Bashing Belisarius: polemical characterizations in Procopius’ Secret History

ABSTRACT: When attacking their enemies late Roman and Byzantine intellectuals recognized that words could be effective and sometimes deadly weapons. These authors have left some memorable polemics. Of these, the most famous and widely read today is the sixth-century Anecdota or Secret History by Procopius. This article examines the role polemic plays in the Secret History and particularly Procopius’ hostile portrait of his former superior, the general Belisarius. Capitalizing upon recent advancements made in our understanding of the possible literary and political context behind the Secret History , I suggest that Procopius’ seeming turn against Belisarius in this work, which inverts the historian’s heroic characterization of Belisarius from his De bellis or On the Wars , is best seen as a calculated piece of political manoeuvring rather than as evidence of the historian’s ‘true’ animosity towards the general.