Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	army_n	part_n	soldier_n	1,362	5	6.5605	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55987	The secret history of the court of the emperor Justinian written by Procopius of Cesarea ; faithfully rendred into English.; Secret history. English	Procopius.	1674 (1674)	Wing P3641; ESTC R21705	83,293	168

more grateful he was in the eyes of the people the more odious he became to Justinian and Theodora who no sooner had notice of the vertue and goodness of their Officers but they turned their thoughts wholly upon ways of removing them not being able to endure persons so opposite to their own natural temper Peter as I said before succeeding John in the management of the Treasury was the cause of a thousand miseries to particular persons having imbezled the Fund which of a long time had been raising by an antient and laudable custom for the relief of several poor families sending part of it to the Emperor and keeping the rest for himself whereby he acquired vast riches whilest they died with hunger who had nothing else to maintain them but those annual Contributions Besides which he coyned Money of Gold much less then the former and made it currant by Proclamation These in the Reign of Justinian were the persons who managed all the Offices and publick imployments I shall now speak of the methods which he used to ruine all people of estates though to exhibite their misery there needs in strictness no more then what I have spoken of the Governors of Provinces and Collectors who had private and peremptory instruction to ruine all people whose estates were in Land The Roman Emperors were formerly accustomed to remit to the people the arrears of such Money as was owing to the Exchequer that such of them as were unable to pay might not be in fear all their life long nor the Treasurers have opportunity to raise Money where many times it was not due But Justinian in Two and thirty years time was not guilty of one of those remissions the poor people were forced from their Houses and Countreys without any hopes of return whilest such as were honest were liable to calumniations and threatned perpetually to be complained of as not having paid what was due to the Emperor for their Taxes upon their Lands insomuch that the unfortunate Creatures were constrained to pass away their Lands to the Emperor or their Persecutors not so much out of apprehension of new Taxes as for the impossibility which they found to support long the unjust exactions which for many years together they had been forced to pay Moreover though the greatest part of Asia had been ruined by the Arms of the Sarazens and Persians and all Europe harassed and infested by the incursions of the Huns and Sclavonians the War of the Goths produced sacking and burning of Towns and devastations of Provinces though the Inhabitants were carried away prisoners with all that they had and those few who escaped the hands of the Barbarians were glad to forsake their Countrey and banish themselves Yet none of these considerations could work upon Justinian or prevail with him to remit one tribute or impost to any one Town in the whole Empire unless it was such as had been taken by the Enemy and in that case their exemption was but for a year whereas it he should have excused them for seven years together as his Predecessor Anastatius had done it would have been no great matter considering the great misery to which they were reduced In short Cabades invaded the Territories of the Emperor and returned every way Victorious but his Son Cosroes produc'd greater Consternation by Burning and Killing all where ever he passed with his Army And yet those of the East who had been exposed so often to the Incursions of the Huns the Persians and Sarazins and ruined by their Armies and the Romans who being setled in several parts of Europe had many times felt the Hostility of the Barbarians those I say who had suffered so much for their affection to the State found more cruelty in Justinian then among all the Barbarians his Edicts and Impositions compleating that Ruine which the Enemy had but begun I shall now recite what was the Contents of those Edicts Those whose Estates were in Land were by them obliged to furnish a certain quantity of Provisions for the Souldiers at their own Charges every Man paying his part nor did they consider what was given according to the Prizes of things but according to a former Assesment made a long time before and if at any time they were so unfortunate not to have so much Cattle or Forrage upon their Lands as would satisfie for their share they were constrained to buy them at any rate and convey them from the Provincial Magazines which were very far off to the place where the Troops were in Garrison and then deliver them in what quantity and at what rate the Officers pleased and not according to what was reasonable and just This Impost was called the Impost of Victuals by which those who had Lands paid ten times greater Tribute then formerly so that really it was taking from them so much Blood out of their Veins being obliged to carry their Corn to Constantinople after they had suffered so much by quartering the Army These disorders and oppressions the State owes to Barzames and John de Cappadocia whom their Successors imitated exactly in the Continuation of their Crime And so much for the Tax called the Impost of Victuals The Impositions were like a Plague which came suddenly upon those whose Estates were in Land and took from them not only the hopes of living tolerably well but the means of continuing their Life as miserable as it was For though the Lands were all thrown up and deserted by the Ruine or Flight of the Owners or their Tenants who were either Killed or Frighted out of their Country or else hid themselves to avoid Persecution Justinian without any reluctance exacted these Impositions which were very frequent in his time I conclude in few words the Taxes call the Descriptions were imposed to repair the Losses which the Cities had brought upon such as were proprietors in the Country But it would be an infinite Trouble to undertake an Account of all the Evil Effects which ensued upon these Taxes or the idle and trivial pretences upon which they were Imposed for the Miseries of the People increased daily and though the Inhabitants in the Country were most of them dead of the Plague which the Roman Empire was no less afflicted at that time then the other parts of the World and though the Contagion was so universal the Fields and the Farms lay uninhabited and untilled Justinian never made the least Abatement in his Duties and Imposts that he had Established on the contrary he constrained with great severity those who were alive to pay the proportions of such of their Neighbors as were Dead of the Infection In short their finest and richest Apartments they gave for Quarters to the Souldiers treating them with all possible liberality and civility whilst they were glad to make shift with any by place or stinking hole to lye in themselves In this manner things passed in the Reign of Justinian and Theodora who though they were but

quantity The Natives in Mauritania were more numerous then they and they were all extirpated with their Wives and Children The greatest part of the Roman Army perished there likewise and with them all the Auxilliary Troops of their Allies so that I am of opinion it may be affirmed without extravagance That in that Countrey alone he was the destruction of above a million and all because after he had defeated the Vandals he took no care to establish his Empire in those parts and fortifie his party by indulging the Natives but called away Bellisarius upon pretence that he designed to make himself King a thing he never thought of nor was it any way convenient for him But what ever he pretended the true cause was that he might have opportunity to pillage more freely and ruine without obstruction the whole Coast of Africa And to speak truth the Officers which he sent acquitted themselves very faithfully of their Commission from him for under the new names of Imposts and Duties they seised upon the best and richest part of the Countrey This Emperor who could not contain himself in one and the same state and seemed to be born to put all things in confusion forbid the Arians the exercise of their Religion and deferred always to send supplies to his Army till at length they began to mutiny and so many Seditions were ready to break out as would certainly have indangered the peace and tranquility of the whole Government He dispeopled Italy of its Inhabitants much more then he had done the Coast of Africa which was three times of greater extent from whence a probable computation may be made of the numbers which he occasionally ruined for I have elswhere spoke of the original of his Wars in Italy The same exactions that he used in Africk he used likewise in Italy having ravaged all by the means of certain receivers which he called Logothetes Before the Wars in Italy the Empire of the Goths extended from Gaule or France as far as the confines of Dacia or the City of Sirmium and when the Roman Troops were in Italy the Germans possessed the best part of Gallia Cisalpina and the Countrey belonging to Venice Sirmium and the Countrey adjacent were in the hands of the Gepides All this vast tract of Ground was depopulated in the Raign of the Emperor Justinian partly by War partly by Famine partly by the Plague and by other evils that are inseparably concomitant with War Illyrium Thrace Greece the Chersoness and all the Provinces from the entrance into the Jonique Sea to the very Walls of Constantinople were cruelly spoiled under the Dominion of Justinian by the annual incursions of the Huns the Sclavonians and others I do verily believe that in every of these inroads what of those who were left behind and of those who were carried away prisoners there perished above Two hundred thousand Romans And this is most certain That in that Countrey which before was the most populous in the World there were fewer people then in the uninhabited Deserts of Scythia and this was the effect of the Wars in Europe and Africk Asia likewise was not without her sufferings for the Saracens during those Wars having extended their Arms from Egypt as far as the Borders of Persia and made themselves Masters of the Provinces which were under the Dominion of the Romans so harassed them with such constant cruelty that there was not a person to be seen and the numbers which were killed or transplanted were infinite The Persian made three incursions into the Lands of the Empire under the conduct of Cosroes and where ever they came they ruined the Towns and Countreys unpeopled them of their Inhabitants and carrying the greatest part away with them prisoners they put the rest to the Sword but being afterwards got into Colchis they made considerable devastations one after the other as it had been in imitation of what the Laziens and Rormans had done there before but neither the Persians themsselves the Huns the Sclavonians nor other of the Barbarous Nations which invaded the Roman Empire could ever carry back their Armies whole and intire They lost many Men in their Conquests in their Rencounters Sieges and pitched Battles in which Fortune was not always favorable to their side so as they became sensible of Justinians fury as well as his own Subjects Cosroes also as I have said elswhere was a man of turbulent spirit yet Justinian was always the aggressor and served as a Bonte-feu to the conflagrations which brake out and in the consequence consumed most of his Countrey To be short in the affairs which he mannaged he never conducted them according to the times and conjunctures but did every thing improperly during the whole War and in times of Peace or Cessation his thoughts were wholly taken up in contriving which way he might trouble his Neighbors He invaded them bluntly without declaring of War but his preparations were always so backward by reason of his extream covetousness he seldom succeeded and instead of applying himself to the prosecution of his designs he was for the most part taken up in Metaphisical Notions about the Nature and existence of God Nevertheless he kept his Armies constantly on foot to execute his cruel and tyrannical commands never suffering them to come to any engagement with their Enemies his avarice not permitting him to allow them what was necessary to overcome come them so that in Justinians Reign the Land was not only besprinkled but overflown with the Blood of the Romans and all other Nations in the World These were evils which succeeded upon the War at that time in the Territories of the Roman Empire but we shall find as many murders committed in the Cities if we consider what was done by the Factious who had their quarrels and combats quite thorow the Empire and indeed how could it be otherwise seeing no man was punished as he deserved because one faction adhered to the Emperor and neither the one nor the other had patience to be at quiet One of them finding themselves backed and supported by the Emperor puffed up with vanity believed they might hazard all securely the other knowing the Emperor was their Enemy grew desperate upon an opinion that they could be no worse because they had nothing left already to loose Hereupon they meet frequently in small Parties and fought several little Battles sometimes they met in Squadrons to fight and sometimes hand to hand in single duels sometimes also they would lie in wait for one another and murder one another as they found opportunity There was not a day passed but a thousand cruelties were exercised on both sides for two and thirty years together and continued without any intermission Oftentimes the Governor of the Town would put some of them to death but for the most part his severity was exercised against the Prasinian faction besides which so many Samaritans and Hereticks were put to death that the whole