es the assistance rendered to the unfortunate.

CHAPTER XXIII

Ruin of private properties--Abolition of the remission of arrears of
taxes, even in the case of cities taken by the barbarians--The imposts
called Syn[=o]n[=e], Epibol[=e], and Diagraph[=e]--Soldiers billeted
in private houses.

CHAPTER XXIV

Oppression of the soldiers by the Logothetes--Division of the soldiers
into three classes--Their promotion suspended--Their pay diverted to
other purposes--The diminishing army--Praetorian soldiers
disbanded--Alexander the Logothete in Italy--The general's
aides-de-camp--The frontier garrisons abandoned--Palace guards,
Scholares, and supernumeraries--Armenians--Peter, the Master of
Offices, the murderer of Amalasunta--Palace officials, Domestics, and
Protectors--Suppression of the quinquennial gratuity--The imperial
officers and dignitaries.

CHAPTER XXV

Unjust treatment of merchants, mariners, and artisans--The straits of
the Bosphorus and the Hellespont burdened with custom-house
dues--Enormous dues levied by Addeus in the port of Byzantium--Change
in the silver coinage: its depreciation--Monopoly of the silk
trade--Ruin of Berytus and Tyre--Malversations of Peter Barsyames and
his successors--Tyranny of Theodora and avarice of Justinian.

CHAPTER XXVI

Destruction of city decorations and ornaments--Advocates deprived of
their fees by the institution of arbitrators--Physicians and
professors deprived of their pensions--Public spectacles
discontinued--The consulship suppressed--Scarcity of corn and water at
Byzantium, Rome, and Alexandria--Generosity of Theodoric, the
conqueror of Italy--Greed of Alexander Forficula--Disbanding of the
garrison of Thermopylae--Spoliation of Athens and other Greek
cities--Hephaestus and Diocletian.

CHAPTER XXVII

Conduct of Justinian and Theodora in regard to the clergy and council
of Chalcedon--Arsenius the Samaritan persecutes the Christians of
Scythopolis with impunity--Paul, archbishop of Alexandria, has the
deacon Psoes put to death--Rhodon, the governor, by his orders,
tortures him: but he is dismissed, and then put to death, together
with Arsenius, through the influence of Theodora--Liberius, the new
governor, and Pelagius, legate of Pope Vigilius at Alexandria, depose
Paul, who buys back the favour of Justinian--Resistance of
Vigilius--Faustinus, governor of Palestine, denounced by the
Christians as a Samaritan--His condemn