Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/146

 was not easily to be supplyed any where else, for the Baths were most of them dry, and there was not a day, but some or other were stifled in the Crowds, which thronged continually to those Fountains which were remaining; Never­theless, he took no notice of it, would be at no expence to repair them, but let them lie, though they were of so universal importance, and in the mean time squandred away prodigi­ous Sums in fine, but useless and vain Build­ings upon the Banks of the Sea, in the Sub­burbs of Constantinople; as if the Palace which had been the Residence of so many great Prin­ces his Predecessors, and had pleased them ve­ry well, had not been good enough for the En­tertainment of him and his Empress. So that thereby he clearly evinc’d, it was not purely Co­vetuousness, or desire to spare, which made him act in this manner; but he was restrained from the repairing those Aquaducts, by an unparra­leld piece of Cruelty, that would not suffer him to have the least Commiseration, for the Evils which he brought upon his Miserable Subjects: For never was there Man in the World that with more Impudence and Effronterie, sought out unjust ways of raising of Money, that ex­acted it with more Cruelty, nor spent it more profusely when he had done. Insomuch, that the poor people in the Extremity they were in, being brought to nothing but Bread, (and that of their worst sort) and Water for the Subsist­ance (had been in some Measure happy, if they could have held there) but they had now lost both