends, which the previous emperors had ordered to be provided from the public treasury for these very professions, 26.6 these he took away entirely. And indeed, whatever revenues for civic purposes or for public spectacles the inhabitants of all the cities had provided for themselves from local sources, these too he dared to transfer and mix with the public 26.7 taxes. And in the future no account was made of either physicians or teachers, nor was anyone any longer able to provide for public building, nor were lamps lit for the cities at public expense, nor was there any other comfort for those who inhabited them. 26.8 For the theatres and hippodromes and wild-beast hunts were for the most part all inactive, the very place where it happened that his wife had been born and reared and educated. 26.9 And later he ordered these spectacles in Byzantium to be inactive, so that the public treasury might not provide the customary subsidies to the many, and almost countless, 26.10 people, whose livelihood came from this source. And there was grief and dejection, both privately and publicly, as if some other affliction sent from heaven had burst upon 26.11 them, and life for all was joyless. And absolutely nothing else was on men's lips in their conversations, whether at home, or in the marketplace, or while spending time in the sanctuaries, than their calamities and sufferings and the extremity of their ever-newer misfortunes. 26.12 So it was with the cities in this way. But what is left for my account is worth telling. Two consuls of the Romans were created every year, one in Rome, and the 26.13 other in Byzantium. And whoever was called to this honor was likely to spend more than twenty centenaria of gold on the state, a little of it his own, 26.14 but most of it received from the emperor. And this money, being distributed for the most part to the others whom I mentioned, and to those of poorer means, and especially to those of the stage, always revived all the affairs 26.15 of the city. But from the time Justinian took over the empire, these things were no longer done at the proper times; but at first a consul was appointed for the Romans only after a long time, and finally they did not even see the thing in their dreams, from which cause human affairs were most constantly constricted by a kind of poverty, since the emperor no longer provided the customary things to his subjects, and took away their existing possessions by all means and from all quarters. 26.16 How, then, this destroyer, having swallowed all the public funds, deprived those of the senatorial council, each individually and all collectively, of their property, 26.17 I think I have sufficiently narrated. And how he was able, by going about with false accusations, to take away the property of others who were thought to be wealthy, I believe I have stated most adequately, not yet, however, of the soldiers and those who serve all the magistrates and those who serve in the Palace, and the farmers and possessors and lords of lands and those whose professions are in letters, but also merchants and ship-owners and sailors, artisans and craftsmen and men of the market-place and those whose living comes from the professions of the stage, and indeed so to speak all the rest, to whom it falls that the harm from this man extends. 26.18 But what things he did to the beggars and the common crowd and the poor and those afflicted with every kind of mutilation, we shall immediately relate; for the things done by him 26.19 concerning the priests in

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ῥητόρων ἀξίωμα ἔγνω. τά τε γὰρ ἔπαθλα αὐτοὺς ἀφείλετο εὐθὺς ἅπαντα, οἷσπερ τρυφᾶν τε τὰ πρότερα καὶ ἐγκαλλωπίζεσθαι τῆς συνηγορίας ἀφειμένοι εἰώθασι, καὶ διωμότους συνίστασθαι τοὺς διαφερομένους ἐκέλευσε, καὶ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ περιυ26.3 βρισμένοι ἐν πολλῇ ἀθυμίᾳ ἐγένοντο. ἐπεὶ δὲ τῶν τε ἀπὸ τῆς συγκλήτου βουλῆς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων εὐδαιμόνων δοκούντων εἶναι ἔν τε Βυζαντίῳ καὶ πάσῃ τῇῬωμαίων ἀρχῇ πάσας, ὥσπερ ἐρρήθη, τὰς οὐσίας ἀφείλετο, ἀρ26.4 γεῖν τὸ λοιπὸν τῷ ἐπιτηδεύματι τούτῳ ἐλέλειπτο. οὐ γὰρ εἶχον ἄνθρωποι λόγου ὁτουοῦν οὐδὲν ἄξιον, οὗπερ ἂν καὶ ἀμφισβητοῖεν ἀλλήλοις. αὐτίκα τοίνυν ἐκ πολλῶν μὲν ὀλίγοι, ἐξ ἐνδόξων δὲ λίαν κομιδῆ ἄδοξοι πανταχόθι γεγονότες τῆς γῆς πενίᾳ μὲν, ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς, πολλῇ εἴχοντο, μόνην δὲ ὕβριν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἔργου φερόμενοι ἀπηλλάσσοντο. 26.5Ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἰατρούς τε καὶ διδασκάλους τῶν ἐλευθερίων τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἀπορεῖσθαι πεποίηκε. τάς τε γὰρ σιτήσεις, ἃς οἱ πρότερον βεβασιλευκότες ἐκ τοῦ δημοσίου χορηγεῖσθαι τούτοις δὴ τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν 26.6 ἔταξαν, ταύτας δὴ οὗτος ἀφείλετο πάσας. καὶ μὴν καὶ ὅσους οἱ τὰς πόλεις οἰκοῦντες ἁπάσας πολιτικῶν σφίσιν ἢ θεωρητικῶν οἴκοθεν πεποίηνται πόρους, καὶ τούτους μεταγαγὼν φόροις ἀναμῖξαι τοῖς δημοσίοις 26.7 ἐτόλμησε. καὶ οὔτε ἰατρῶν τις ἢ διδασκάλων τὸ λοιπὸν ἐγίνετο λόγος οὔτε δημοσίας τις ἔτι οἰκοδομίας προνοεῖν ἴσχυσεν οὔτε λύχνα ταῖς πόλεσιν ἐν δημοσίῳ ἐκάετο οὔτε τις ἦν ἄλλη παραψυχὴ τοῖς ταύτας οἰκοῦσι. 26.8 τά τε γὰρ θέατρα καὶ ἱππόδρομοι καὶ κυνηγέσια ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἅπαντα ἤργει, οὗ δή οἱ τὴν γυναῖκα τετέχθαι τε καὶ τεθράφθαι καὶ πεπαιδεῦσθαι ξυνέβαι26.9 νεν. ὕστερον δὲ ταῦτα δὴ ἀργεῖν ἐν Βυζαντίῳ ἐκέλευσε τὰ θεάματα, τοῦ μὴ τὰ εἰωθότα χορηγεῖν τὸ δημόσιον πολλοῖς τε καὶ σχεδόν τι ἀναρίθμοις οὖσιν, 26.10 οἷς ἐνθένδε ὁ βίος. ἦν τε ἰδίᾳ τε καὶ κοινῇ λύπη τε καὶ κατήφεια, ὥσπερ ἄλλο τι τῶν ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ ἐπισκή26.11 ψασαι πάθος, καὶ βίος πᾶσιν ἀγέλαστος. ἄλλο τε τὸ παράπαν οὐδὲν ἐφέρετο τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐν διηγήμασιν, οἴκοι τε οὖσι καὶ ἀγοράζουσι κἀν τοῖς ἱεροῖς διατρίβουσιν ἢ συμφοραί τε καὶ πάθη καὶ καινοτέρων ἀτυχημάτων ὑπερβολή. 26.12 Ταῦτα μὲν οὕτω ταῖς πόλεσιν εἶχεν. ὃ δὲ τῷ λόγῳ λείπεται, τοῦτο εἰπεῖν ἄξιον. ὕπατοιῬωμαίων ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος ἐγινέσθην δύο, ἅτερος μὲν ἐνῬώμῃ, ὁ 26.13 δὲ δὴ ἕτερος ἐν Βυζαντίῳ. ὅστις δὲ εἰς τὴν τιμὴν ἐκαλεῖτο ταύτην πλέον ἢ κεντηνάρια χρυσοῦ εἴκοσιν ἐς τὴν πολιτείαν ἀναλοῦν ἔμελλεν, ὀλίγα μὲν οἰκεῖα, 26.14 τὰ δὲ πλεῖστα πρὸς βασιλέως κεκομισμένος. ταῦτά τε τὰ χρήματα ἔς τε τοὺς ἄλλους, ὧνπερ ἐμνήσθην, καὶ ἐς τῶν βίων τοὺς ἀπορωτέρους ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον φερόμενα καὶ διαφερόντως ἐς τοὺς ἐπὶ σκηνῆς ἅπαντα 26.15 τὰ πράγματα ἐς ἀεὶ τῇ πόλει ἀνίστη. ἐξ οὗ δὲἸουστινιανὸς τὴν βασιλείαν παρέλαβεν, οὐκέτι καιροῖς τοῖς καθήκουσι ταῦτα ἐπράσσετο· ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν πρῶτα πολλοῦῬωμαίοις ὕπατος καθίστατο χρόνου, τελευτῶντες δὲ οὐδὲ ὄναρ τὸ πρᾶγμα ἑώρων, ἐξ οὗ δὴ πενίᾳ τινὶ ἐνδελεχέστατα ἐσφίγγετο τὰ ἀνθρώπεια, τὰ μὲν εἰωθότα τοῦ βασιλέως οὐκέτι τοῖς ὑπηκόοις παρεχομένου, τὰ δὲ ὑπάρχοντα τρόποις ἅπασι πανταχόθεν ἀφαιρουμένου. 26.16Ὡς μὲν οὖν τὰ δημόσια καταπιὼν ξύμπαντα χρήματα τοὺς ἐκ τῆς συγκλήτου βουλῆς ὁ λυμεὼν οὗτος ἕκαστόν τε ἰδίᾳ καὶ κοινῇ ξύμπαντας τὰς οὐσίας ἀφῄ26.17 ρηται, διαρκῶς δεδιηγῆσθαι οἶμαι. ὡς δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους εὐδαίμονας δοκοῦντας εἶναι συκοφαντίᾳ περιιὼν ἀφαιρεῖσθαι τὰ χρήματα ἴσχυσεν, ἱκανώτατά μοι εἰρῆσθαι νομίζω, οὐ μέντοι στρατιώτας τε καὶ ἄρχουσι πᾶσιν ὑπηρετοῦντας καὶ τοὺς ἐν Παλατίῳ στρατευομένους, γεωργούς τε καὶ χωρίων κτήτορας καὶ κυρίους καὶ οἷς ἐν λόγοις τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματά ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ μὴν ἐμπόρους τε καὶ ναυκλήρους καὶ ναύτας βαναύσους τε καὶ χειρώνακτας καὶ ἀγοραίους καὶ οἷς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς ἐπιτηδευμάτων ὁ βίος, καὶ μὴν καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ὡς εἰπεῖν ἅπαντας, ἐς οὓς διικνεῖσθαι βλάβος τὸ ἐκ τοῦδε συμβαίνει. 26.18 Οἷα δὲ τούς τε προσαιτητὰς καὶ ἀγελαίους ἀνθρώπους καὶ πτωχούς τε καὶ λώβῃ πάσῃ ἐχομένους εἰργάσατο, αὐτίκα ἐροῦμεν· τὰ γὰρ ἀμφὶ τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν αὐτῷ 26.19 πεπραγμένα ἐν