way some men of this faction, who took her away from her
husband with threats, and placed her in their own boat. When she
entered the boat together with these young men, she secretly told her
husband to take courage, and not to fear any evil for her. "Never,"
said she, "will I permit myself to be outraged;" and while her husband
was gazing on her with the greatest sorrow, she sprang into the sea,
and was never seen again. Such were the outrages which the people of
this faction dared to commit in Byzantium.

Yet all this did not so much gall the victims as Justinian's offences
against the State; for those who suffer most cruelly from evil-doers
are in great part consoled by the expectation that the law and the
authorities will avenge them. If they have any hope for the future,
men bear their present sufferings with a much lighter heart; but when
they are outraged by the established government, they are naturally
much more hurt by the evil which befalls them, and the improbability
of redress drives them to despair. Justinian's fault was, not only
that he turned a deaf ear to the complaints of the injured, but did
not even disdain to behave himself as the avowed chief of this party;
that he gave great sums of money to these youths, and kept many of
them in his own retinue; that he even went so far as to appoint some
of them to governments and other official posts.

CHAPTER VIII

These excesses took place not only in Byzantium, but in every city of
the Empire: for these disorders were like bodily diseases, and spread
from thence over the whole Roman Empire. But the Emperor cared not at
all for what was going on, although he daily beheld what took place in
the hippodrome, for he was exceedingly stupid, very much like a
dull-witted ass, which follows whoever holds its bridle, shaking its
ears the while. This behaviour on the part of Justinian ruined
everything.

As soon as he found himself the head of his uncle's empire, he at once
did his utmost to squander the public treasure over which he now had
control. For he lavished wealth extravagantly upon the Huns who from
time to time came across and, ever afterwards, the Roman provinces
were subjected to constant incursions; for these barbarians, having
once tasted our wealth, could not tear themselves away from the road
which led to it. Justinian also threw away great sums upon the
construction of large moles, as if he thought to restrain the force of
the never-rest