History of the Wars, Books I and II | Page 3

since it is a storehouse of information
concerning the internal administration of the empire.
The style of Procopius is in general clear and straightforward, and
shews the mind of one who endeavours to speak the truth in simple
language wherever he is not under constraint to avoid it. At the same
time he is not ignorant of the arts of rhetoric, and especially in the
speeches he is fond of introducing sounding phrases and sententious
statements. He was a great admirer of the classical writers of prose, and
their influence is everywhere apparent in his writing; in particular he is
much indebted to the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, and he
borrows from them many expressions and turns of phrase. But the
Greek which he writes is not the pure Attic, and we find many
evidences of the influence of the contemporary spoken language.
Procopius writes at times as a Christian, and at times as one imbued
with the ideas of the ancient religion of Greece. Doubtless his study of
the classical writers led him into this, perhaps unconsciously. At any
rate it seems not to have been with him a matter in which even
consistency was demanded. It was politic to espouse the religion of the
state, but still he often allows himself to speak as if he were a
contemporary of Thucydides.
The text followed is that of Haury, issued in the Teubner series,
1905-1913.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
The editio princeps of Procopius was published by David Hoeschel,
Augsburg, 1607; the Secret History was not included, and only
summaries of the six books of the work On the Buildings were given.

The edition is not important except as being the first.
The Secret History was printed for the first time separately with a Latin
translation by Alemannus, Lyon, 1623.
The first complete edition was that of Maltretus, Paris, 1661-63,
reprinted in Venice, 1729; the edition included a Latin translation of all
the works, which was taken over into the edition of Procopius in the
Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae by Dindorf, Bonn, 1833-38.
Two editions of recent years are to be mentioned: Domenico
Comparetti, _La Guerra Gotica di Procopio di Cesarea_; testo Greco
emendato sui manoscritti con traduxione Italiana, Rome, 1895-98; 3
vols. Jacobus Haury, Procopii Caesariensis Opera Omnia, Leipzig,
1905-13; 3 vols. (Bibl. Teub.).
Among a number of works on Procopius or on special subjects
connected with his writings the following may be mentioned:
Felix Dahn: _Procopius von Cäsarea_, Berlin, 1865.
Julius Jung: _Geographisch-Historisches bei Procopius von Caesarea_,
Wiener Studien 5 (1883) 85-115.
W. Gundlach: Quaestiones Procopianae, Progr. Hanau, 1861, also
Dissert. Marburg, 1861.
J. Haury: Procopiana, Progr. Augsburg, 1891.
B. Pancenko: Ueber die Geheimgeschichte des Prokop, Viz. Vrem. 2
(1895).
J. Haury: Zur Beurteilung des Geschichtschreibers Procopius von
Caesarea, Munich, 1896-97.
1971. The Teubner edition in 4 volumes by J. Haury (1905-1913) has
been re-edited by G. Wirth.
FOOTNOTE:

[1]
[Greek: xymboulos], _Proc. Bell._ I. xii. 24. He is elsewhere referred to
as [Greek: paredros] or [Greek: hypographeus].

PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA
HISTORY OF THE WARS: BOOK I
THE PERSIAN WAR

PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA

HISTORY OF THE WARS:
BOOK I

THE PERSIAN WAR
I
Procopius of Caesarea has written the history of the wars which
Justinian, Emperor of the Romans, waged against the barbarians of the
East and of the West, relating separately the events of each one, to the
end that the long course of time may not overwhelm deeds of singular
importance through lack of a record, and thus abandon them to oblivion
and utterly obliterate them. The memory of these events he deemed
would be a great thing and most helpful to men of the present time, and
to future generations as well, in case time should ever again place men
under a similar stress. For men who purpose to enter upon a war or are
preparing themselves for any kind of struggle may derive some benefit
from a narrative of a similar situation in history, inasmuch as this
discloses the final result attained by men of an earlier day in a struggle

of the same sort, and foreshadows, at least for those who are most
prudent in planning, what outcome present events will probably have.
Furthermore he had assurance that he was especially competent to write
the history of these events, if for no other reason, because it fell to his
lot, when appointed adviser to the general Belisarius, to be an
eye-witness of practically all the events to be described. It was his
conviction that while cleverness is appropriate to rhetoric, and
inventiveness to poetry, truth alone is appropriate to history. In
accordance with this principle he has not concealed the failures of even
his most intimate acquaintances, but has written down with complete
accuracy everything which befell those concerned, whether it happened
to