ABSTRACT
Procopius has also benefited from a growing interest in narrativity in relation to Byzantine prose writing. Rather than focusing narrowly on the classicizing aspects of Byzantine historical writing, this approach seeks to analyse the techniques by which narrative is constructed by writers like Procopius. Procopius uses a 'sceptical' and neutral linguistic register, but on the other hand, he sometimes includes Christian material and refers to holy men and bishops, even though on occasion expressing the view that Christian doctrinal disputes are a foolish waste of time. Another way in which scholarship has moved on since Procopius and the Sixth Century is undoubtedly in the greater understanding of the pervasiveness of Neoplatonism and Neoplatonic thought in the sixth century. Procopius claims himself that he could not have made his Secret History known while Justinian was alive, though book VII of the Wars in particular came very close to expressing his criticisms.
