Book description
A trusted member of the Byzantine establishment, Procopius was the
Empire's official chronicler, and his History of the Wars of Justinian
proclaimed the strength and wisdom of the Emperor's reign. Yet all the
while the dutiful scribe was working on a very different - and dangerous
- history to be published only once its author was safely in his grave.
The Secret History portrays the 'great lawgiver' Justinian as a rampant
king of corruption and tyranny, the Empress Theodora as a sorceress and
whore, and the brilliant general Belisarius as the pliable dupe of his
scheming wife Antonina. Magnificently hyperbolic and highly opinionated,
The Secret History is a work of explosive energy, depicting holy
Byzantium as a hell of murder and misrule.
Very little is known about Procopius. He was born in Palestine around
AD 500 and fought for the Byzantine Empire in Persia, Africa and Italy.
G. A. Williamson (1895-1982) also translated Josephus: The Jewish
Wars (1959) and Eusebius: The History of the Church (1965)
for Penguin Classics.
Peter Sarris is a University Lecturer in Early Medieval History and
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
