Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 4 (1897).djvu/539

 APPENDIX 515 It was prohnbly after the publication of Bk. viii. of the Military History (a. p. 354) that .ru.-tiiiiau Iiocame conscious of the existence of the great historian, ami engaged him m Mit'' the work on the Edifices. There can be no doubt that Procopius vi (itr it iiouically, " with his tongue in his cheek " ; the smiles of the court had not alit-red his political hostility to the government. The very hyper- bole of his praise was a mockery. As he invariably in the Edifices cites his IMilitary History as oi iin-ep tAi' -oAe'/xci- Adyoi, it is rear.onable to as.sume that, when ho says iii the Proamivm that he has related Justinian's other doings ei' iTipoi:; Adyoij, he is sccretli/ alluding to the unpublished work, whose pub- lication would have cost him his head. It is probable that Procopius was re- warded for his memorial of Justinian's Buildings by the ofSce of Prefecture of the City. At all events two years after its publication, in a.d. 562, a Procopius was made Prefect of Constantinople. ^'- The chronology of the career of Procopius, so far as can be determined, would lie as follows : — A.D. T)27 attached to Belisarius in the East as private secietar.-. A.I). 531 returns with Belisarius to Constantinople. A. II. .o.S'J ill ('(.iistaiitinople at time of the Nika riot. A.D. aSo ace (JiiL|. allies iielisarius to Africa as asse.i.H4 niui ins liihind Belisarius in Africa, (as ttssps.so?' to Solomon (?)). A.D. nSG (end) joins Belisarius in Italy. A.D. .539 returns with Belisarius to Constantinople. A.D. .539-540 at Constantinople. A.D. 545-G engaged on the composition of his jMiUturii Hcstorii in seven Books. A.D. .540 probably proceeds to Italy, to follow the course of the war (cp. Haury, Procopiana, i. p. 9). A.D. 548 back in (Constantinople. A.D. .550 coinplitrs anil ]iublishes his Military History, B'ks,. i.-vii. ; writes his ,V--vW H:st<,r,i. A.D. .553-4 writes anil Miiihes the Eif/hth Book of the Military History. A.D. 500 imblishes his work on EdiHees. A.D. 50i.^-3 Prefect of the City (?). This is not the place to s]ieak of the literary character of the works of Procopius except so far as it concerns their historical criticism. Procopius is an imita- tor of both Herodotus and Thucydides. How largely he used these ancient historians has been shown in two special monographs by H. Braun.'-' In geographical and ethnograjihical digressions, descriptions of strange incidents, dreams, &c., the influence of Herodotus is apparent ; and the Herodotean con- ception of the supernatural, the power of fortune or fate, the envy of the gods, is adopted by Procopius. In the prefaces to his works, in speeches and letters, in descriptions of sieges, naval battles, ]ilagues, Procopius takes Thucy- dides as his model. ^■^ It is curious to find not only John, the son of Vitalian, but Moors and other barbarians, spouting Thucydidean jihrases. When we find incidents at the siege of Amida reproduced from the siege of Plataea, we have reason to doubt whether Procopius confined himself to adapting merel3' the words of his models. It was recognized by Gibbon, and has been confirmed by later investigations, that in the history of events previous to his own time Procopius is untrust- worthy ; he was quite careless in selecting and using sources, and has been convicted of numerous errors. i'^ It is hardly too strong to say, as has been said '- Theophanes, a.m. 6054. See Dahn, I'rokofiiits, p. 452; Haury, /Vofo/'w;j(7, i. p. 34. Suidas describes Procopius as an illustris. 1'! Procopius Ca;s. quatenus imitatus sit Thucydidem, 1885 (Erlangen) ; Die Nachah- mung Herodots durch Prokop, 1894 (Nurnberg). H Bruckner, op. cit., i. 8 sqq., gives a good summary. 15 See the very full criticism of Briickner, 0/). cit., p. 19 sqq. Cp. Ranke, Welti^escMcMe, iv. 279. Alf o see above, vol. iii.. Appendix 22.