.
I must not pass over his treatment of the soldiers, over whom he
appointed paymasters with instructions to hold out as much of their
money as they found possible, on the understanding that one twelfth of
what they thus collected was theirs. Their method each year was as
follows. It was the regulation that different ranks in the army receive
different pay: the young and newly enlisted received less, those who had
seen hard service and had advanced half way up the list received more,
and the veterans who should soon retire from service had a still higher
rating, so that they could live on their savings as private citizens,
and when their span of life was complete, might be able to leave some
consolation to their families. In this way, the soldiers step by step
arose in rank as their older comrades died or retired, and each man's
pay fitted his degree of seniority.
But the paymasters forbade the erasing from the lists of the names of
soldiers who died, even when many perished together, as frequently
happened in the constant wars. Nor did they fill the vacancies in the
lists, even after considerable time.
The result of this was that the number of soldiers grew continually
less, and those who survived their dead comrades were deprived of their
proper advancement in rank and pay; while the paymasters handed over to
Justinian the money that should have gone to these soldiers all this
time.
Furthermore, they fined the soldiers for other personal and unjust
reasons, as a reward for the perils they underwent in the battlefield:
on the charge that they were Greeks, as if none of that nation could be
brave; or that they were not commissioned by the Emperor to serve, even
when they showed his signature to that effect, which the paymasters did
not hesitate to question; or that they had been absent from duty for a
few days.
Later, some of the palace guards were sent throughout the whole Roman
Empire to investigate how many on the military lists were unfit for
service; and some were relieved of their uniform for being old and use
less, so that for the rest of their lives they had to beg their meals of
the charitable in the public Forum, exhibiting their tears and
lamentations to passersby; and the rest, lest they might suffer a
similar fate, handed over their savings as a bribe, with the result that
all the soldiers lost heart for their profession, were reduced to
poverty, and had no further enthusiasm for campaigning.
This was ruinous to the Romans and their authority in Italy; and the
paymaster Alexander, sent thither, had the audacity to reproach the
soldiers for their poor morale; while he exacted further money from the
Italians, on the pretext of punishing them for their negotiations with
Theodoric and the Goths. The common soldiers, indeed, were not the only
ones to be reduced to poverty and helplessness by these commissioners;
for all the staff officers, under the generals, who had formerly been in
high esteem, were utterly impoverished and in danger of famine, as they
had no money left with which to buy their customary provisions.
Speaking of the soldiers reminds me to add further details. The Roman
emperors hitherto had stationed large armies on all frontiers of the
State to protect its boundaries; and particularly in the East, to repel
incursions of the Persians and Saracens. These border troops Justinian
used so ill and meanly from the start that their pay became four or five
years overdue; and when peace was declared between the Romans and
Persians, these poor men, instead of sharing in the fruits of peace,
were forced to contribute to the public treasury whatever was owed them;
after which they were summarily discharged from the army. Thereafter
the boundaries of the Roman Empire were unguarded, and the soldiers were
left suddenly on the hands of charity.
Another corps of not less than three thousand, five hundred other
soldiers, originally mustered for the palace guard, and called the
Scholars, had always received higher pay from the public treasury than
the rest of the army. Originally they were chosen to this preferred
company by special merit, from the Armenians; but from the time when
Zeno became Emperor, it was possible for anyone, no matter how poor or
cowardly a soldier, to wear this uniform. Now when Justin came to the
throne, this Justinian distributed the honor among a large number upon
their paying him a considerable price for it. And when he saw there was
no further possible vacancy, he enrolled two thousand more, whom he
called Supernumeraries. When he himself took over the throne, he
immediately disbanded the Supernumeraries, without giving them back any
of the money they had paid him.
This, however, is what he schemed with reference to the Student Corps.
Whenever an army was about to be sent against Libya, Italy, or the
Persians, he ordered them to pack for service with the regulars, though
he knew well they were utterly unfit for the campaign. And they,
trembling at the possibility of active service, surrendered their pay
for the period of the war. The Students had this unpleasant experience
more than once. Also Peter, during all the time he was Master of
Offices, worried them daily with unheard-of thefts.
For he was a gentle seeming and unassuming man, but the biggest thief
alive, and simply bursting with sordid meanness. It was this Peter whom I
mentioned before as responsible for the murder of Amasalontha,
Theodoric's daughter.
There were also others in the palace guard of much higher rank; and the
more they paid into the treasury for their commissions, the higher was
their military rating. These were called Domestics and Protectors, and
had always been exempt from active service. Only as a matter of form
they were listed in the palace guard. Some of them were regularly
stationed in Constantinople, others had always been assigned to Galatia
or other provinces. Justinian scared these, too, in the same way, into
forfeiting their pay to him.
Finally, it was the law that every five years the Emperor should give
each soldier a bonus of a fixed sum in gold. And every five years
commissioners had been sent over all the Roman Empire to give each
soldier five gold staters. Not to comply with this custom was simply
unthinkable. Yet from the time that this man managed the State, he never
once did this, nor had any idea of doing it, though he reigned for
thirty-two years: so that the very custom was finally forgotten by
everyone.
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