TITLE:  The Secret History

AUTHOR:  Procopius

DATE PUBLISHED:  1982 (originally 550 AD)

EDITION:  Penguin Classics

FORMAT:  Paperback

ISBN-13:  9780140441826

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DESCRIPTION:

"Having dutifully written the official war history of Justinian's reign, Procopius turned round and revealed in The Secret History the other faces of the leading men and women of Byzantium in the sixth century. Justinian, the great law-giver, appears as a hateful tyrant, wedded to an ex-prostitute, Theodora; and Belisarius, the brilliant general whose secretary Procopius had been, is seen as the pliable dupe of his wife Antonina, a woman as corrupt and scheming as Theodora herself."

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REVIEW:

To all dictators/generals/despots/rulers:  don't piss off the official historian you've employed, he might just write a nasty book about you - to be published after his death (of course)... just in case.

Procopius of Caesarea was a Byzantine Greek scholar who accompanied the Byzantine general Belisarius on a variety of Emperor Justinian's wars.  Procopius became the principal Byzantine historian of the 6th century, writing the History of the Wars, the Buildings, and the Secret History. The Secret History is supposed to be a supplement to the Wars, containing explanations and additions that Procopius could not insert into the latter work for fear of Justinian and Theodora.  In his Secret History, Procopius claims to expose the private lives and motivations for their public actions of Emperor Justinian, Empress Theodora, general Belisarius and his wife Antonina. 

There is some debate as to the accuracy of Procopius's Secret History and his motivation for writing it, but the book does provide some rather eyebrow raising shenanigans of the going-on in Byzantine at this time.  The book also comes across as a manual on how to rob your citizens and completely ruin an empire.

The whale, Porphyrion, was mentioned as terrorizing Byzantine shipping and sailors.  So I had to go look that up.

https://lateantiquefolklore.wordpress.com/2017/08/19/procopius-porphyrius-the-whale-and-magnetic-islands/

If anyone wants to read a free copy of Procopius's Secret History:

https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/proc/shp/index.htm

Even though I have a ton of books that would directly fit the prompt I am on:

22. Read a book with a word that refers to women's roles, such as wife, daughter, mother, mistress or title, such as "Mrs., Miss or Duchess, in the title, or a book that has a strong female lead character.

My library hold just came in for this book, so I decided last night to play my race car, and race around the board to space #3: 

3. Read a book set in a school or college, or that is considered a "classic," (using any criteria that you want) or that is frequently banned.

And read this one, which is set in fictional Hampden College, in New Hampshire. I also passed Go, and therefore collect $5.00!

This was very fascinating. I enjoyed reading about earlier feminism. WMM was definitely ahead of his time (but also had his issues). This was really, really well researched, so it came off as a bit dry for me so I read small portions at a time. 
One thing I found fascinating were the relationships Elizabeth, Olive, Marjorie, and William all had with each other. After Marston died, the women continued their relationship/friendship. I thought it was interesting the amount of secrecy. The author made a point of pointing out that each child had a different POV. 
This is most definitely a story of how Wonder Woman began and all the amazing women that inspired her creation. But it's also a story of family.

A Secret History of Witches - Louisa Mo...

Told as a series of stories about different generations of women who were witches. With power that they use in different ways and always having a girl child, often outside of wedlock and the different ways they chose to survive.

It sounds all my catnip but because there are the stories of several women I didn't feel like I really got to know any of them. It finished with a witch who works against the Nazis during World War II and I understand that there's a sequel, but I really don't care. It was readable but I didn't really feel that I really cared or that I understood the why of a lot of their dealings.

Honestly it felt like someone writing a literary novel with paranormal leanings.

As a second generation nerd, I grew up with various comic books at my disposal. Because of a family allegiance to Marvel, we never really had too many DC comics lying around, but we did enjoy the occasional Wonder Woman appearance on the Justice League cartoon series.

I did not expect to find so much about the creator and his inspiration. It was hard to read the first half or so because Marston's youth was not of particular interest to me, but after having finished the book, I see why it was included. The inclusion of Olive Byrne's history, on the other hand, made far more sense to me, as learning about her connections to the women's liberation movement and the birth control movement explained a lot about what happened between her, Marston, and Holloway. 

As Holloway would often say, it was interesting to read about a man who was truly ahead of his time. I'm glad I took the time to read it and to learn about Wonder Woman's journey from comic book heroine that nearly passed into obscurity at the hands of reactionary critics to third wave feminist icon. I honestly would have liked to see more focus on that, however, than the book mostly following Marston and his relationship with Holloway and Byrne.