Produced by Ted Garvin, Project Manager; Keith M. Eckrich,
Post-Processor; the PG Online Distributed Proofreaders Team
[Transcriber's Note: Macrons (straight line above a vowel) areindicated in this text by surrounding square brackets and an =sign. For example, [=e] indicates an e-macron]
Procopius, the most important of the Byzantine historians, was born atCaesarea in Palestine towards the beginning of the sixth century ofthe Christian era. After having for some time practised as a"Rhetorician," that is, advocate or jurist, in his native land, heseems to have migrated early to Byzantium or Constantinople. There hegave lessons in elocution, and acted as counsel in several law-cases.His talents soon attracted attention, and he was promoted to officialduties in the service of the State. He was commissioned to accompanythe famous Belisarius during his command of the army in the East, inthe capacity of Counsellor or Assessor: it is not easy to defineexactly the meaning of the Greek term, and the functions it embraced.The term "Judge-Advocate" has been suggested[1], a legal adviser whohad a measure of judicial as well as administrative power. From hisvivid description of the early years of Justinian's reign, we mayconclude that he spent some considerable time at the Byzantine courtbefore setting out for the East, at any rate, until the year 532, whenBelisarius returned to the capital: he would thus have been aneye-witness of the "Nika" sedition, which, had it not been for thecourage and firmness displayed by Theodora, would probably haveresulted in the flight of Justinian, and a change of dynasty.
In 533 he accompanied Belisarius on his expedition to Africa. On theway, he was intrusted with an important mission to Sicily. He appearsto have returned to Byzantium with Belisarius in 535. He is heard ofagain, in 536, as charged with another mission in the neighbourhood ofRome, which shows that, at the end of 535, he had accompaniedBelisarius, who had been despatched to Italy and Sicily to conquer theterritory in the occupation of the Goths. This expedition terminatedsuccessfully by the surrender of Vitiges and his captivity atByzantium in 540.
As the reward of his services, Justinian bestowed upon him the titleof "Illustrious" (Illustris), given to the highest class of publicofficials, raised him to the rank of a Senator, and, finally,appointed him Praefect of Byzantium in 562. He does not, however, seemto have been altogether satisfied: he complains of having beenill-paid for his labours; for several years he was even withoutemployment. This is all that is known of his life. He died shortlybefore or after the end of the reign of Justinian (565), when he wouldhave been over sixty years of age.
His career seems to have been as satisfactory as could be reasonablyexpected, all things being taken into consideration; but the violenthatred displayed by him against Justinian in the "Anecdota" or "SecretHistory"—if the work be really his[2]—appears to show that he musthave had some real or imaginary grounds of complaint; but historythrows no light upon these incidents of his political career.
Another question which has been much discussed by the commentators is:
"What were the religious opinio