Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/122

 they had given for their places, which they levi­ed upon such as were culpable with most mer­ciless cruelty. At length Peter himself, among those whom he imployed in his exactions, hav­ing tried many, found some who cheated him, and laid up for themselves; and this was not his misfortune alone, but every mans who had borne the said office before, and after him; the Masters of the Offices, and such as had been ad­vanced for their money or presents; the Over­seers of the Emperors particular Demesns; and in few words, all the Magistrates, not only in Costantinople, but the whole Empire: For in short, from the time that Justinian (the greatest Tyrant that ever was) had the administration of Affairs, there was not one place, but he sold himself, or his Ministers under hand; and those who bought them, were obliged to serve him long, with much trouble and great loss.

Justinian had made great provision of Corn in Constantinople, and kept it till the greatest part of it shrunk; nevertheless, though it was not fit to be used, he forced the Cities in the East to take it off on his hands, each of them a certain proportion, and sold it to them at a much dearer rate, then if it had been good: So that the poor Citizens were constrained so throw it into the Sea, or the Common-shores, though it had cost them so dear. And for that which was good, though there was great quan­tities of it in the Granaries in Constantinople, the Emperor caused it to be sold to such Towns as wanted it, at double the price it bore in the Provinces