been so largely bestowed upon him merely for
the affliction of his people.

CHAPTER XIV

Everything was done at the wrong time, and nothing that was
established was allowed to continue. To prevent my narrative being
interminable, I will merely mention a few instances, and pass over the
remainder in silence. In the first place, Justinian neither possessed
in himself the appearance of Imperial dignity, nor demanded that it
should be respected by others, but imitated the barbarians in
language, appearance, and ideas. When he had to issue an Imperial
decree, he did not intrust it to the Quaestor in the usual way, but
for the most part delivered it himself by word of mouth, although he
spoke his own language like a foreigner; or else he left it in the
hands of one of those by whom he was surrounded, so that those who had
been injured by such resolutions did not know to whom to apply. Those
who were called A Secretis,[12] and had from very ancient times
fulfilled the duty of writing the secret dispatches of the Emperor,
were no longer allowed to retain their privileges; for he himself
wrote them nearly all, even the sentences of the municipal
magistrates, no one throughout the Roman world being permitted to
administer justice with a free hand. He took everything upon himself
with unreasoning arrogance, and so managed cases that were to be
decided, that, after he had heard one of the litigants, he immediately
pronounced his verdict and obliged them to submit to it, acting in
accordance with no law or principle of justice, but being evidently
overpowered by shameful greed. For the Emperor was not ashamed to take
bribes, since his avarice had deprived him of all feelings of shame.
It frequently happened that the decrees of the Senate and the edicts
of the Emperor were opposed to each other; for the Senate was as it
were but an empty shadow, without the power of giving its vote or of
keeping up its dignity; it was assembled merely for form's sake and in
order to keep up an ancient custom, for none of its members were
allowed to utter a single word. But the Emperor and his consort took
upon themselves the consideration of questions that were to be
discussed, and whatever resolutions they came to between themselves
prevailed. If he whose cause had been victorious had any doubt as to
the legality of his success, all he had to do was to make a present of
gold to the Emperor, who immediately promulgated a law contrary to all