In a modern world obsessed with sex and celebrity scandals, it should arouse minimal surprise that the scurrilous Secret History is currently Procopius’ most popular work. Teeming with accounts of the carnal escapades and political misdeeds of puissant women, often at the expense of enfeebled men, the work offers students an apt corrective to stereotypes of the Byzantines as androcentric ‘prudes’ with minimal interest in sexual matters. Procopius’ fondness for gendered discourse in this tract has also attracted the attention of scholars. The Secret History's notorious views on gender, especially in its portraits of the seminal power couples of sixth-century Byzantium—Theodora and Justinian on the one hand, and Antonina and Belisarius on the other—have held the attention of a generation of social historians. Yet the significant, albeit subtler and less erotic ways in which gender colours the Wars has received only minimal attention.

Looking to address this imbalance, this chapter turns to Procopius’ description of the Italian campaigns found in the Gothic War. It investigates how gender shapes Procopius’ presentation of the Goths, East Romans, and Italo-Romans during the nearly two-decade struggle for Italy. Here, my primary goal is not to uncover the Goths, Byzantines, and Italians ‘as they really were’, but rather to glean some of the reasoning and purpose behind Procopius’ gendered depictions and ethnicising worldview. I will suggest that by examining his discussions about the manly and the unmanly carefully, one may obtain crucial insights into the larger narrative strategy and Procopius’ complex personal and political agendas.

Rhetoric and Reality

Those relying on Procopius for their vision of the sixth century need to first address some issues of literary representation. While valuing its details and admiring its artistry, one must keep in mind the extent to which the Wars offers a genuine reflection of sixth-century realities, and that to which it reflects conventional elements adopted from his classical models. Aristophanes, Diodorus, Herodotus, Thucydides, Herodotus, Homer, Plato, Polybius, Plato, and Xenophon have all been shown to greater and lesser degrees to have influenced his writings.