Procopius

?490--?562 ad, Byzantine historian, noted for his account of the wars of Justinian I against the Persians, Vandals, and Ostrogoths

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Procopius

Born between 490 and 507; died after 562. Byzantine writer and adviser to Belisarius; a member of the senatorial aristocracy.

Procopius took part in campaigns against the Persians, Vandals, and Ostrogoths. He glorified Justinian I in his semiofficial works Wars (eight books), completed in 553 and based on personal impressions, and On the Buildings (553–555), a description of construction during Justinian’s reign. However, he also wrote a short work, Secret History (c. 550), directed against the emperor and his wife, Theodora.

Thucydides was Procopius’ literary model, but the Secret History departed from objective exposition and made extensive use of hyperbole. Procopius’ works are an important source for the history of Byzantium and its neighboring states during the late fifth and the sixth century, as well as for the history of Slavic incursions into the Balkans.

WORKS

Opera omnia, vols. 1–4. Leipzig, 1962–64.
In Russian translation:
Voina s gotami. Introductory article by Z. V. Udal’tsova. Moscow, 1950.
“Tainaia istoriia.” Vestnik drevnei istorii, 1938, no. 4.
“O postroikakh.” Ibid., 1939, no.4.

REFERENCES

Udal’tsova, Z. V. “Mirovozzrenie Prokopiia Kesariiskogo.” In the collection Vizantiiskii vremennik, vol. 31. Moscow, 1971.
Rubin, B. “Prokopios von Kaisareia.” In Realencyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. 23, fase. [45]. Stuttgart, 1957.
Gantar, K. “Der betrogene Justinian.” Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 1963, vol. 56, part I.