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Descriptions of battle in the Wars of Procopius
Get PDFProcopius of Caesarea wrote a classicizing history of the wars of Justinian, which focuses squarely on warfare in an age when his contemporaries were often directing their attention towards theological matters. Battles make up a significant portion of this history and they are the focus of this thesis, with particular attention paid to their literary construction, as well as the values, norms, and assumptions which underscore them.
Chapter one focuses on the life and social background of Procopius, addressing issues such as his literary career and education. Chapter two looks at the wider context, including the three strands of thought concerning the composition of a work of history written in Greek, namely rhetoric, historiographical theory, and Greek military theory. It looks, particularly, at the theorists’ respective discussions of battle; and, the practices adopted by Procopius’ contemporaries when approaching battle, whether writing an ecclesiastical history, chronicle, or classicizing history, or a military treatise.
In the next four chapters I focus on the text itself. Chapter three, on the Persian Wars, looks at issues such as narrative order and pace, the exhortation, and morale, discipline, and the use of stratagems. Battles in the Vandal Wars is the subject of chapter four, and here I look at how Procopius engages with his audience through the use of literary devices such as narrator interventions and narrative markers, as well as how he characterizes the warfare itself. In chapter five I explore the influence that Homer has had on Procopius’ descriptions of battle in the Gothic Wars, especially the siege of Rome. The last chapter, six, skips the thematic approach used in the previous three chapters and instead evaluates his battles on a case-by-case basis.
While Procopius’ conception of battle betrays many of the hallmarks of his classical predecessors, there are unmistakable signs of the influence of his contemporary context, such as the attribution of outcomes to God. What is more, these battles, which are carefully constructed, and integrated into the wider text, showcase Procopius’ skill and ingenuity as a writer, and historian. As a result, my thesis demonstrates that Procopius needs to be taken seriously as a literary, cultural, and historical source for the sixth century
Procopius the Christian Sophist: Catenist, Compiler, Epitomist
No full textThe rich literary production of Gaza in the fifth and sixth centuries AD has received quite some attention in recent scholarship. Yet, the figure and work of Procopius the Sophist, as author of catenae, compiler, and epitomist of patristic exegesis, have remained relatively unknown and under-explored. This collection of essays delves deeply into Procopius’ exegetical work. At the outset, a strong case is made that one should distinguish between the famous orator of Gaza and "the Christian sophist" Procopius. A first large section of the book deals with the Genesis Epitome that is studied from three different angles: the limited and as a rule critical use of Origen and his tradition; the importance given to Theodore of Mopsuestia’s exegesis of Gen 1–3; and the relations between Procopius’ Epitome and John Philoponus’ De opificio mundi. The section on the Exodus Epitome studies the specificity of Procopius’ work in comparison to the Catena on Exodus, the way the material is organised, and the literary genre of the work. The volume further contains contributions on the connections between the Scholia on Kings attributed to Procopius, the type B catena, and the so-called "Catena Lipsiensis"; the relations between Procopius’ Catena on Proverbs and other catenae on this book; the sources of the Isaiah Epitome that show a diligent and able compiler at work; and the comparison between the characteristic features of Procopius’ Epitomes and those of the Catena III on Obadiah. As a whole, it offers a wide perspective and significantly advances research on, and our knowledge of, Procopius the Christian sophist, a still somewhat mysterious early Byzantine author and scholar
Procopius and political realism
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 93-106.1. Introduction -- 2. Political realism -- 3. Thucydides and political realism -- 4. Procopius and realism -- 5. Conclusion -- 6. Bibliography.This thesis examines the political philosophy of Procopius of Caesarea, a Late Antique historian who, in his Wars of Justinian, wrote of the wars conducted by the Roman emperor Justinian during the sixth century A.D. The concept of political realism may invoke a modern interpretation; however, this term will be defined by the parameters of power and morality based on the political philosophy of the classical Greek historian, Thucydides. It is well known that Thucydides influenced the literary style of Procopius as many passages from Procopius’ Wars allude to Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War. Thucydides’ concepts have arguably been utilised by modern realists, much in the same way Procopius used Thucydides’ political philosophy as a basis for his own interpretation of politics. Like Thucydides, we will show that Procopius believed that morality and justice would restrain the excessive use of power. Passages that will help us understand Procopius’ concepts will include the siege of Naples by Belisarius in which the moral restraint of power was debated and the siege of Rome by the Goths which revealed the amoral use of power. These passages will be compared to several of Thucydides passages such as the Melian Dialogue and the Mytilenean Debate.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (106 pages
Procopius’ Belisarius
Get PDFThis article re-evaluates the portrayal of Belisarius by Procopius and other sixth-century sources, not to uncover new biographical data but to trace the evolving representation of his authority, reputation, and career. While Belisarius’ life and military record are well known, the focus here is on how Procopius constructs, modulates, and at times destabilises his image across distinct literary genres and narrative contexts. The methodology lies in the integration of genre comparison (Wars, Buildings, Anekdota), reception layering across Procopius’ corpus, and a tripartite analysis of authority through gesture, strategic command scope, and political-theological framing.
Belisarius’ military achievements against the Vandals, Goths, and Persians are examined alongside moments of critique, limitation, and internal challenge, revealing how Procopius’ narratives balance encomium with ambivalence. Authority is shown to be both performative and precarious – shaped by systemic pressures, interpersonal dynamics, and imperial ideology. The article combines narratological analysis, spatial and career mapping, and late antique political theology to illuminate the rhetorical and conceptual architecture of Belisarius’ portrayal. Other contemporary voices, such as Jordanes, are considered to contextualise Procopius’ representational strategies and to explore the conceptual ambiguities surrounding divine favour, supernatural agency, and delegated power. Ultimately, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of sixth-century political and military literacy – not through event reconstruction, but through the interpretive layering of genre, reception, an
Procopius of Caesarea::Literary and Historical Interpretations
No full textThis volume aims to encourage dialogue and collaboration between international scholars by presenting new literary and historical interpretations of the sixth-century writer Procopius of Caesarea, the major historian of Justinian’s reign. Although scholarship on Procopius has flourished since 2004, when the last monograph in English on Procopius was published, there has not been a collection of essays on the subject since 2000. Work on Procopius since 2004 has been surveyed by Geoffrey Greatrex in his international bibliography; Peter Sarris has revised the 1966 Penguin Classics translation of, and introduced, Procopius’ Secret History (2007); and Anthony Kaldellis has edited, translated and introduced Procopius’ Secret History, with related texts (2010), and revised and modernised H.B. Dewing’s Loeb translation of Procopius’ Wars as The Wars of Justinian in 2014. This volume capitalises on the renaissance in Procopius-related studies by showcasing recent work on Procopius in all its diversity and vibrancy. It offers approaches that shed new light on Procopius’ texts by comparing them with a variety of relevant textual sources. In particular, the volume pays close attention to the text and examines what it achieves as a literary work and what it says as an historical product
9. Procopius in Polish
Get PDFPublished in Geoffrey Greatrex, ed., Work on Procopius outside the English-speaking World (HISTOS Supplement 9)
Procopius of Caesarea: literary and historical interpretations
No full textThis volume aims to encourage dialogue and collaboration between international scholars by presenting new literary and historical interpretations of the sixth-century writer Procopius of Caesarea, the major historian of Justinian’s reign. Although scholarship on Procopius has flourished since 2004, when the last monograph in English on Procopius was published, there has not been a collection of essays on the subject since 2000. Work on Procopius since 2004 has been surveyed by Geoffrey Greatrex in his international bibliography; Peter Sarris has revised the 1966 Penguin Classics translation of, and introduced, Procopius’ Secret History (2007); and Anthony Kaldellis has edited, translated and introduced Procopius’ Secret History, with related texts (2010), and revised and modernised H.B. Dewing’s Loeb translation of Procopius’ Wars as The Wars of Justinian in 2014.
This volume capitalises on the renaissance in Procopius-related studies by showcasing recent work on Procopius in all its diversity and vibrancy. It offers approaches that shed new light on Procopius’ texts by comparing them with a variety of relevant textual sources. In particular, the volume pays close attention to the text and examines what it achieves as a literary work and what it says as an historical product
Procopius and political realism
No full textThis thesis examines the political philosophy of Procopius of Caesarea, a Late Antique historian who, in his Wars of Justinian, wrote of the wars conducted by the Roman emperor Justinian during the sixth century A.D. The concept of political realism may invoke a modern interpretation; however, this term will be defined by the parameters of power and morality based on the political philosophy of the classical Greek historian, Thucydides. It is well known that Thucydides influenced the literary style of Procopius as many passages from Procopius’ Wars allude to Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War. Thucydides’ concepts have arguably been utilised by modern realists, much in the same way Procopius used Thucydides’ political philosophy as a basis for his own interpretation of politics. Like Thucydides, we will show that Procopius believed that morality and justice would restrain the excessive use of power. Passages that will help us understand Procopius’ concepts will include the siege of Naples by Belisarius in which the moral restraint of power was debated and the siege of Rome by the Goths which revealed the amoral use of power. These passages will be compared to several of Thucydides passages such as the Melian Dialogue and the Mytilenean Debate
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