Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/131

 by Lodging them. And now I shall declare how Justinian behaved himself with his Armies. He sent Commissaries call’d Logothetes among them, with directions to pinch and abate as much of their Pay as was possible, giving those Miscreants a Twelfth part of what by their de­velish Arts they could retrench of their pay. By the Establishment in the Roman Army, all Soldiers had not equal pay: Those who were new, had less then the rest, those who had any thing of Experience, had more, especial­ly if they had been Listed any time; but the greatest and most considerable Pensions, were to the Veterans, who had served too long to be dismissed without allowance, for not being looked upon as under Ingagement, but as pri­vate persons belonging to the Establishment, they were able to subsist with more Ease, and leave to their Families, out of their Wages and Pay, what would keep them, when they themselves were dead: The Establishment running thus, When any of the Veterans dyed, or were to be dismissed, those who were next under, were com­monly preferred according to the Antiquity of their Services, and receive Pay with the highest. But these detestable Commissaries would not per­mit the Names of such as were slain to be ex­pung’d, nor the Rolls to be called over, but in a very long time, by which it came to pass, that the Troops were very thin, and those few Soul­diers which were left, remained in spight of their Merits, in ranks beneath what was their due, and by consequence their pay was so much less