> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Procopius of Caesarea describes Empress Theodora in his pamphlet “The Secret History”
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/prokopii-kesariiskii-sobral-mnozhestvo-spleten-ob-imperatore-iustiniane-i-ego-zhene-feodore-v-svoem-pamflete-tainaia-istoriia-trud-etot-spornyi-i-skandalnyi-iz-za-nego-istoriki-do-sikh/
- Published: 2017-07-18T13:28:38.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:01:19.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Monarchies, Mores, People

Procopius of Caesarea gathered a great deal of gossip about the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora in his pamphlet the "Secret History", a disputed and scandalous work over which historians are still quarrelling. The book contains the following diverting description of the Empress Theodora, whose biography is highly contradictory:

This woman had not a drop of shame, and no one ever saw her abashed; without the slightest hesitation she set about her disgraceful service.

She did not think it necessary to wait for the man she was dealing with to attempt to seduce her, but, on the contrary, with her saucy jests and playful swaying of the hips she beguiled everyone without distinction, especially beardless boys.

She would often come to a dinner got up by subscription among ten or more young fellows, distinguished by enormous bodily strength and practised in debauchery, and throughout the night she gave herself to all her fellow-diners; then, when they were all exhausted and unable to continue the exercise, she betook herself to their servants, who numbered at times as many as thirty, coupled with each of them, and even then felt no satiety of her lust.

Making use in her trade of three orifices, she reproached nature, vexed that her breasts had not been given a wider opening, which would have allowed her to devise yet another manner of intercourse.

Often in the theatre, in full view of all the people, she took off her dress and stood naked in the midst of the assembly, wearing only a narrow strip at the groin and the private parts, not because she was ashamed to show these too to the people, but because no one was permitted to appear there entirely naked without a band about the private parts. In this guise she would bend backwards and lie down on her back. The attendants charged with this work scattered grains of barley over her private parts, and geese, specially prepared for the purpose, pulled them out with their beaks and ate them.

When any of the more respectable people happened to meet her in the marketplace, they turned away and hastily withdrew from her, so as not to touch the garments of this woman and thus defile themselves with such filth. For those who saw her, especially in the morning, it was considered an evil omen.