The Secret History by Procopius
TITLE: The Secret History
AUTHOR: Procopius
DATE PUBLISHED: 1982 (originally 550 AD)
EDITION: Penguin Classics
FORMAT: Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780140441826
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DESCRIPTION:
"Having dutifully written the official war history of Justinian's reign, Procopius turned round and revealed in The Secret History the other faces of the leading men and women of Byzantium in the sixth century. Justinian, the great law-giver, appears as a hateful tyrant, wedded to an ex-prostitute, Theodora; and Belisarius, the brilliant general whose secretary Procopius had been, is seen as the pliable dupe of his wife Antonina, a woman as corrupt and scheming as Theodora herself."
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REVIEW:
To all dictators/generals/despots/rulers: don't piss off the official historian you've employed, he might just write a nasty book about you - to be published after his death (of course)... just in case.
Procopius of Caesarea was a Byzantine Greek scholar who accompanied the Byzantine general Belisarius on a variety of Emperor Justinian's wars. Procopius became the principal Byzantine historian of the 6th century, writing the History of the Wars, the Buildings, and the Secret History. The Secret History is supposed to be a supplement to the Wars, containing explanations and additions that Procopius could not insert into the latter work for fear of Justinian and Theodora. In his Secret History, Procopius claims to expose the private lives and motivations for their public actions of Emperor Justinian, Empress Theodora, general Belisarius and his wife Antonina.
There is some debate as to the accuracy of Procopius's Secret History and his motivation for writing it, but the book does provide some rather eyebrow raising shenanigans of the going-on in Byzantine at this time. The book also comes across as a manual on how to rob your citizens and completely ruin an empire.
The whale, Porphyrion, was mentioned as terrorizing Byzantine shipping and sailors. So I had to go look that up.
If anyone wants to read a free copy of Procopius's Secret History:
https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/proc/shp/index.htm
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