.
Everything was done the wrong way, and of the old customs none remained;
a few instances will illustrate, and the rest must be silence, that
this book may have an end. In the first place, Justinian, having no
natural aptitude toward the imperial dignity, neither assumed the royal
manner nor thought it necessary to his prestige. In his accent, in his
dress, and in his ideas he was a barbarian. When he wished to issue a
decree, he did not give it out through the Quaestor's office, as is
usual, but most frequently preferred to announce it himself, in spite of
his barbarous accent; or sometimes he had a whole group of his
intimates publish it together, so that those who were wronged by the
edict did not know which one to complain against.
The secretaries who had performed this duty for centuries were no longer
trusted with writing the Emperor's secret dispatches: he wrote them
himself and practically everything else, too; so that in the few cases
where he neglected to give instructions to city magistrates, they did
not know where to go for advice concerning their duties. For he let no
one in the Roman Empire decide anything independently, but taking
everything upon himself with senseless arrogance, gave the verdict in
cases before they came to trial, accepting the story of one of the
litigants without listening to the other, and then pronounced the
argument concluded; swayed not by any law or justice, but openly
yielding to base greed. In accepting bribes the Emperor felt no shame,
since hunger for wealth had devoured his decency.
Often the decrees of the Senate and those of the Emperor nominally
conflicted. The Senate, however, sat only for pictorial effect, with no
power to vote or do anything. It was assembled as a matter of form, to
comply with the ancient law, and none of its members was permitted to
utter a single word. The Emperor and his Consort took upon themselves
the decisions of all matters in dispute, and their will of course
prevailed. And if anybody thought his victory in such a case was
insecure because it was illegal, he had only to give the Emperor more
money, and a new law would immediately be passed revoking the former
one. And if anybody else preferred the law that had been repealed, the
ruler was quite willing to reestablish it in the same manner.
Under this reign of violence nothing was stable, but the balance of
justice revolved in a circle, inclining to whichever side was able to
weight it with the heavier amount of gold. Publicly in the Forum, and
under the management of palace officials, the selling of court decisions
and legislative actions was carried on.
The officers called Referendars were no longer satisfied to perform
their duties of presenting to the Emperor the request of petitioners,
and referring to the magistrates what he had decided in the petitioner's
case; but gathering worthless testimony from all quarters, with false
reports and misleading statements, deceived Justinian, who was naturally
inclined to listen to that sort of thing; and then they would go back
to the litigants, without telling them what had been said during their
interview with the Emperor, to extort as much money as they desired. And
no one dared oppose them.
The soldiers of the Pretorian guard, attending the judges of the
imperial court in the palace, also used their power to influence
decisions. Everybody, one might say, stepped from his rank and found he
was now at liberty to walk roads where before there had been no path;
all bars were down, even the names of former restrictions were lost. The
government was like a Queen surrounded by romping children. But I must
pass over further illustrations, as I said at the beginning of this
chapter.
I must, however, mention the man who first taught the Emperor to sell
his decisions. This was Leo, a native of Cilicia, and devilish eager to
enrich himself. This Leo was the prince of flatterers, and apt at
insinuating himself into the good will of the ignorant. Gaining the
confidence of the Emperor, he turned the tyrant's folly toward the ruin
of the people. This man was the first to show Justinian how to exchange
justice for money.
As soon as the latter thus learned how to be a thief, he never stopped;
but advancing on this road, the evil grew so great that if anyone wished
to win an unjust case against an honest man, he went first to Leo, and
agreeing that a share of the disputed property would be given to be
divided between this man and the monarch, left the palace with his
wrongful case already won. And Leo soon built up a great fortune in this
way, became the lord of much land, and was most responsible for
bringing the Roman state to its knees.
There was no security in contracts, no law, no oath, no written pledge,
no penalty, no nothing: unless money had first been given to Leo and the
Emperor. And even buying Leo's support gave no certainty, for Justinian
was quite willing to take money from both sides: he felt no guilt at
robbing either party, and then, when both trusted him, he would betray
one and keep his promise to the other, at random. He saw nothing
disgraceful in such double dealing, if only it brought him gain. That is
the sort of person Justinian was.
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