ByzReview: Procopius of Caesarea

The Roman Empire after Justinian's reconquests

In Byzantine history, there is no figure quite so monumental as the emperor Justinian the Great. Ruling from 527 to 565, this emperor was responsible for initiating the dramatic reconquest of Africa and Italy, provinces lost to the Roman empire since the previous century, and his building projects and legal codification ensured his legacy would be felt for the remainder of Byzantine history – if not history in general. It is primarily through the writings of his court historian Procopius of Caesarea that we get the strongest picture of this controversial figure and his reign, and that Procopius’ own writings show many different facets of Justinian’s works and character only makes this period more fascinating.

The Emperor Justinian and his cronies, in the San Vitale mosaics in Ravenna, Italy

                Procopius himself is an oddity in terms of Byzantine historians, leaving behind several works of wildly differing character. On the one hand we have a largely factual, 'Classicisizing' account of the wars of Justinian, then a panegyric about Justinian’s building projects, and finally a vicious, nasty little indictment of every aspect of Justinian’s reign, character and policies. The bulk of Procopius’ work is his Wars of Justinian, which takes up some two-thirds of the total corpus of his writings, in which he recounts the three major wars that occurred during the majority of Justinian’s reign: the Persian War (c.526-532), the Vandalic War (533-534), and the Gothic Wars (535-554). With this being such a long and, seemingly, rather dry piece of work, I haven't yet finished reading it in its entirety. I've only gotten to the end of book 1, to be exact. Likewise, the Buildings, while probably a fascinating book and much shorter than the Wars, I haven't gotten round to reading yet. The thing is, I wanted to get stuck in to that most famous of Procopius’ works: the notorious Secret History.

Hagia Sophia, constructed during Justinian's reign. Isn't it pretty?

                This shorter piece of Procopius, sometimes called the Anecdota, is a curious little example of the two-faced sycophant. Whereas in his earlier works Procopius is respectful and praising of Justinian, his policies, and his talented general Belisarius, in the Secret History we get nothing but scorn and ridicule for everything he once praised. Belisarius is presented as a weak-willed fool who lives at the mercy of his adulterous wife, while Justinian is a semi-demonic tyrant who stops at nothing to suck all the wealth out of the Roman empire and ruin anybody and everybody, and this is nothing to say of Justinian’s wife, the empress Theodora. In the earlier histories Theodora plays a very minor and occasional part in the proceedings, but in the Secret History she almost eclipses Justinian himself with her graphically lurid backstory, her wilfulness, and the power she has over the empire. She is shown as nothing less than a sex-crazed maniac who originated as a stage-performing stripper, a prostitute and concubine who literally screwed her way from Egypt to Constantinople, around the entire eastern Mediterranean. Here is a choice excerpt from the section on Theodora:

                ‘She used to tease her lovers by lounging around with them, and by constantly toying with novel methods of intercourse she could always draw the attention of the lascivious to her; so far from waiting to be approached by anyone she encountered, she herself by cracking dirty jokes and wiggling her hips suggestively would invite all who came her way, especially if they were beardless youths. Never was anyone so completely given up to unlimited self-indulgence.

                ‘Often she would go to a bring-your-own-food dinner party with ten or more youths, all at the peak of their physical prowess and with sex their trade, and she would lie with all her fellow-diners the whole night through; and when she had worn them all out she would turn to their servants, as many as thirty on occasion, and copulate with every one of them – but even so could not satisfy her lust.’

                [Translation by G.A. Williamson and P. Sarris, Penguin Classics edition, 2007. pp.37-38]

                And there are people out there who think history is boring?

The Empress Theodora in the San Vitale Mosaics in Ravenna. Notice how she's still wearing clothes and not screwing everything in reach 

Of course, we must be aware that there is a reason Procopius is presenting Theodora in such a way; for the same reason that Belisarius’ wife, Antonina, is vilified beforehand – to attack their husbands, to present them as unmanly and ruled by the tyranny of lustful women. I don’t wish to go into too deep an analysis of this Anecdota, as that is the realm of scholarship, and not my mere review. I will content myself with saying that we must be careful about what we read – especially this. We have no way of knowing if this representation of Theodora has any historical truth. What matters is that Procopius is presenting a particularly nasty image of this empress in order to pour scorn upon her, and therefore to further denigrate Justinian alongside her.

Overall, the Secret History isn’t actually much of a history. There’s no narrative, as such, but rather a collection of anecdotes (as the name Anecdota might imply). The first short part of the book pokes ridicule at Belisarius and his wife, before it moves onto a damning picture of Justinian and Theodora who, as Procopius says, ‘destroyed the fortunes of the Roman Empire’ [Penguin, 2007. pg.25]. After first describing the ignoble origins of these two characters, the history moves on to describing in tedious vehemence every wrongful policy that the emperor and empress ever made, be it letting the Circus Factions run riot in the streets, playing groups and people off against one another, trusting in corrupt officials or levying wealth from every class of people under the sun. Everything is explained with a brief little example, of instances where Justinian or one of his officials performs some evil deed, and Procopius never pulls his punches when it comes to making a judgement. We get nothing but a picture of tyranny and evil, and far from being Justinian ‘the Great’, this emperor and his wife have driven the Roman empire straight into the ground, never resting in their efforts to ruin absolutely everything. There are no redeeming characteristics, nothing good ever happens, and the downfall of civilisation seems to be just around the corner. Procopius would have made a good ‘Daily Mail’ columnist today.

Byzantine Follis from Justinian's reign, minted in Kyzikos

So that’s the roundup of Procopius of Caesarea, with an added review of his notorious Secret History. If you want non-stop armchair generalship, read his Wars (all eight books’-worth). If you want a panegyric, then maybe read the Buildings. But if you want juicy character assassination rhetoric, something that smacks of pessimism and is very much the opposite of the obsequious, flattering account written about a living, reigning autocrat, then Procopius’ Secret History is well-worth a look.

Bibliozantium 4

Procopius. In 3 volumes. K.W. Dindorf (ed). Bonn. [Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae], 40,41,42, (1833,1833,1838).

Procopius of Caesarea. History of the Wars . In 7 volumes.  transl. by H.B. Dewing. [Loeb Classical Library]. London and New York.

-          1. [L048], (1914) –  The Persian War

-          2. [L081], (1916) – The Vandalic War

-          3. [L107], (1919) – The Gothic War

-          4. [L173], (1924) – The Gothic War – cont.

-          5. [L217], (1928) – The Gothic War – cont.

-          6. [L290], (1969) – The Anecdota or Secret History

-          7. [L343], (1971) – Buildings

Procopius. The Secret History. transl. by G.A. Williamson and P. Sarris. London: Penguin. Revised edition. (2007).

[There are dozens of editions and translations of the Secret History available, many of them freely available on the internet. As with most ancient texts, the most recent Penguin Classics translation will be most useful for anybody who just wants to get a rough sense of the text without needing to go too far in. The Loeb edition is good because, like all the best editions, it presents its translation opposite the original language of the text. Plus, the Loeb collection contains translations of all of Procopius’ works, so if you wanted the entire thing, you need go no further].