Procopius wrote the Secret History, a sharply critical account of the reign of Justinian I and the inner circle around him.
Procopius of Caesarea was a 6th-century Byzantine historian who accompanied the general Belisarius during Justinian’s wars. His other major works include History of the Wars, covering campaigns against the Vandals, Goths, and Persians, and On Buildings, which praises Justinian’s construction program.
The Secret History, also called Anecdota, presents a very different picture from Procopius’s more official writings. It portrays Justinian as cruel and financially reckless, Theodora as powerful and ruthless, and Belisarius and Antonina as entangled in personal scandals. Scholars caution that the work is polemical and should not be treated as an entirely neutral record.
The text appears to have been written around 550, but it remained unknown for centuries. It was rediscovered in the Vatican Library and published in Lyon in 1623. Herodotus and Thucydides were much earlier Greek historians, while Anna Komnene belonged to the 12th century.