ON JOHN LYDUS

...of honors for offices honorably completed, awarded as a reward to well-deserving men and veterans. But Lydus, when he had risen to prominence around 551 AD, lost against all hope everything he had anticipated: the profit of the Cornicularius; originally a military rank, by this period it denoted the chief of staff of the administrative bureaus. He fell into a miserable ruin of the public offices, a massive disruption of ancient discipline, and a decrease in tax revenues. This went so far that, whereas previously a Cornicularius received no less than 1,000 solidi; the standard gold coin of the later Roman Empire during his year in office just from the signing of official records, Lydus confirms in his book III. 25, page 192 that after his long labors he obtained nothing but an empty title. He received not a single coin from either the Prince The Emperor Justinian or from the "completions" original: completionibus; these were supplementary fees or bonuses paid to officials upon the successful filing of documents, which were a part of the salary established for the Cornicularii. In short, he lost almost all the fruit of his earlier life.

Thus, he wrote his book On the Magistrates original: de Magistratibus with the utmost bitterness original: summo cum stomacho; literally "with much stomach," a Latin idiom for resentment or bile and incredible anger, filling the entire work with complaints: see Book III, chapter 12, page 168; chapter 14, pages 172 and 174. Nor does his grief seem to have been much lightened by the consolation that, if he was diminished in pay, he was certainly increased in glory and praise—both from his colleagues in the bureaus (see III. 27, bottom of page 196; 50, page 200), from the Prefects, and even from the Emperors themselves. This was shown especially by two decrees: one, a pragmatic sanction of Justinian (III. 29, page 198), in which Lydus’s learning... The text breaks off here; the decree likely continues to praise his literary or legal skill on the following page.