Shortly after his accession we find Justin II reprobating in the old strain the rapacity of the Rectors,[891] deploring the fact that they buy instead of earning their appointments as the reward of having proved their capacity, and reiterating the futile injunction that they are to delay their departure from the provinces for fifty days after laying down their office. In the exordium to this Constitution he characterizes in a pregnant allusion the administration of his predecessor, and may be said to pronounce the epitaph of Justinian:
"The mere promulgation of admirable laws is not the sole essential in a state, but the enactments must be zealously maintained and enforced, whilst delinquents are subjected to condign punishment. For what can be the utility of laws which appear only on paper, and are not rendered beneficent to the subject by being practically applied?"
[841] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iv, 11, 15.
[842] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iv, 14.
[843] Agathias, iii, 19 et seq.
[844] Ibid., iv, 23.
[845] Agathias, ii, 2 et seq.
[846] Agathias, iv, 1 et seq.
[847] Ibid., 30. An incident in the Lazic war may serve to illustrate the usual manners of the soldier of the period. A band of forty beset a mountain fortress inhabited by a tribe in league with the Persians. It was called the Iron Castle from its supposed impregnability. A single rocky path, steep and narrow, led to the gate, where some huge stones were poised, capable of sweeping the track from top to bottom in their downward course if set in motion. In the darkness of the night, the Romans essayed the capture. Eight sentinels were seen at their posts, but all asleep. One of the ascending party slipped and made a racket with his shield, which roused the guards, who snatched up torches and gazed in every direction. But the Romans stood stock still, and escaped notice in the dark. The sentinels returned to their slumbers, and were at once attacked and slain. The Romans then rioted through the town, set fire to the houses, which were of wood; massacred women who scurried around; even a lady of rank, jewelled and elegantly dressed, who stepped out with a torch, was received with lance thrusts in the abdomen; children were flung into the air and transfixed by being caught on the points of pikes; until all seemed to be exterminated. The Byzantines then rested carelessly, as assured of safety, but the enemy collected from another quarter and, observing their fewness, killed nearly all by an unforeseen attack; Agathias, iv, 15 et seq.
[848] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 38. It was about this time, after the death of Theodora, that John of Cappadocia returned to the capital, but he had fallen into too great disrepute to be reinstated in any creditable post by the Emperor. Being reduced to great poverty, he found that at last he must take seriously to the priesthood. At the ceremony of his ordination, not having a decent cassock, a monk named Augustus, who was standing by, lent him his garment. Shortly it was noised through the city that the prophecy as to John's exaltation had been fulfilled, and that he had now really "assumed the mantle of Augustus"; De Bel. Pers., ii, 30.