I will, however, mention two instances of his falsehood and
hypocrisy.
After having deprived Liberius (of whom I have spoken above) of his
office, he put in his place John, an Egyptian by birth, surnamed
Laxarion. When Pelagius, who was a particular friend of Liberius, heard
of this, he inquired of Justinian whether what he had heard was true.
The Emperor immediately denied it, and protested that he had done
nothing of the kind. He then gave Pelagius a letter in which Liberius
was ordered to hold fast to his government and by no means to give it
up, and added that he had no present intention of removing Liberius. At
that time there resided in Byzantium an uncle of John named Eudaemon, a
man of consular rank and great wealth, who had the management of the
imperial estates. Having been informed of what had taken place, he also
inquired of the Emperor whether his nephew was assured in his
government. Justinian, saying nothing about his letter to Liberius,
sent John positive orders to hold fast to his government, since his
views were still the same concerning it. Trusting to this, John ordered
Liberius to quit the governor's palace, as having been deprived of his
office. Liberius refused, placing equal reliance in the Emperor's
despatch. John, having armed his followers, marched against Liberius,
who defended himself with his guards. An engagement took place, in
which several were slain, and amongst them John, the new governor.
At the earnest entreaty of Eudaemon, Liberius was immediately
summoned to Byzantium. The matter was investigated before the senate,
and Liberius was acquitted, as being only guilty of justifiable
homicide in self-defence. Justinian, however, did not let him escape,
until he had forced him to give him a considerable sum of money
privately. Such was the great respect Justinian showed for the truth,
and such was the faithfulness with which he kept his promises. I will
here permit myself a brief digression, which may not be irrelevant.
This Eudaemon died shortly afterwards, leaving behind him a large
number of relatives, but no will, either written or verbal. About the
same time, the chief eunuch of the court, named Euphratas, also died
intestate; he left behind him a nephew, who would naturally have
succeeded to his property, which was considerable. The Emperor took
possession of both fortunes, appointing himself sole heir, not even
leaving so much as a three-obol piece to the legal inheritors. Such was
the respect Justinian showed for the laws and the kinsmen of his
intimate friends. In the same manner, without having the least claim to
it, he seized the fortune of Irenaeus, who had died some time before.
Another event which took place about this time I cannot omit. There
lived at Ascalon a man named Anatolius, the most distinguished member
of the senate. His daughter, his only child and heiress, was married to
a citizen of Caesarea, named Mamilianus, a man of distinguished family.
There was an ancient statute which provided that, whenever a senator
died without male issue, the fourth part of his estate should go to the
senate of the town, and the rest to the heirs-at-law. On this occasion
Justinian gave a striking proof of his character. He had recently made
a law which reversed this,—that, when a senator died without male
issue, the fourth part only should go to the heirs, the three other
parts being divided between the senate and the public treasury,
although it had never happened before that the estate of any senator
had been shared between the public treasury and the Emperor.
Anatolius died while this law was in force. His daughter was
preparing to divide her inheritance with the public treasury and the
senate of the town in accordance with the law, when she received
letters from the senate of Ascalon and from the Emperor himself, in
which they resigned all claim to the money, as if they had received
their due. Afterwards Mamilianus (the son-in-law of Anatolius) died,
leaving one daughter, the legal heiress to his estate. The daughter
soon afterwards died, during her mother's lifetime, after having been
married to a person of distinction, by whom, however, she had no issue,
either male or female. Justinian then immediately seized the whole
estate, giving utterance to the strange opinion, that it would be a
monstrous thing that the daughter of Anatolius, in her old age, should
be enriched by the property of both her husband and father. However, to
keep her from want, he ordered that she should receive a stater of gold
a day, as long as she lived; and, in the decree whereby he deprived her
of all her property, he declared that he bestowed this stater upon her
for the sake of religion, seeing that he was always in the habit of
acting with piety and virtue.
I will now show that he cared nothing even for the Blue faction,
which showed itself devoted to him, when it was a question of money.
There was amongst the Cilicians a certain Malthanes, the son-in-law of
that Leo who had held the office of “Referendary,” whom Justinian
commissioned to put down seditious movements in the country. On this
pretext, Malthanes treated most of the inhabitants with great cruelty.
He robbed them of their wealth, sent part to the Emperor, and claimed
the rest for himself. Some endured their grievances in silence; but the
inhabitants of Tarsus who belonged to the Blue faction, confident of
the protection of the Empress, assembled in the market-place and abused
Malthanes, who at the time was not present. When he heard of it, he
immediately set out with a body of soldiers, reached Tarsus by night,
sent his soldiers into the houses at daybreak, and ordered them to put
the inhabitants to death. The Blues, imagining that it was an attack
from a foreign foe, defended themselves as best they could. During the
dark, amongst other misfortunes, Damianus, a member of the senate and
president of the Blues in Tarsus, was slain by an arrow.
When the news reached Byzantium, the Blues assembled in the streets
with loud murmurs of indignation, and bitterly complained to the
Emperor of the affair, uttering the most violent threats against Leo
and Malthanes. The Emperor pretended to be as enraged as they were, and
immediately ordered an inquiry to be made into the conduct of the
latter. But Leo, by the present of a considerable sum of money,
appeased him, so that the process was stopped, and the Emperor ceased
to show favour to the Blues. Although the affair remained
uninvestigated, the Emperor received Malthanes, who came to Byzantium
to pay his respects, with great kindness and treated him with honour.
But, as he was leaving the Emperor's presence, the Blues, who had been
on the watch, attacked him in the palace, and would certainly have
slain him, had not some of their own party, bribed by Leo, prevented
them. Who would not consider that state to be in a most pitiable
condition, in which the sovereign allows himself to be bribed to leave
charges uninvestigated, and in which malcontents venture without
hesitation to attack one of the magistrates within the precincts of the
palace, and to lay violent hands upon him? However, no punishment was
inflicted either upon Malthanes or his assailants, which is a
sufficient proof of the character of Justinian.