real causes of events. When, after having inflicted upon
him the sufferings I have related, she had confined him in Egypt, she
was not even then satisfied with his punishment, but was incessantly
on the look out to find false witnesses against him. Four years
afterwards, she succeeded in finding two of the Green faction who had
taken part in the sedition at Cyzicus, and were accused of having been
accessory to the assault upon the Bishop. These she attacked with
flattery, promises, and threats. One of them, alarmed and inveigled by
her promises, accused John of the foul crime of murder, but the other
refused to utter falsehoods, although he was so cruelly tortured that
he seemed likely to die on the spot. She was, therefore, unable to
compass the death of John on this pretext, but she caused the young
men's right hands to be chopped off--that of the one because he
refused to bear false witness; that of the other, to prevent her
intrigue becoming universally known, for she endeavoured to keep
secret from others those things which were done in the open
market-place.

CHAPTER XVIII

That Justinian was not a man, but a demon in human shape, as I have
already said, may be abundantly proved by considering the enormity of
the evils which he inflicted upon mankind, for the power of the acting
cause is manifested in the excessive atrocity of his actions. I think
that God alone could accurately reckon the number of those who were
destroyed by him, and it would be easier for a man to count the grains
of sand on the sea-shore than the number of his victims. Considering
generally the extent of country which was depopulated by him, I assert
that more than two millions of people perished. He so devastated the
vast tract of Libya that a traveller, during a long journey,
considered it a remarkable thing to meet a single man; and yet there
were eighty thousand Vandals who bore arms, besides women, children
and servants without number. In addition to these, who amongst men
could enumerate the ancient inhabitants who dwelt in the cities,
tilled the land, and traded on the coast, of whom I myself have seen
vast numbers with my own eyes? The natives of Mauretania were even
still more numerous, and they were all exterminated, together with
their wives and children. This country also proved the tomb of numbers
of Roman soldiers and of their auxiliaries from Byzantium. Therefore,
if one were to assert that five millions perished in t