hat country, I
do not feel sure that he would not under-estimate the number. The
reason of this was that Justinian, immediately after the defeat of the
Vandals, did not take measures to strengthen his hold upon the
country, and showed no anxiety to protect his interests by securing
the goodwill of his subjects, but immediately recalled Belisarius on a
charge of aspiring to royal power (which would by no means have suited
him) in order that he might manage the affairs of the country at his
own discretion, and ravage and plunder the whole of Libya. He sent
commissioners to value the province, and imposed new and most harsh
taxes upon the inhabitants. He seized the best and most fertile
estates, and prohibited the Arians from exercising the rites of their
religion. He was dilatory in keeping his army well supplied and in an
effective condition, while in other respects he was a severe martinet,
so that disturbances arose which ended in great loss. He was unable to
abide by what was established, but was by nature prone to throw
everything into a state of confusion and disturbance.

Italy, which was three times larger than Libya, was depopulated far
more than the latter throughout its whole extent, whence a computation
may be made of the number of those who perished there, for I have
already spoken of the origin of the events that took place in Italy.
All his crimes in Africa were repeated in Italy; having despatched
Logothetae to this country also, he immediately overthrew and ruined
everything.

Before the Italian war, the Empire of the Goths extended from the
territory of the Gauls to the boundaries of Dacia, and the city of
Sirmium; but, when the Roman army arrived in Italy, the greater part
of Cisalpine Gaul and of the territory of the Venetians was in the
occupation of the Germans. Sirmium and the adjacent country was in the
hands of the Gepidae. The entire tract of country, however, was
utterly depopulated; war and its attendant evils, disease and famine,
had exterminated the inhabitants. Illyria and the whole of Thrace,
that is to say, the countries between the Ionian Gulf and the suburbs
of Byzantium, including Hellas and the Chersonese, were overrun nearly
every year after the accession of Justinian by the Huns, Slavs and
Antes, who inflicted intolerable sufferings upon the inhabitants. I
believe that, on the occasion of each of these inroads, more than two
hundred thousand Romans were either slain or carried away