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PROCOPIUS
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PROCOPIUS , See also:Byzantine historian, was See also:born at Caesarea in See also:Palestine towards the end of the 5th See also:century A.D. He became a lawyer, probably at See also:Constantinople, and was in 527 appointed secretary and legal adviser to See also:Belisarius, who was proceeding to command the imperial See also:army in the See also:war against the Persians (De See also:bello persico i. 12). When the See also:Persian War was suspended and Belisarius was despatched against the See also:Vandals of See also:Africa in 533, Procopius again accompanied him, as he subsequently did in the war against the See also:Ostrogoths of See also:Italy, which began in 535. After the See also:capture of See also:Ravenna in 540 Procopius seems to have returned to Constantinople, since he minutely describes the See also:great See also:plague of 542 (op. Cit. ii. 22). It does not appear whether he was with the See also:Roman armies in the later stages of the See also:Gothic War, when Belisarius and afterwards See also:Narses fought against See also:Totila in Italy; his narrative of these years is much less full and See also:minute than that of the earlier warfare. Of his subsequent fortunes we know nothing, except that he was living in 559. Whether he was the Procopius who was See also:prefect of Constantinople in 562 (See also:Theophanes, Chronographia, 201, 202), and was removed from See also:office in the See also:year following, cannot be determined. As the historian was evidently a See also:person of See also:note, who had obtained the See also:rank of illustrius (Suidas), and from a passage in the Anecdota (12) seems to have risen to be a senator, there is no improbability in his having been raised to the high office of prefect. Procopius's writings fall into three divisions: the Histories (Persian, Vandal and Gothic See also:Wars), in eight books; the See also:treatise on the Buildings of Justinian (De aedificiis), in six books; and the Unpublished See also:Memoirs ('Av4KSora, Historia arcana), so called because they were not published during the lifetime of the author. The Histories are called by the author himself the Books about the Wars (oi ini4p TWV iroXEµwv Abyoc). They consist of: (I) the Persian Wars, in two books, giving a narrative of the See also:long struggle of the emperors See also:Justin and Justinian against the Persian See also:kings See also:Kavadh and See also:Chosroes Anushirvan down to 550; (2) the Vandal War, in two books, describing the See also:conquest of the Vandal See also:kingdom in Africa and the subsequent events there from 532 down to 546 (with a few words on later occurrences); (3) the Gothic War, in three books, narrating the war against the Ostrogoths in See also:Sicily and Italy from 536 till 552. The eighth See also:book contains a further See also:summary of events down to 554. These eight books of Histories, although mainly occupied with military matters, contain notices of some of the more important domestic events, such as the Nika insurrection at Constantinople in 532, the plague in 542, the See also:conspiracy of Artabenes in 548. They tell us, however, comparatively little about the See also:civil See also:administration of the See also:empire, and nothing about legislation. On the other See also:hand they are See also:rich in See also:geographical and ethnographical See also:information.
As an historian Procopius is of quite unusual merit, when the generally See also:low See also:literary level of his See also:age is considered. He is industrious in See also:collecting facts, careful and impartial in stating them; his See also:judgment is See also:sound, his reflections generally acute, his conceptions of the See also:general See also: The speeches are obviously composed by Procopius himself, rarely showing any dramatic variety in their See also:language, but they seem sometimes to convey the substance of what was said; and even when this is not the See also:case they frequently serve to bring out the points of a See also:critical situation. Procopius is almost as much a geographer as an historian, and his descriptions of the See also:people and places he himself visited are generally careful and thorough. Although a warmly patriotic Roman, he does full See also:justice to the merits of the See also:barbarian enemies of the empire, particularly the Ostrogoths; although the subject of a despotic See also:prince, he criticizes the civil and military administration of Justinian and his dealings with See also:foreign peoples with a freedom which gives a favourable impression of the tolerance of the See also:emperor. His chief defects are a somewhat pretentious and at the same See also:time monotonous style, and a want of sympathy and intensity. The De aedificiis contains an See also:account of the chief public See also:works executed during the reign of Justinian down to 558 (in which year it seems to have been composed), particularly churches, palaces, hospitals, fortresses, roads, See also:bridges and other See also:river works throughout the empire. All these p.re of course ascribed to the personal See also:action of the monarch. If not written at the command of Justinian (as some have supposed), it is evidently grounded on See also:official information, and is full of See also:gross flattery of the emperor and of the (then deceased) empress. In point of style it is greatly inferior to the Histories—florid, pompous and affected, and at the same time tedious. Its chief value lies in the geographical notices which it contains. The Anecdota (" See also:Secret See also:History ") purports to be a supplement to the Histories, containing explanations and additions which the author could not insert in the latter See also:work for fear of Justinian and See also:Theodora. It is a furious invective against these sovereigns, their characters, personal conduct and See also:government, with attacks on Belisarius and his wife Antonina, and on other noted officials in the civil and military services of the empire. Owing to the ferocity and brutality of the attacks upon Justinian, the authenticity of the Anecdota has often been called in question, but the claims of Procopius to the authorship are now generally recognized. In point of style, the Anecdota is inferior to the Histories, and has the See also:air of being unfinished, or at least unrevised. Its merit lies in the furious earnestness with which it is written, which gives it a force and reality sometimes wanting in the more elaborate books written for publication. The history of See also: See also:Ranke, Weltgeschichte (1883), iv. 2. On the genuineness of the Anecdota cf. J. B. See also:Bury (who agrees with Ranke in rejecting the authorship of Procopius) A History of the Later Roman Empire (1889), vol. i., and introd. to vol. i. (p. 57) and app. to vol. iv. of his edition of See also:Gibbon's Decline and Fall. For the literature of the subject generally, see C. See also:Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (2nd ed., 1897). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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