the secret history of the court of justinian

Of the forcible seizure of property and the murder of his subjects he could never have enough: when he had looted innumerable houses of wealthy people he was constantly on the look-out for others, immediately squandering on one foreign tribe or another, or on crazy building schemes, all that he had amassed by his earlier looting.

If there was anything which he was not in a position to transform then and there, even so he would at least attach his own name to it. Long established offices were abolished, and new ones set up to run the nation's business the laws of the land and the organization of the army were treated in the same way, not because justice required it or the general interest urged him to it, but merely that everything might have a new look and might be associated with his name. Things hitherto forbidden by law were one by one brought into public life, while established customs were swept away wholesale, as if he had been invested with the forms of majesty on condition that he would change all things to new forms. WHEN Justinian ascended the throne it took him a very little while to bring everything into confusion. 'Justinian's Misgovernment' from 'A Secret History' Justinian's Misgovernment

The secret history of the court of justinian