WARNING! This "blog" "post" will contain racy language and is not for the faint of heart! First of all, Diarmaid MacCulloch has tricked me with his CHRISTIANITY: THE FIRST THREE THOUSAND YEARS! Remember when I was bragging that I had finally reached 1100, and the quadruple-digit years? Smooth sailing from here on out, I thought! But no! Suddenly we have jumped back to the year 527. None of this is the racy part! Just wait! Here it comes! You won't believe it, but MacCulloch refers to the Byzantine Empress Theodora as "a former circus artist of dauntingly gymnastic sexual prowess." He does not go into detail! But he directs the reader to court historian Procopius's "gossipy account... THE SECRET HISTORY, whose rediscovery by the pope's Vatican librarian in the seventeenth century much enhanced historical enjoyment of the period." Diarmaid MacCulloch, you scamp! Is that a nice way to talk about an empress? (Hey, she was married to Justinian, who caused me so much trouble that time.) The thing is I picked up a copy of the Procopius at a yard sale a few years ago, though I haven't cracked it open yet. I feel positive it was the same yard sale where I got the Arthur Waley book I told you about a while back, and at the same low price! That was some yard sale! Next time you see a book at a yard sale and wonder if you should buy it, the answer is of course you should! It's probably just fifty cents! Is it going to kill you?
