I will now relate how he everywhere ruined the possessors of
estates, although, to show their misery, it would really be sufficient
to refer to what has been said, just before this, concerning the
governors dispatched to all the provinces and cities, for it was they
who plundered those who possessed landed estates, as before related.
It had long been an established custom that the Roman Emperor
should, not only once, but on several occasions, remit to his subjects
all the arrears that were owing to the treasury, so that those who were
in difficulties and had no means of settling these arrears might not be
continually pressed, and that the tax collectors might not have an
excuse for vexatiously attempting to exact money from those liable to
tribute, where in many cases it was not due. Justinian, however, for
thirty-two years made no concession of the kind to his subjects, the
result of which was that the poor people were forced to quit the
country without any hope of return. The more honest were perpetually
harassed by these false accusers, who threatened to charge them with
having paid less than the amount at which they were rated. These
unhappy individuals were less afraid of the imposition of new taxes
than of the insupportable weight of the unjust exactions which for many
years they had been compelled to pay, whereupon many of them abandoned
their property to their accusers or to the rise.
The Medes and Saracens had ravaged the greater part of Asia, and the
Huns and Slavs had plundered the whole of Europe. Cities had been razed
to the ground or subjected to severe exactions; the inhabitants had
been carried away into slavery with all they possessed, and every
district had been deserted by its inhabitants in consequence of the
daily inroads. Justinian, however, remitted no tax or impost to any one
of them, except in the case of cities that had been taken by the enemy,
and then only for a year, although, had he granted them exemption for
seven years, as the Emperor Anastasius had done, I do not think that
even then he would have done enough: for Cabades retired after having
inflicted but little damage upon the buildings, but Chosroes, by
ravaging the country with fire and sword and razing all its dwellings
to the ground, brought greater calamities upon the inhabitants.
Justinian only granted this absurd remission of tribute to these people
and to others who had several times submitted to an invasion of the
Medes and the continuous depredations of the Huns and Saracen
barbarians in the East, while the Romans, settled in the different
parts of Europe, who had equally suffered by the attacks of the
barbarians, found Justinian more cruel than any of their foreign foes;
for, immediately after the enemy withdrew, the proprietors of estates
found themselves overwhelmed with requisitions for provisions,[13]
impositions,[14] and edicts[15] of various kinds, the meaning of which
I will now explain. Those who possessed landed property were obliged to
furnish provisions for the soldiers in proportion to the amount imposed
upon each, and these dues were fixed, not in consideration of the
necessities of the moment, but according to an authorised imperial
assessment; and, if at any time they had not a sufficient supply upon
their lands for the needs of the horses and soldiers, these unhappy
persons were forced to purchase them even at a price far above their
proper value, and to convey them in many cases from a considerable
distance to the place where the troops were encamped, and to distribute
them to the adjutants in what quantity and at what rate the latter
pleased, not at a fair and reasonable price. This import was called
“the import of victualling,” which, as it were, cut the sinews of all
the landed proprietors; for they had to pay an annual tribute ten times
greater than before, and were obliged not only to furnish supplies the
soldiers, but on several occasions to convey corn to Byzantium.
Barsyames was not the only man who had the audacity to introduce this
cursed exaction, John of Cappadocia had set the example, and the
successors of Barsyames in his office followed it. Such was the nature
of the Syn[=o]n[=e], as it was called.
The “Epibol[=e]” was a kind of unforeseen ruin, which suddenly
attacked the landed proprietors and utterly deprived them of the hope
of subsistence; for, in the case of estates that were deserted and
unproductive, the owners or tenants of which had either died or
abandoned their country and hidden themselves after the misfortunes
they had undergone, Justinian did not hesitate to impose a tax. Such
were these “impositions,” which were of frequent occurrence during that
time.
A few words will suffice for the impost called “Diagraph[=e].” At
this time especially, the cities were afflicted with heavy losses, the
causes and extent of which I will say nothing about, for it would be an
endless tale. These losses had to be repaired by the landed proprietors
in proportion to the rate at which they were assessed. Their misery,
however, did not stop there, but, although pestilence had attacked the
whole world, and, especially, the Roman Empire; although most of the
farmers had fallen victims, and their properties had become deserted,
Justinian did not show the least clemency towards the owners. He
continued to exact the yearly tribute from them, not only their own
proportion, but that of their neighbours who had died of the
plague.[16] Further, they were obliged to treat the soldiers with the
greatest civility, and to allow them to take up their quarters in their
finest and richest apartments, while they themselves all the time had
to content themselves with the poorest and meanest rooms. Such were the
calamities that without intermission befell mankind during the reign of
Justinian and Theodora, for there was no cessation of war or any other
most terrible calamities. Since I have mentioned the word “quarters,” I
must not forget to say that at one time there were 70,000 barbarians at
Constantinople, whom house owners were obliged to quarter, being thus
shut out from all enjoyment of their own, and in many other ways
inconvenienced.