Procopius of Caesarea

PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA. - Byzantine historian, b. toward the end of the 5th century, d. after 563. Little is known of his life: he studied law and in 527, by the will of Justin, followed Belisarius on the expeditions against the Persians, the Vandals and the Goths. In 540 he retired to private life in his native Caesarea of Palestine, where he wrote the history of his times in three works.

The first, published in 544-45, in eight books, narrates the wars of Belisarius. The first two deal with the Persian war (Μηθικὸς πόλεμος ο Μηθικὰ), the next two with the Vandalic war (Ανθικὸς πόλεμος ο Ανθικὰ) and the last four with the Gothic war (Γαθηνὸς πόλεμος ο Ἰταλικὰ), and they are written with the scrupulous exactness of a historian, with intelligence and with the authority of an eyewitness. The second: Ητῷ τῶν τοῦ θεοπότου Ἰουστινιανοῦ κτισμάτων "On the buildings of Justinian", published in 560, is the exaltation of the Emperor's activity as a builder. P. in fact illustrates therein, with a pompous style and not free from adulation, the innumerable structures of fortifications, castles, ports, churches, palaces, cities, with which Justinian in his long reign had enriched the Empire. The merit of this work is its precious contribution to archaeology and to the history of Byzantine art. Of an absolutely different character is the third opuscule: Ἀνέσδοτα, "The unpublished", commonly called "Secret History", published many years after the author's death and which figures as the IX book of the histories of the wars. It is a slanderous libel against Justinian, Belisarius and their wives Theodora and Antonina, with the narration of shameful intimacies, exaggerated by passionate virulence. Its authenticity can no longer be doubted; uncertain, on the other hand, remains the motive that drove the author to its composition, since he had no personal reasons against the persons so vilely reviled.

Agostino Amore