d still more than that. Now in the beginning
each man attended to the burial of the dead of his own house, and these
they threw even into the tombs of others, either escaping detection or
using violence; but afterwards confusion and disorder everywhere became
complete. For slaves remained destitute of masters, and men who in
former times were very prosperous were deprived of the service of their
domestics who were either sick or dead, and many houses became
completely destitute of human inhabitants. For this reason it came about
that some of the notable men of the city because of the universal
destitution remained unburied for many days.

And it fell to the lot of the emperor, as was natural, to make provision
for the trouble. He therefore detailed soldiers from the palace and
distributed money, commanding Theodorus to take charge of this work;
this man held the position of announcer of imperial messages, always
announcing to the emperor the petitions of his clients, and declaring to
them in turn whatever his wish was. In the Latin tongue the Romans
designate this office by the term "referendarius." So those who had not
as yet fallen into complete destitution in their domestic affairs
attended individually to the burial of those connected with them. But
Theodorus, by giving out the emperor's money and by making further
expenditures from his own purse, kept burying the bodies which were not
cared for. And when it came about that all the tombs which had existed
previously were filled with the dead, then they dug up all the places
about the city one after the other, laid the dead there, each one as he
could, and departed; but later on those who were making these trenches,
no longer able to keep up with the number of the dying, mounted the
towers of the fortifications in Sycae[17], and tearing off the roofs
threw the bodies in there in complete disorder; and they piled them up
just as each one happened to fall, and filled practically all the towers
with corpses, and then covered them again with their roofs. As a result
of this an evil stench pervaded the city and distressed the inhabitants
still more, and especially whenever the wind blew fresh from that
quarter.

At that time all the customary rites of burial were overlooked. For the
dead were not carried out escorted by a procession in the customary
manner, nor were the usual chants sung over them, but it was sufficient
if one carried on his shoulders the body of one of