skopia
Awaiting execution, Boethius is visited by a woman called Philosophy, who explains why fortune's wheel turns and how God's foreknowledge still leaves you free. Medieval Europe read nothing more closely.
Justinian's official historian kept a second book he could not publish: the emperor a demon pacing the palace at night without a head, the empress insatiable. Nothing from antiquity carries this much hatred.
Gregory, bishop of Tours, is the reason sixth-century Gaul is visible at all. He records Clovis splitting a soldier's skull over a looted vase, queens ordering assassinations, and miracles at the saints' tombs.