Under Justinian[1] the production of grain was scanty and the import of grain arrived insufficient to meet the need. He[2], at a loss what to do in the present circumstances, was minded to attempt to raise a great quantity of grain from farms in Bithynia and Phrygia and Thrace. It was necessary for those living there to bring the cargoes to the sea with great labor and to transport them into Byzantium with risk and to bring away payments from him [sc. Petros], to be sure short in their reckoning, and for the loss to them to rise to such an amount that they rejoiced if someone allowed them to make a present of the grain to the public at home, and to pay an additional price for it. This is the burden which they were accustomed to call 'buying-up.'[3]