Delphi Complete Works of Procopius

by Procopius of Caesarea

  [15] Τὰ μὲν οὖν τῆς συνωνῆς ταύτῃ πη ἔχει: τὸ δὲ τῆς ἐπιβολῆς ὄνομα ὄλεθρός τίς ἐστιν ἀπρόοπτος ἐξαπιναίως τοῖς τὰ χωρία κεκτημένοις ἐπιγενόμενος πρόρριζόν τε αὐτοῖς ἐκτρίβων τὴν τοῦ βίου ἐλπίδα.

  [15] Such in a general way was “buying on requisition.” But the term “impost” is used to describe a kind of unforeseen ruination that falls suddenly upon the owners of land and destroys root and branch their hope of a livelihood.

  [16] χωρίων γὰρ τὸ τέλος τῶν ἐρήμων τε καὶ ἀπόρων γεγενημένων, ὧν δὴ τοῖς τε κυρίοις καὶ τοῖς γεωργοῖς ἤδη τετύχηκεν ἢ παντάπασιν ἀπολωλέναι, ἢ γῆν πατρῴαν ἀπολιποῦσι τοῖς ἐγκειμένοις σφίσι διὰ ταῦτα κακοῖς κρύπτεσθαι, οὐκ ἀπαξιοῦσιν ἐπιφέρειν τοῖς οὔπω διεφθαρμένοις παντάπασι.

  [16] For this is a tax on lands that have become abandoned or unproductive, the owners and farmers of which have already had the misfortune either to perish altogether or, abandoning their ancestral estates, to be now living in wretchedness because of the woes imposed upon them by reason of these imposts; and they do not hesitate to impose it upon any who have not yet been ruined altogether.

  [17] Τοιοῦτο μὲν καὶ τὸ τῆς ἐπιβολῆς ὄνομά ἐστιν, ἐπιπολάσαν ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς ἐπὶ τὸν χρόνον μάλιστα τοῦτον. τὰ δὲ τῶν διαγραφῶν ὡς συντομώτατα φράσαντι ἀπηλλάχθαι τῇδέ πη ἔχει.

  [17] Such is the meaning of the term “impost,” a term which with good reason gained its widest currency during the period in question. But as for the “pro-rated assessments” — to dispose of the subject in the fewest possible words — the matter is about as follows.

  [18] ζημίαις πολλαῖς ἄλλως τε καὶ ὑπὸ τοὺς χρόνους τούτους περιβάλλεσθαι τὰς πόλεις ἦν ἀνάγκη: ὧνπερ τάς τε ἀφορμὰς καὶ τοὺς τρόπους ἀφίημι λέγειν ἐν τῷ παρόντι, ὡς μή μοι ὁ λόγος ἀπέραντος εἴη.

  [18] That the cities should be subjected to many damaging exactions at all times and particularly during this period was inevitable; as to the motives that led to their imposition and the manner of their application, I forbear to discuss them on this occasion, lest my treatise become interminable.

  [19] ταύτας οἱ τὰ χωρία ἔχοντες ἀπέτινον, τίμημα κατατιθέντες κατὰ λόγον τῆς ἐγκειμένης ἑκάστῳ

  [19] These assessments were paid by the owners of the lands, each paying an assessed sum in proportion to the tax regularly levied upon him.

  [20] φορᾶς. οὐκ ἄχρι δὲ τούτων αὐτοῖς τὸ κακὸν ἔστη, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ λοιμοῦ ξύμπασαν περιλαβόντος τήν τε ἄλλην οἰκουμένην καὶ οὐχ ἥκιστα τὴν τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴν τῶν τε γεωργῶν ἀφανίσαντος μέρος τὸ πλεῖστον, καὶ ἀπ̓ αὐτοῦ ἐρήμων ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς τῶν χωρίων γεγενημένων, οὐδεμιᾷ φειδοῖ ἐχρήσατο ἐς τοὺς τούτων κυρίους.

  [20] But trouble did not stop here; on the contrary, when the plague came, seizing in its grip the whole civilized world and especially the Roman Empire, and wiping out most of the farmers, and when for this reason the lands, as one might expect, had become deserted, the Emperor shewed no mercy to the owners of these lands.

  [21] φόρον γὰρ τὸν ἐπέτειον οὔποτε ἀνίει πραττόμενος οὐχ ᾗπερ ἑκάστῳ ἐπέβαλλε μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ γειτόνων τῶν ἀπολωλότων τὴν μοῖραν.

  [21] For he never relaxed his exaction of the annual tax, not merely as he imposed it upon each separate person, but also exacting the share which fell to his deceased neighbours.

  [22] προσῆν δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ τἄλλα πάντα ὧνπερ ἐμνήσθην ἀρτίως ἅτε τοῖς τῶν χωρίων δεδυστυχηκόσι τὴν κτῆσιν ἀεὶ ἐγκειμένων, ἔτι μέντοι καὶ τοῖς μὲν στρατιώταις ἀνὰ τὰ κάλλιστά τε καὶ τιμιώτατα δωματίων τῶν σφετέρων ᾠκημένοις ὑπηρετεῖν, αὐτοῖς δὲ πάντα τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον ἐν τοῖς φαυλοτάτοις τε καὶ ἀπημελημένοις τῶν οἰκιδίων δίαιταν ἔχειν.

  [22] And in addition they also had to stand all the other exactions which I mentioned a moment ago as always falling upon those who were cursed with the ownership of farms, and over and above all these things, they had to house the soldiers, in the best and most expensive of their rooms and to wait upon them, while they themselves throughout this whole time lived in the meanest and the most dilapidated of their outhouses.

  [23] Ἅπερ ἅπαντα ὑπὸ τὴν Ἰουστινιανοῦ τε καὶ Θεοδώρας βασιλείαν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀεὶ γίνεσθαι ξυνέβη, ἐπεὶ οὔτε πόλεμον οὔτε τι ἄλλο τῶν μεγίστων κακῶν ἐν τούτῳ δὴ τῷ χρόνῳ λελωφηκέναι τετύχηκεν.

  [23] All these evils kept constantly afflicting the people during the reign of Justinian and Theodora, for it so happened that neither war nor any other of the greatest calamities subsided during this time.

  [24] ἐπεὶ δὲ δωματίων ἐμνήσθημεν, οὐδὲ τοῦτο παριτέον ἡμῖν, ὅτι δὴ οἱ κεκτημένοι τὰς ἐν Βυζαντίῳ οἰκίας βαρβάροις ἐνταῦθα καταλύειν παρεχόμενοι ἑπτακισμυρίοις μάλιστα οὖσιν, οὐχ ὅπως τῶν σφετέρων ὀνίνασθαι οὐδαμῆ εἶχον, ἀλλὰ καὶ προσετρίβοντο δυσκόλοις ἑτέροις.

  [24] And since we have made mention of rooms for billeting, we must not pass over the fact that the owners of the houses in Byzantium, having to turn over their dwellings there as lodgings for barbarians to the number of about seventy thousand, not only could derive no benefit from their own property, but were also afflicted by these other disagreeable conditions.

  XXIV

  Οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ τὰ ἐς τοὺς στρατιώτας αὐτῷ εἰργασμένα σιωπῇ δοτέον, οἷς δὴ τοὺς πονηροτάτους ἐπέστησεν ἀνθρώπων ἁπάντων χρήματα σφᾶς ὅτι πλεῖστα ξυλλέγειν ἐνθένδε κελεύσας, εὖ εἰδότας ὡς μοῖρα τῶν πορισθησομένων ἡ δωδεκάτη αὐτοῖς κείσεται.

  Nor assuredly is his treatment of the soldiers to be consigned to silence; for over them he put in authority the most villainous of all men, bidding them collect from this source as much as they could, and these officers were well aware that the twelfth part of what they should thus procure should fall to them.

  [2] ὄνομα δὲ λογοθέτας αὐτοῖς ἔθετο. οἱ δὲ ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος ἐπενόουν τάδε. τὰς στρατιωτικὰς συντάξεις οὐχ ὁμοίως νόμος χορηγεῖσθαι ἐφεξῆς ἅπασιν, ἀλλὰ νέοις μὲν ἔτι αὐτοῖς. οὖσι καὶ στρατευσαμένοις ἀρτίως ἐλάσσων ὁ πόρος, πεπονηκόσι δὲ καὶ μέσοις που ἤδη καταλόγου γεγενημένοις ἐπὶ μεῖζον χωρεῖ.

  [2] And he gave them the title of “Logothetes.” And these each year devised the following scheme. According to a law the
military pay is not given to all alike year after year, but when the men are still young and have only recently joined the army, the rate is lower, while for those who have been in service and are now at about the middle of the muster-roll, it grows larger.

  [3] γεγηρακόσι μέντοι καὶ μέλλουσι τῆς στρατείας ἀφίεσθαι πολλῷ ἔτι κομπωδεστέρα ἡ σύνταξις, ὅπως αὐτοί τε τὸ λοιπὸν ἰδίᾳ βιοῦντες ἐς τὸ ἀποζῆν διαρκῶς ἔχοιεν, καὶ ἐπειδὰν αὐτοῖς ξυμμετρήσασθαι τὸν βίον ξυμβαίη, παραψυχήν τινα τῶν οἰκείων ἀπολιπεῖν τοῖς κατὰ τὴν

  [3] But when they have grown old and are on the point of being discharged from the army, the pay is very much more imposing, to the end not only that they may, when in future they are living as private citizens, have sufficient for their own maintenance, but may also, when it is their lot to have completely measured out the term of life, be able to leave from their own property some consolation to the members of their households.

  [4] οἰκίαν δυνατοὶ εἶεν. ὁ τοίνυν χρόνος τῶν στρατιωτῶν τοὺς καταδεεστέρους ἐς τῶν τετελευτηκότων ἢ τῆς στρατείας ἀφειμένων τοὺς βαθμοὺς ἀεὶ ἀναβιβάζων πρυτανεύει κατὰ πρεσβεῖα τὰς ἐκ τοῦ δημοσίου συντάξεις ἑκάστῳ.

  [4] Thus time, by continuously promoting the soldiers who are lower down in the scale to the rank of those who have died or been discharged from the army, regulates on the basis of seniority the payments to be made from the Treasury to each man.

  [5] ἀλλ̓ οἱ λογοθέται καλούμενοι οὐκ εἴων ἐκ τῶν καταλόγων ἀφαιρεῖσθαι τὰ τῶν τετελευτηκότων ὀνόματα, καίπερ ὁμοῦ διαφθειρομένων, ἄλλως τε καὶ κατὰ τοὺς πολέμους συχνοὺς γινομένους, τῶν πλείστων. οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ τοὺς καταλόγους ἔτι ἐπλήρουν, καὶ ταῦτα χρόνου συχνοῦ.

  [5] But the Logothetes, as they are called, would not allow the names of the deceased to be removed from the rolls, even when great numbers died at one time from other causes, and especially, as was the case with the most, in the course of the numerous wars. Furthermore, they would no longer fill out the muster-rolls, and that too for a long period.

  [6] καὶ ἀπ̓ αὐτοῦ περιειστήκει τῇ μὲν πολιτείᾳ τὸν τῶν στρατευομένων ἀριθμὸν ἐνδεέστερον ἀεὶ εἶναι, τῶν δὲ στρατιωτῶν τοῖς περιοῦσι πρὸς τῶν πάλαι τετελευτηκότων διωθουμένοις ἐπὶ μοίρας παρὰ τὴν ἀξίαν τῆς καταδεεστέρας ἀπολελεῖφθαι, τάς τε ξυντάξεις ἐλαττόνως ἢ κατὰ τὴν προσήκουσαν κομίξεσθαι τάξιν, τοῖς δὲ λογοθέταις διαλαγχάνειν Ἰουστινιανῷ τῶν στρατιωτικῶν χρημάτων πάντα τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον.

  [6] And the result of this practice has proved unfortunate for all concerned — first, for the State in that the number of soldiers in active service is always deficient; secondly, for the surviving soldiers, in that they are elbowed out by those who have died long before and so find themselves left in a position inferior to what they deserve, and that they receive a pay which is lower than if they had the rank to which they are entitled; and, finally, for the Logothetes, who all this time have had to apportion to Justinian a share of the soldiers’ money.

  [7] Ἔτι μέντοι καὶ ἄλλαις ζημιῶν ἰδέαις πολλαῖς τοὺς στρατιώτας ἀπέκναιον, ὥσπερ ἀμειβόμενοι τῶν ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις κινδύνων, ἐπικαλοῦντες τοῖς μὲν ὡς Γραικοὶ εἶεν, ὥσπερ οὐκ ἐξὸν τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς Ἑλλάδος τὸ παράπαν τινὶ γενναίῳ γενέσθαι, τοῖς δὲ ὡς οὐκ ἐπιτεταγμένον πρὸς βασιλέως σφίσι στρατεύοιντο, καίπερ ἀμφὶ τούτῳ γράμματα βασιλέως ἐνδεικνυμένοις, ἅπερ οἱ λογοθέται διαβάλλειν οὐδεμιᾷ ὀκνήσει ἐτόλμων: ἄλλοις δὲ, ὅτι δὴ τῶν ἑταίρων ἡμέρας σφίσιν ἀπολελεῖφθαί τινας ξυμβαίη.

  [7] Furthermore, they kept grinding down the soldiers with many other forms of penalties, as though to requite them thus for the dangers incurred in the wars, charging some with being “Greeks,” as though it were wholly impossible for any man from Greece to be a decent man, others with being in the service without an order from the Emperor, even though they could shew, on this point, an imperial order, which, however, the Logothetes with no hesitation had the effrontery to denounce; and others still they accused on the ground that for some days they had chanced to be absent from their comrades.

  [8] ὕστερον καὶ τῶν ἐν Παλατίῳ φυλάκων τινὲς ἀνὰ πᾶσαν στελλόμενοι τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴν διηρευνῶντο δῆθεν τῷ λόγῳ ἐν τοῖς καταλόγοις τοὺς ἐς τὸ στρατεύεσθαι ἐπιτηδείους ὄντας ὡς ἥκιστα, καὶ αὐτῶν τινὰς μὲν ἅτε ἀχρείους ὄντας ἢ γεγηρακότας ἀφαιρεῖσθαι τὰς ζώνας ἐτόλμων, οἵπερ τὸ λοιπὸν ἐκ τῶν εὐσεβούντων ἐν τῷ δημοσίῳ τῆς ἀγορᾶς προσαιτοῦντες τροφὴν δακρύων τε καὶ ὀλοφύρσεως ἀεὶ προφάσεις τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσιν ἐγίνοντο πᾶσι, τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς, ὅπως δὴ μὴ ταὐτὰ καὶ αὐτοὶ πείσωνται, χρήματα μεγάλα ἐπράττοντο, ὥστε πάντων τοὺς στρατιώτας ἅτε τρόποις ἐκνενευρισμένους πολλοῖς πτωχοτέρους τε γεγονέναι καὶ οὐδαμῆ ἐς τὸ πολεμεῖν προθυμεῖσθαι ξυνέβη.

  [8] Later on also some of the Palace Guards were sent out through the whole Roman Empire, and ostensibly they were in search of any among the armies who were quite unsuitable for active service; and they dared to strip the belts from some of these as being unfit or too old, and these thereafter had to beg their bread from the pious in the public square of the market-place, so that they became a constant cause for tears and lamentation on the part of all who met them; and from the rest they exacted great sums of money, to the end that they might not suffer the same fate, so that the soldiers, broken in manifold ways, had become the poorest of all men and had not the slightest zest for warfare.

  [9] ὅθεν Ῥωμαίοις καὶ τὰ ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ πράγματα λελύσθαι ξυνέπεσεν. οὗ δὴ Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ λογοθέτης σταλεὶς τοῖς μὲν στρατιώταις ταῦτα ἐπικαλεῖν οὐδεμιᾷ ὀκνήσει ἐθάρρει, τοὺς δὲ Ἰταλοὺς χρήματα ἔπραττε, τῶν ἐς Θευδέριχον καὶ Γότθους πεπολιτευμένων ἀμύνεσθαι φάσκων.

  [9] It was for just this reason that the Roman power came to be destroyed in Italy. Indeed, when Alexander the Logothete was sent thither, he had the effrontery to lay these charges without compunction upon the soldiers, and he tried to exact money from the Italians, alleging that he was punishing them for their behaviour during the reign of Theoderic and the Goths.

  [10] οὐ μόνοι δὲ οἱ στρατιῶται πενίᾳ τε καὶ ἀπορίᾳ πρὸς τῶν λογοθετῶν ἐπιέζοντο, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ πᾶσιν ὑπηρετοῦντες τοῖς στρατηγοῖς παμπληθεῖς τε καὶ δ
όξῃ μεγάλοι τὰ πρότερα ὄντες, λιμῷ καὶ πενίᾳ δεινῇ ἤχθοντο.

  [10] And it was not alone the soldiers who were oppressed by destitution and poverty through the conduct of the Logothetes, but also the subordinates who served all the generals, formerly a numerous and highly esteemed group, laboured under the burden of starvation and dire poverty.

  [11] οὐ γὰρ εἶχον ὅθεν τὰ εἰωθότα σφίσι πορίσονται.

  [11] For they had not the means wherewith to provide themselves with their customary necessities.

  [12] Προσθήσω δέ τι τούτοις καὶ ἕτερον, ἐπεί με ὁ τῶν στρατιωτῶν λόγος ἐς τοῦτο ἄγει. οἱ Ῥωμαίων βεβασιλευκότες ἐν τοῖς ἄνω χρόνοις πανταχόσε τῶν τῆς πολιτείας ἐσχατιῶν πάμπολυ κατεστήσαντο στρατιωτῶν πλῆθος ἐπὶ φυλακῇ τῶν ὁρίων τῆς Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῆς, καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἑῴαν μάλιστα μοῖραν ταύτῃ τὰς ἐφόδους Περσῶν τε καὶ Σαρακηνῶν ἀναστέλλοντες,

  [12] And I shall add one further item to those I have mentioned, since the subject of the soldiers leads me thereto. The Roman Emperors in earlier times stationed a very great multitude of soldiers at all points of the Empire’s frontier in order to guard the boundaries of the Roman domain, particularly in the eastern portion, thus checking the inroads of the Persians and the Saracens; these troops they used to call limitanei.

  [13] οὕσπερ λιμιταναίους ἐκάλουν. τούτοις Ἰουστινιανὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς κατ̓ ἀρχὰς μὲν οὕτω δὴ παρέργως τε καὶ φαύλως ἐχρῆτο, ὥστε τεσσάρων ἢ πέντε αὐτοῖς ἐνιαυτῶν τῶν συντάξεων τοὺς χορηγοὺς ὑπερημέρους εἶναι, καὶ ἐπειδὰν Ῥωμαίοις τε καὶ Πέρσαις εἰρήνη γένοιτο, ἠναγκάζοντο οἱ ταλαίπωροι οὗτοι ἅτε καὶ αὐτοὶ τῶν ἐκ τῆς εἰρήνης ἀγαθῶν ἀπολαύσοντες χρόνου ῥητοῦ τὰς ὀφειλομένας σφίσι ξυντάξεις τῷ δημοσίῳ χαρίζεσθαι: ὕστερον δὲ καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ τῆς στρατείας ὄνομα αὐτοὺς ἀφείλετο οὐδενὶ λόγῳ.