Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/495

* PKOCLUS. 427 PBOCOPIUS. cpssor.' Among liis contemporaries he is said to have had the greatest influence because of his learning and piety. He is sometimes l;nown as 'the Scholastic among Greek philosophers,' be- cause of his having labored to collate, arrange, and reduce to a rigidly scientific system the mass of older philosophy -which had come down to him. His teaching -was a development of that of his master. Plotinus. but is still more mystical and dillicult to understand, combining the most tran- scendental speculation with the common super- stitions of his age. Certain features remind us strongly of Gnosticism, and his teaching on evil . seems to have been the source of the doctrine of Dionysius Areopagita. He taught, like his pre- decessors, a primordial essence, an ineffable unity, from which, unlike Plotinus and lambli- cluis, he believed a plurality of other unities to ]n-occed. These returned to their source and issued again in an unending cycle of emanations, but each time with a less perfect result, so that the tendency of his philosophy was ultimately pessimistic. Among his works, of which there is as yet no complete edition, the most important are his commentaries to certain of Plato's dia- logues and also his work on Platonic Theology. His Pliilosopliical and Theological Tjistitutioiis in 211 chapters is a compendium of the principles of Neo-Platonism. Important are his treatises on Proriilrncr and Fate, Doubts About Provi- dence, the Xature of Evil, etc. His work in ei^rhteen books against the Christians, mentioned by Suidas, has now been lost. He also produced certain encyclopaedic works, including a commen- tary on Ilesiod. Euclid, and Ptolemy, and a book On the l^phcre. Certain hymns have also been preserved. Some of these writings are known to us only in translation. Among the partial edi- tions of his works mav be named: Prodi Opera, edited by Cousin (0 vols.. Paris. 1820-27: 2d ed. 18IU): a commentary on Plato's Purinenides. ed. Stallbaum (Leipzig. 1839, 1848) ; on Plato's Tiniwu.i, ed. Schneider ( Breslau. 1847); on Plato's ReinMic, ed. Scholl (Berlin, 1886); ed. KroU (2 vols., Leipzig, 1899-1901). There are English translations of the Philosophical and Malliematical Commentaries hi/ Tui/lor (2 vols., London, 1792) : the Platonic Thcologi/. and minor philosophical and theolou'ical treatises by the same (2 vols., London, 1810) : and of the Commentarii on the Timceus (2 vols., London, 1820). See Zeller, Philosophic der Oriechen (3d ed.. Leipzig. 1881). PROCNE, prok'ne (Lat., from Gk. lipdKv//, Proliif). In Greek legend, the wife of Tereus and the si«ter of Philomela (q.v.). PROCONSUL (Lat., deputy consul). Origi- nally a Eonian magistrate not holding the con- sulship, who was invested with powers nearly approaching those of a consul, not. however, iii- cluiling Rome and its immediate vicinity. In early times the proconsul was an ex-cnnsul who, on completing his term of oHice. received a con- tinuation of the iniperium in order to enable him to bring an unfinished campaign to a close. The (iiralion of the office was one year. In the later period, when conquests had added foreign prov- inces to the Roman rule, the consuls, on giving i their position, received, as proconsvils. either the conduct of a war or the administration of a province. Occasionally the office of proconsul, with the government of a province, was conferred Vol. XV 1.-28. on a per.son who had never held the consulship. In the reorganization of the Koman Empire, the administration of the provinces was divided be- tween the Emperor and the senate, and the title proconsul was confined to the governors of senatorial provinces. Under Constantine parts of certain dioceses came to be governed by pro- consuls. PROCOPE, pr6'kflp', CafIs. The first and most famous of Parisian caffe, situated opposite the Comedie Frangaise when that theatre was opened in 1689, and still existing. Among its frequenters were 'oltaire, Rousseau, Robespierre, Gaml)etta. and other famous men. A journal Le Procope. published by the jiroprictor of the cafS, was founro- kopios). An eminent Byzantine historian. He was born at Ca?sarca. in Palestine, about the be- ginning of the sixth century, went to Constanti- nople when still a young man. and acquired there so high a reputation as a professor of rhetoric that Belisarius. in 527, appointed him his private secretary. Procopius accompanied the great war- rio^- in all his important campaigns in Asia, Africa, and Italy, and appears to have displayed remarkable practical as well as literary talent, fur we find him placed at the head both of the commissariat department and of the Byzantine navy. He returned to Constantinopl.e shortly before 542, was highly honored by Justinian, and appointed prefect of the metropolis in 502. His death occurred, it is thought, about three years later. Procopius's principal works (all in Greek) are his Historice, in eight books (t«'o on the Persian wars from 408 to 553 ; two on the wars with the Vandals, from 395 to 545; four on the Gothic wars, going down to 553) : Ctismafa. or six books on the buildings executed or restored by .Justinian: and Anceddta. or Historin Arcana I which some have been unwilling to attribute to Procopius), a sort of chronigue scandalense of the Court of .Justinian. The most valuable of these productions is the first. Procopius is the princiiial authority for the, reign of .fuslinian. Ills style is pure, vigorous, and flexible. The best edition of his complete works is that bv Dinilorf (3 vols., Bonn, 1833-38). There is an early Eng- lish translation of the Historice by Holcroft (London. 1053). The section on the Gothic wars has heen edited with an Italian translation by Comparetti (3 vols., Rome, 1895-98). PROCOPIUS, Andrew (c.1.380-1434). A Hus- site leader, known as Procopius the Great. He is also sometimes called the Holy, or the Shaven, in allusion to his having received the tonsure in early life. He studied in Prague, and after trav- eling for several years in foreign countries he returned to Bohemia and entered the ranks of the insurgent Hussites. His military genius soon raised him to the rank of an infhienlial com- mander; and on the death of Ziska (q.v.). in 1424, Procopius was elected by the Taborites, who formed the radical section of the Hussites, as their leader. In the ensuing years he ravaged Austria, hut in 1420 lie vanquished the crusading armies of Central Gernian>v at Aussig. In the meantime another body of Taborites, who called themselves Orphans, had overrun Lusatia, and burned Lauban. under the leadership of Procopius the Lesser, or Younger, who now, in