Delphi Complete Works of Procopius

by Procopius of Caesarea

  [5] Λιβύη μὲν γὰρ ἐς τοσοῦτον διήκουσα μέτρον οὕτως ἀπόλωλεν ὥστε ὁδὸν ἰόντι πολλὴν ἀνδρὶ ἐντυχεῖν χαλεπόν τε καὶ λόγου ἄξιον εἶναι.

  [5] For in the first place, Libya, which attains to so large dimensions, has been so thoroughly ruined that for the traveller who makes a long journey it is no easy matter, as well as being a noteworthy fact, to meet a human being.

  [6] καίτοι Βανδίλων μὲν τῶν ὅπλα ἀρχὴν αἰρομένων ἐνταῦθα μυριάδες ὀκτὼ ἐτύγχανον οὖσαι, γυναίων δὲ καὶ παιδαρίων καὶ θεραπόντων αὐτῶν τίς ἂν εἰκάσειε μέτρον;

  [6] And yet the Vandals who recently took up arms there numbered eight myriads, and as for their women and children and slaves, who could guess their number?

  [7] Λιβύων δὲ τῶν ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν ᾠκημένων τὰ πρότερα καὶ γῆν γεωργούντων ἐργασίαν τε τὴν κατὰ θάλασσαν ἐργαζομένων, ὅπερ μοι αὐτόπτῃ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον γεγονέναι τετύχηκε, πῶς ἄν τις τὸ πλῆθος διαριθμεῖσθαι ἱκανὸς εἴη τῶν πάντων ἀνθρώπων; τούτων δὲ πολλῷ ἔτι πλείους Μαυρούσιοι ἦσαν ἐνταῦθα, οἷς δὴ ἅπασι ξύν τε γυναιξὶ καὶ γόνῳ διεφθάρθαι ξυνέβη.

  [7] And as for the Libyans, those who formerly lived in the cities, those who tilled the soil, and those who toiled at the labours of sea — all of which I had the fortune to witness with my own eyes — how could any man estimate the multitude of them? And still more numerous than these were the Moors there, all of whom were in the end destroyed together with their wives and offspring.

  [8] πολλοὺς δὲ αὖ τὴ καὶ Ῥωμαίων στρατιωτῶν καὶ τῶν αὐτοῖς ἐκ Βυζαντίου ἐπισπομένων ἡ γῆ ἔκρυψεν. ὥστε εἴ τις μυριάδας ἀνθρώπων ἔν γε Λιβύῃ πεντακοσίας ἰσχυρίζεται ἀπολωλέναι, οὐκ ἄν ποτε τῷ πράγματι, οἶμαι,

  [8] Many too of the Roman soldiers and of those who had followed them there from Byzantium the earth has covered. So that if one maintains that five hundred myriads of human beings perished in Libya, he would not by any means, I know, be doing justice to the facts.

  [9] διαρκῶς εἴποι. αἴτιον δὲ ὅτι Βανδίλων εὐθὺς ἡσσημένων οὐχ ὅπως κρατύνηται τὴν τῆς χώρας ἐπικράτησιν ἐπιμελές οἱ ἐγίνετο, οὐδ̓ ὅπως οἱ ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν φυλακὴ ἐν τῷ ἀσφαλεῖ εὐνοίᾳ τῶν κατηκόων εἴη προὐνόησεν, ἀλλὰ Βελισάριον αὐτίκα μελλήσει οὐδεμιᾷ μετεπέμπετο, τυραννίδα οἱ οὐδαμόθεν προσήκουσαν ἐπεγκαλέσας, ὅπως τὸ ἐνθένδε διοικούμενος κατ̓ ἐξουσίαν Λιβύην καταπιὼν ὅλην ληΐζηται.

  [9] And the reason for this was that immediately after the defeat of the Vandals, Justinian not only did not concern himself with strengthening his dominion over the country, and not only did he not make provision that the safeguarding of its wealth should rest securely in the good-will of its inhabitants, but straightway he summoned Belisarius to return home without the least delay, laying against him an utterly unjustified accusation of tyranny, to the end that thereafter, administering Libya with full licence, he might swallow it up and thus make plunder of the whole of it.

  [10] Τιμητὰς ἀμέλει τῆς γῆς εὐθὺς ἔπεμπε καὶ φόρους ἐπετίθει πικροτάτους τινὰς οὐ πρότερον ὄντας. καὶ τῶν χωρίων προσεποιεῖτο, εἴ τι ἄριστον ἦν, καὶ Ἀρειανοὺς τῶν ἐν σφίσιν αὐτοῖς μυστηρίων εἶργε.

  [10] At any rate he immediately sent out assessors of the land and imposed certain most cruel taxes which had not existed before. And he laid hold of the estates, whichever were best. And he excluded the Arians from the sacraments which they observed.

  [11] καὶ ταῖς στρατιωτικαῖς συντάξεσιν ὑπερήμερος ἦν, καὶ ἄλλως τοῖς στρατιώταις ἐγεγόνει βαρύς. ἐξ ὧν αἱ στάσεις φυόμεναι τετελευτήκασιν εἰς ὄλεθρον μέγαν.

  [11] Also he was tardy in the payment of his military forces, and in other ways became a grievance to the soldiers. From these causes arose the insurrections which resulted in great destruction.

  [12] οὐ γὰρ μένειν ἐν τοῖς καθεστῶσί ποτε ἴσχυεν, ἀλλὰ ξυγχεῖν τε καὶ ἀναθολοῦν ἐπεφύκει πάντα.

  [12] For he never was able to adhere to settled conditions, but he was naturally inclined to make confusion and turmoil everywhere.

  [13] Ἰταλία δὲ οὐχ ἧσσον ἢ τριπλασία Λιβύης οὖσα ἔρημος ἀνθρώπων πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἔτι ἢ ἐκείνη πανταχόθι γεγένηται. ὥστε δὴ μέτρου τῶν κἀνταῦθα

  [13] And as to Italy, which has not less than three times the area of Libya, it has become everywhere even more destitute of men than Libya.

  [14] ἀνῃρημένων ἐγγύθεν ἡ δήλωσις ἔσται. ἡ γὰρ αἰτία τῶν ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ ξυμπεπτωκότων ἤδη μοι ἔμπροσθεν δεδιήγηται. ἅπαντά τε γὰρ ὅσα ἐν Λιβύῃ, κἀνταῦθα αὐτῷ ἡμαρτήθη.

  [14] Consequently the estimate of persons likewise destroyed here will be fairly easy. For the cause of what happened in Italy has already been explained by me in an earlier passage. Indeed all the errors which he made in Libya were repeated by him here also.

  [15] καὶ τοὺς καλουμένους λογοθέτας προσεπιπέμψας ἀνεχαίτισέ τε καὶ διέφθειρεν εὐθὺς ἅπαντα.

  [15] And by adding to the administrative staff the Logothetes, as they are called, he upset and ruined everything immediately.

  [16] κατέτεινε δὲ ἡ Γότθων ἀρχὴ πρὸ τοῦδε τοῦ πολέμου ἐκ Γάλλων τῆς γῆς ἄχρι τῶν Δακίας ὁρίων,

  [16] Now the sway of the Goths extended, before this war, from the land of Gaul as far as the boundaries of Dacia, where the city of Sirmium is situated.

  [17] οὗ δὴ πόλις τὸ Σίρμιόν ἐστι. Γαλλίας μὲν οὖν καὶ Βενετίων γῆν τὴν πολλὴν Γερμανοὶ ἔσχον, ἐπειδὴ ἀφίκετο ἐς Ἰταλίαν ὁ Ῥωμαίων στρατός.

  [17] As for Gaul and Venetia, the Germans held the greater part of them at the time when the Roman army came into Italy.

  [18] Σίρμιον δὲ καὶ τὰ ἐκείνῃ χωρία Γήπαιδες κατέχουσιν, ἅπαντα μέντοι συλλήβδην εἰπεῖν ἀνθρώπων παντελῶς ἔρημα.

  [18] But the Gepaides control Sirmium and the country thereabout, which is all, roughly speaking, completely destitute of human habtation.

  [19] τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ὁ πόλεμος, τοὺς δὲ νόσος τε καὶ λιμὸς διεχρήσαντο, ἃ δὴ τῷ πολέμῳ ἕπεσθαι πέφυκεν.

  [19] For some were destroyed by the war, some by disease and famine, the natural concomitants of war.

  [20] Ἰλλυριοὺς δὲ καὶ Θρᾴκην ὅλην, εἴη δ̓ ἂν ἐκ κόλπου τοῦ Ἰονίου μέχρι ἐς τὰ Βυζαντίων προάστεια, ἐν τοῖς Ἑλλάς τε καὶ Χερρονησιωτῶν ἡ χώρα ἐστὶν, Οὖννοί τε �
�αὶ Σκλαβηνοὶ καὶ Ἄνται σχεδόν τι ἀνὰ πᾶν καταθέοντες ἔτος, ἐξ οὗ Ἰουστινιανὸς παρέλαβε τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴν, ἀνήκεστα ἔργα εἰργάσαντο τοὺς ταύτῃ ἀνθρώπους.

  [20] And Illyricum and Thrace in its entirety, comprising the whole expanse of country from the Ionian Gulf to the outskirts of Byzantium, including Greece and the Thracian Chersonese, was overrun practically every year by Huns, Sclaveni and Antae, from the time when Justinian took over the Roman Empire, and they wrought frightful havoc among the inhabitants of that region.

  [21] πλέον γὰρ ἐν ἑκάστῃ ἐσβολῇ οἶμαι ἢ κατὰ μυριάδας εἴκοσιν εἶναι τῶν τε ἀνῃρημένων καὶ ἠνδραποδισμένων ἐνταῦθα Ῥωμαίων, ὥστε τὴν Σκυθῶν ἐρημίαν ἀμέλει ταύτης πανταχόσε τῆς γῆς ξυμβαίνειν εἶναι.

  [21] For in each invasion more than twenty myriads of Romans, I think, were destroyed or enslaved there, so that a veritable “Scythian wilderness” came to exist everywhere in this land.

  [22] Τὰ μὲν οὖν ἐν Λιβύῃ τε καὶ Εὐρώπῃ κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον ξυνενεχθέντα τοιαῦτά ἐστι. Σαρακηνοὶ δὲ τοὺς ἑῴους Ῥωμαίους ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπτου μέχρι τῶν Περσίδος ὁρίων πάντα τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον διηνεκῶς καταθέοντες οὕτω δὴ ἐνδελεχέστατα κατειργάσαντο, ὥστε ὀλιγανθρωπότατα ξύμπαντα ἐγεγόνει τὰ ἐκείνῃ χωρία, καὶ οὐ μήποτε ἀνθρώπῳ, οἶμαι, δυνατὰ ἔσται τὸ μέτρον τῶν οὕτως ἀπολωλότων διερευνωμένῳ εὑρέσθαι.

  [22] Such are the disasters wrought by the wars in Libya and in Europe. The Saracens meantime were overrunning the Romans of the East, from Egypt to the frontiers of Persia, throughout this whole period without interruption, and they accomplished such thorough-going destruction that this entire region came to be very sparsely populated, and it will never be possible, I think, for any human being to discover by enquiry the numbers of those who perished in this way.

  [23] Πέρσαι τε καὶ Χοσρόης τετράκις μὲν ἐμβάλλοντες ἐς τὴν ἄλλην Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴν τάς τε πόλεις καθεῖλον καὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους οὓς ἂν λάβοιεν ἔν τε πόλεσι ταῖς ἁλισκομέναις καὶ χώρᾳ ἑκάστῃ τοὺς μὲν κτείνοντες, τοὺς δὲ ξὺν αὑτοῖς ἐπαγόμενοι, ἔρημον τὴν γῆν κατεστήσαντο τῶν ἐνοικούντων, ᾗπερ αὐτοὺς ἐπισκῆψαι ξυνέπεσεν.

  [23] The Persians under Chosroes four times made inroads into the rest of the Roman domain and dismantled the cities, and as for the people whom they found in the captured cities and in each country district, they slew a part and led some away with them, leaving the land bare of inhabitants wherever they chanced to descend.

  [24] ἐξ οὗ δὲ καὶ εἰς γῆν τὴν Κολχίδα ἐσήλασαν, αὐτοῖς τε καὶ Λαζοῖς καὶ Ῥωμαίοις διαφθείρεσθαι μέχρι δεῦρο ξυμβαίνει.

  [24] And ever since the Persian invasion of the land of Colchis, the Colchians and the Lazi and the Romans have continued to be steadily destroyed up to the present day.

  [25] Οὐ μέντοι οὐδὲ Πέρσαις ἢ Σαρακηνοῖς ἢ Οὔννοις ἢ τῷ Σκλαβηνῶν γένει ἢ τῶν ἄλλων βαρβάρων τισὶν ἀκραιφνέσιν ἐκ Ῥωμαίων τῆς γῆς ξυνηνέχθη ἀπαλλαγῆναι.

  [25] Moreover, neither the Persians on their part nor the Saracens nor the Huns nor the race of the Sclaveni nor any other of the barbarians have had the fortune to retire unscathed from Roman soil.

  [26] ἔν τε γὰρ ταῖς ἐφόδοις καὶ πολλῷ ἔτι μᾶλλον ἔν τε πολιορκίαις καὶ ξυμβολαῖς ἐναντιώμασι πολλοῖς προσεπταικότες οὐδέν τι ἧσσον ξυνδιεφθάρησαν.

  [26] For in the course of their inroads, and particularly during the sieges and battles, they fell foul of many obstacles and were destroyed equally with their enemies.

  [27] οὐ γὰρ Ῥωμαῖοι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ βάρβαροι σχεδόν τι πάντες τῆς Ἰουστινιανοῦ μιαιφονίας ἀπώναντο.

  [27] For not alone Romans but practically the whole barbarian world as well felt the influence of Justinian’s lust for bloodshed.

  [28] ἦν μὲν γάρ τε καὶ Χοσρόης αὐτός τε πονηρὸς τὸ ἦθος καὶ, ὥς μοι ἐν λόγοις εἴρηται τοῖς καθήκουσι, τὰς μὲν αἰτίας αὐτῷ τοῦ πολέμου ὅδε παρείχετο πάσας.

  [28] For not only was Chosroes himself likewise vicious in character, but he was also provided by Justinian, as has been stated by me in the appropriate place, with all the motives for waging war.

  [29] οὐ γὰρ ἠξίου τοῖς καιροῖς ἐναρμόζειν τὰς πράξεις, ἀλλ̓ ἀπὸ καιροῦ πάντα εἰργάζετο, ἐν μὲν εἰρήνῃ καὶ σπονδαῖς ἐξαρτυόμενος ἀεὶ νῷ δολερῷ ἐπὶ τοὺς πέλας πολέμου αἰτίας, ἐν δὲ τῷ πολέμῳ ἀναπεπτωκώς τε οὐδενὶ λόγῳ καὶ τὴν τῶν ἔργων παρασκευὴν ὀκνηρῶς ἄγαν διὰ φιλοχρηματίαν ποιούμενος, ἀντί τε σπουδῆς τῆς περὶ ταῦτα περισκοπῶν μὲν τὰ μετέωρα, περιέργος δὲ ἀμφὶ τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ φύσει γινόμενος, καὶ οὔτε τὸν πόλεμον μεθιεὶς, τῷ μιαιφόνος τις καὶ παλαμναῖος εἶναι, οὔτε περιεῖναι τῶν πολεμίων οἷός τε ὢν, τῷ μὴ τὰ δέοντα ὑπὸ σμικρολογίας περιεργάζεσθαι.

  [29] For he did not think it worth while to adapt his activities to the opportune occasions, but he kept doing everything out of season, in times of peace and in periods of truce ever devising, with crafty purpose, occasions of war against his neighbours, and in times of war, on the other hand, growing lax for no good reason and carrying on the preparations for military operations too deliberately, all because of his parsimony, and instead of devoting himself to such things, scanning the heavens and developing a curious interest concerning the nature of God, and neither giving over the war, because of his bloodthirsty and abominable character, nor being, on the other hand, able to get the better of his enemy, because he was prevented by his niggardliness from busying himself with the necessary things.

  [30] ταύτῃ τε αὐτοῦ βασιλεύοντος ἡ γῆ ξύμπασα ἔμπλεως αἵματος ἀνθρωπείου ἔκ τε Ῥωμαίων καὶ βαρβάρων σχεδόν τι πάντων διαρκῶς γέγονε.

  [30] Thus during his reign the whole earth was constantly drenched with human blood shed by both the Romans and practically all the barbarians.

  [31] Ταῦτα μέντοι κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον πανταχόθι γῆς τῆς Ῥωμαίων ξυλλήβδην εἰπεῖν ὑπὸ τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον ξυνηνέχθη γενέσθαι.

  [31] This, then, to state the case in a word, is what came to pass during this period of wars throughout the whole Roman Empire.

  [32] τὰ δὲ κατὰ στάσιν ἔν τε Βυζαντίῳ καὶ πόλει ἑκάστῃ ξυνενεχθέντα διαριθμούμενος οὐκ ἐλάσσω ἀνθρώπων φόνον ταύτῃ ξυμβῆναι ἢ κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον οἴομαι.

  [32] And when
I reckon over the events which took place during the insurrections both in Byzantium and in each several city, I believe that no less slaughter of men came about in this way than in actual warfare.

  [33] τοῦ γὰρ δικαίου καὶ τῆς ὁμοίας ἐπιστροφῆς ἐπὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτανομένοις ὡς ἥκιστα ὄντων, ἀλλὰ κατεσπουδασμένου τῷ βασιλεῖ θατέρου τοῖν μεροῖν μάλιστα ἡσυχίαν οὐδὲ θάτεροι ἦγον, ἀλλ̓ οἱ μὲν τῷ ἐλασσοῦσθαι, οἱ δὲ τῷ θαρσεῖν ἐς ἀπόγνωσίν τε καὶ ἀπόνοιαν ἀεὶ ἔβλεπον, καὶ πὴ μὲν ἀθρόοι ἐπ̓ ἀλλήλους ἰόντες, πὴ δὲ κατ̓ ὀλίγους μαχόμενοι, ἢ καὶ κατ̓ ἄνδρα ἕνα τὰς ἐνέδρας, ἂν οὕτω τύχοι, ποιούμενοι ἐς δύο καὶ τριάκοντα ἐνιαυτοὺς οὐδένα ἀνιέντες καιρὸν αὐτοί τε εἰργάζοντο ἀλλήλους ἀνήκεστα ἔργα καὶ πρὸς τῆς τῷ δήμῳ ἐφεστώσης ἀρχῆς ὡς τὰ πολλὰ διεφθείροντο.

  [33] For since justice and impartial chastisement for wrong-doing scarcely existed at all, but of the two Factions one was actually supported by the Emperor, assuredly the other party did not remain quiet either; on the contrary, because one group was being worsted and the other was full of confidence, they constantly had in view desperation and mad recklessness; and sometimes attacking each other in crowds and sometimes fighting in small groups, or even, if it so happened, setting ambuscades one against one, for two-and-thirty years without a pause they kept wreaking fearful vengeance upon one another, and at the same time they were being put to death by the magistrate, as a rule, who was charged with the control of the populace.