Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/118

 he allowed sallaries for their pains, and received all the rest of the profits to himself; and they (like Farmers) having received what they were to ex­pect from their Master; with insupportable bold­ness, squeezed, and extorted whatever they could to satisfie him, and indeed, brought him in most prodigious sums.

These Mercenary Magistrates and Governors were to be seen passing from one Province to another, plaguing and tormenting the poor peo­ple, under the fair pretence of their dignity. Justinian had always a great care to put the worst men in his Empire, into the best places, and his design commonly succeeded. When he first advanced his wicked agents to the principal Dignities, and their power had discovered their ill inclinations, it was much admired, that the heart of man could be capable of such malice: But after a considerable interval, those who succeeded, having infinitely out-done them, the people were at as great a loss to comprehend how it should be possible for them to exceed their Predecessors, who had passed among them for such abominable Creatures; and yet com­pared with the present Officers, were very honest men. But the third succession, and those who came after them, exceeded the second, as much as the second had done the first, and did in a manner vindicate their Predecessors by the trans­cendency of their crimes, and the extream in­dustry which they expressed in the conduct of their execrable actions, insomuch, as they re­stored them who were before them, to some degree