Topic: The Secret History
Anonymous A started this discussion 3 years ago #107,210
Fora. Lately, I am reading The Secret History. This book is pretty wild... In short, it's an extremely negative portrayal of a Roman Emperor, Emperor Justinian, written by his court historian, Procopius in about 550.This thing is wild, man. Procopius has two other works that mostly shower praise on Justinian, but then there's this later work where he absolutely shits on him and calls him a petty tyrant, and hurls all manner of insults that I shall get to in a moment. Nobody is quote sure why he wrote it, either. It may have been genuine disillusionment at Justinian's reign, but another theory is that it was some kind of weird insurance policy, wherein Procopius could present the work to a usurper if Justinian was usurped, to prove that he was totally never on Justinian's side.
Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 3 years ago, 31 seconds later[^] [v] #1,203,822
woah, gonna need a tldr for this post
(Edited 14 seconds later.)
Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 3 years ago, 9 minutes later, 10 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #1,203,827
Anyway, I'm about a third of the way in, and already it's gotten a bit much. Yes, the standard way to defame a woman in the ancient world was to say that she was promiscuous... But then Procopius has to say that Empress Theodora slept with over 30 men at a party? You've just gotten a bit silly, there, Procopius. I'd like to think that this claim would be recognised as silly even in ancient times. This is to say nothing of the claims, given in earnest, that Emperor Justinian was a demon who would sometimes make his head vanish before making it reappear.
Ah... But still, I'm really enjoying this book, as it's been annotated by a modern historian. I really love reading ancient texts with little annotations from historians. So you can see, okay, this the writer might be alluding tho this, he might have been misinformed about this, etc.
Ah... But still, I'm really enjoying this book, as it's been annotated by a modern historian. I really love reading ancient texts with little annotations from historians. So you can see, okay, this the writer might be alluding tho this, he might have been misinformed about this, etc.
Anonymous A (OP) double-posted this 3 years ago, 3 minutes later, 13 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #1,203,828
My main problem with The Secret History is that it's very difficult to separate the bullshit from what Justinian and Theodora were really like, But nonetheless, if nothing else, it's an entertaining book.mandark joined in and replied with this 3 years ago, 50 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #1,203,848
@1,203,827 (A)
everybody thinks doja cat showed her butthole at a Satan party. idk, that's like the modern equivalent of 'she fucked 30 dudes' and people are still eating it up.
everybody thinks doja cat showed her butthole at a Satan party. idk, that's like the modern equivalent of 'she fucked 30 dudes' and people are still eating it up.
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 3 years ago, 2 days later, 2 days after the original post[^] [v] #1,204,626
Anonymous E joined in and replied with this 3 years ago, 2 minutes later, 2 days after the original post[^] [v] #1,204,627
mandark replied with this 3 years ago, 2 minutes later, 2 days after the original post[^] [v] #1,204,628
@1,204,626 (D)
no she showed her tiddies at a b day party. she had some masonic stuff on her cake. big whoop
no she showed her tiddies at a b day party. she had some masonic stuff on her cake. big whoop