John Of Cappadocia
John of Cappadocia (c. 490 - 548 ) was one of the chief ministers of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.. His reforms, conducted in 531 to 541 , are in line with the strengthening of imperial absolutism and centralization of the empire.
Born in Caesarea of Cappadocia , he started as scriniaire in services Magister militum where he was able to show a wise adviser of Justinian in financial matters. He then became numrarius, CFO of Magister militum then praetorian prefect of the East in 531.
John of Cappadocia was the power of his extraordinary ability to solve practical problems, particularly in the financial community. His blunders, gross, were to spend endless hours at table, he also was flippant and insolence toward its neighbors.
Summary |
First prefecture (530-532)
Fight against the Administration
Supported by the Emperor, his government was marked by the struggle against abuse of officials, which suffers the Byzantine Empire:
- in 530 , he shall reinstate the law prohibiting public officials to acquire properties in the provinces where they are based, however, that prohibition is relativized to junior officials;
- it also prohibits gifts to governors and former governors;
- He also ordered restrictions against the judiciary, to prevent extortion, including by reducing the amount of alms that individuals must pay at all stages of judicial proceedings.
All these measures earned him the hatred of the officials, who feel bullied and injured, their complaints remain a dead letter, are engaged in passive resistance, opposing the force of inertia to the edicts of the Emperor.
Faced with political enemies, he obtained an order of Justinian that no minister may, out of him and the emperor , translate curiales or imperial officials to justice.
Financial Policy
Another aspect of its policy concerning the reduction of government spending: he reformed the postal administration at the expense of large landowners and the army.
Military reform is characterized by two major elements:
- it is reforming the coemptio, mode of requisitioning available to the imperial government to ensure the supply of troops, the landowners are now required to procure supplies for the army in proportion to the tax they owe, and when the government requires. The historian Procopius of Caesarea , very critical of John of Cappadocia, then wrote in his Anekdote that "it follows that all domain owners are being bled white ... they are forced to pay their annual no less than ten times ";
- it requires limitanei, peasant soldiers settled on the borders of the Empire, to renounce their balances, on pain of being confiscated their lands.
His method is to assess the real needs on the basis of what exists, without relying on the statements of former numbers. Its investigators are even more zealous he receive one twelfth of the savings from the national budget.
It also takes measures to increase the tax yield, though preserving the peasantry increased tariffs, creation of tolls, increased export duties, creating the aerikon, tax continues until the end of Empire. This latter tax, already under a settlement of 478 , but never implemented, aimed at punishing the ban on constructions include projections (balconies, decks) encroaching too much on public roads of Commissioners, called logothetes are sent in cities and often demolish buildings that are not in good standing.
Desperate to ensure the efficiency of the tax, he does not hesitate to torture the most powerful tax debtors but ensure that no injustice is committed: one of his agents, John Maxilloplumacius is thus punished for ruining several cities of the Hellespont.
In January 532 , the Nika sedition forced Justinian to dismiss John of Cappadocia from office and replaced by Phocas.
II Prefecture (532-541)
In November 532, John was restored to its former position and the second prefecture is characterized by significant administrative reforms. These reforms imply, in general, an underlying hostility against the ruling classes:
- 15 April 535 , he had published by Justinian "a novella against the venality of" prohibiting judges and governors to buy their loads. He also decreed that the amount of taxes to be paid to the authorities responsible for making appointments will be set by the Emperor. It also removes the burden of vicar, interposed between the praetorian prefects and governors of provinces and redefines the obligations of Governors;
- he defended the peasants against landlords encroachment of large landowners by prohibiting them to acquire new land in the rural communes.
In 538 , he attacked the Monophysite Egypt and shut down their churches, and 541 , extending their legislation against heretics by prohibiting them from exercising any public function and pass on their property by inheritance. He took advantage at the same time, to reform the administration and the Egyptian diocese and ends the administrative unit in the region, strengthening the authority of the patriarch.
The number of laws enacted or restored under the rule of John of Cappadocia are the size of the legal structure of Justinian: These laws give the image of an organized state, which focntionnement is regulated by complex laws and carefully composed but he must also fight to ensure their implementation and that the authority of the Emperor is respected.
In 537 , Justinian, however, criticized him for not having rejected without hesitation the claims of the heretics, possibly giving credence to the accusations against him of paganism. It then responds to the Emperor: "We are surprised that your wisdom has listened to their reasons and you do'm eager to punish."
In 540 - 541 , he makes a long journey in the East, where he was acclaimed by the masses, who thanked the measures it has taken against the powerful, which presents him as a dangerous rival to Justinian.
Fall
John of Cappadocia is hated by the Empress Theodora , whom he despises. It gets in May 541 , his dismissal by invoking the involvement of John in a plot to overthrow Justinian: it is then removed from his ministry, stripped of his possessions and forced to give up her palace to Belisarius. He was replaced as warden by Theodotus.
He was then exiled to Cyzicus , in 542 , it is (falsely?) accused of the murder of the local bishop and exiled to Egypt where he died in 548.
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