Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/116

 gained in that place;) and Bassus, who succeed­ed him, was the other; but they continued not long in their commands, being persons who go­verned too well, and could not frame themselves to the Customs of that age: And because I should never conclude, should I go about to be particular in every thing, I shall only say, That the Emperor did the same with every Officer he had, and all the other Magistrates in Constan­tinople.

Thorow all the rest of the Towns in the Empire, Justinian put the cheifest Offices into the hands of the worst men he could find, to the end, that he might have pretence to take from them what they should get, and impro­priate it to his own use; and indeed, an honest man, with but common sence, would not have accepted them, and hazarded his own fortune to destroy other people. When Justinian had received the Money he agreed for, with those he was to prefer, he suffered them to pillage the people, and the Provinces, that they might inrich themselves in a short time, and they com­plied with his design: For having borrowed at great interest, the Money which they paid for their places, when they were possessed of their Governments or other places, they treated the subjects with all manner of Tyranny, to discharge themselves of the debts which they had contracted in the purchase, and to lay up for themselves. And this they did with the greater liberty, because they were in no appre­hension of being questioned, much less ­ed