the necessity of carrying
burdens, and the soldiers were well supplied with necessaries.
Justinian, however, did away with nearly all the camels, so that, when
the army is marching against an enemy, everything is in an
unsatisfactory condition. Such was the care he took of the most
important state institutions. It will not be out of place to mention
one of his ridiculous acts. There was at Caesarea a lawyer named
Evangelius, a person of distinction, who, by the favour of fortune,
had amassed great riches and considerable landed estates. He
afterwards purchased, for three centenars of gold, a village on the
coast named Porphyreon. When Justinian heard of this, he immediately
took it from him, only returning him a small portion of the price he
had paid for it, at the same time declaring that it was unseemly that
such a village should belong to Evangelius the lawyer. But enough of
this. It remains to speak of certain innovations introduced by
Justinian and Theodora. Formerly, when the senate had audience of the
Emperor, it paid him homage in the following manner:--Every patrician
kissed him on the right breast, and the Emperor, having kissed him on
the head, dismissed him; all the rest bent the right knee before the
Emperor and retired. As for the Empress, it was not customary to do
homage to her. But those who were admitted to the presence of this
royal pair, even those of patrician rank, were obliged to prostrate
themselves upon their face, with hands and feet stretched out; and,
after having kissed both his feet, they rose up and withdrew. Nor did
Theodora refuse this honour. She received the ambassadors of the
Persians and other barbarian nations and (a thing which had never been
done before) bestowed magnificent presents upon them, as if she had
been absolute mistress of the Empire. Formerly, those who associated
with the Emperor called him Imperator and the Empress Imperatrix, and
the other officials according to their rank. But if anyone addressed
either Justinian or Theodora without the addition of the title
Sovereign Lord or Sovereign Lady, or without calling himself their
slave, he was looked upon as ignorant and insolent in his language,
and, as if he had committed a very grave offence and insulted those
whom it least became him, he was dismissed. Formerly, only a few were
granted admission to the palace, and that with difficulty; but, from
the time of the accession of Justinian and Theodora, the magistrates
an