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parties were beloved or hated by the factions; for it was as much as the Judges life was worth, to reject the orders of the Venetes, or neglect to obey them. Several Creditors were forced to deliver up their Securities to their Debtors, and lose all that they had lent them. Others were forced to manumit their slaves, young Gentlemen of the best Families of the City being of the factions, forced Moneys from their own Parents, and constrained several Women to submit to the brutish appetites of their slaves. Children even in sight of their Parents, were forced to suffer the effects of the brutality of the seditious, and married Women were no more exempted then they. It was reported, that some of these factions having met a Woman in no extraordinary habit, who was crossing the Water with her Husband in little Boat, to go into the Suburbs on the other side, they forced her out of the arms of her Husband into their Boat. The Woman whispered her Husband in the ear, and advised him not to be concerned, or fear that she would do any thing unworthy of her, for she was resolved not to permit any thing that might have reflexion upon his honor; and a while after, as he was complaining to himself, and following her with tears in his eyes, she threw her self over board, and was drowned.
The violences used by the seditious in Constantinople, did not so much exasperate the spirits of the people, as what Justinian himself did against the State; for the sorrows of the afflict-
