The Secret History · Chapter
XIX: How He Seized All the Wealth of the Romans and Threw It Away in the Sea and on the Barbarians explained
Justinian, upon inheriting a well-funded treasury from Anastasius, rapidly exhausts the state's wealth through extravagant building projects and lavish gifts to barbarians.
What happens
Justinian, upon inheriting a well-funded treasury from Anastasius, rapidly exhausts the state's wealth through extravagant building projects and lavish gifts to barbarians. He then turns to plundering his subjects via false accusations and arbitrary confiscations, draining Roman prosperity and enriching foreign nations.
Themes in this chapter
Corruption and Tyranny
Justinian's arbitrary confiscation of estates through false accusations exemplifies tyrannical abuse of power.
Injustice and Lawlessness
The emperor brings false charges of polytheism, heresy, pederasty, and sedition to rob his subjects, showing a complete disregard for justice.
Suffering of the Common People
Roman subjects are pillaged and their wealth given to barbarians, causing widespread suffering.
Characters to notice
- Justinian
Depicted as squandering the state's wealth on building and barbarians, then illegally confiscating estates from his subjects.
- Justin
Justinian's uncle, during whose reign Justinian began wasting the public funds.
- Anastasius
The provident emperor who filled the treasuries with gold, which Justinian later exhausted.
Key passages
“All of this Justinian immediately exhausted, between his senseless building program on the coast and his lavish presents to the barbarians; though one might have thought that it would take the most extravagant of Emperors a hundred years to disburse such wealth.”
Justinian quickly spent the entire treasury on coastal construction and gifts to barbarians, an amount that even the most wasteful emperor would have taken a century to deplete.
Highlights Justinian's rapid and reckless depletion of state funds.
“For like an everflowing river swallowing more each day he pillaged his subjects, to disgorge it straightway on the barbarians.”
He constantly robbed his people, only to immediately give the loot to barbarians, like a river that drinks in water only to spew it out.
Metaphor illustrating the continuous cycle of extortion and waste.