abolition of various old customs—the attributes of the quaestor and imperial secretaries—the senate a mere cipher—corruption of the “referendaries”—guilty conduct of zeno, the cilician.
everything was done at the wrong time, and nothing that was established was allowed to continue. to prevent my narrative being interminable, i will merely mention a few instances, and pass over the remainder in silence. in the first place, justinian neither possessed in himself the appearance of imperial dignity, nor demanded that it should be respected by others, but imitated the barbarians in language, appearance, and ideas. when he had to issue an imperial decree, he did not intrust it to the quaestor in the usual way, but for the most part delivered it himself by word of mouth, although he spoke his own language like a foreigner; or else he left it in the hands of one of those by whom he was surrounded, so that those who had been injured by such resolutions did not know to whom to apply. those who were called a secretis,12 and had from very ancient times fulfilled the duty of writing the secret dispatches of the emperor, were no longer allowed to retain their privileges; for he himself wrote them nearly all, even the sentences of the municipal magistrates, no one throughout the roman world being permitted to administer justice with a free hand. he took everything upon himself with unreasoning arrogance, and so managed cases that were to be decided, that, after he had heard one of the litigants, he immediately pronounced his verdict and obliged them to submit to it, acting in accordance with no law or principle of justice, but being evidently overpowered by shameful greed. for the emperor was not ashamed to take bribes, since his avarice had deprived him of all feelings of shame. it frequently happened that the decrees of the senate and the edicts of the emperor were opposed to each other; for the senate was as it were but an empty shadow, without the power of giving its vote or of keeping up its dignity; it was assembled merely for form’s sake and in order to keep up an ancient custom, for none of its members were allowed to utter a single word. but the emperor and his consort took upon themselves the consideration of questions that were to be discussed, and whatever resolutions they came to between themselves prevailed. if he whose cause had been victorious had any doubt as to the legality of his success, all he had to do was to make a present of gold to the emperor, who immediately promulgated a law contrary to all those formerly in force. if, again, anyone else desired the revival of the law that had been repealed, the autocrat did not disdain to revoke the existing order of things and to reestablish it. there was nothing stable in his authority, but the balance of justice inclined to one side or the other, according to the weight of gold in either scale. in the market-place there were buildings under the management of palace officials, where traffic was carried on, not only in judicial, but also in legislative decisions. the officers called “referendars” (or mediators) found it difficult to present the requests of petitioners to the emperor, and still more difficult to bring before the council in the usual manner the answer proper to be made to each of them; but, gathering together from all quarters worthless and false testimony, they deceived justinian, who was naturally a fit subject for deception, by fallacious reports and misleading statements. then, immediately going out to the contending parties, without acquainting them with the conversation that had taken place, they extorted from them as much money as they required, without anyone venturing to oppose them.
even the soldiers of the praetorian guard, whose duty it was to attend the judges in the court of the palace, forced from them whatsoever judgments they pleased. all, so to speak, abandoned their own sphere of duty, and followed the paths that pleased them, however difficult or untrodden they had previously been. everything was out of gear; offices were degraded, not even their names being preserved. in a word, the empire resembled a queen over boys at play. but i must pass over the rest, as i hinted at the commencement of this work.
i will now say something about the man who first taught the emperor to traffic in the administration of justice. his name was leo; he was a native of cilicia, and passionately eager to enrich himself. he was the most utterly shameless of flatterers, and most apt in ingratiating himself with the ignorant, and with the emperor, whose folly he made use of in order to ruin his subjects. it was this leo who first persuaded justinian to barter justice for money. when this man had once discovered these means of plunder, he never stopped. the evil spread and reached such a height that, if anyone desired to come off victorious in an unjust cause against an honest man, he immediately repaired to leo, and, promising to give half of his claim to be divided between the latter and the emperor, left the palace, having already gained his cause, contrary to all principles of right and justice. in this manner leo acquired a vast fortune, and a great quantity of land, and became the chief cause of the ruin of the state. there was no longer any security in contracts, in law, in oaths, in written documents, in any penalty agreed upon, or in any other security, unless money had been previously given to leo and the emperor. nor was even this method certain, for justinian would accept bribes from both parties; and, after having drained the pockets of both of those who had put confidence in him, he was not ashamed to cheat one or other of them (no matter which), for, in his eyes, there was nothing disgraceful in playing a double part, provided only that it turned out profitable for him.
such a man was justinian.
