Emperor Justinian ruled the Byzantine Empire. An economic shift started when Constantine built Constantinople. Gradually, Rome’s power dwindled. When Odoacer conquered the city of Rome—the former military capital of the world—the entire earth shook. Powers shifted and Constantinople led the remaining Eastern Roman Empire, what’s commonly referred to as the Byzantine Empire.
Justinian is the most celebrated and remembered emperor in Byzantium. The Christian was infatuated with ambitions to reconquer the West. He desired to rebuild Rome. The historian Procopius recorded this process. It seemed noble of Justinian to rebuild the nation into its former glory. However, the truth was far less innocent.
In his stunning book Secret History, the historian Procopius was less than forgiving to Emperor Justinian. Accusations multiplied and it would be an understatement to call Procopius a Justinian critique. He was defamation incarnated into human form, except for one paltry detail: his accusations were true.
In chapter eight of Secret History, Procopius described the illustrious Justinian as a murdering, characterless, lying, politician. He was as evil as he was incompetent. To quote Procopius, “Now such was Justinian in appearance, but his character was something I could not fully describe. For he was at once villainous and amenable; as people say colloquially, a moron. He was never truthful with anyone, but always guileful in what he said and did, yet easily hoodwinked by any who wanted to deceive him.”1
Procopius did not hold back any punches either. He attacked the Emperor for robbing the people; giving them no prosperity but only grief. According to Secret History, he was a vengeful murderer with an addiction to bloodshed and a selfish thief. To summarize the accusations in Secret History, Justinian was a liar, murderer, thief, and idiot. Procopius said, “Nature seemed to have taken the wickedness of all other men combined and planted it in this man’s soul….He wrote decrease for the plundering of countries, sacking of cities, and slavery of whole nations, for no cause whatsoever… More men had been murdered by this single man than in all previous history.”2 And, “He had no scruples about appropriating other people’s property and…for confiscating what did not belong to him….In short, he never held onto any money himself nor let anyone else keep any….Driving all wealth from the country of the Romans in this manner, he became the cause of universal poverty.”3
In chapter eleven, Justinian gave exorbitant sums of money to the Huns. This was a miscalculation. There was no reason to pay the Huns, but Justinian did it anyway. He claimed it was to reinforce the peace that already existed, but the result was catastrophic, and the bribe was counterproductive. In the third paragraph of chapter eleven in Secret History, Procopius says, “These Huns, as soon as they had got this money, sent it together with their soldiers to other of their chieftains, with the word to make inroads into the land of the Emperor so that they might collect further tribute from him, to buy them off in a second peace. Thus the Huns enslaved the [Byzantine] Empire, and were paid by the Emperor to keep on doing it.” This leaves the impression that Justinian was a warmonger most of the time, constantly pillaging nations for their wealth and for the expansion of his rule—at the expense of his subjects. Modern America would use their political lingo to call him a Warhawk or neocon. But even when he sought peace—which was rare—he was an incompetent diplomat, often causing more problems than he fixed.
In conclusion, Procopius despised Emperor Justinian. His book Secret History attacked the Emperor vehemently, criticizing his policies and moral character. He was described as a moron, liar, murderer, warmonger, and thief. In Procopius’ words, “He became the cause of universal poverty.”
Asher Sisneros 
I believe you posted the wrong essay
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