JUSTINIAN AND THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE 141 as much profit out of it as possible, and he raised the sal- aries of his governors so that they would not Reforms be tempted to steal. He suppressed a number in internal of unnecessary offices, even including such high government posts as those of the vicarii, and he rearranged and simpli- fied the official hierarchy and adapted it to present needs. He was aware that only about one third of the taxes reached his treasury and tried to make his officials more efficient, careful, and honest in this respect. His many enterprises were very costly, however, and although he economized strictly in certain respects, and although his officials taxed the people almost beyond endurance, he died leaving debts as against a considerable surplus in the treasury at the beginning of Justin's reign. The Secret History complains bitterly that he was wastefully extravagant in some things, while in others he deprived many people of their source of revenue or their customary enjoyments by his strict policy of financial retrenchment. For instance, he discontinued public shows and the free distribution of corn; he seldom created consuls; he reduced the soldiers' pay and the fees and pensions of lawyers and physicians and the imperial post by relays of horses. On the other hand, he tried to les- sen the law's delays and to make it possible for most liti- gants to settle their cases without having to appeal to Constantinople and undertake an expensive visit or resi- dence there. But the great legal work of Justinian was to put the entire living body of the Roman law into permanent and final form. That law, as we have seen, had ceased Law books to develop, had begun to deteriorate, and would of J ustinian have soon died out, as did most of classical civilization, had not Justinian boiled it down and preserved it, as a housewife cans fruit that would otherwise decay. This ex- tremely valuable labor was performed in a few years. Law- yers were becoming lazy in Justinian's day and contented themselves with citing old statutes and authorities, in- stead of reasoning out the correct solution of a case for themselves, But there was often disagreement as to the
