The Secret History

by

Procopius of Caesarea

translated by Richard Atwater

(Chicago: P. Covici, 1927 New York Covici Friede 1927)

Reprinted, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1961, with indication
that copyright had expired on the text of the translation.

18. HOW JUSTINIAN KILLED A TRILLION PEOPLE

That Justinian was not a man, but a demon, as I have said, in human form, one
might prove by considering the enormity of the evils he brought upon mankind. For
in the monstrousness of his actions the power of a fiend is manifest. Certainly
an accurate reckoning of all those whom he destroyed would be impossible, I think,
for anyone but God to make. Sooner could one number, I fancy, the sands of the sea
than the men this Emperor murdered. Examining the countries that he made desolate
of inhabitants, I would say he slew a trillion people. For Libya, vast as it is,
he so devastated that you would have to go a long way to find a single man, and
he would be remarkable. Yet eighty thousand Vandals capable of bearing arms had
dwelt there, and as for their wives and children and servants, who could guess their
number? Yet still more numerous than these were the Mauretanians, who with their
wives and children were all exterminated. And again, many Roman soldiers and those
who followed them to Constantinople, the earth now covers; so that if one should
venture to say that five million men perished in Libya alone, he would not, I imagine,
be telling the half of it.

The reason for this was that after the Vandals were defeated, Justinian planned,
not how he might best strengthen his hold on the country, nor how by safeguarding
the interests of those who were loyal to him he might have the goodwill of his subjects:
but instead he foolishly recalled Belisarius at once, on the charge that the latter
intended to make himself King (an idea of which Belisarius was utterly incapable),
and so that he might manage affairs there himself and be able to plunder the whole
of Libya. Sending commissioners to value the province, he imposed grievous taxes
where before there had been none. Whatever lands were most valuable, he seized,
and prohibited the Arians from observing their religious ceremonies. Negligent toward
sending necessary supplies to the soldiers, he was over-strict with them in other
ways; wherefore mutinies arose resulting in the deaths of many. For he was never
able to abide by established customs, but naturally threw everything into confusion
and disturbance.

Italy, which is not less than thrice as large as Libya, was everywhere desolated
of men, even worse than the other country; and from this the count of those who
perished there may be imagined. The reason for what happened in Italy I have already
made plain. All of his crimes in Libya were repeated here; sending his auditors
to Italy, he soon upset and ruined everything.

The rule of the Goths, before this war, had extended from the land of the Gauls
to the boundaries of Dacia, where the city of Sirmium is. The Germans held Cisalpine
Gaul and most of the land of the Venetians, when the Roman army arrived in Italy.
Sirmium and the neighboring country was in the hands of the Gepidae. All of these
he utterly depopulated. For those who did not die in battle perished of disease
and famine, which as usual followed in the train of war. Illyria and all of Thrace,
that is, from the Ionian Gulf to the suburbs of Constantinople, including Greece
and the Chersonese, were overrun by the Huns, Slavs and Antes, almost every year,
from the time when Justinian took over the Roman Empire; and intolerable things
they did to the inhabitants. For in each of these incursions, I should say, more
than two hundred thousand Romans were slain or enslaved, so that all this country
became a desert like that of Scythia.

Such were the results of the wars in Libya and in Europe. Meanwhile the Saracens
were continuously making inroads on the Romans of the East, from the land of Egypt
to the boundaries of Persia; and so completely did their work, that in all this
country few were left, and it will never be possible, I fear, to find out how many
thus perished. Also the Persians under Chosroes three times invaded the rest of
this Roman territory, sacked the cities, and either killing or carrying away the
men they captured in the cities and country, emptied the land of inhabitants every
time they invaded it. From the time when they invaded Colchis, ruin has befallen
themselves and the Lazi and the Romans.

For neither the Persians nor the Saracens, the Huns or the Slavs or the rest
of the barbarians, were able to withdraw from Roman territory undamaged. In their
inroads, and still more in their sieges of cities and in battles, where they prevailed
over opposing forces, they shared in disastrous losses quite as much. Not only the
Romans, but nearly all the barbarians thus felt Justinian’s bloodthirstiness. For
while Chosroes himself was bad enough, as I have duly shown elsewhere, Justinian
was the one who each time gave him an occasion for the war. For he took no heed
to fit his policies to an appropriate time, but did everything at the wrong moment:
in time of peace or truce he ever craftily contrived to find pretext for war with
his neighbors; while in time of war, he unreasonably lost interest, and hesitated
too long in preparing for the campaign, grudging the necessary expenses; and instead
of putting his mind on the war, gave his attention to stargazing and research as
to the nature of God. Yet he would not abandon hostilities, since he was so bloodthirsty
and tyrannical, even when thus unable to conquer the enemy because of his negligence
in meeting the situation.

So while he was Emperor, the whole earth ran red with the blood of nearly all
the Romans and the barbarians. Such were the results of the wars throughout the
whole Empire . during this time. But the civil strife in Constantinople and in every
other city, if the dead were reckoned, would total no smaller number of slain than
those who perished in the wars, I believe. Since justice and impartial punishment
were seldom directed against offenders, and each of the two factions tried to win
the favor of the Emperor over the other, neither party kept the peace. Each, according
to his smile or his frown, was now terrified, now encouraged. Sometimes they attacked
each other in full strength, sometimes in smaller groups, or even lay in ambush
against the first single man of the opposite party who came along. For thirty-two
years, without ever ceasing, they performed outrages against each other, many of
them being punished with death by the municipal Prefect.

However, punishment for these offenses was mostly directed against the Greens.

Furthermore the persecution of the Samaritans and the so-called heretics filled
the Roman realm with blood. Let this present recapitulation suffice to recall what
I have described more fully a little while since. Such were the things done to all
mankind by the demon in flesh for which Justinian, as Emperor, was responsible.
But what evils he wrought against men by some hidden power and diabolic force I
shall now relate.

During his rule over the Romans, many disasters of various kinds occurred: which
some said were due to the presence and artifices of the Devil, and others considered
were effected by the Divinity, Who, disgusted with the Roman Empire, had turned
away from it and given the country up to the Old One. The Scirtus River flooded
Edessa, creating countless sufferings among the inhabitants, as I have elsewhere
written. The Nile, rising as usual, but not subsiding in the customary season, brought
terrible calamities to the people there, as I have also previously recounted. The
Cydnus inundated Tarsus, covering almost the whole city for many days, and did not
subside until it had done irreparable damage.

Earthquakes destroyed Antioch, the leading city of the East; Seleucia, which
is situated nearby; and Anazarbus, most renowned city in Cilicia. Who could number
those that perished in these metropoles? Yet one must add also those who lived in
Ibora; in Amasea, the chief city of Pontus; in Polybotus in Phrygia, called Polymede
by the Pisidians; in Lychnidus in Epirus; and in Corinth: all thickly inhabited
cities from of old. All of these were destroyed by earthquakes during this time,
with a loss of almost all their inhabitants. And then came the plague, which I have
previously mentioned, killing half at least of those who had survived the earthquakes.
To so many men came their doom, when Justinian first came to direct the Roman state
and later possessed the throne of autocracy.