Procopius, The Secret History — Introduction
“ We thus have in the Secret History the record of a reactionary who could not appreciate at their true value the developments of his own age nor even guess whither the world was tending — one who sensed clearly only the crumbling of the older order. ”
Procopius, The Secret History — Introduction
“ The Secret History of Procopius is a strange companion for the Histories and the Buildings by the same author. 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. ”
Procopius, The Secret History — Introduction
“ And when Silverius and Vigilius had come alone into the salon, the patrician Antonina was reclining on a couch and the patrician Belisarius was sitting at her feet. And as soon as the patrician Antonina saw him, she said to him: 'Tell me, Master Silverius, Pope, what have we done to you and the Romans that you wish to betray us into the hands of the Goths?' And even while she was still speaking these words, there entered John, the regional sub-deacon of the first ward, lifted his collar from his neck and led him into a chamber ”
