Condemning people for "treason", executing them, and then confiscating their estates was an essential -- even key -- feature of budgeting in the later Roman Empire. That's why Boethius wound up in prison, as so many wealthy men had done before him. In the last 200 years of the Empire, the law-courts existed mostly for the purpose of seizing assets, and the legal profession became the haunt of jackals and hyenas. Informers and tale-bearers participated in the looting, and for many of them it represented the only life opportunity at serious income they would ever have, so they were severely motivated, as were the attorneys.
The revolution eats its children.