Rating: 
Summary: The revenge of the clerk.
Review: While being emperor Justinian's official chronicler, and writing tons of paper on his master's heroic military feats, master buildings and law codings, Procopius got some remorse and wrote the real (secret) (hi)story of the emperor, his wife Theodora and her friend Antonina, the wife of his main general Belisarius.
Both Justinian and Theodora were of very humble origin. His father was a shepherd, who became head of the Praetorian Guard and killed his master to snatch the throne for himself. She was the daughter of a beartamer, who performed 'lifeshows' on the stage with a ... swan. But they reigned like any other tyrant.
The Aya Sophia is indeed a brilliant architectural monument (built by Henry of Milet); the Justinian Code is a remarkable judicial document; Justinian kept the Goths out of the remains of the Roman Empire. But are these achievements worth the death by his own decisions of (at least) 50 million of his own people, by setting up the green and the blue political parties against one another? Like for Procopius, not for me.
How Procopius could keep this damaging document secret and pass it to the next generations is a mystery.
A book not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: "The Secret History," written by Procopius?
Review: While this "scandle sheet" is extremely interesting, the question of how authentic it is seems to be completely ignored. Didn't someone try recently to pen "The Hitler Diaries?" Some sort of analysis ought to go into finding if this is more than a fanciful tale, a forgery, or whether it was written by an actual, reputable, historical figure of the day.
Rating:
Summary: "The Secret History," written by Procopius?
Review: While this "scandle sheet" is extremely interesting, the question of how authentic it is seems to be completely ignored. Didn't someone try recently to pen "The Hitler Diaries?" Some sort of analysis ought to go into finding if this is more than a fanciful tale, a forgery, or whether it was written by an actual, reputable, historical figure of the day.
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