I must not, however, omit to mention the manner in which Justinian
treated the soldiers. He appointed commissioners, called
Logothetae,[17] with directions to squeeze as much money as they could
out of them, a twelfth part of the sum thus obtained being assured to
them. The following was their mode of operation every year. It was an
established custom that the soldiers should not all have the same pay.
Those who were young, and had just joined, received less than those
who had undergone hardships in the field and were already half-way up
the list; while the veterans, whose term of service was all but over,
received a more considerable sum, that they might have sufficient to
live upon as private individuals, and, after their death, might be
able to leave a small inheritance by way of consolation to their
families. Thus, in course of time, the soldiers gradually rose in
rank, according as their comrades died or retired from the service,
and their pay from the public funds was regulated in accordance with
their seniority. But these commissioners would not allow the names of
those who had died or fallen in battle to be struck out, or the
vacancies to be filled, until a long interval had elapsed. The result
was, that the army was short of men, and the survivors, after the
death of the veterans, were kept in a position far inferior to their
merits, and received less pay than they ought to have done, while in
the meantime the commissioners handed over to Justinian the money they
thus purloined from the soldiers. In addition, they harassed the
soldiers with several other kinds of injustices, by way of recompense
for the dangers they had undergone in the field; they were taunted
with the name of Greeks, as if Greece could never produce a brave
soldier; others were cashiered, as not having been ordered by the
Emperor to serve, although they showed their commissions, the
genuineness of which the Logothetae did not hesitate to call in
question; others, again, were disbanded for having absented themselves