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How much he cared for the interests of the State may be seen by what he
did to the public couriers and the spies. For the preceding Roman
emperors, so that they might most quickly and easily have news of enemy
invasions into any province, of sedition in the cities or any other
unexpected trouble, of the actions of the governors and everyone else
everywhere in the Roman Empire, and also so that those bringing in the
annual taxes might be kept from delay and danger, had established a
system of public couriers everywhere in the following manner.
As a day's journey for an active man, they decided on eight stages in
some places, in others less, but hardly ever less than five. Forty
horses were kept for each stage, and grooms in proportion to the number
of horses. By frequent relays of the best mounts, couriers were thus
able to ride as long a distance in one day as would ordinarily require
ten, and bring with them the news required. Also the landowners in these
provinces, especially those whose estates were in the interior ' were
greatly benefited by the system, as they sold at a high price to the
government each year their surplus harvests to feed the horses and the
grooms. And accordingly the State received the due tribute from each of
these, immediately reimbursing them for furnishing it: and this was to
the advantage of the whole State. Now this is how things were formerly
done.
But this tyrant first suppressed the post from Chalcedon to Dacibiza,
and then compelled the couriers to go from Constantinople to
Helenopolis, however little they liked it, by sea. Faring in small
boats, such as were usually used for crossing the strait, they were in
serious peril if a storm came up. For because speed was demanded of
them, they could not wait for calm weather. In the case of the road to
Persia, he permitted the former system to remain; but everywhere else in
the East, as far as Egypt, he reduced the number of stages making a
day's journey to one, and provided, instead of horses, a few asses.
Consequently news of what happened in each province was brought with
great difficulty, too late to be of any use and long after the event,
and the farm owners got no benefit of their crops which either rotted or
lay idle.
The spies were organized as follows. Many men were formerly supported by
the treasury, who visited the enemy, especially the Persian court, to
find out exactly what was going on; on their return to Roman territory,
they were able to report to the Emperors the secrets of the enemy. And
the Romans, being warned, were on guard and could not be taken by
surprise. This system was also a long-established custom with the Medes;
and Chosroes, they say, increased the pay of his spies, and benefited
by the precaution. But Justinian did away with the practice of hiring
Roman spies, and in consequence lost much territory to the enemy,
including Lazica, which was taken because the Romans had no information
as to where the Persian King was with his army.
The State had also always kept a large number of camels, which carried
all the baggage when the Roman army marched against the foe. Thus the
peasants did not have to carry burdens, and the soldiers lacked no
necessity. But Justinian did away with almost all of these animals.
Consequently when the Roman army now marches against the enemy, it is
impossible for it to be supplied with what it needs. Such was the zeal
he displayed for the interests of the State.
There is nothing like mentioning one of his ridiculous acts. Among the
lawyers at Caesarea was one Evangelius, a man of no mean distinction,
who, favored by the winds of Fate, became the master of much money and
much land. Eventually he bought a village on the seacoast, named
Porphyreon, for three gold centenaries. Learning of this, Justinian
immediately took the place from him, giving him back only a small
fraction of the price he had paid, and uttered the remark that it would
never do for Evangelius, a mere lawyer, to be the lord of such a
village. Well, we must stop somewhere when we begin to recall all these
stories.
This, however, is worth telling among the innovations of Justinian and
Theodora. Formerly, when the Senate approached the Emperor, it paid
homage in the following manner. Every patrician kissed him on the right
breast; the Emperor kissed the patrician on the head, and he was
dismissed. Then the rest bent their right knee to the Emperor and
withdrew. It was not customary to pay homage to the Queen.
But those who were admitted to the presence of Justinian and Theodora,
whether they were patricians or otherwise, fell on their faces on the
floor, stretching their hands and feet out wide, kissed first one foot
and then the other of the Augustus, and then retired. Nor did Theodora
refuse this honor; and she even received the ambassadors of the Persians
and other barbarians and gave them presents, as if she were in command
of the Roman Empire: a thing that had never happened in all previous
time.
And formerly intimates of the Emperor called him Emperor and the
Empress, Empress; and the other officials according to the title of
their rank. But if anybody addressed either of these two as Emperor or
Empress without adding "Your Majesty" or "Your Highness," or forgot to
call himself their slave, he was considered either ignorant or insolent,
and was dismissed in disgrace as if he had done some awful crime or
committed an unpardonable sin.
And before, only a few were sometimes admitted to the palace; but from
the time when these two came to power, the magistrates and everybody
else had no trouble in fairly living in the palace. This was because the
magistrates of old had administered justice and the laws according to
their conscience, and made their decisions while in their own offices,
while their subjects, neither seeing nor hearing any injustice, of
course had little cause to trouble the Emperor. But these two, taking
control of everything to the misfortune of their subjects, forced
everyone to come to them and beg like slaves. And almost any day one
could see the law courts nearly deserted, while in the hall of the
Emperor there was a jostling and pushing crowd that resembled nothing so
much as a mob of slaves.
Those who were supposed to be in the imperial favor would stand there
all day and most of the night, sleepless and foodless, until they were
exhausted; and this is what their presumed good fortune got them. And
those who were free of all this sort of thing, asked each other what
would become of the prosperity of the Romans. For some were sure it was
already in the hands of the barbarians, and others said the Emperor had
hidden it away in his various dwelling places. But only when Justinian,
be he man or King of the Devils, shall have departed this life, shall
they who then happen to survive him, discover the truth.
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