treated their subjects with every kind of tyranny, paying heed to
nothing save how they might fulfil their engagements with their
creditors and lay up great wealth for themselves. They had no
apprehension that their conduct would bring upon them the risk of
punishment; on the contrary, they expected that the greater number of
those whom they plundered put to death without cause, the greater the
reputation they would attain, for the name of murderer and robber was
regarded as a proof of activity. But when Justinian learned that they
had amassed considerable wealth during office, he entangled them in
his net, and on some pretence or other deprived them of all their
riches in a moment.

He had published an edict that candidates for offices should swear
that they would keep themselves free from extortion, that they would
neither give nor receive anything for their offices, and uttered
against those who transgressed the law the most violent curses of
ancient times. The law had not been in force a year when, forgetting
its terms and the malediction which had been pronounced, he
shamelessly put up these offices for sale, not secretly, but publicly
in the market-place, and those who purchased them, in spite of their
oaths to the contrary plundered and ravaged with greater audacity than
before.

He afterwards thought of another contrivance, which may seem
incredible. He resolved no longer to put up for sale, as before, the
offices which he believed to be of greatest repute in Byzantium and
other cities, but sought out a number of hired persons, whom he
appointed at a fixed salary, and ordered to bring all the revenues to
himself. These men, having received their salary, shamelessly got
together from every country and carried off everything that they