For in them more remarkable feats have been performed than in any other wars with which we are acquainted unless, indeed, any reader of this narrative should give the place of honour to antiquity, and consider contemporary achievements unworthy to be counted remarkable. The Loeb Classical Library edition of Procopius is in seven volumes.§ 1.1.6 It will be evident that no more important or mightier deeds are to be found in history than those which have been enacted in these wars,-provided one wishes to base his judgment on the truth.
Other works by Procopius are the Anecdota or Secret History-vehement attacks on Justinian, Theodora, and others and The Buildings of Justinian (down to 558 CE) including roads and bridges as well as churches, forts, hospitals, and so on in various parts of the empire. He is just to the empire's enemies and boldly criticises emperor Justinian. He was a diligent, careful, judicious narrator of facts and developments and shows good powers of description. The whole consists largely of military history, with much information about peoples and places as well, and about special events. Procopius's History of the Wars in 8 books recounts the Persian Wars of emperors Justinus and Justinian down to 550 (2 books) the Vandalic War and after-events in Africa 532–546 (2 books) the Gothic War against the Ostrogoths in Sicily and Italy 536–552 (3 books) and a sketch of events to 554 (1 book).
He may have been that Procopius who was prefect of Constantinople in 562, but the date of his death (after 558) is unknown. Sometime after 540 he returned to Constantinople. In 527 CE he was made legal adviser and secretary of Belisarius, commander against the Persians, and went with Belisarius again in 533 against the Vandals and in 535 against the Ostrogoths. Procopius, born at Caesarea in Palestine late in the 5th century, became a lawyer.
0 kommentar(er)
