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.

i will now proceed to mention another mode in which he plundered his subjects. those who, at byzantium, serve the emperor or magistrates, either as secretaries, or in a military or any other capacity, are placed last upon the list of officials. as time goes on, they are gradually promoted to the place of those who have died or retired, until they reach the highest rank and supreme dignity. those who had attained to this honour, in accordance with an ancient institution, had the right to the enjoyment of a fund of not less than 100 centenars of gold yearly, so that they might have a comfortable means of subsistence for their old age, and might be able to assist others as much as possible; and this was of great influence in bringing about a successful administration of the affairs of state. but justinian deprived them of all their privileges, and did great harm, not only to them, but to many others besides, for the poverty which attacked them extended to all those who formerly shared their prosperity. if anyone were to calculate the sums of which they were thus deprived during these thirty-two years, he would find that the amount was very considerable. such was the shameful manner in which the tyrant treated his soldiers.

i will now relate how he behaved towards merchants, mariners, artisans, shopkeepers and others. there are two narrow straits on either side of byzantium, the one in the hellespont, between sestos and abydos, the other at the mouth of the euxine sea, close to the chapel of the holy mother. in the strait upon the hellespont, there was no public custom-house, but an officer was sent by the emperor to abydos, to see that no ship loaded with arms should pass on the way to byzantium without the emperor’s leave, and also that no person should put out to sea from byzantium without letters of licence signed by the proper official, no ship being allowed to leave the city without the permission of the secretaries of the master of offices. the amount which the praetor exacted from the shipmasters under the name of toll was so insignificant that it was disregarded. a praetor was also sent to the other strait, who received his salary regularly from the emperor, and whose duties were the same—to take care that no one transported to the barbarians on the euxine any wares, the export of which to hostile countries was forbidden; but he was not allowed to exact any duties from these navigators. but, from the day that justinian succeeded to the government of affairs, he established a custom-house on both straits, and sent thither two officials to collect the dues at a fixed salary, who were ordered to get in as much money as they could. these officials, who desired nothing better than to show their devotion to him, extorted duty upon all kinds of merchandise. in regard to the port of byzantium, he made the following arrangement:—he put it in charge of one of his confidants, a syrian by birth, named addeus, whom he ordered to exact duty from all vessels which put in there. this addeus would not allow those ships which had been any length of time in the harbour to leave it, until the masters had paid a sum of money to free them, or else he compelled them to take on board a freight for libya or italy. some, resolved not to take in a return cargo or to remain at sea any longer, burned their ships and thus escaped all anxiety, to their great rejoicing. but all those who were obliged to continue their profession in order to live, for the future demanded three times the usual amount from merchants for the hire of the ships, and thus the merchants had no means of covering their losses except by requiring a higher price from purchasers; and thus, by every possible contrivance, the romans were reduced to the danger of starvation. such was the general state of affairs. i must not, however, omit to state the manner in which the rulers dealt with the small coinage. the money-changers had formerly been accustomed to give 210 obols (called pholes) for a single gold stater. justinian and theodora, for their own private gain, ordered that only 180 obols should be given for the stater, and by this means deprived the public of a sixth part of each piece of gold. having established “monopolies” upon most wares, they incessantly harassed would-be purchasers. the only thing left free from duty was clothes, but, in regard to these also, the imperial pair contrived to extort money. silken garments had for a long time been made in berytus and tyre, cities of phoenicia. the merchants and workmen connected with the trade had been settled there from very early times, and from thence the business had spread throughout the world. during the reign of justinian, those who lived in byzantium and other cities raised the price of their silks, on the plea that at the present time they were dearer in persia, and that the import tithes were higher. the emperor pretended to be exceedingly indignant at this, and subsequently published an edict forbidding a pound of silk to be sold for more than eight gold pieces; anyone who disobeyed the edict was to be punished by the confiscation of his property. this measure appeared altogether impracticable and absurd. for it was not possible for the merchants, who had bought their wares at a much higher price, to sell it to customers at a lower rate. they accordingly resolved to give up this business, and secretly and without delay disposed of their remaining wares to certain well-known persons, who took delight in wasting their money upon such adornments, and to whom it had become in a manner an absolute necessity. theodora heard of this from certain persons who whispered it confidentially, and, without taking the trouble to verify the report, she immediately deprived these persons of their wares, and, in addition, inflicted upon them a fine of a centenar of gold. at the present time, the imperial treasurer is charged with the superintendence of this trade. when peter barsyames held the office, they soon allowed him all manner of licence in carrying out his nefarious practices. he demanded that all the rest should carefully observe the law, and compelled those who were engaged in the silk factories to work for himself alone. without taking any trouble to conceal it, he sold an ounce of any ordinary coloured silk in the public market-place for six pieces of gold, but if it was of the royal dye, called holovere, he asked more than four-and-twenty for it. in this manner he procured vast sums of money for the emperor, and even larger sums, which he kept privately for himself; and this practice, begun by him, continued. the grand treasurer is at this moment avowedly the only silk merchant and sole controller of the market. all those who formerly carried on this business, either in byzantium or any other city, workers on sea or land, felt the loss severely. nearly the whole population of the cities which existed by such manufactories were reduced to begging. artisans and mechanics were forced to struggle against hunger, and many of them, quitting their country, fled to persia. none but the chief treasurer was allowed to have anything to do with that branch of industry, and, while he handed over part of his gains to the emperor, he kept the greater part for himself, and thus grew wealthy at the expense of the unfortunate public.