# Suffering of the Common People in The Secret History

> Theme guide for The Secret History by Procopius.

The text repeatedly emphasizes the immense hardship inflicted on ordinary citizens, soldiers, and the poor through excessive taxation, monopolies, military neglect, and violent factionalism.

## Where it surfaces

- [III: Showing the Danger of Interfering with a Woman’s Intrigues, Especially When the Woman Is the Friend of an Empress](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/iii-showing-the-danger-of-interfering-with-a-woman-s-intrigues-especially-when-the-woman-is-the-friend-of-an-empress): The senator Theodosius is tortured and driven mad; Photius suffers brutal treatment.
- [VII: Outrages of the Blues](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/vii-outrages-of-the-blues): Citizens live in constant fear, are robbed, killed, or forced into submission, with no hope of justice or redress.
- [XI: How the Defender of the Faith Ruined His Subjects](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xi-how-the-defender-of-the-faith-ruined-his-subjects): Massacres, forced conversions, loss of livelihoods, and mass emigration due to Justinian's policies.
- [XVIII: How Justinian Killed a Trillion People](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xviii-how-justinian-killed-a-trillion-people): The chapter emphasizes the immense suffering and death of ordinary Romans, barbarians, and provincials due to war, famine, disease, and civil strife.
- [XIX: How He Seized All the Wealth of the Romans and Threw It Away in the Sea and on the Barbarians](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xix-how-he-seized-all-the-wealth-of-the-romans-and-threw-it-away-in-the-sea-and-on-the-barbarians): Roman subjects are pillaged and their wealth given to barbarians, causing widespread suffering.
- [XXI: The Sky Tax, the Selling of All Offices, and How Border Armies Were Forbidden to Punish Invading Barbarians](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xxi-the-sky-tax-the-selling-of-all-offices-and-how-border-armies-were-forbidden-to-punish-invading-barbarians): Subjects were robbed by corrupt magistrates, enslaved by Huns, and even punished when they tried to rescue their families from barbarian raiders.
- [XXII: Further Corruption in High Places](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xxii-further-corruption-in-high-places): Farmers forced to transport grain at great cost, poor deprived of dole, cities forced to buy inedible grain, and soldiers unpaid.
- [XXIII: How Landowners Were Ruined](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xxiii-how-landowners-were-ruined): Landowners flee, abandon property, or are crushed by multiple levies; farmers die of plague yet survivors pay deceased neighbors' taxes; soldiers quartered in homes.
- [XXIV: Unjust Treatment of the Soldiers, and How Justinian Tricked the “Students” Out of Their Pay by Threatening to Send Them to War](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xxiv-unjust-treatment-of-the-soldiers-and-how-justinian-tricked-the-students-out-of-their-pay-by-threatening-to-send-them-to-war): Common soldiers and staff officers are reduced to poverty and famine, while veterans are forced to beg in the Forum, highlighting the human cost of Justinian's policies.
- [XXV: How He Robbed His Own Officials, Merchants, Sailors, Workmen, and Everybody Else](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xxv-how-he-robbed-his-own-officials-merchants-sailors-workmen-and-everybody-else): Artisans and mechanics are reduced to beggary, many flee to Persia, and the populace nearly starves due to inflated prices.
- [XXVI: How He Spoiled the Beauty of the Cities and Plundered the Poor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xxvi-how-he-spoiled-the-beauty-of-the-cities-and-plundered-the-poor): The chapter details the impoverishment of lawyers, physicians, teachers, the poor, beggars, and the diseased through loss of subsidies, high bread prices, adulterated food, and neglect of public works.
- [XXX: Further Innovations of Justinian and Theodora, and a Conclusion Which Imagines the Death of an Emperor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/chapters/xxx-further-innovations-of-justinian-and-theodora-and-a-conclusion-which-imagines-the-death-of-an-emperor): Landowners lose their crops due to the ruined courier system, peasants are burdened with baggage after camels are eliminated, and subjects are forced to beg like slaves in the palace.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/themes/suffering_of_the_common_people
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_history_se/themes