i 3 o THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE subordinates. Finally among his chief helpers the remark- able empress, Theodora, should not be forgotten. The reign was also graced by an eminent historian, Procopius, the secretary of Belisarius, whose works on the Procopius wars and the buildings of Justinian have con- Secre^ tributed to his fame. Procopius, however, also History wrote a venomous Secret History, in which he depicted Justinian as a fiend incarnate and his reign as a terrible orgy of oppression. The wild exaggeration of this work may be seen in such statements as that "more mur- ders were committed by Justinian's order or permission than in all the ages before him," and that "he had no money himself and would suffer no one else to have any." The wives of both Belisarius and Justinian are represented as women of the worst type. Amid all the slander, however, a certain amount of probable fact can be selected. Theodora is said to have been the daughter of a wild- beast keeper at the Hippodrome and was for a time a very The Empress popular and fast young actress in the pantomime Theodora at Constantinople. After questionable adven- tures in the East she returned to the capital a reformed character. Justinian now fell in love with her, married her in 523, and she shared the imperial throne with him from 527 to 548, during which time she is supposed to have exerted a vast influence over him in political and religious matters. Procopius admits that she "had an excellent face, and though her person was small, yet she was exceedingly well shaped; her complexion was neither too white nor too red; her eyes were extremely quick, and she cast them a thousand ways at once." According to Procopius, Justinian and Theodora made it a regular policy to pretend to disagree in matters of state and to side with different parties, while really they always worked hand in glove with each other, betrayed their associates freely to each other, and thus learned the secrets of their enemies. Indeed, they seem to have been as well adapted to each other as the famous Jack Spratt and his wife. While the wakeful Justinian walked the palace all night, the drowsy Theodora slept on half
