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ed for their exaction; but on the contrary were assured, That the excess of their violences, their murders, their thefts, and all their other cruelties, would rather be a means to gain them honor and reputation, seeing all those Frauds and Extortions passed with that Prince; for marks of their industry and address. But for all that, when Justinian observed they were sufficiently rich he intangled them in some pretended charge or other, and took all from them in a moment.
There was a Law made, by which it was injoyned to all persons who were to be advanced to any Office or Government, to swear upon the Evangelists, That they would not commit any violence or extortions upon the Subject; and, that there was nothing, either given or taken for their places; and that, whoever was guilty of transgressing that Law, should be accursed according to the custom of the Antients: But the said Law had not been in force a full year; but in despight of that Law, and the malediction that was pronounced, he sold those Offices himself, not only privately, but with inimitable impudence, in the face of the whole World, and the Merchants which bought them; notwithstanding their Oaths to the contrary, plundred and ravaged the State more then ever before. Besides these, he had another invention, which perhaps is not so easily to be believed; and that was not to sell the great Offices in Constantinople as formerly, but to keep them in his own hands, and execute them by certain persons, to whom
