the secret history of the court of justinian

However, I shall have the courage not to shrink from this important work, because my story will not lack witnesses for the men of to-day, who are the best informed witnesses of these facts, will hand on trustworthy testimony of their truth to posterity. But, when undertaking this new task, how painful and hard will it be, to be obliged to falter and contradict myself as to what I have said about the lives of Justinian and Theodora: and particularly so, when I reflect that what I am about to write will not appear to future generations either credible or probable, especially when a long lapse of years shall have made them old stories for which reason I fear that I may be looked upon as a romancer, and reckoned among playwrights. It will now be my duty, in this part of my history, to tell what has hitherto remained untold, and to state the real motives and origin of the actions which I have already recounted. Indeed, I have been forced to conceal the real causes of many of the events recounted in my former books. My reason for this is, that it would not have been expedient for me to describe these events fully while those who were their authors were still alive for, had I done so, I could neither have escaped the notice of the multitude of spies, nor, had I been detected, could I have avoided a most horrible death for I could not even have relied upon my nearest relatives with confidence. What follows will not be arranged with the same exactness, but everything shall be written down as it took place throughout the whole extent of the Roman empire. I have thus described the fortunes of the Romans in their wars up to the present day, as far as possible assigning the description of events to their proper times and places.

The secret history of the court of justinian