The anecdotes claim to expose the secret springs of their public actions, as well as the private lives of the emperor, his wife and their entourage. The Secret History reveals an author who had become deeply disillusioned with the emperor Justinian and his wife, Empress Theodora, as well as Belisarius, his former commander and patron, and Antonina, Belisarius’ wife. Current consensus generally dates it to 550 or 558, or maybe even as late as 562. The Secret History covers roughly the same years as the first seven books of the History of Justinian’s Wars and appears to have been written after they were published. Its existence was already known from the Suda, which referred to it as the Anekdota ( Greek: Ἀνέκδοτα, Latin Anecdota, “unpublished writings”). Historia Arcana) was discovered centuries later in the Vatican Library and published by Niccolò Alamanni in 1623 at Lyons. He is commonly held to be the last major historian of the ancient world. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History. AD 565) was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Procopius of Caesarea ( Latin: Procopius Caesarensis, Greek: Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς c.
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