Perspective

The common people were oppressed. An authoritarian central government passed laws and levied taxes without regard for their impact on everyday working folks who were looked down on in disdain. Politicians and appointed officials in positions of power got there largely by bribes, being a member of an influential family, blackmail, or knowing someone higher up who owed them a favor. Corruption was rampant at all levels of government from the local level all the way to the highest office holders in what was once the world’s foremost republic.

Moral decay was everywhere. Homosexuality was rampant...