ABSTRACT
Even the best modern surveys of Procopius’ work are riddled with judgments based on only a selection of the total evidence.1 Thus we are told that he was exceptional for his freedom of thought and his outspokenness, an opinion which has the corollary that he must be defended from charges of gross flattery in the Buildings and assumed not to be serious when in the Secret History he presents Justinian and Theodora as demons in human form.2 Thus we are given an author not only detached from his literary context, but not even seen from the perspective of the totality of his own writings. It is simply assumed that it is possible, without further discussion, to select from his work the part that is to be considered historically credible, and to discard the rest.
