procopius of caesarea the secret history

The interest of Procopius has shifted suddenly from events to persons, and his one purpose comes to be to impugn the motives of Justinian and of the able Belisarius, and to cover with vilest slander the Empress and Antonina, the wife of Belisarius. It is rather a deliberate attempt to discredit the imperial pair and their leading General and to shew them as essentially both greedy and base - so base, indeed, that they seemed to Procopius nothing less devils incarnate. The work does promise to provide a supplement to the Books already published, but this avowed purpose is soon forgotten. This fact, in itself, is evidence of the necessarily furtive process of the composition of the Secret History, a clumsy defect which the usually careful author did not take occasion to correct. In any case the opening sentences do not form a proper introduction to what follows and strangely, these sentences reappear, with slight alterations, as the introduction of the Eighth Book of the Histories.

And it would seem from the opening words of the Secret History that he commenced the writing as a continuation of the Histories. He had indeed given hints that the administration of Justinian had not been that of the Perfect Prince. His avowed purpose in writing this book, which he appropriately called Unpublished (Notes), was to tell the whole unvarnished truth which he had not deemed wise to set down in the seven books of the Histories these had already been published and broadcast throughout the Empire. Obviously this could not be done openly, for Procopius, with all his bitterness, had not by any means reached a state of reckless despair, and he was willing, or perhaps even eager, to continue to write in the flattering tone which the circumstances demanded, while he kept hidden away for posterity the record of mischievous and hateful and sordid gossip which must have been current during his lifetime. The story of the three wars - against the Persians, the Vandals and the Goths - had almost been completed when the author, in seeming disgust, decided to regale a safely removed future age with the back-stage gossip that had been current while Justinian and Theodora had been playing their imperial roles, and while Belisarius had been leading the Roman arms from triumph to triumph. The Secret History of Procopius is a strange companion for the Histories and the Buildings by the same author. 35148 The Secret History - Introduction Procopius

Procopius of caesarea the secret history