ade, but in favour of the side which
promised him the biggest and most splendid bribe. He thought it no
disgrace to steal away the property of his subjects, little by little,
in cases where he had no grounds for taking it away all at one swoop,
either by some unexpected charge or a forged will. While he was
Emperor of the Romans neither faith in God nor religion was secure, no
law continued in force, no action, no contract was binding. When he
intrusted any business to his officials, if they put to death numbers
of those who fell into their hands and carried off great wealth as
plunder, they were looked upon as faithful servants of the Emperor,
and were spoken of as men who had accurately carried out his
instructions; but, if they came back after having shown any mercy, he
took a dislike to them and was their enemy for life, and never again
would employ them, being disgusted with their old-fashioned ways. For
this reason many men were anxious to prove to him that they were
villains, although they really were not such. He would often make men
repeated promises, and confirm his promise by an oath or by writing,
and then purposely forget all about it, and think that such an action
did him credit. Justinian behaved in this manner not only towards his
own subjects, but also towards many of his enemies, as I have already
told. As a rule he dispensed with both rest and sleep, and never took
his fill of either food or drink, but merely picked up a morsel to
taste with the tips of his fingers, and then left his dinner, as if
eating had been a bye-work imposed upon him by nature. He would often
go without food for two days and nights, especially when fasting was
enjoined, on the eve of the feast of Easter, when he would often fast
for two days, taking no sustenance beyond a little water and a few
wild herbs, and sleeping, as it might be, for one hour only, passing
the rest of the time in walking to and fro. Had he spent all this time
in useful works, the State would have nourished exceedingly; but, as
it was, he used his natural powers to work the ruin of the Romans, and
succeeded in thoroughly disorganizing the constitution. His constant
wakefulness, his privations, and his labour were undergone for no
other purpose than to make the sufferings of his subjects every day
more grievous; for, as I have said before, he was especially quick in
devising crimes, and swift to carry them out, so that even his good
qualities seemed to have