The intention of this paper is to afford the reader with a brief summary of Prokopios’s book The Secret History as well as offering a comprehensive opinion of the above mentioned work. First, an endeavor will be made to will provide the reader with a mini biography on Prokopios. Next, the focus will be on the summarizing The Secret History. Finally, the paper will conclude with thoughts and opinions of the examiner. Prokopios is considered to be the foremost historian of the sixth century. He served as the emperor Justinian’s personal historian and biographer. He also served Belisarius, the leader of Justinian’s military, as his secretary and often accompanied him during his career throughout the sixth century. He was the author of three …show more content…
The novel is found to be entertaining, as well as easy to read. Meaning, it was easy to follow the timeline of the story. Also, it should be stated that the work is an intriguing, provocative, and scandalous read. Prokopios’s prose will keep the reader’s attention, and have them on the edge of their seat. Furthermore, The Secret History fails and succeeds at doing an exceeding job of portraying and exposing the possible injustices, repression, oppression, corruption and perversion that likely occurred during Justinian’s …show more content…
From the introduction, Prokopios assures the reader of a scandalous account of the Byzantine Empire. Although Prokopios is shaming Theodora and Justinian, he does portray Theodora as Justinian’s backbone, which seems to be an accurate account of Theodora’s character. One might even argue that Justinian and Theodora can be viewed as a modern day Bill and Hilary Clinton. Overall, Prokopios’s The Secret History was enjoyed, as it offered an alternative account of Justinian’s reign over the Byzantine Empire. This particular perspective offered an engaging account of history, as it was action packed and full of debauchery. It left no stone unturned. Meaning, regardless of how harsh or crude Justinian and Theodora’s actions were, Prokopios chose not to repress such truth and this can be seen as he bravely attempted to record the true events of what went on during Justinian’s
Theodora was the empress of the Byzantine Empire. She was married to Justinian. They both had similar ideas about how to rule an empire. But what is her past? What do we know about Theodora? What even was the Byznatine Empire? After learning about this empire and the empress, I am very interested in learning more about this unique ruler. Her past and her views on women’s rights are very extraordinary traits of an Empress at this time in history.
Even if you do not like Suetonius' style, you must agree that he has achieved his goal of adequately exploring the lives of these 12 men. He wrote more than an adequate biography; he wrote an exquisite history of a very important period in the Roman world. Suetonius wrote so accurately that many historians today use his writings to describe the lives of the Caesars.
The book gives valuable information about Justinian and his age. It covers Justinian's life, his reforms and every action he took. It gives information about the relationship between Justinian and Theodora and its effects on the Empire. It gives a vivid picture of the Byzantine Empire in Justinian's age. The writer of the book also included the writings of some important scholars such as J.B Bury, Norman Baynes and Gibbon's. However the writer of this book did not live to see it print it is a fact that he wrote a great book full of information, giving the reader detailed sketch of Justinian's Age.
Anna's intrusions, defending her role as a historian and lamenting about how unfortunate she was, creates an image of herself as an admirable historian and dutiful daughter. Sewter's revised edition of The Alexiad places Anna within the tradition of the Byzantine Historiography to demonstrate effectively her emulation of her predecessors, subjects and her innovations. This draws from a cultural, intellectual development, which arose during the period referred to as the Byzantine humanism (Comnena 1). Anna effectively incorporates concepts, which help to create her character through intrusions. In this paper, I will effectively show that Anna's intimate relations with her subjects, make her more reliable than any other Byzantine historian source.
The book then talks about viewpoints of women, both real and those who face tragedy. Women during this time were very secluded and silent, but the heroines contradicted that. This chapter talks about the images of women in the classical literature in Athens, and the role they had in society. Many tragedies were ones that formed by mythes during the Bronze Age. It showed the separation in what made women heroic, rather than average. While viewing other Scholarly sourcese, Pomerory writes her own theory, she used others
The focus of this essay is to explore sexuality presented by Philoclea in the New Arcadia. Philoclea cultivates a relationship towards another women in the book. Yet readers understand that Zelmane is in fact Pyrocles. Sidney allows the reader to be given the impression that until Pyrocles admits to be Zelmane, Philoclea would be shown to have a homosexual tendencies. Philoclea herself is certain that a same-sex friendship is giving way to sexual desire.
This paper will offer a commentary on Herodotus’ Histories 2.129-135. Book Two of Histories concerns itself with Egypt; specifically chapters 99-182 detail rulers of Egypt both legendary and actual. Book Two is distinct from the other books in Histories as it is in this book that we predominantly experience Herodotus as an investigator. More precisely it is in Book Two that Herodotus treats first person experience not as direct evidence but as a method of assessing the accounts of others. Chapters 129-135 provide us with the tale of King Mycerinus as recounted by whom Herodotus refers to in 2.127 as simply ‘ÆGYPTIOI’. These Egyptians are referred to at various points in Book Two and at times appear to refer to what might be termed ‘Egyptians in general’ . However, we can make a reasonable assumption in this instance, given what has been stated before at 2.99 and what is stated later at 2.142, that the Egyptians that provide Herodotus with the tale of King Mycerinus are probably priests. It should not be assumed that priests are any more reliable than the lay Egyptian in Histories however; the Egyptian priesthood did not necessarily concern itself with historical accuracy. Indeed the inclusion of priests may simply be a Herodotean literary device designed to reinforce his reader’s credulity.
1. The document Procopius, The Secret History, is about the Byzantine society. This document was wrote by Procopius a historian. It was wrote in the six century and takes place in Byzantine. He wrote this, because he was disgusted by the emperor and his wife Theodora.
I chose Akbar the Mughal Emperor, Procopius, and Thomas Aquinas as my three to attend a dinner party. I knew I wanted to write about knowledge. Originally, I wanted to include the Queen of Sheba as a member of the dinner party, but I questioned whether I would be able to include enough about this character. My first choice was Thomas Aquinas, because he focused on reason as a way to acquire knowledge. This means that knowledge is internal for him. One section in the Summa Theologica is the “Gift of Knowledge”. I also wanted to play with Aquinas’ writing style. I chose Akbar because he invited so many diverse scholars to speak about a wide array of topics. I use his character to discuss the ways we use knowledge. My final choice was Procopius. I chose Procopius instead of the Queen of Sheba, so I could bring up how we present our knowledge and how our knowledge evolves. Procopius wrote The Secret History and the History of the Wars. These works have alternate views of Justinian, that evolved with events during that time period. My goal is to find a conclusion from these about the value of knowledge, how knowledge is used, and how knowledge is presented.
6. Hussey, Joan Mervyn. "Justinian I." Britannica School High. Britannica Digital Learning, n.d. Web. 3 May 2014. .
Livius, Titus. The Early History of Rome. Trans. Aubrey De Sélincourt. London: Penguin Group, 2002. N. pag. Print.
www.wwlia.org/history.htm#529 Reign of Justinian, The - www.ukans.org/kansas/medieval/108/justinian.html *All authors are unknown*
Any examination of women in Livy’s writing demands not only a literal interpretation of their character development and values, but also must account for their symbolic importance—thus creating a much more complex representation. Livy, an ancient historian, authored The Early History of Rome to be an exploration of Rome from its foundation, focusing on historical events and societal organization. In it, he examines the patriarchal society that stabilized Rome throughout its dominance. However, as a result of this explicitly defined hierarchy in Rome, women were seen as secondary figures in society. Most were viewed as submissive and passive, and it was well within the rights of men to assert their dominance—many women even agreed with these values. This can be seen in Livy’s portrayals of such women as the Sabine women, Horatia, and Lucretia. Yet Lucretia provides an interesting complexity to the exempla of women. On a symbolic level, Lucretia is an important catalyst in affecting the political organization of Rome. This representation is furthered with Livy’s descriptions of Lavinia, Rhea Silvia, and Verginia. Despite the work of Livy to create an accurate portrayal of women in ancient Rome, other authors showed women to actively defy this patriarchal society he describes. However, Livy’s effort to create the most accurate explanation of early Rome through a historical representation drives this discrepancy in characterization through genre. Therefore, Livy’s work serves as both an accurate and complex examination of the role of women in ancient Rome. According to Livy, a woman’s role was defined by her sacrifice; culturally, women were to be subordinate to men in the patriarchal structure of society, but also served as important...
Individuals are differ in their learning style. It is depend on how people learn based on ability to comprehend and retain information. Adult have more life experience to build on and competing responsibilities. The unique about adult learner is adult generally are more resistant to new ideas, autonomous, self-directed, goal oriented and relevancy oriented. Learning styles will be influence by their genetic make-up, previous learning experiences, culture and the society they live in. There are many ways of looking at learning styles, one of the learning style is Kolb’s experiential learning style. Kolb’s (1984) identify four types of learning styles; convergent, divergent, assimilator and accommodator. Experiential learning style is the process
The ineffaceable impression which Sophocles makes on us today and his imperishable position in the literature of the world are both due to his character-drawing. If we ask which of the men and women ofGreek tragedy have an independent life in the imagination apart from the stage and from the actual plot in which they appear, we must answer, ‘those created by Sophocles, above all others’ (36).