Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining Yet Incomplete
Review: I am not qualified to opine on Procopius as historian, being no more than a lay reader. As a lay reader, however, I will say that The Secret History does not disappoint, even after having already heard most of the scuttlebut second-hand through Gibbon and Norwich. Procopius tells us in the beginning that he is writing for us, readers of a distant generation, and the effect of a writer trying to communicate across the centuries is remarkable. What we hear about Justinian and his wife Theodora is surprising to those who only Justinian through their introductory history classes - the emperor who restored the Eastern Roman Empire to its great glory, codified laws, etc., etc. But Procopius shows a different side to the Imperial couple, one that should not be surprising at all considering their on-again, off-again relationship with Belisarius. Indeed, the megalomania described by Procopius accords perfectly well with Justinian's war efforts - constant changes of leadership and refusal to recognize anything but his own suzerainty doomed the Byzantine reconquests.The three star rating is not a reflection on Procopius, but, rather, on the packaging. Procopius tells us that The Secret History should be read as an appendix to his Histories of the wars. Indeed, his text constantly says, "as I described earlier," or, more poignantly, "here's what I said before, now let me tell you the *real* story." In other words, The Secret History does not stand by itself. It truly needs to be published together with The Histories.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Yet Incomplete
Review: I am not qualified to opine on Procopius as historian, being no more than a lay reader. As a lay reader, however, I will say that The Secret History does not disappoint, even after having already heard most of the scuttlebut second-hand through Gibbon and Norwich. Procopius tells us in the beginning that he is writing for us, readers of a distant generation, and the effect of a writer trying to communicate across the centuries is remarkable. What we hear about Justinian and his wife Theodora is surprising to those who only Justinian through their introductory history classes - the emperor who restored the Eastern Roman Empire to its great glory, codified laws, etc., etc. But Procopius shows a different side to the Imperial couple, one that should not be surprising at all considering their on-again, off-again relationship with Belisarius. Indeed, the megalomania described by Procopius accords perfectly well with Justinian's war efforts - constant changes of leadership and refusal to recognize anything but his own suzerainty doomed the Byzantine reconquests. The three star rating is not a reflection on Procopius, but, rather, on the packaging. Procopius tells us that The Secret History should be read as an appendix to his Histories of the wars. Indeed, his text constantly says, "as I described earlier," or, more poignantly, "here's what I said before, now let me tell you the *real* story." In other words, The Secret History does not stand by itself. It truly needs to be published together with The Histories.
Rating: 
Summary: Moral Perversion in the Palace at Byzantium
Review: I have the opportunity to tour Istanbul this fall, so I read Procopius' "Secret History" as a start toward getting grounded in the history of the area. The book really singed my eyebrows! The main characters described by Procopius are the Emperor Justinian, the Emperess Theodora, the general Belisarius, and his wife Antonia. (The time period is the first half of the 6th Century.) The men are described as weak and vascillating, whereas the women are either amoral sexual athletes or sexual monsters, depending on your point of view. I cannot bring myself to even describe many of the sexual exploits of these two women. Perhaps one mild example will give the flavor of their willingness to experiment beyond what I could have ever imagined. Have you ever heard of laying naked on the floor, being sprinkled with barley, and then allowing geese to come in and nibble the barley off one's body? That story transgresses the horizon of my sexual imagination. Both women had a lust for cruelty, as well as for sexual pleasure. They meddled in affairs of state, and contributed to the decline and fall of Roman civilization in the West. (Belisarius destroyed Gothic power in the West, but did not stay to re-build Roman institutions, due to meddling back in Byzantium. So the truly barbaric Lombards took over, and western civilization collapsed irretrievably. I was never told this aspect of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" when I was a boy in school (or even when I was a young man in college for that matter!). Fred Hallberg
Rating: 
Summary: Byzantine scandal sheet
Review: I was assigned the Secret History in college but never read it. Instead, I read Procopius's historical works from the Loeb Classical Library, Vasiliev's two volume Byzantine Empire, and various other works. It was only recently that I picked up my copy of the Secret History and read it. I now understand why my professors in college assigned it--but not the actual histories of Procopius. It's short and full of titilating hearsay--perfect fodder for lazy college students. It also casts a terrible light on the Emperor Justinian, who is otherwise well remembered by history and the Empress Theodora is especially singled out for attack. Modern scholars, for the most part, seem to accept the authenticity of the "Secret History." I remain doubtful, based on the other works of Procopius I have read. In his other works, he appears to be a reasonably sober historian of the classical Greco-Roman stripe. In the "Secret History" however, he is little short of hysterical. He makes ridiculous claims--such as that Justinian was responsible for the deaths of over 1 trillion people or that the emperor was actually a demon in human form. As to this latter claim, he even goes so far as to relate an anecdote that supposedly Justinian's mother believed that he was conceived by a demon. Futhermore, he claims that several "unnamed sources" saw Justinian's head disappear or else become transformed into a shapeless lump of flesh. If we accept that the "Secret History" is authentic, it makes Procopius perhaps the most schizophrenic author in all of history. In the vast majority of his works, at least one of which was written *after* the Secret History, he praises Justinian and his works. Why he would have written something so at odds with his previous and later histories is in itself a fascinating question. Clearly, he had some axe to grind. It's important to remember that Constantinople at that time was a highly partisan place. When we reflect on some of the partisan and often fictitious scandal sheets that are written about our own leaders today, it is not surprising that similar things existed then. One wonders whether Procopius was a green or a blue... At any rate, I do not recommend reading the "Secret History" if you know little to nothing about the late Roman/early Byzantine period. You will come away with a highly skewed opinion of the time period. Now, if only Penguin would see fit to put the other works of Procopius in inexpensive paperbacks, a balanced understanding could be achieved. Until then, I recommend the Loeb editions, expensive though they are.
Rating:
Summary: The Kitty Kelly of Byzantium
Review: OK, so maybe that's an exaggeration. Procopius' penchant for dishing out the dirt is one of the reasons, however, that this is probably the most "readable" of Byzantine texts for modern audiences. He absolutely skewers Theodora, recounting her rise from child prostitute, circus performer and all-around besotted, depraved, licentious harlot to Empress of the Roman Empire. This is the primary reason this is the SECRET history, else Procopius would have ended up like Boethius. Though Theodora was Procopius's primary target for vitriol, none of the personages who graced Justinian's court come off smelling so great. Justinian's most celebrated general, Belisarius (whom Procopius accompanied in several campaigns), comes across as kind of a good natured boob, whom Theodora easily tricks. Justinian himself is nowhere near the paragon Procopius depicted him as in his "official" history. When Justinian isn't scheming or engaged in petty retributions, he is basically passive, letting his wife run the show. However interesting numerous passages are throughout the Secret History (P's recounting of the Plague that wiped out most of Constantinople in 542 AD, for instance), what it boils down to are the juicy parts. Who can say how many Latin scholars through the ages have turned to Procopius when they felt the need for a little titillation? Though the shock value has definitely diminished as far as our "modern" sensibilities are concerned, it's still some pretty heady stuff. I mean, Theodora makes Catherine the Great look like Mother Theresa, by comparison. Yes, Procopius' official histories (eight books on military campaigns and five books on architecture) are perhaps of more merit to Byzantine scholars. In terms of enjoyable reading, however, this is definitely the place to start. BK
Rating: 
Summary: The secret history of Justinian's court
Review: Procopius is certainly biased against his subjects, but if even a fraction of what he writes in here is true then he had good reason to be. Of the major persons in his book, only Belisarius emerges as a sympathetic figure, honest and loyal, but terribly wronged against by his wife and his emperor. Theodora comes out as a power-hungry whore, and Justinian as an amoral money-grubber. In his zeal Procopius sometimes carries it too far though, like when he reports with a straight face rumors that Justinian was some kind of shape-shifting demon. We tend to think of the accomplishments of Justinian - the law codifications, the reconquest of Italy, his grand architectural projects - but what price glory? In order to finance such contructions as the Hagia Sophia for posterity, he imposed miserably on his subjects, confiscating lands, wealth, ruining lives. While marveling at such accomplishments, we forget that in order to finance them Justinian refused the most basic needs of his citizens, like neglecting to fix a damaged aquaduct in Byzantium which created a great water shortage for his people. And Procopius's book is valuable because it shows that other side of the coin.
Rating:
Summary: Politicians are still politicians
Review: Read rightly this book will do two things - it will make your blood boil and it will make your blood freeze. In fact it will do ( as paradoxical as this sounds) both at once. Just as Rome was not built in a day so the reputation of the Byzantines was not built off of only one work "The Secret History" by the all too sober Procopius who is mortified to the core by what he knows.
The book will make your blood boil because you will see that in over a thousand years politicians (who always claim to be our servants or servants of God) have not changed. The only problem they got nowadays is two hundred some years of liberal democracy and its progressive reforms to deal with. They have to hide more carefully their depradations on the masses; they have to look better. But the stench remains the same. These imperial types were practically treated like Gods but they acted like devils (just as they do now) using the official organs of the state to plunder the people, terrify the saintly, and screw over the poor.
This book will also make your blood freeze because Justinian and Theodora were acting in a time in which people had a far greater respect (worhship actually) for people in power yet the actions of these two scoundrels teach, essentially, that no one is in charge of the human cosmos. There is no one among the flesh of the earth we can look up to.
The fact that the corruption of Byzantium took place under the watch of the Christian church is particularly disturbing. Though there were lonely resisters and do-gooders there was no wide-spread protest aimed at these authoritarian thugs who were no better than common criminals (often worse actually) and the vast majority of clergy went along.
Mussolini once said that fascism would better be called corporatism and in the arrangement Justinian and Theodora bring about we see the same preferential treatment of the rich and the same use of public causes and goods for private ends. Exactly the same corruption is now taking place in the so-called liberal democracies of the West.
In fact that is one of the supreme uses of this book - and all books of history actually. We see that history is not some dull and dry subject, some amusing sport for pin-head intellectuals and charmed antiquarians. History is a life-and-death matter where the fate of humanity is hanging in the breech. We see that the past is not dead but is alive and breathing down our necks and unless we turn around and look at what is chasing after us from yesteryear we are going to get killed or worse.
Five stars for the courageous Procopius.
Rating:
Summary: Mightier than the Sword: A Remarkable Tell-All Transcript
Review: The reign of Emperor Justinian (r. 527 - 565 A.D.) can be rightfully viewed as a sort of last-gasp greatness for the decrepit Roman Empire, by this point a scattershot ghost of its former self. Justinian is a renown figure in this era, a titan: he begged off the barbarians with many a-bribe, and thus thrived; he began silk production (stealing the secrets from China); he erected magnificent buildings and edifices, one of which is now declaired to be a lost `Wonder of the World.' Most predominately, he put scholars to work on a new law-code; this well-organized legal code, set in twelve volumes, became the basis from which European law sprung.
It is interesting to see how history depicts Justinian. In Asimov's Chronology of the World, the science-fiction author states: "...Justinian I (482-565), sometimes called `Justinian the Great.' He was forceful and intelligent, and his wife, Theodora (500-548), of lowly origin, was even more forceful and intelligent..." and goes on to list the varied accomplishments of the era, hinting between the lines that all was not utopian - a brief passage that some 30,000 people were slain in a riot involving horse racing, and a concluding statement that, as of 600 A.D., while "...the East Roman Empire still looked formidable on the map...it had been exhausted past the possibility of any new expansive adventures."
For a slightly more askew glance at the reign of Justinian and his consort Theodora, Procopius' *The Secret History* will readily fill in the spaces that Asimov (and most respectable historians) glaze over in light of the Emperor's many accomplishments. Procopius, a secretary, legal advisor and (eventually) Prefect of the City for Constantinople, chronicled these public accomplishments in voluminous detail in his *Histories* and *Buildings*. Perhaps chaffing from a personal slight, or perhaps disgusted by the corruption he saw day-in, day-out, he scribed *The Secret History* as counterpoint to these technical, borderline-fawning texts, exposing the mindboggling vice the Emperor and his court delighted in. Another reviewer on this page describes Procopius as "the Kitty Kelly of Byzantine," and I have to admit that this is a clever catch-phrase; yet unlike Kelly, Procopius wrote his History not for profit, or fame, as public knowledge of this work would have had him killed in a very painful manner: Procopius claims, at the beginning, that he set these deeds down for the sake of posterity. And in this case, the Pen proved to be far mightier than the Sword - the *Secret Histories* have endured fifteen hundred years to paint a disturbing portrait of greed, avarice, contempt for human life and crazed ambition; to give us warning, in this modern era, of how far a man might go when he is exempt from consequence.
Whereas Asimov cloaks any deviant possibility of Justinian and Theodora with his "strong, forceful" remark, Procopius goes straight for the heart of the matter, at least as a Christian of that era would see it: he claims Justinian not a human being, but rather a demonic being having taken mortal flesh (and Theodora, an ex-prostitute of incredible licentious ability, is considered the same): "...I, like most of my contemporaries, never once felt that these were two human beings: they were a pair of blood-thirsty demons and what poets call `plaguers of mortal men.' For they plotted together to find the easiest and swiftest means of destroying all races of men and all their works, assumed human shape, became man-demons, and in this way convulsed the world...(etc.) [pg. 102]." Procopius hammers this point of his again and again throughout the text - spoken tellingly through the chapter-titles (`The Destruction Wrought by a Demon-Emperor'; `Everyone and Everything Sacrificed to the Emperor's Greed') - even to the point of redundancy, though I must admit he never lacks in ways of expressing it interestingly. Certainly some horrific amusement can be found in the apocryphal examples he provides to prove his point. One story in particular comes across vividly: a senator, while feasting and conversing with the Emperor, turns around to see Justinian's face sudden melt into a vague, sinister visage (!) - necro-fantasy of chilling execution. Even more chilling, however, is when Procopius details the methods in which Justinian and Theodora robbed their citizens: trumped up charges to condemn and execute a victim, then a forged will to confiscate property, over and over and over...and most of this money either going to bribe the eastern tribes crouched on the borders, or to erect the fabulous architecture Justinian is famed for. Along with these schemes, Procopius also relates the soap-opera shenanigans of Theodora and her many suitors; the pathetic persona of general Belisarius, brilliant in war yet utterly whipped by his wife; and the disintegration of the Empire's structural illusions of law and justice as the inhabitants follow their leader's stead in corrupt behavior.
How much *The Secret History* can be taken at face value is, of course, impossible, given the fact that it may indeed be a grudge-work, and/or corrupted over various translations. But given the fact that, according to conservative estimates, some _one hundred million_ people died during this reign (Procopius claims a million million!) in itself speaks rather tellingly. Let's ponder that number for a moment - essentially, Justinian's count is equal to Mao, Stalin, Ide Aman and Pol Pot combined! Byzantine lost its temporary grace soon after Justinian's death, with Persians, Avars, Muslims attacking not long after (the advent of Greek Fire being Constantinople's saving grace in the latter invasion); the Empire survived, in various incarnations, for another thousand years, but never really regained its pre-eminence in world affairs. Procopius's *The Secret History* can, in many ways, be seen as the final depiction of an Empire at its utmost decline, utterly unaware of the vicious tides surrounding; and is a great companion piece to Gibbon's *Decline and Fall*, or just by itself for entertainment and eye-opening examples _ad nauseam_ of regal reprobation. Essential!
Rating:
Summary: The most disgruntled employee in all recorded history!
Review: This book is VERY amusing. I'm no history expert so I can't really attest to the veracity of Procopius' claims. His thorough loathing of the emperor, the consort Theodora and the general Belisarius is obvious and open. He has quite a way with words, his satire and creative insults survived translation quite well. Its not terribly lengthy. Read it, you'll have a lot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: NOT SO HOLY AN EMPEROR ?
Review: This is a good translation of Procopius most controversial opus, by G.A.Williamson, Senior Master of Classics at Norwich School (from 1922 to 1960). Whilst The Histories and Buildings are recognized as Procopius politically correct works, The Secret History tells a stunning tale of greed, corruption and destruction under Justinian and Theodora's empire.
Undoubtedly Procopius (A.D. 500?-565) was a qualified witness (having been private secretary to the greatest of Byzantium generals, Belisarius), although modern historians are at odds with the contradictions between what he wrote before and after this History, and still wonder what true motivations lie at the bottom of this work. But in my opinion, for anyone interested in a different , more private, assessment of Justinian and Theodora's deeds and character, this is a book that requires to be read. With caution, but with interest.
The architect of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the Codex Constructionum and the Digest, normally viewed as a "great conqueror, a great lawgiver, a great diplomat, and a great builder" (J.B. Bury) is screened in its defects by the author. The History mainly revolves around Justinian, Theodora, Belisarius and Antonina, their deeds, defects and personal motivations.
Justinian is portraited as a man of infinite greed and vicious cruelty. Theodora is exposed as a harlot, with a mind perpetually fixed upon inhumanity, constantly meddling in the affairs of the state.........
But let's not spoil the juicy tidbits. Let me just say that after one sorts out the mess created by this book, a more clear picture of the causes of the demise of the Roman Empire, the workings of the Imperial Court under Justinian and corruption of the mores will remain.
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