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The Secret History of Procopius: Contents

The Secret History of Procopius, tr. by Richard Atwater, [1927] | | Introduction | 1 | | | Foreword by the Historian | 23 | | I. | How the great General Belisarius Was Hoodwinked by His Wife, Whose Lover Became a Monk | 27 | | II. | How Belated Jealousy Affected Belisarius's Military Judgment, to the Joy of the Enemy | 35 | | III. | Showing the Danger of Interfering with a Woman's Intrigues, Especially When the Woman Is the Friend of an Empress | 45 | | IV. | How Theodora, Revenging Her Dear Antonina, Humiliated the Conqueror of Africa and Italy | 53 | | V. | How Theodora Tricked the General's Daughter Into a Liaison with the Empress's Nephew, and Belisarius Became a Public Laughing Stock | 63 | | | p. vi | | | VI. | Ignorance of the Emperor Justin, and His Stencilled Signature; and How His Nephew Justinian Was the Virtual Ruler | 73 | | VII. | Outrages of the Blues | 80 | | VIII. | Character and Appearance of Justinian | 90 | | IX. | And How Theodora, Most Depraved of All Courtesans, Won His Love | 98 | | X. | How Justinian Created a New Law Permitting Him to Marry a Courtesan On Her Promise to Repent Her Past; and the Truth About the Apparent Quarrels of a Happy Pair | 109 | | XI. | How the Defender of the Faith Ruined His Subjects | 117 | | XII. | Proving that Justinian and Theodora Were Actually Fiends in Human Form | 127 | | | p. vii | | | XIII. | Deceptive Affability and Piety of a Tyrant | 137 | | XIV. | Justice for Sale | 145 | | XV. | How An Roman Citizens Became Slaves, and a Complaining Patrician Was Ribaldly Mocked by Theodora's Eunuchs | 151 | | XVI. | What Happened to Those Who Fell Out of Favor with Theodora | 159 | | XVII. | How She Saved Five Hundred Harlots from a Life of Sin, Made Away with Her Own Natural Son, and Other Curious Incidents of Her Passion for Match Making | 167 | | XVIII. | How Justinian Killed a Trillion People | 178 | | XIX. | How He Seized All the Wealth of the Romans and Threw It Away In the Sea and On the Barbarians | 188 | | | p. viii | | | XX. | Debasing of the Quaestorship | 193 | | XXI. | The Sky Tax, the Selling of All Offices, and How Border Armies Were Forbidden to Punish Invading Barbarians | 200 | | XXII. | Further Corruption in High Places | 207 | | XXIII. | How Land Owners Were Ruined | 216 | | XXIV. | Unjust Treatment of the Soldiers, and How Justinian Tricked the "Students" Out of Their Pay by Threatening to Send Them to War | 223 | | XXV. | How He Robbed His Own Officials, Merchants, Sailors, Workmen, and Everybody Else | 231 | | XXVI. | How He Spoiled the Beauty of the Cities and Plundered the Poor | 239 | | | p. ix | | | XXVII. | How the Defender of the Faith Protected the Interests of the Christians | 250 | | XXVIII. | His Violation of the Laws of the Romans, and How Jews Were Fined for Eating Lamb | 257 | | XXIX. | Other Incidents Revealing Him as a Liar and a Hypocrite | 262 | | XXX. | Further Innovations of Justinian and Theodora, and a Conclusion Which Imagines the Death of an Emperor | 270 |