Harry Turtledove - Justinian

Stephen, as was his wont, dressed richly: he had the love of ostentation so common among eunuchs. His undertunic was of gold silk, the robe he wore over it of green. Gold rings gleamed on his fingers; a heavy gold chain stretched around his fat neck. The buckles of his sandals were also of gold.

Theodotos, by contrast, wore a plain black wool robe, as if he were still back in the Thracian monastery from which he had come. He was tall and thin and pale, a pallor accentuated not only by the robe but also by his hair (one lock of which kept flopping down over his forehead) and his long, thick, beard, which were both the color of pitch. His cheeks were hollow, he continuing to practice an ascetic way of life here in Constantinople, while his eyes, though dark, glowed as if from an inner fire.

The first to protest against his exactions was a certain Artavasdos, a wine merchant. After prostrating himself before me, he pointed at Theodotos and said, his voice quivering with fury, "Emperor, inside that monkish robe dwells a wolf. Do you know what he did to me? Do you know?"

"I collected the monies due the fisc," Theodotos said calmly. He sounded, as he usually did, as if he knew precisely what he was doing and would proceed on that course without hesitation. No wonder, then, I favored him, my own mind running in similar channels.

Artavasdos leaped into the air, a remarkable turn for such a short, plump man. "He came to my shop, Emperor, with soldiers. They tied my hands together with ropes and hung me up over a beam. Then they piled sawdust and chaff and such under me and lighted them with a lamp. They smoked me, Emperor, like a ham they smoked me over the fire, till I thought I was going to die, to make me tell them where I hid my money."

I turned to Theodotos, who was sorting through sheets of papyrus. "What have you to say about this matter?"

"Emperor, Artavasdos son of Symbatios owed the fisc the sum of "- a long, pale finger slid down the list of names he was holding-"twenty-four and seven-twelfths nomismata, said arrears having accumulated over the period of four years. After my visit to him, his debt to the treasury was paid in full."

"Did you owe this sum?" I asked Artavasdos.

His already swarthy face grew darker yet, rage suffusing it. He pointed at Theodotos again. "What he did, Emperor, only a monster would do, not a human being. I was choking in the smoke, coughing, wheezing, my shoulders like to be torn out of their sockets, and he stood there laughing- laughing, I tell you."

"Do you deny owing the fisc these twenty-four nomismata?" I demanded.

Suddenly getting my drift, Artavasdos stopped blustering. "No," he said in a small voice.

"Did he and the fisc take any more money than was owed?" I asked.

"No, Emperor," Theodotos said, and, most reluctantly, the wine seller agreed.

"Get out of here!" I shouted. "Get out of here and give thanks to the merciful Mother of God that I don't tear out your cheating tongue. You dare to rob the treasury, and then complain when you're caught? Good Theodotos here should have smoked you into ham, for you're a swine wallowing in the trough of our generosity. Get out!"

Court ceremonial forgotten, Artavasdos left at a dead run. He might even have been faster than John of Cyprus. Several men who I thought might be petitioners also hastily departed without pleading their cases before me. But one group in tunics plainly their best and as plainly none too good did come before me. Having completed their prostrations, they rose. Their spokesman, a loutish fellow as shabbily dressed as the rest, said, "Emperor, I'm called Ioannakis." Whoever had styled him little John had done so on the principle of contrariness, for he was large and burly, with a wrestler's shoulders. He went on, "I'm one of the heads of the carpenters' guild, and these here are some of my boys." His companions nodded.

He spoke a rough Greek, of a kind seldom heard in the grand palace, but seemed to be doing his best to be polite with it. "Say on," I told him.

Ioannakis pointed to Stephen the Persian; a lot of men pointed fingers in the throne room that day. "Emperor, that fellow is a bad one," he said. "He cut our pay for some of the repair work we've been doing here at the palace, and when we complained about it, he set ruffians throwing stones on us. Look and see for yourself." He pulled up one sleeve of his tunic, displaying a jagged, poorly healed scar on the big muscle of his upper arm.

"Emperor, the pay for these workmen comes from your privy purse," Stephen said smoothly when I looked a question at him. "I discovered them working more slowly than they should have, and adjusted their wages accordingly."

"That's a lie!" Ioannakis shouted, and several of the men with him shook their fists at Stephen and bawled coarse curses. "We were doing fine till he stuck his pointy nose in where it didn't belong, looking for ways to make us hungrier. Don't see him looking any too hungry," he added, staring insolently at Stephen's plump prosperity.

Imperturbable, the eunuch said, "It is not a lie. The work to be completed would not be finished by the time assigned, necessitating the reduction in wages previously mentioned. Following the reduction, the workers threatened to damage such work as they had already done. I found a way to force them from the area without summoning soldiers and provoking worse bloodshed."

Ioannakis and the other carpenters kept shouting and cursing, even after I raised my hand for silence. As Stephen's comments had already shown, they knew neither discipline nor respect for their betters. I gestured to the excubitores flanking the throne. Only when they slammed the butts of their spears against the marble floor did the carpenters come to their senses and quiet down.

Now I pointed at them. "If you cannot do that which is required of you, you have no business coming here and complaining to me of it. Obey those set above you and you will do better. Now go." I pointed again, this time to the way out.

But instead of obeying, as all subjects are obliged to do when the Emperor of the Romans commands, Ioannakis, hubris filling his spirit, shouted out to everyone who would listen: "This is a cheat! Do you see how he cheats us?" His vain, insane followers bellowed like nonsense.

Rage ripped through me. I pointed first to the carpenters, then to the excubitores- yet more pointing fingers on that day. "Seize these men!" I told my guards. "Cast them into prison until we can properly decide their fate."

Then Ioannakis and his henchmen did make for the door, but more excubitores stood there and prevented their leaving. The guardsmen who had been stationed to either side of the throne advanced on them, trapping them between two groups of soldiers. After a little scuffling, the arrogant, insolent, mannerless wretches were seized and taken away. Calm having been restored to the throne room, the rest of the day's audiences proceeded smoothly.

Yes, I was there, Brother Elpidios. Why didn't Justinian listen to the downtrodden workmen? I'll tell you why. He'd told Stephen and Theodotos to squeeze as much gold out of people as they could- he says as much; you've read the words. They were doing what he'd said. They were enjoying themselves doing it, true, but he didn't care about that one way or the other. He cared about obedience and about money. Anyone who got in the way of that had to look out.

We took Ioannakis and the other carpenters down to the Praitorion, the city eparch's headquarters on the Mese, and threw them into cells there. What I figured would happen was that the eparch would let them stew for a couple of days, tell them what idiots they'd been for insulting the Emperor, and send them home. It looked like a neat, clean way to get free of the mess.

Trouble is, I'd guessed wrong about Ju stinian. I thought he'd angry up and calm down and forget about things. But he didn't. The very next day, he sent an order to throw away the key for Ioannakis and his friends. They were still in prison- the ones who were still alive, anyhow- when he was cast down from the throne. And they were a long way from the only ones, too.