Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/107

 the Prasinian faction, besides which, so many Samaritans, and Hereticks were put to death, that the whole Empire seemed to be overflowed with Blood.

These things which I have now mentioned in short, and inlarged upon in my other Books, were acted in the Reign of this Man, or rather of this Devil, and were purely the effect of his malice and rage: But for the things of which I am now speaking, he did them by a power which I never understood. To be brief, in his time the Empire was afflicted with several judg­ments, which by many people were attributed to the evil genius which attended him; but others looked upon them more rationally, as the effect of the Divine displeasure, and that God provoked, by the sins of the people, had permit­ted him and his instruments to oppress the whole Empire with all these mischiefs. The River Scyrta overflowed Edessa, and drowned all the Inhabitants; the Nile overflowed all the Fields of Egypt, but not retiring as formerly, it brought great miseries upon the Inhabitants, which I have related before; Lydne also being overflown, all Tarsis lay for several days toge­ther under Water, and it went not away, till it had brought irrepairable damage upon the Inhabitants: Several Cities were ruined by Earthquakes, as Antioch, the chief City of the East; Selucia, a Town not far from it; and Anazarbe, a great City in Cilicia. Besides these, Ibere, Amasia the cheif City in Pontus, Polybot, a Town in Phrygia; that Town which the Rh