Delphi Complete Works of Procopius

by Procopius of Caesarea

  X

  So Theodora, born and nurtured and educated in the manner I have described, came to the dignity of Empress without having been impeded by any obstacle. [2] For not even a thought that he was doing an outrageous thing entered the mind of the man who married her, though he might have taken his choice of the whole Roman Empire and have married that woman who, of all the women in the world, was in the highest degree both well-born and blessed with a nurture sheltered from the public eye, a woman who had not been unpractised in modesty, and had dwelt with chastity, who was not only surpassingly beautiful but also still a maiden and, as the expression runs, erect of breast; [3] but he did not disdain to make the common abomination of all the world his own, not dismayed by any of the misdeeds which we have previously recounted, and to lie with a woman who had not only encompassed herself round about with every other rank defilement but had also practised infanticide time and again by voluntary abortions. And I think that I need make mention of nothing else whatever in regard to the character of this man. [4] For this marriage would be amply sufficient to shew full well all the maladies of his soul, since it serves as both an interpreter and a witness and recorder of his character. [5] Since that man who pays no heed to the disgrace from deeds previously committed and does not shrink from revealing himself to his associates as a loathsome character — for such a man no path of lawlessness is untrodden, but fortified by the effrontery that is never absent from his brow, he advances readily and with no effort to the vilest of actions. [6] Nor, in truth, did a single member of the Senate, when he saw the State putting on the crown of this disgrace, see fit to shew his disapprobation by forbidding the deed, though the Senators were all to do obeisance to the woman as though she were a god. [7] Nay, not even a single priest shewed himself outraged, and that too, though they were going to address her thereafter as “Mistress.” [8] And the populace which previously had been spectators of her performances straightway demanded with upturned palms, in defiance of all decorum, that they might be in fact and in name her slaves. [9] Nor did a single soldier rise in wrath at the thought that he was destined to undergo the perils of campaigning all in behalf of the interests of Theodora, nor did any other human being oppose her at all, — because, I suppose, they had been made submissive by the thought that these matters were so ordained for them, — but allº allowed this outrage to be brought to fulfilment, as if Fortune had made an exhibition of her power, to whom in truth, as she presides over all the affairs of mankind, it is a matter of no concern whatever either that the things which are done shall be reasonable or that they shall seem to men to have happened in accordance with reason. [10] At any rate she suddenly exalts one man to a great eminence by a sort of unreasoning exercise of her authority, though many obstacles seem to have grappled with him, and she opposes him in nothing whatever that he undertakes, nay, the man is carried along by any and every means to whatever post she has ordained for him, while all men without demur stand aside or retire before Fortune as she advances. But as to these matters, let them not only be as is pleasing to God but also be so set forth.

  [11] Now Theodora was fair of face and in general attractive in appearance, but short of stature and lacking in colour, being, however, not altogether pale but rather sallow, and her glance was always intense and made with contracted brows. [12] Now all time would not suffice for one to tell the most of her experiences in her life in the theatre, but by selecting in the preceding account a few incidents only I may have done enough to give a fair picture of the woman’s character for the benefit of future generations.

  [13] But at the present time we must briefly make known her acts and those of her husband, for they did nothing whatever separately in the course of their life together. [14] For a long time, it is true, they were supposed by all to be diametrically opposed to each other at all times in both their opinions and their ways of living, but later it was realized that this impression was purposely worked up by them in order that their subjects might not, by getting together in their views, rise in revolt against them, but that the opinions of all their subjects might be at variance regarding themselves.

  [15] Now first of all they set the Christians at variance with one another, and by pretending to go opposite ways from each other in rending them all asunder, as will shortly be related by me. In the second place they kept the Factions divided. [16] And Theodora, on the one hand, would pretend with all her might to be espousing the cause of the Blues, and by extending to them full freedom of action against their opponents, she gave them licence, in a quite irregular way, to commit their crimes and perform their pernicious deeds of violence. [17] But Justinian, on the other hand, had the appearance of one who was vexed and secretly resentful, yet unable to oppose his wife directly, and many times the two even shifted the appearance of authority and pursued the opposite course with reference to one another. [18] For while he would insist on punishing the Blues as offenders, she, with feigned anger, would make a scene because, as she would say, she had been overruled by her husband against her will.

  [19] But the partisans of the Blues seemed, as I have said, to be most temperate. For they did not think it right to coërce one’s neighbours to the utmost possible, and in the keen rivalries in connection with the lawsuits, while each side seemed to support one of the disputants, yet it was inevitable that the victory should fall to that one of the two who espoused the unjust cause, and that thus they should win for themselves as plunder most of the property of the disputants. [20] In fact many men who were counted by this Emperor among his intimates were elevated by him to positions where they had authority to act arbitrarily and to wrong the Government as they wished, but when they were seen to be in possession of a large sum of money, straightway they were found to have given some offence to the woman and to be at variance with her. [21] At first, then, he did not hesitate to champion these men whole-heartedly, but later on, forgetting his good-will towards the poor fellows, he all of a sudden began to waver in his enthusiasm. [22] And she would then straightway ruin them utterly, while he, pretending not to observe what was passing, would seize their whole property, acquired though it was by a shameless procedure. [23] Now in all this trickery they always were in full accord with each other, but openly they pretended to be at variance and thus succeeded in dividing their subjects and in fortifying their tyranny most firmly.

  XI

  Accordingly, when Justinian took over the Empire he immediately succeeded in bringing confusion upon everything. For things which previously had been forbidden by law he kept introducing into the constitution, and tearing down all existing institutions and those made familiar by custom, as if he had put on the imperial garb on the condition that he should change all things also into another garb. [2] For instance, he would depose the existing officials and appoint new ones in control of the State’s business; and he treated the laws and the divisions of the army in the same way, not yielding to demands of justice nor influenced to this course by any public advantage, but simply that everything might be new and might bear the impress of his name. And if there was anything which he was quite unable to transform at the instant, still he would at least put his own name upon it.

  [3] As for seizing property and murdering men, he never got his fill of them, but after plundering numerous homes of affluent men he kept seeking new ones, straightway pouring out the proceeds of his earlier robbery in making presents to sundry barbarians or in erecting senseless buildings. [4] And after he had slain perhaps myriads for no good reason, he straightway embarked on plans for the ruin of many more. [5] So then, the Romans being at peace with the whole world, and he by reason of his lust for blood not knowing what to do with himself, Justinian kept bringing all the barbarians into collision with one another, and summoning the leaders of the Huns for no good reason, he handed over to them with amazing prodigality huge donatives, pretending that he was doing this as a pledge of friendship; indeed it was said that he had done this even during the period of Justinus’ reign. [6] And th
ey, even after having received money, would send some of their fellow-leaders together with their followers, bidding them overrun and ravage the Emperor’s land, so that they too might be able to sell peace to the man who for no good reason wished to purchase it. [7] And these then began straightway to enslave the Roman Empire, and they nevertheless were receiving pay in the meantime from the Emperor; and after these, others promptly took over the business of plundering the hapless Romans, and after the pillage they would receive, as rewards for the attack, the Emperor’s generous gifts. [8] Thus all the barbarians, one may almost say, omitting no season of the year, made raids in rotation, plundering and harrying absolutely everything without a moment’s pause. [9] For these barbarians have many groups of leaders and war went the rounds — war that originated in an unreasoning generosity, and could never reach an end, but kept for ever revolving about its own centre. [10] Consequently, during this period no settlement, no mountain, no cave — nothing, in fact, in the Roman domain — remained unplundered, and many places had the misfortune to be captured more than five times. [11] Yet all these things and all that was done by Medes, Saracens, Sclavenians, and Antae and the other barbarians have been set forth by me in previous Books; but, as I said at the beginning of this present Book, it was necessary for me to state in this place the causes of what happened.

  [12] And though he paid out to Chosroes huge sums of gold in return for peace, still, acting on his own judgment in a senseless way, he became the chief cause of the breaking of the truce by his intense eagerness to gain the alliance of Alamundarus and the Huns who are allied to the Persians, a matter which I believe to have been mentioned without concealment in the narrative referring to them. [3] And while he was stirring up the evils of faction and of war for the Romans and fanning the flames, with the one thought in mind that the earth should by many a device be filled with human blood and that he should plunder more money, he contrived another massacre of his subjects on a large scale, in the following manner.

  [14] There are in the whole Roman Empire many rejected doctrines of the Christians, which they are accustomed to call “heresies” — those of the Montani, the Sabbatiani, and all the others which are wont to cause the judgment of man to go astray. [15] All these heretics he commanded to change their earlier beliefs, threatening many things in case of their disobedience, and in particular that it would be impossible for them in the future to hand down their property to their children or other relatives. [16] Now the shrines of these heretics, as they are called, and particularly those who practised the Arian belief, contained wealth unheard-of. [17] For neither the entire Senate nor any other major group of the Roman State could be compared with these sanctuaries in point of wealth. [18] For they had treasures of gold and of silver and ornaments set with precious stones, beyond telling or counting, houses and villages in great numbers, and a large amount of land in all parts of the world, and every other form of wealth which exists and has a name among all mankind, since no man who had ever reigned previously had ever disturbed them. [19] And many persons, and that too of the orthodox faith, excusing themselves by the occupations in which they were engaged, always depended upon the property of these sects for the means of their livelihood. [20] So the Emperor Justinian began by confiscating the properties of these sanctuaries, thus stripping them suddenly of all their wealth. From this it came about that thereafter most of them were cut off from their livelihood.

  [21] And many straightway went everywhere from place to place and tried to compel such persons as they met to change from their ancestral faith. [22] And since such action seemed unholy to the farmer class, they all resolved to make a stand against those who brought this message. [23] So, then, while many were being destroyed by the soldiers and many even made away with themselves, thinking in their folly that they were doing a most righteous thing, and while the majority of them, leaving their homelands, went into exile, the Montani, whose home was in Phrygia, shutting themselves up in their own sanctuaries, immediately set their churches on fire, so that they were destroyed together with the buildings in senseless fashion, and consequently the whole Roman Empire was filled with murder and with exiled men.

  [24] And when a similar law was immediately passed touching the Samaritans also, an indiscriminate confusion swept through Palestine. [25] Now all the residents of my own Caesarea and of all the other cities, regarding it as a foolish thing to undergo any suffering in defence of a senseless dogma, adopted the name of Christians in place of that which they then bore and by this pretence succeeded in shaking off the danger arising from the law. [26] And all those of their number who were persons of any prudence and reasonableness shewed no reluctance about adhering loyally to this faith, but the majority, feeling resentment that, not by their own free choice, but under compulsion of the law, they had changed from the beliefs of their fathers, instantly inclined to the Manichaeans and to the Polytheists, as they are called. [27] And all the farmers, having gathered in great numbers, decided to rise in arms against the Emperor, putting forward as their Emperor a certain brigand, Julian by name, son of Savarus. [28] And when they engaged with the soldiers, they held out for a time, but finally they were defeated in the battle and perished along with their leader. [29] And it is said that one hundred thousand men perished in this struggle, and the land, which is the finest in the world, became in consequence destitute of farmers. [30] And for the owners of the land who were Christians this led to very serious consequences. For it was incumbent upon them, as a matter of compulsion, to pay to the Emperor everlastingly, even though they were deriving no income from the land, the huge annual tax, since no mercy was shewn in the administration of this business.

  [31] He then carried the persecution to the “Greeks,” as they are called, maltreating their bodies and plundering their properties. [32] But even those among them who had decided to espouse in word the name of Christians, seeking thus to avert their present misfortunes, these not much later were generally seized at their libations and sacrifices and other unholy acts. . . . [33] For the measures that were taken with regard to the Christians will be told by me in the following narrative.

  [34] Afterwards he also prohibited sodomy by law, not examining closely into offences committed subsequently to the law but concerning himself only with those persons who long before had been caught by this malady. [35] And the prosecution of these cases was carried out in reckless fashion, since the penalty was exacted even without an accuser, for the word of a single man or boy, and even, if it so happened, of a slave compelled against his will to give evidence against his owner, was considered definite proof. [36] Those who were thus convicted had their privates removed and were paraded through the streets. Not in all cases, however, but only upon those reputed to be Greens or to be possessed of great wealth or those who in some other way chanced to have offended the rulers.

  [37] Furthermore, they were bitter against astrologers. Consequently, the official who was placed in charge of burglaries would maltreat them for no other reason than their being astrologers and, inflicting many stripes upon them, would parade them upon the backs of camels throughout the whole city, old men and persons who were in general respectable, though he had no other complaint against them, except that they wished to be wise in the science of the stars in a place like this. [38] So a great throng of persons were fleeing constantly, not only to the barbarians, but also to those Romans who lived at a great distance, and it was possible to see both in the country and in every city great numbers of strangers. [39] For in order to escape detection they readily exchanged their respective native lands for foreign soil, just as if their home-country had been captured by an enemy. [40] So, then, the wealth of those reputed to be prosperous, both in Byzantium and in every other city, that is, after the members of the Senate, was plundered and seized by Justinian and Theodora in the manner which has been described. [41] But how they succeeded in depriving the Senators also of all their property, I shall now proceed to make known.

  XII


  There was a certain man in Byzantium named Zeno, grandson of that Anthemius who previously had attained to the royal power in the West. This man they had purposely made a Prefect of Egypt and sent him thither. [2] But he loaded the ship with the most valuable property and made ready to put to sea; for he had an incalculable weight of silver plate and objects of gold adorned with pearls and emeralds and other such precious stones. They thereupon, bribing certain of those who seemed most loyal to them, removed the valuables from the ship with all speed, and casting fire into the hold of the vessel, ordered a message sent to Zeno that the fire had occurred spontaneously in his ship and that his property had been destroyed. [3] And at a later time it came to pass that Zeno died suddenly, and they themselves, in the guise of heirs, immediately became owners of the property. [4] For they produced a sort of will, which common gossip said had not been written by him.