On today’s agenda, aside from the Stratford excursion, is a reading of Procopius’s Secret History maligning the Byzantine emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora. In its most famous chapter, Procopius paints lurid pictures with words of Theodora’s middling lineage and of her sexual exploits while performing in the theatre. It almost goes without saying that this work was not published until Justinian’s death. That’s the exciting bit that everyone learns, if they hear of Procopius at all. I’m sure there are matters of greater political and cultural import which I shall hopefully tease out in my reading.