justinian’s hypocrisy—letters sent to both liberius and john laxarion, confirming them as governors of egypt—intervention of pelagius and eudaemon—murder of john—liberius acquitted by the senate—fine inflicted by justinian—confiscation of the inheritances of eudaemon, euphratas, and irenaeus—new law as to the inheritances of municipal councillors—spoliation of the daughter of anatolia and ascalon, the widow of mamilianus—affair of tarsus—malthanes and the blues of cilicia—unpunished assassinations—justinian’s corruptness—leo the referendary.
i will, however, mention two instances of his falsehood and hypocrisy.
after having deprived liberius (of whom i have spoken above) of his office, he put in his place john, an egyptian by birth, surnamed laxarion. when pelagius, who was a particular friend of liberius, heard of this, he inquired of justinian whether what he had heard was true. the emperor immediately denied it, and protested that he had done nothing of the kind. he then gave pelagius a letter in which liberius was ordered to hold fast to his government and by no means to give it up, and added that he had no present intention of removing liberius. at that time there resided in byzantium an uncle of john named eudaemon, a man of consular rank and great wealth, who had the management of the imperial estates. having been informed of what had taken place, he also inquired of the emperor whether his nephew was assured in his government. justinian, saying nothing about his letter to liberius, sent john positive orders to hold fast to his government, since his views were still the same concerning it. trusting to this, john ordered liberius to quit the governor’s palace, as having been deprived of his office. liberius refused, placing equal reliance in the emperor’s despatch. john, having armed his followers, marched against liberius, who defended himself with his guards. an engagement took place, in which several were slain, and amongst them john, the new governor.
at the earnest entreaty of eudaemon, liberius was immediately summoned to byzantium. the matter was investigated before the senate, and liberius was acquitted, as being only guilty of justifiable homicide in self-defence. justinian, however, did not let him escape, until he had forced him to give him a considerable sum of money privately. such was the great respect justinian showed for the truth, and such was the faithfulness with which he kept his promises. i will here permit myself a brief digression, which may not be irrelevant. this eudaemon died shortly afterwards, leaving behind him a large number of relatives, but no will, either written or verbal. about the same time, the chief eunuch of the court, named euphratas, also died intestate; he left behind him a nephew, who would naturally have succeeded to his property, which was considerable. the emperor took possession of both fortunes, appointing himself sole heir, not even leaving so much as a three-obol piece to the legal inheritors. such was the respect justinian showed for the laws and the kinsmen of his intimate friends. in the same manner, without having the least claim to it, he seized the fortune of irenaeus, who had died some time before.
another event which took place about this time i cannot omit. there lived at ascalon a man named anatolius, the most distinguished member of the senate. his daughter, his only child and heiress, was married to a citizen of caesarea, named mamilianus, a man of distinguished family. there was an ancient statute which provided that, whenever a senator died without male issue, the fourth part of his estate should go to the senate of the town, and the rest to the heirs-at-law. on this occasion justinian gave a striking proof of his character. he had recently made a law which reversed this,—that, when a senator died without male issue, the fourth part only should go to the heirs, the three other parts being divided between the senate and the public treasury, although it had never happened before that the estate of any senator had been shared between the public treasury and the emperor.
anatolius died while this law was in force. his daughter was preparing to divide her inheritance with the public treasury and the senate of the town in accordance with the law, when she received letters from the senate of ascalon and from the emperor himself, in which they resigned all claim to the money, as if they had received their due. afterwards mamilianus (the son-in-law of anatolius) died, leaving one daughter, the legal heiress to his estate. the daughter soon afterwards died, during her mother’s lifetime, after having been married to a person of distinction, by whom, however, she had no issue, either male or female. justinian then immediately seized the whole estate, giving utterance to the strange opinion, that it would be a monstrous thing that the daughter of anatolius, in her old age, should be enriched by the property of both her husband and father. however, to keep her from want, he ordered that she should receive a stater of gold a day, as long as she lived; and, in the decree whereby he deprived her of all her property, he declared that he bestowed this stater upon her for the sake of religion, seeing that he was always in the habit of acting with piety and virtue.
i will now show that he cared nothing even for the blue faction, which showed itself devoted to him, when it was a question of money. there was amongst the cilicians a certain malthanes, the son-in-law of that leo who had held the office of “referendary,” whom justinian commissioned to put down seditious movements in the country. on this pretext, malthanes treated most of the inhabitants with great cruelty. he robbed them of their wealth, sent part to the emperor, and claimed the rest for himself. some endured their grievances in silence; but the inhabitants of tarsus who belonged to the blue faction, confident of the protection of the empress, assembled in the market-place and abused malthanes, who at the time was not present. when he heard of it, he immediately set out with a body of soldiers, reached tarsus by night, sent his soldiers into the houses at daybreak, and ordered them to put the inhabitants to death. the blues, imagining that it was an attack from a foreign foe, defended themselves as best they could. during the dark, amongst other misfortunes, damianus, a member of the senate and president of the blues in tarsus, was slain by an arrow.
when the news reached byzantium, the blues assembled in the streets with loud murmurs of indignation, and bitterly complained to the emperor of the affair, uttering the most violent threats against leo and malthanes. the emperor pretended to be as enraged as they were, and immediately ordered an inquiry to be made into the conduct of the latter. but leo, by the present of a considerable sum of money, appeased him, so that the process was stopped, and the emperor ceased to show favour to the blues. although the affair remained uninvestigated, the emperor received malthanes, who came to byzantium to pay his respects, with great kindness and treated him with honour. but, as he was leaving the emperor’s presence, the blues, who had been on the watch, attacked him in the palace, and would certainly have slain him, had not some of their own party, bribed by leo, prevented them. who would not consider that state to be in a most pitiable condition, in which the sovereign allows himself to be bribed to leave charges uninvestigated, and in which malcontents venture without hesitation to attack one of the magistrates within the precincts of the palace, and to lay violent hands upon him? however, no punishment was inflicted either upon malthanes or his assailants, which is a sufficient proof of the character of justinian.
