The Secret History · Theme
Injustice and Lawlessness
How The Secret History develops Injustice and Lawlessness.
The book highlights the systematic dismantling of legal protections, where trials are rigged, laws are retroactively changed for profit, and the innocent are punished while the guilty go free.
Where it surfaces
- II: How Belated Jealousy Affected Belisarius’s Military Judgment, to the Joy of the Enemy
Chosroes is accused by his own nobles of breaking his plighted word by invading in peacetime, and the Roman army suffers from Belisarius's neglect of duty.
- III: Showing the Danger of Interfering with a Woman’s Intrigues, Especially When the Woman Is the Friend of an Empress
Innocent men are tortured and exiled for their association with Photius and Belisarius.
- How Theodora, Revenging Her Dear Antonina, Humiliated the Conqueror of Africa and Italy
Belisarius is condemned without proof, his property seized on false pretexts, and his life spared only through his wife's intervention.
- How Theodora Tricked the General’s Daughter Into a Liaison with the Empress’s Nephew, and Belisarius Became a Public Laughing Stock
Sergius murders ambassadors under safe conduct, and Solomon kills his rescuer Pegasius, yet both escape justice through imperial favor.
- Ignorance of the Emperor Justin, and His Stencilled Signature, and How His Nephew Justinian Was the Virtual Ruler
Justinian murdered Amantius on a flimsy charge and killed Vitalian despite sacred pledges, showing complete disregard for justice.
- VII: Outrages of the Blues
Murders and robberies go unpunished, judges rule out of fear, and the legal system collapses under the weight of factional violence.
- IX: And How Theodora, Most Depraved of All Courtesans, Won His Love
The Blues commit crimes with impunity, and Theodotus is falsely accused and tortured despite his innocence.
- XI: How the Defender of the Faith Ruined His Subjects
Retroactive laws against pederasty and persecution of astrologers without proper evidence or accusers.
- XIV: Justice for Sale
Contracts, oaths, and laws become meaningless as the emperor accepts bribes from both sides and overturns rulings for money.
- XVI: What Happened to Those Who Fell Out of Favor with Theodora
Victims like Basanius are executed without trial, while Diogenes is acquitted only through public judicial process, highlighting the arbitrary nature of justice.
- XVII: How She Saved Five Hundred Harlots from a Life of Sin, Made Away with Her Own Natural Son, and Other Curious Incidents of Her Passion for Match Making
Governor Callinicus is crucified for punishing murderers, and husbands are whipped for complaining about adulterous wives, showing the complete perversion of justice.
- XVIII: How Justinian Killed a Trillion People
Procopius highlights the lack of impartial punishment, the persecution of religious minorities, and the chaos of factional violence.
- XIX: How He Seized All the Wealth of the Romans and Threw It Away in the Sea and on the Barbarians
The emperor brings false charges of polytheism, heresy, pederasty, and sedition to rob his subjects, showing a complete disregard for justice.
- XX: Debasing of the Quaestorship
Accused persons are put to death and their properties seized without due trial or examination; officials are told to act faster than each other to destroy people.
- XXI: The Sky Tax, the Selling of All Offices, and How Border Armies Were Forbidden to Punish Invading Barbarians
The law requiring officials to swear against bribery was immediately violated by Justinian himself, who openly sold offices in the Forum, and by the officials who broke their oaths to plunder.
- XXIII: How Landowners Were Ruined
Justinian's refusal to remit arrears, imposition of arbitrary levies, and taxation of abandoned lands are depicted as legalized oppression.
- XXIV: Unjust Treatment of the Soldiers, and How Justinian Tricked the “Students” Out of Their Pay by Threatening to Send Them to War
Soldiers are denied rightful pay, promotions, and bonuses; the elderly and disabled are stripped of their livelihood and left to beg, while the law requiring quinquennial bonuses is ignored for 32 years.
- XXV: How He Robbed His Own Officials, Merchants, Sailors, Workmen, and Everybody Else
The Emperor enacts edicts that are impossible to obey, then confiscates property and imposes fines, ruining honest traders.
- XXVI: How He Spoiled the Beauty of the Cities and Plundered the Poor
Justinian's debasement of the legal profession and false charges against the wealthy, along with Hephaestus's illegal monopolies and grain theft, highlight systemic injustice.
- XXVII: How the Defender of the Faith Protected the Interests of the Christians
The murder of Psoes, the crucifixion of Arsenius without charge, and the reversal of Faustin's exile show flagrant disregard for justice.
- XXVIII: His Violation of the Laws of the Romans, and How Jews Were Fined for Eating Lamb
The statute of limitations is abolished retroactively to convict citizens based on forged documents.
- XXIX: Other Incidents Revealing Him as a Liar and a Hypocrite
The Senate acquits Liberius but Justinian fines him privately; the Blues' murder attempt goes unpunished.
- Endnotes
The execution of Constantine for mutiny, the murder of Amasalontha, and the discredited fable of Belisarius's unjust punishment reflect lawlessness and injustice.
