How Justinian Plundered Rich & Poor Alike

Justinian I (482 – 14 November 565) was

 Roman Emperor from 527 to 565.

Not content to rule half a Roman Empire, Justinian virtually bankrupted the state with endless wars and expensive building programs to recreate the "Glory" of an old, vanished united Empire.

By Procopius of Caesarea
500 - 554 AD
The Secret History

How he ruined the beauty and appearance of Constantinople and every other city, we shall now see.

First he determined to debase the standing of the lawyers. He deprived them of all court fees, by which they had formerly lived in comfort and elegance; and in consequence they lost caste and significance. And after he had confiscated the estates of the Senators and other prosperous people, as has been related, in Constantinople and all over the Roman Empire, there was little use for lawyers anyway; men no longer had anything worth mentioning to go to court about. So of all the many noted advocates, only a few were left; and they were despised and reduced to penury, reaping nothing but insult from their work.

Furthermore, he caused physicians and teachers of the liberal arts to be deprived of the necessities of life. For he stopped all their living subsidies, which former emperors had paid men of these professions from the public treasury.

Also all of the taxes which the municipalities had devoted to public use or entertainments, he transferred arbitrarily to the imperial treasury. No consideration was now given to any physician or teacher; no one dared pay any attention to public buildings; there were no public lights in any city, nor any entertainments for the citizens. For the theaters, hippodromes, and circuses, in which his wife had been born, bred and educated, were all discontinued. Later he even stopped the public spectacles in Constantinople, to avoid spending the usual State money on them, by which an almost incalculable number of people had got their livelihood. On these, individually and collectively, ruin and desuetude descended, and as if some cataclysm had fallen on them from Heaven, their happiness was slain. And no other subject was spoken of among men, at home or in public or in the churches, than their calamities, their sufferings, and their overwhelming by the latest misfortune. Such was the state of affairs in the cities.

When in doubt, Justinian defaulted to THEFT to fund wars and building programs while impoverishing the people. 

Of what is left to tell, this is worth mentioning. Each year two Roman consuls were appointed: one at Rome, the other at Constantinople. And whoever was called to this honor was expected to spend more than twenty gold centenaries on the public; some of which came from the Consul's private purse, but most was furnished by the Emperor. This money was given to those others whom I have mentioned, but mostly to the poor and those employed in the theater; all of which was to the good of the city. But from the time Justinian came to power, these distributions were not made at the customary time; for sometimes a Consul remained in office for year after year, till finally people wearied of hoping for a new one, even in their dreams. As a result, universal poverty was the case, since the usual annual relief was no longer afforded to subjects; and in every way all that they had was taken from them by their ruler.

Now I think I have shown sufficiently how this destroyer devoured all the public moneys and robbed each member of the Senate, publicly and privately, of all his estates; and how by bringing false charges he confiscated the properties of everybody else who was reputed to be wealthy, I imagine I have adequately told: as in the case of the soldiers, subordinate officers, and the palace guard; the farmers and landowners; those whose business is in words; merchants, ship owners and sailors; mechanics, artisans, and market dealers; those whose livelihood is in the theater; and indeed everyone else, who was affected in turn by the damage done to these. And now let us see what he did to those in need of alms: the poor, the beggars, and the diseased; for what he did to the priests will be described later.

First, as I have said, he took control of all the shops, licensed monopolies of all the wares most necessary to life, and exacted a price of more than triple their worth from the citizens. And other details of what he did I would not even attempt to catalogue in an endless book, since they were simply uncountable.

He put a bitter and perpetual tax on the sale of bread, which the day laborers, the poor and the infirm could not help buying. From this source he demanded three centenaries a year, with the result that the bakers filled their loaves with shells and dust; for the Emperor had no scruples against profiting meanly from even this unholy adulteration. Those in charge of the markets, turning this trick to their private gain, with ease became very wealthy and reduced the poor to an unexpected famine even in prosperous times; since it was not permitted to bring in grain from other places, but all were forced to eat bread purchased in the city.

Empress Theodora 
by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1887)

Procopius in his Secret History wrote of Theodora:

“Often she would attend a dinner party with ten young men or more all at the peak of their physical powers and with fornication as their chief object in life; and she would remain with her fellow diners all night long reducing them to state of physical exhaustion.”

One of the municipal aqueducts, which furnished not a small share of the city water, collapsed; but the rulers disregarded the matter and refused to repair it, though the constant crowds who had to use the wells were fairly stifling, and all the baths were shut down. On the other hand, he threw away great sums of money senselessly on buildings by the seashore and elsewhere, in all the suburbs, as if the palaces in which all the former emperors had been content to dwell were not enough for this pair. So it was not to save money, but to destroy his subjects, that he refused to rebuild the aqueduct; for no one in all history had ever been born among men more eager than Justinian to get hold of money, and then to throw it immediately away again. Through the two things left to them to drink and eat, water and bread, this Emperor injured those who were in the last extremes of poverty; making the one hard to procure at all, and the other too expensive to buy.

This he did not only to the poor in Constantinople, but to inhabitants elsewhere, as I shall now relate. When Theodoric captured Italy, he permitted the palace guard to remain in Rome, that some trace of the ancient State might be left; and he continued their daily pay. These soldiers were quite numerous, comprising the Silentiarii, the Domestics, and the Student Corps, who were soldiers only in name; their pay was just enough to live on; and Theodoric ordered that this should revert, on their deaths, to their children and families. Among the poor, who lived near the Church of St. Peter the Apostle, he distributed each year three thousand bushels of grain from the public granary; which they continued to receive until the arrival in Italy of Alexander the Scissors.

This man immediately decided to deprive them of all this. When Justinian, Emperor of the Romans, learned of this economy, he was greatly pleased, and favored Alexander more than ever. It was on his way here that Alexander treated the Greeks as follows. The fortress at Thermopylae had long been guarded by the neighboring farmers, who took turns watching the wall whenever an incursion of barbarians into the Peloponnese was anticipated.

But this Alexander, when he arrived there, claimed it was to the advantage of the Peloponnesians not to allow this pass to be kept by farmers. So he stationed two thousand soldiers there, to be paid not out of the imperial treasury, but by all the cities of Greece; and on this pretext, he diverted all their public and entertainment revenues to the general fund, saying that from it food would be bought for these soldiers. In consequence, after this, everywhere in Greece, including even Athens, no public buildings or any other benefit could be considered. But Justinian of course approved this action of the Scissors. And that is what happened here.

Then there is the matter of the poor in Alexandria. Among the lawyers there was one Hephaestus, who, on being made Governor of Alexandria, put a stop to civic sedition by intimidating the rioters, but reduced all the inhabitants to the utmost misery. For he immediately brought all the wares in the city under a monopoly, forbidding other merchants to sell anything, and himself became the only dealer and sole vendor of all wares: fixing prices as he pleased under his supreme power. By the consequent shortage in necessary provisions the city of Alexandria was greatly distressed, where formerly even the very poor had been able to live adequately; and the high price of bread pinched them most. For he alone bought up all the grain in Egypt, not allowing anyone else to purchase as much as a single bushel; and thus he controlled the supply and price of bread as he pleased. In this way he soon amassed unheard-of wealth, at the same time satisfying the greed of the Emperor. The people of Alexandria through fear of Hephaestus bore their suffering in silence; and the Emperor, awed by the abundance of money that continuously came to him from that quarter, was wonderfully delighted with his Governor.

This Hephaestus, planning to incur even greater favor of the Emperor, contrived the following additional scheme. When Diocletian became ruler of the Romans, he ordered a large quantity of grain to be given yearly to the poor in Alexandria. And the Alexandrians, distributing this among themselves at that time, had transmitted the right to receive this bounty to their descendants up to this time. But Hephaestus, depriving these needy ones of this charity, which amounted to two million bushels, diverted it to the imperial granary, and wrote to the Emperor that these men had been getting this dole unjustly and not in accordance with the interests of state. The Emperor, approving this action, was still fonder of him than before. But such Alexandrians whose hope of life had been in the distribution, in their present bitter distress felt the full benefit of his inhumanity.

Procopius of Caesarea: The Secret History

Roman forts along the Danube limes - theoretical reconstruction

(artstation)

Justinian spent mountains of money on fortifications. Were they needed? Maybe. But the Roman military was so undermanned and spread so thin that there were almost not troops to post on the frontier. 

The real result was a broke and vastly weakened nation that could no longer defend itself.

Roman Camel Cavalry

Camel Riders (Dromedarii)

Dromedarii were camel riding auxiliary forces recruited in the eastern, desert, provinces of the Roman empire.

Dromedarii were camel-riding auxiliary forces recruited in the desert provinces of the late Roman Empire in Roman Syria.

They were developed to replace horses where these were uncommon. They were also helpful against enemy horses as they fear camels' scents. 

Camels were seen as exotic and useful creatures, known for their ability to move over desert terrain. It is noted that dromedaries were used less often than bactrians, though the title "Dromedarii" may imply that dromedaries were used more often. 

However, the Romans could not distinguish between bactrians and dromedaries, thus using both as a means of transportation. This is very similar to the camel cavalry used often by the Ottoman Empire. It is noted that camel cavalry was more commonplace due to the desert terrain during the early Muslim conquests.

A 1000-strong dromedarius unit, the ala I Ulpia Dromedariorum milliaria, was established by Trajan in Syria. A small number of dromedarii is recorded as part of the Cohors XX Palmyrenorum based in Dura-Europos in Roman Syria.

Palmyra / Tadmor, Homs governorate, Syria: Palmyra Museum. Caravan camel guarded by men armed with spear and sword.

In the eastern regions, Roman military units often included a handful of camel riders, typically integrated into a cohors equitata. Records show between 32 to 36 dromedarii enlisted in cohors XX Palmyrenorum equitata at Dura-Europos during the early 3rd century.

The role of dromedarii varied, sometimes serving as infantry and other times as cavalry, depending on the local organizational structures. For instance, the 1,000-strong unit mentioned earlier was designated as an ala, while camel riders within cohors XX Palmyrenorum in Syria were attached to infantry divisions. Their names typically appeared at the end of enlistment rosters, following the infantry listings. 

However, in Egypt, a dromedarius named Cronius Barbasatis was assigned to the cavalry turma under the command of decurion Salvianus. Cronius volunteered for this role and hadn’t transferred from another unit, indicating immediate recognition of his skills upon enlistment. Nonetheless, it’s generally believed that dromedarii would initially enlist as infantrymen, serving a few years in that capacity before transitioning to camel riders.

In addition to, each governor maintained a prestigious mounted “guard of honor”, known as the equites singulares, outfitted according to the historian and military leader Flavius Josephus in a manner akin to the troopers of an ala. Interestingly, these guards were selected from the ranks of the equites within the alae and cohortes equitatae stationed in the province, indicating their elite status.

Naturally, both the equites singulares and the individuals who would replace them in their parent units required mounts. So, in the Eastern provinces, dromedarii were additionally assigned to the equites singulares, further diversifying the composition of these specialized units.

Arguably, this was the most obvious adaptation to the desert made by the Roman army. The dromedarii (κάμηλιτοι in Greek) were clearly recognized as an official military specialization, embedded within cohortes equitatae and alae. While their strategic and tactical roles remain somewhat obscure, our understanding of their logistical significance is more robust. Camels were employed both in active campaigns and as part of the logistical infrastructure in established provinces. 

Strabo mentions their utilization by the Roman prefect Gaius Aelius Gallus during operations against the Nabateans (who later used them as guides at the expedition to Arabia Felix), and historical evidence suggests the construction of the Berenike-Koptos route by Ptolemy Philadelphos’s forces for long-distance camel transport, although the intended use, military or civilian, remains ambiguous.

The limited extent of excavation and survey in desert regions constrains speculative interpretations, although it’s highly probable that camelry played a significant role at key junctures along various Egyptian communication routes besides serving as postal carriers and guardians for the Arabian governor.

Historiascripta.org

Roman Camel Cavalry

WeaponsandWarfare.com

The Amphibious Assault on Alexandria - The Battle for Africa

300 Roman Ships Attack Alexandria

A dromon (from Greek δρόμων, dromōn,lit. 'runner') was a type of galley and the most important warship of the Eastern Roman Navy from the 5th to 12th centuries AD, when they were succeeded by Italian-style galleys. It was developed from the ancient liburnian, which was the mainstay of the Roman navy during the Empire.

Image from twcenter.net

The Death of the Ancient World

The Beginning of the End 

for Roman Africa, Part IV

If we had to pick a date for the fall of the ancient world I think September, 642 AD is as good as any. In that month the traitorous elements in the Roman Government surrendered the great fortress city of Alexandria to the Muslim invaders ending over 600 years of Roman rule.

The striking thing about the entire Arab invasion of Egypt was that Roman forces were scattered all over the country and were defeated one by one. It is what I have said for years, most "generals" are worthless bureaucrats who are vaguely aware they should point their army in the general direction of the enemy first before attacking.

Roman Cavalry

The Empire Strikes Back

In September 642 Alexandria opened its gates to the Muslims even though the city had never been breeched during the so-called "siege".

Once the Muslims took over along came the tax collectors who eagerly drained the Christian Egyptians of their money. A group of leading citizens of Alexandria wrote secretly to the Emperor Constans in Constantinople, begging him to reconquer Egypt and save them from Arab oppression.

Roman tax collectors were no saints, so the Muslim tax collectors must have been especially vicious to provoke this reaction.

The Emperor began gathering a Roman fleet of 300 ships to re-take Alexandria. This operation illustrates the power of the Roman Empire even after years and years of fighting against Arab armies.

We have next to no information as to the make up of this strike force. How many infantry? how many cavalry? etc. 

We can speculate. If 50 extra soldiers were loaded on to each ship times 300 ships we have an army of perhaps 15,000 men. This number is in line with a normal Eastern Roman strike force.

The Roman fleet was commanded by the admiral Manuel. Arab historians refer to him as Manuel the eunuch. Was he a palace favorite chosen for his loyalty or a professional military man? We will never know.

Roman soldiers 6th and 7th century

Click to enlarge map

Landing in Alexandria

The Roman Navy had complete command of the sea. A large fleet was assembled with the greatest possible secrecy. No Arab vessels sailed the Mediterranean and so no warning of the invasion reached Egypt.

Suddenly one morning in the autumn of 645, a fleet of 300 ships was seen bearing down on the harbor of Alexandria. Roman troops were soon disembarked and the small 1,000 man Arab garrison was put to the sword.

Roman troops once again manned the walls of Alexandria, and the city acknowledged its allegiance to Caesar.

"I'm Surrounded By Idiots."

Scar (The Lion King)

Again and again and AGAIN in the early Arab campaigns we saw the power of rapidly moving Blitzkrieg style Muslim forces. The Arabs were anxious to fight in open country. They skillfully drew their enemies out of their fortifications and then defeated them in the open desert.

So what did the idiot Roman commander do? 

Rather than secure the walled fortress of Alexandria against attack, he sent his troops far away from the safety of the city to fan out across the lower Nile delta. 

An Opportunity lost.  A powerful fortress-city of Alexandria could be endlessly supplied by the Roman Navy. That would have prevented Arabs from advancing up the coast to Libya and Carthage. From that secure fortress the Romans could build outwards to re-take and fortify Egyptian towns one-by-one.

Instead, the Muslim commander Amr ibn al Aasi arrived at the city of Babylon and "delayed" there in order to draw the Romans even deeper into Egypt.

Bedouin Warrior. The Romans may have faced troops much like this man.

The Battle of Nikiou / Alexandria

So again, instead of staying safely behind the massive walls of Alexandria, Manuel appears to have taken most of the Roman Army on a 100 mile march away from Alexandria to Nikiou.

Reaching Nikiou the Romans encountered an Arab army of about 15,000 men.

Again we lack details, but a bloody battle followed the outcome of which was long in doubt. Eventually the Romans gave way. As soon as they commenced to retire, their retreat became a rout.

Eventually the Romans reached Alexandria in complete confusion after fleeing the Arabs for 100 miles. Even so they entered the city and closed the gates in the face of the Arabs.

It should be noted that there was no massacre of the defeated Romans. It appears that for 100 miles the Roman Army was still a large enough force to keep the Arabs at bay.

Alexandria Falls Again

The exact manner of how Alexandria was taken this second time is still open to debate.

The most probable account seems to be the Commander of one of the gates secretly communicated with Amr offering to open the gate to the Arabs. Such treachery might have been from a Copt whose family or himself had been a victim of religious persecution by the Orthodox Roman government.

The Arabs burst into the city which was given up to massacre, plunder and arson. When half the city had been destroyed, Amr gave the order to halt the carnage.

A portion of the Roman Army reached their ships and put out to sea. But their commander Manuel and many of his troops were killed.

This second capture of Alexandria took place sometime in the Summer of 646. The campaign had lasted about nine months.

Rome had now permanently lost Egypt.

The Copts appear to have largely remained neutral. The Copt Patriarch Benjamin was said to have secured an interview with Amr telling him that Manuel was supported by the Orthodox Church, not the Copts.

In an interesting side note, after the Arab victory a number of Coptic villages complained to Amr that they had not only not joined the rebellion, but that they were plundered by Roman Army for supplies without any payment. By treaty the Muslims were supposed to protect them but did not. Amr immediately admitted the justice of their claims and ordered compensation to be paid for their losses.

(The Great Arab Conquests)

Click to enlarge map

The Roman Province of Egypt

The Battle for Africa

Read More:

War - The Battle for Africa, Part 1

The Battle for Africa, Part 2

The Battle for Africa, Part 3

Defending The Roman Frontier - Random Thoughts

Defending The Roman Frontier

My thoughts have turned to the many, varied and often tiny Roman border outposts.

Think of the many American Westerns with small and always undermanned frontier forts. The local garrisons were on alert 24-7 against Indian raids targeting local farmers and commercial traffic.

The borders of the Roman Empire were enormous. Protecting Roman citizens from barbarian raids was as close to impossible as you can get. 

Doubtless there were thousands of stories to be told of heroism, slaughter and sacrifice, but those stories are all lost to the mists of time.

The grand strategy of the empire was, on the whole, defensive. 

The Sahara, Euphrates, Danube, and Rhine were natural frontiers, and it was exceptional when the Romans launched new campaigns of conquest. If territory was added, it was to shorten the frontier, or to improve a vulnerable part of the frontier. 

The basic principle of defense was deterrence: wherever the enemy attacked, he would always find a professional, heavily armed Roman force that often outnumbered him. Except for the desert frontier, the limes usually consisted of a clear line where the enemy had to stay away from (e.g., Hadrian's Wall or the river Danube).

However, sometimes the line was attacked. The soldiers in the watchtowers signaled the invasion to the nearby forts. The watchtowers themselves were lost, but the invaders would immediately have to face with Roman forces from nearby forts.

Almost always, this was sufficient to deal with the situation. If the attackers were able to reach and loot a city, they would be massacred on their way home. The final act of every attempt to attack the empire was Roman retaliation against the native population.

Reconstruction of a Limes tower in Germany.

The Roman Frontier in Jordan

The Roman Fortress of 

Qasr Bashir in Jordan

Qasr Bashir is an extremely well preserved Roman fortress that lies in the Jordanian desert. 

Qasr Bshir belongs to the chain of forts and watchtowers that is known as the Limes Arabicus and was meant to protect the province of Arabia against roaming desert nomads. They were not extremely dangerous or exceptionally violent, but their dromedaries made them swift, and if trouble arose, they could pillage large parts of the Roman countryside. The Limes Arabicus had to counter this threat, and Mobene was one of the fortifications.

Built at the beginning of the fourth Century AD and known as Mobene, the walls of Qasr Bashir still stand intact, at a height of up to 20 feet in places, while the main entrance remains to this day. The huge corner towers still rise up two stories from the ground.

It is likely that Qasr Bashir was originally home to an auxiliary cavalry unit, charged with defending the Roman frontier and keeping the peace in the surrounding area. 

The Roman Frontier in the East -- Qasr Bashir Fort Reconstructed

Think of the word "Porous"

The Danube Limes was not a solid wall defending the Empire's frontier.  Rather it a was a series of fortified cities, small forts and watchtowers.  

The Limes was porous with assorted invading Slavs, Huns or Avars pouring through on raids dedicated to looting or conquest.  In theory the Roman/Byzantine strongpoints would slow down invaders allowing for troops stationed close by to push the enemy back over the border. 

Reconstruction of a Balkan Roman frontier strongpoint.

The southern harbor of the Roman fortress of Boreum in Libya.  What is left of the citadel is to the right.

The military post of Boreum was about as far from anything that resembled civilization as you could find under either Rome or Byzantium.

I suspect any commander assigned to this remote post was on the shit list in Constantinople. "Here is your new posting. We will relieve you in about 20 years."

The area was so remote that the historian Procopius reports in the 500s that civil servants from Libya who were promoted to posts in Constantinople had problems communicating with government staff.  They spoke only Latin and did not speak Greek.

As a frontier town, Boreum was mentioned by Ptolemy of Alexandria about 130 A.D. 

The main job of the garrison was to keep inland tribes from causing trouble with the coastal farming communities.

The Walls of Ceuta, in 

what was Byzantine Morocco

Currently ruled by Spain, the ancient Royal Walls originally date back to the 5th century.  Ceuta's location has made it an important commercial trade and military way-point for many cultures, beginning with the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC, who called the city Abyla. 

It was not until the Romans took control of the region in AD 42 that the port city, then named Septa, assumed an almost exclusive military purpose. It changed hands again approximately 400 years later, when Vandal tribes ousted the Romans. It then fell into the hands of the Visigoths, and finally it would become the western most outpost of the Eastern Roman Empire.
.
Around 710, as Muslim armies approached the city, its Byzantine Governor, Julian changed his allegiance, and exhorted the Muslims to invade the Iberian Peninsula.

6th Century Eastern Roman Cavalry

Debasing of the Quaestorship

Corruptus in Extremis

• Looting the treasury was, and is, a favorite hobby of kings, presidents and government officials.
• In his Secret History Procopius unloads of the massive corruption of Emperor Justinian and his dictatorial rule.
• The endless wars and building programs of Justinian drained the Imperial Treasury forcing the Emperor to financially rape his subjects and confiscate estates.

By Procopius of Caesarea
500 - 554 AD
The Secret History

He also had contrived other ways of plundering his subjects (which I will now describe as well as I can) by which he robbed them, not all at once, but little by little of their entire fortunes. First he appointed a new municipal magistrate, with the power to license shopkeepers to sell their wares at whatever prices they desired: for which privilege they paid an annual tax. 

Accordingly, people buying their provisions in these shops had to pay three times what the stuff was worth, and complainants had no redress, though great harm was thus done; for the magistrates saw to it that the imperial tax was fattened accordingly, which was to their advantage. Thus the government officials shared in this disgraceful business, while the shopkeepers, empowered to act illegally, cheated unbearably those who had to buy from them, not only by raising their prices many times over, as I have said, but by defrauding customers in other unheard-of ways.

Again he licensed many monopolies, as they -are called; selling the freedom of his subjects to those who were willing to undertake this reprehensible traffic, after he had exacted his price for the privilege. To those who made this arrangement with him, he gave the power to manage the business however they pleased; and he sold this privilege openly, even to all the other magistrates. And since the Emperor always got his little share of the plundering, these officials and their subordinates in charge of the work, did their robbing with small anxiety.

As if the formerly appointed magistrates were not enough for this purpose, he created two new ones; though the municipal Prefect had formerly been able to look after all criminal charges. His real reason for the change was, of course, so that he could have additional informers, and thus misuse the innocent with more celerity. Of the two new officials, one, nominally appointed to punish thieves, was called Praetor of the People; the other was charged with the punishment of cases of pederasty, illegal intercourse with women, blasphemy, and heresy; and his official name was Quaestor.

Emperor Justinian I

Reign 527 to 565 AD

Now the Praetor, whenever he found anything very valuable among the stolen goods that came to his notice, was supposed to give it to the Emperor and say that no owner had appeared to claim it. In this way the Emperor continually got possession of priceless goods. And the Quaestor, when he condemned persons coming before him, confiscated as much as he pleased of their properties, and the Emperor shared with him each time in the lawlessly gained riches of other people. For the subordinates of these magistrates neither produced accusers nor offered witnesses when these cases came to trial, but during all this time the accused were put to death, and their properties seized without due trial and examination.

Later, this murdering devil ordered these officials and the municipal Prefect to deal with all criminal charges on equal terms: telling them to vie with each other to see which of them could destroy the most people in the shortest time. And one of them asked him at once, they say, "If somebody is sometime denounced before all three of us, which of us shall have jurisdiction over the case?" Whereupon he replied, "Whichever of you acts faster than the rest."

Thus shamelessly he debased the Quaestor's office, which former emperors almost without exception had held in high regard, taking care that the men they appointed to it were experienced and wise, law-abiding, and uncorruptible by bribes; since otherwise it would be a calamity to the state, if men holding this high office were ignorant or avaricious.

But the first man that this Emperor appointed to the office was Tribonian, whose actions I have fully related elsewhere. And when Tribonian departed from this world, Justinian seized a portion of his estate, though a son and many other children were left destitute when the fellow ended the final day of his life. Junilus, a Libyan, was next appointed to this office: a man who had never even heard the law, for he was not a rhetorician; he knew the Latin letters, but as far as Greek went, he had never even gone to school, and was unable to speak the language. Frequently when he tried to say a Greek word, he was laughed at by his servants. And he was so damned greedy for base gain, that he thought nothing of publicly selling the Emperor's decrees. For one gold coin he would hold out his palm to anybody without hesitation. And for not less than seven years' time the State shared the ridicule earned by this petty grafter.

When Junilus completed the measure of his life, Constantine was appointed Quaestor: a man not unacquainted with law, but exceeding young, and without actual experience in court; and the most thievish bully among men. Of this person Justinian was very fond, and became his bosom friend, since through him the Emperor saw he could steal and run the office as he wished. Consequently, Constantine had great wealth in a short time, and assumed an air of prodigious pomp, with his nose in the clouds despising all men; and even those who wanted to offer him large bribes had to entrust them to those who were in his special confidence, to offer him together with their requests; for it was never possible to meet or talk with him, except when he was running to the Emperor or had just left him, and even then he trotted by in a great hurry, lest his time be wasted by somebody who had no money to give him. This is what the Emperor did to the quaestorship.

Procopius of Caesarea

A quaestor ("investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.

From 440 onward, the office of the quaestor worked in conjunction with the praetorian prefect of the East to oversee the supreme tribunal, or supreme court, at Constantinople. There, they heard appeals from the various subordinate courts and governors.

Emperor Justinian I also created the offices quaesitor, a judicial and police official for Constantinople, and quaestor exercitus (quaestor of the army), a short-lived joint military-administrative post covering the border of the lower Danube. The quaestor sacri palatii survived long into the Byzantine Empire, although its duties were altered to match the quaesitor by the 9th century AD, who was a judicial officer in charge of resolving various disputes.

The office survived into the 14th century as a purely honorific title.