Supposedly, she admitted to several friends that Justinian was not her husband’s son, but that of a demon who slept with her. The earliest instance occurred with Justinian’s mother. To back up Procopius’s accusations further, the Secret History gives several reported incidents in which Justinian’s demonic nature became apparent. Mosaic of Justinian in Sant’Apolllinare Nuovo, Ravenna, 6th century CE, via Opera Di Religione Della Diocesi Di Ravenna Predictably, the text alleges that these sleepless periods were for the purpose of devising schemes to ruin the Empire. Likewise, Justinian habitually rejected sleep, often resting for only one hour a night and spending the time walking in circles. Procopius asserts that he could, and often did, go without food for two days and typically subsisted only on water and wild plants.
Firstly, it was claimed that the emperor was able to utterly ignore his bodily needs on numerous occasions. Justinian is a literal demon in the text.
The Secret Historydescribes Justinian as a demon. (The last sentence of the Secret History, 30.34) “Whenever Justinian, if he is a man, departs from this life, or, as the Chief of the Demons, sets this mortal life aside, then all those who have the fortune still to be alive will know the truth…” Justinian in Procopius’ Secret History : The Inhuman Emperor Vestibule Mosaic in the Hagia Sophia featuring Justinian (left) holding the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, 10th century CE, via the Hagia Sophia “And he brought on the Romans disasters which surely surpassed both in gravity and in number all that had ever been heard of at any period of his tory.” Procopius’ Secret History, a third, unpublished (and of course, secret) work details the supposedly sinister, inner lives of members of the emperor’s imperial court. But despite all his accomplishments, Justinian’s own historian, Procopius, whose works famously include the monumental Wars and Buildings, penned one of the most scathing polemics of Byzantine literature against him. Domestically, the emperor had substantially revised the Empire’s legal system through the Justinianic Code and oversaw the construction of Byzantium’s greatest monuments, including the Hagia Sophia. To the west, Italy, Carthage, and Rome itself were all retaken, and to the east, numerous victories pacified the threat posed by Sassanid Persia. Justinian “the Great” led the Eastern Roman Empire to its largest territorial extent since the fall of the Western Empire.
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