Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/125

 *tial provinces. The magnificent Count of the East was detached from his great array of provinces, and restricted to the governorship of Syria, still an enviable charge, since he reckoned Antioch as his capital; and the Augustal Praefect resigned the control of all Egypt for that of Alexandria and the adjacent country.

2. The foregoing reconstruction was neither difficult to conceive nor inapplicable in practice, but when Justinian determined to quell the greed for illicit gains among his subordinates he struck at the most vital part of Byzantine officialism. With no halting judgement he began by directing the lethal weapon against his own breast, and decreed that in future no candidate should be permitted to secure an appointment as Rector by purchasing the interest of any of his great officers of state or their dependents. Hence-*forward the Rector, having won his commission simply by proving his fitness for office, would proceed to his government unhampered by debt, and no longer compelled to despoil the tributaries in order to liquidate his heavy obligations. With paternal benignancy he would mete out strict justice, and administer his charge with "pure hands," eschewing sordid gains, and content with the stipend allotted to him by the state. He would show no mercy to*