calamities in the provinces—justinian’s apathy—waste of the public money during his reign—useless presents of money made to the huns—extravagance in buildings on the sea-shore—attack upon the fortunes of private individuals—description of justinian’s personal appearance—his resemblance to domitian—domitian’s wife—alterations in established institutions.
these excesses took place not only in byzantium, but in every city of the empire: for these disorders were like bodily diseases, and spread from thence over the whole roman empire. but the emperor cared not at all for what was going on, although he daily beheld what took place in the hippodrome, for he was exceedingly stupid, very much like a dull-witted ass, which follows whoever holds its bridle, shaking its ears the while. this behaviour on the part of justinian ruined everything.
as soon as he found himself the head of his uncle’s empire, he at once did his utmost to squander the public treasure over which he now had control. for he lavished wealth extravagantly upon the huns who from time to time came across and, ever afterwards, the roman provinces were subjected to constant incursions; for these barbarians, having once tasted our wealth, could not tear themselves away from the road which led to it. justinian also threw away great sums upon the construction of large moles, as if he thought to restrain the force of the never-resting waves. he ran out stone breakwaters from the beach far into the water to divert the currents of the ocean, and, as it were, to match his wealth against the power of the sea.
as for the private fortunes of individual romans, he confiscated them for his own use in all parts of the empire, either by accusing their possessors of some crime of which they were innocent, or by distorting their words into a free gift of their property to him. many were convicted on these charges of murder and other crimes, and in order to escape paying the penalty for them, gave him all that they had. some who were engaged in making frivolous claims to land belonging to their neighbours, when they found that they had no chance of winning their cause, as the law was against them, would make him a present of the land in dispute, and so get out of the difficulty. thus they gained his favour by a gift that cost them nothing, and got the better of their adversaries by the most illegal means.
it will not be out of place, i think, to describe his personal appearance. he was neither tall nor too short, but of a medium height, not thin, but inclined to be fat. his face was round and not ill-favoured, and showed colour, even after a two days’ fast. in a word, he greatly resembled domitian, vespasian’s son, more than anybody else. this was the emperor whom the romans detested so much that they could not slake their hatred for him, even when they had torn him to pieces, but a decree of the senate was passed to remove his name from all documents, and that all statues of him should be destroyed; wherefore his name has been erased from every inscription at rome and everywhere else, except where it occurs in a list together with other emperors, and no statue of him is to be found in the roman empire, save one only, the history of which is as follows: domitian had married a lady of noble birth and admirable conduct, who never harmed anyone, and always disapproved of her husband’s evil deeds. as she was so much beloved, the senate sent for her, after the death of domitian, and bade her ask whatever favour she pleased. all that she asked was to receive domitian’s body for burial, and permission to erect a bronze statue to him in whatever place she might choose. the senate consented, and domitian’s wife, not wishing to leave to posterity a memorial of the brutality of those who had butchered her husband, adopted the following plan. she collected the pieces of his body, pieced them accurately together, joined them properly, and sewed the body together again. she then sent for the statuaries, and bade them reproduce this pitiable object in a brazen statue. the workmen straightway made the statue, and his wife, having received it from them, set it up in the street which leads up to the capitol from the forum, on the right hand side, where to this day one may see domitian’s statue, showing the marks of his tragic end. one may say that the whole of justinian’s person, his expression, and all his features can be traced in this statue.
such was his portrait; but it would be exceedingly difficult to give an accurate estimate of his character; he was an evil-doer, and yet easily led by the nose, being, in common parlance, a fool as well as a knave. he never was truthful with anyone, but always spoke and acted cunningly, yet any who chose could easily outwit him. his character was a sorry mixture of folly and bad principles. one may say of him what one of the peripatetic philosophers of old said long ago, that in men, as in the mixing of colours, the most opposite qualities combine. i will therefore only describe his disposition as far as i have been able to fathom it.
this prince was deceitful, fond of crooked ways, artificial, given to hiding his wrath, double-faced, and cruel, exceedingly clever in concealing his thoughts, and never moved to tears either by joy or grief, but capable of weeping if the occasion required it. he was always a liar not merely on the spur of the moment; he drew up documents and swore the most solemn oaths to respect the covenants which he made with his subjects; then he would straightway break his plighted word and his oath, like the vilest of slaves, who perjure themselves and are only driven to confess through fear of torture. he was a faithless friend, an inexorable foe, and mad for murder and plunder; quarrelsome and revolutionary, easily led to do evil, never persuaded to act rightly, he was quick to contrive and carry out what was evil, but loathed even to hear of good actions.
how could any man fully describe justinian’s character? he had all these vices and other even greater ones, in larger proportion than any man; indeed, nature seemed to have taken away all other men’s vices and to have implanted them all in this man’s breast. besides all this, he was ever disposed to give ear to accusations, and quick to punish. he never tried a case before deciding it, but as soon as he had heard the plaintiff he straightway pronounced his judgment upon it. he wrote decrees, without the slightest hesitation, for the capture of fortresses, the burning of cities, the enslaving of whole races of men for no crime whatever, so that, if anyone were to reckon all the calamities of this nature which have befallen the roman people before his time, and weigh them against those which were brought about by him, i imagine that it would be found that this man was guilty of far more bloodshed than any ruler of previous times.
he had no hesitation in coolly appropriating people’s property, and did not even trouble himself to put forward any pretext or colourable legal ground for taking another man’s goods; and, when he had got it, he was quite ready to squander it in foolish munificence or to spend it in unreasonable largesses to the barbarians. in fine, he neither had any property himself, nor would he suffer anyone else of all his subjects to have any; so that he did not seem to be so much governed by avarice as by jealousy of those who possessed wealth. he carelessly drove all the wealth of the romans out of the country, and was the cause of general impoverishment. such was the character of justinian, as far as i am able to describe it.
