Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea (; Ancient Greek: Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς Prokópios ho Kaisareús; Latin: Procopius Caesariensis; c. 500 – 565) was a prominent Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea in Palestine. Accompanying the Byzantine general Belisarius in Emperor Justinian's wars, Procopius became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the History of the Wars, On Buildings, and the Secret History.

Biography

Early life

Apart from his own writings, the main source for Procopius's life is an entry in the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopaedia written sometime after 975 which (based on older sources) discusses his early life. He was a native of Caesarea in Palestine. He would have received a conventional upper-class education in the Greek classics and rhetoric, perhaps at the school at Gaza. He may have attended law school, possibly at Berytus (present-day Beirut) or Constantinople (now Istanbul), and became a lawyer (rhetor). He evidently knew Latin, as was natural for a man with legal training.

Career

In 527, the first year of the reign of the emperor Justinian I, Procopius became the legal adviser (adsessor) for Belisarius, a general whom Justinian made his chief military commander in a great attempt to restore control over the lost western provinces of the empire.

Procopius was with Belisarius on the eastern front until the latter was defeated at the Battle of Callinicum in 531 and recalled to Constantinople. Procopius witnessed the Nika riots of January 532, which Belisarius and his fellow general Mundus repressed with a massacre in the Hippodrome there.