It was not only the poor of Byzantium, however, that he harassed in this manner, but, as I will presently mention, the inhabitants of several other cities.  When Theodoric had made himself master of Italy, in order to preserve some trace of the old constitution, he permitted the praetorian guards to remain in the palace and continued their daily allowance.  These soldiers were very numerous.  There were the Silentiarii, the Domestici, and the Scholares, about whom there was nothing military except the name, and their salary was hardly sufficient to live upon.  Theodoric also ordered that their children and descendants should have the reversion of this.  To the poor, who lived near the church of Peter the Apostle, he distributed every year 3,000 bushels of corn out of the public stores.  All continued to receive these donations until the arrival of Alexander Forficula[18] in Italy.  He resolved to deprive them of it immediately; and, when the Emperor was informed of this, he approved of his conduct, and treated Alexander with still greater honour.  During his journey, Alexander treated the Greeks in the following manner:—­The peasants of the district near the pass of Thermopylae had long manned the fortress, and, each in turn, mounted guard over the wall which blocks the pass, whenever there seemed any likelihood of an invasion of the barbarians.  But Alexander, on his arrival, pretended that it was to the interest of the Peloponnesians not to leave the protection of the pass to the peasants.  He established a garrison of about 2,000 soldiers, who were not paid out of the public funds, but by each of the cities in Greece.  On this pretext, he transferred to the public treasury all the revenues of these towns which were intended for public purposes or to cover the expenses of shows and entertainments.  He pretended that it was to be employed for the support of the soldiers, and in consequence, from that time, no public buildings or other objects of utility were erected or promoted either in Athens or throughout Greece.  Justinian, however, hastened to give his sanction to all the acts of Forficula.

We must now speak of the poor of Alexandria.  Amongst the lawyers of that city was one Hephaestus, who, having been appointed governor, suppressed popular disturbances by the terror he inspired, but at the same time reduced the citizens to the greatest distress.  He immediately established a monopoly of all wares, which he forbade other merchants to sell.  He reserved everything for himself alone, sold everything himself, and fixed the price by the capricious exercise of his authority.  Consequently, the city was in the greatest distress from want of provisions; the poor no longer had a sufficient supply of what was formerly sold at a low rate, and especially felt the difficulty of obtaining bread; for the governor alone bought up all the corn that came from Egypt, and did not allow anyone else to purchase even so much as a bushel; and in this manner, he taxed the loaves