Such was the care he took of the most important state institutions.

It will not be out of place to mention one of his ridiculous acts.

There was at Caesarea a lawyer named Evangelius, a person of distinction, who, by the favour of fortune, had amassed great riches and considerable landed estates.

He afterwards purchased, for three centenars of gold, a village on the coast named Porphyreon.

When Justinian heard of this, he immediately took it from him, only returning him a small portion of the price he had paid for it, at the same time declaring that it was unseemly that such a village should belong to Evangelius the lawyer.