Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/50

 the Provinces under the Roman Dominion were subject to the frequent inroads of the Barbarians, who returned often for their riches; for after they had once tasted the sweetness of them, they would never be without them. He took a fancy to expend vast sums of Money in building of Moles, and Stovadoes of prodigious extent, to break the force of the waves, and with immense pieces of Stone to put bounds to the Sea, and by force of his Money, to compel that Element to a sence of his Empire. He sequestred the estates of particular persons, and squeezed them into his own Coffers, charging some with imagi­nary crimes, and perswading others, that they had given him their estates. Some to save them­selves from death, having been accused of Par­racides and Murders, and other fictitious crimes, gave all they had to the Emperor. Others in suit with their Neighbors, and finding it was like to go against them in spight of their Law. yers, made over their right to their Prince, only to make themselves known to him, and please him, who took all without giving them a far­thing; by which unjust kind of Champerty they many times ruined their adversaries, when they thought themselves secure. His stature was neither too great nor too little, well proportion­ed, and rather inclinable to be fat; his face was round and comely, his complexion was fresh, and some times when he had eaten nothing in two days. In a word, he was very like the Em­peror Domitian (Son to the Great Vespasian) whose ill deeds were so terrible among the  mans,