[Antoninus]

Read Procopius' Secret History. Theodora was the Hillary Clinton of her day.

I've read it several times. I consider it the equivalent of the Weekly World News of Constantinople. It accuses Justinian of, among other things, being a demon in human form, walking around the palace at night without a head, of being able to transform his face into a shapeless mass of flesh, and being responsible for the death of a trillion people.

Honestly, I don't think Procopius actually wrote it but it was an expertly done ancient forgery by Justinian's enemies that used his name to add credibility.

[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?