would employ them, being disgusted with their old-fashioned ways. For
this reason many men were anxious to prove to him that they were
villains, although they really were not such. He would often make men
repeated promises, and confirm his promise by an oath or by writing,
and then purposely forget all about it, and think that such an action
did him credit. Justinian behaved in this manner not only towards his
own subjects, but also towards many of his enemies, as I have already
told. As a rule he dispensed with both rest and sleep, and never took
his fill of either food or drink, but merely picked up a morsel to
taste with the tips of his fingers, and then left his dinner, as if
eating had been a bye-work imposed upon him by nature. He would often
go without food for two days and nights, especially when fasting was
enjoined, on the eve of the feast of Easter, when he would often fast
for two days, taking no sustenance beyond a little water and a few
wild herbs, and sleeping, as it might be, for one hour only, passing
the rest of the time in walking to and fro. Had he spent all this time
in useful works, the State would have nourished exceedingly; but, as
it was, he used his natural powers to work the ruin of the Romans, and
succeeded in thoroughly disorganizing the constitution. His constant
wakefulness, his privations, and his labour were undergone for no
other purpose than to make the sufferings of his subjects every day
more grievous; for, as I have said before, he was especially quick in
devising crimes, and swift to carry them out, so that even his good
qualities seemed to have been so largely bestowed upon him merely for
the affliction of his people.




CHAPTER XIV