Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/117

 for their exaction; but on the contrary were assured, That the excess of their violen­ces, their murders, their thefts, and all their other cruelties, would rather be a means to gain them honor and reputation, seeing all those Frauds and Extortions passed with that Prince; for marks of their industry and address. But for all that, when Justinian observed they were sufficiently rich he intangled them in some pre­tended charge or other, and took all from them in a moment.

There was a Law made, by which it was injoyned to all persons who were to be advan­ced to any Office or Government, to swear up­on the Evangelists, That they would not commit any violence or extortions upon the Subject; and, that there was nothing, either given or taken for their places; and that, whoever was guilty of trans­gressing that Law, should be accursed according to the custom of the Antients: But the said Law had not been in force a full year; but in despight of that Law, and the malediction that was pro­nounced, he sold those Offices himself, not only privately, but with inimitable impudence, in the face of the whole World, and the Mer­chants which bought them; notwithstanding their Oaths to the contrary, plundred and ra­vaged the State more then ever before. Besides these, he had another invention, which perhaps is not so easily to be believed; and that was not to sell the great Offices in Constantinople as formerly, but to keep them in his own hands, and execute them by certain persons, to whom he