On this day in history: Belisarius smashes the retreating Goths: End of the siege of Rome, AD 538

Gloria Romanorum ^ | 3/12/18 | Florentius

[Antoninus]

An excellent read though somewhat questionable in its historical accuracy is the Robert Grave’s novel “Count Belisarius”.

Count Belisarius is a good book and close to the history, but lacking to the extent that Graves couldn't bring himself to explore the religious dimensions of the man's life--and if you read Procopius, they're pretty obvious even though Procopius himself was a strictly classicizing (that is, secular) historian.

[Verginius Rufus]

Interesting theory about the authorship of the Anekdota. I will have to take another look at it.

Do you know if any scholar has ever argued in print that the Secret History was not really written by Procopius?

[Antoninus]

Do you know if any scholar has ever argued in print that the Secret History was not really written by Procopius?

Yes. It's quite an old debate, though more recent scholars seem to have settled on the 'yes' side. J. B. Bury felt it was not written by Procopius when he first published his History of the Later Roman Empire in 1889, but changed his mind by 1923.

My amateur opinion is that it was a forgery written by a faction in Constantinople who hated Justinian, penned specifically in the Procopian style with his name attached for the purpose of maximum impact.

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 3/12/2019, thanks Antoninus.