Procopius of Caesarea (
Latin Procopius Caesarensis,
Greek Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς; c. 500 – c. 565) was a prominent
Byzantine scholar from
Palestine. Accompanying the general
Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor
Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the
Wars of Justinian, the
Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated
Secret History. He is commonly held to be the last major historian of the ancient world.
Before the source of his own writings, the main source for Procopius' life is an entry in the Suda,[1] a 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia that tells nothing about his early life. He was a native of Caesarea in Palaestina Prima[2] (modern Israel). He would have received a conventional élite education in the Greek classics and then rhetoric,[3] perhaps at the famous School of Gaza,[4] may have attended law school, possibly at Berytus (modern Beirut) or Constantinople,[5] and became a rhetor (barrister or advocate).[1] He evidently knew some Latin, as would be natural for a man with legal training.[6] In 527, the first year of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I's reign, he became the adsessor (legal adviser) for Belisarius, Justinian's chief military commander who was then beginning a brilliant career.[7]
Procopius was with Belisarius on the eastern front until the latter was defeated at the Battle of Callinicum in 531[8] and recalled to Constantinople.[9] Procopius witnessed the Nika riots of January, 532, which Belisarius and his fellow general Mundo repressed with a massacre in the Hippodrome.[10] In 533, he accompanied Belisarius on his victorious expedition against the Vandal kingdom in North Africa, took part in the capture of Carthage, and remained in Africa with Belisarius' successor Solomon when Belisarius returned to Constantinople. Procopius recorded a few of the extreme weather events of 535-536, although these were presented as a backdrop to Byzantine military activities, such as a mutiny, in and near Carthage.[11] He rejoined Belisarius for his campaign against the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy and experienced the Gothic siege of Rome that lasted a year and nine days, ending in mid-March, 538. He witnessed Belisarius' entry into the Gothic capital, Ravenna, in 540. Book Eight of The Wars of Justinian, and the Secret History, suggest that his relationship with Belisarius seems to have cooled thereafter. When Belisarius was sent back to Italy in 544 to cope with a renewal of the war with the Goths, now led by the able king Totila, Procopius appears to have no longer been on Belisarius' staff.
It is not known when Procopius himself died, and many historians (James Howard-Johnson, Averil Cameron, Geoffrey Greatrex) date his death to 554, but in 562 there was an urban prefect of Constantinople who happened to be called Procopius. In that year, Belisarius was implicated in a conspiracy and was brought before this urban prefect.
