orators who once composed this order there remained only a few, who
were everywhere despised and lived in the greatest poverty, finding
that their profession brought them nothing but insult. He also caused
physicians and professors of the liberal arts to be deprived of the
necessaries of life. He cut off from them all the supplies which
former emperors had attached to these professions, and which were paid
out of the State funds. Further, he had no scruple about transferring
to the public funds all the revenues which the inhabitants of the
cities had devoted either to public purposes or for providing
entertainments. From that time no attention was paid to physicians or
professors; no one ventured to trouble himself about the public
buildings; there were no public lights in the cities, or any
enjoyments for the inhabitants; the performances in the theatres and
hippodromes and the combats of wild beasts, in which Theodora had been
bred and brought up, were entirely discontinued. He afterwards
suppressed public exhibitions in Byzantium, to save the usual State
contribution, to the ruin of an almost countless multitude who found
their means of support in these entertainments. Their life, both in
public and private, became sad and dejected and utterly joyless, as if
some misfortune had fallen upon them from Heaven. Nothing was spoken
of in conversation at home, in the streets, or in the churches, except
misfortune and suffering. Such was the state of the cities.

I have still something important to mention. Every year two consuls
were appointed--one at Rome, the other at Byzantium. Whoever was
advanced to that dignity was expected to expend more than twenty
centenars of gold upon the public. This sum was to a small extent
furnished by the consuls themselves, while the greater part was due to
the liberality of the Emperor. This money was distributed amongst
those whom I have mentioned, above all to the most necessitous, and