The Secret History PDF Download

Author: Procopius
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
ISBN: 1602065381
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Author: Averil Cameron
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134764642
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description
Originally published by Duckworth and the University of California Press, Procopius is now available for the first time in paperback. Professor Cameron emphasises the essential unity of Procopius' three works and, starting from the `minor' ones, demonstrates their intimate connection with the Wars. Procopius' writings are seen to comprise a subtle whole; only if they are understood in this way can their historical value be properly appreciated. The result is a new evaluation of Procopius which will be central to any future history of the sixth century.

Author: Prokopios
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 1624661726
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 677

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A fully-outfitted edition of Prokopios' late Antique masterpiece of military history and ethnography--for the 21st-century reader. "At last . . . the translation that we have needed for so long: a fresh, lively, readable, and faithful rendering of Prokopios' Wars, which in a single volume will make this fundamental work of late ancient history-writing accessible to a whole new generation of students." --Jonathan Conant, Brown University

Author: Averil Cameron
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134764650
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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In this new evaluation of Procopius, Professor Cameron emphasises the essential unity of the three works and, startin with the `minor' ones, deomstrates their intimate connection with the Wars.

Author: Anthony Kaldellis
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812202414
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Justinian governed the Roman empire for more than thirty-eight years, and the events of his reign were recorded by Procopius of Caesarea, secretary of the general Belisarius. Yet, significantly, Procopius composed a history, a panegyric, as well as a satire of his own times. Anthony Kaldellis here offers a new interpretation of these writings of Procopius, situating him as a major source for the sixth century and one of the great historians of antiquity and Byzantium. Breaking from the scholarly tradition that views classicism as an affected imitation that distorted history, Kaldellis argues that Procopius was a careful student of the classics who displayed remarkable literary skill in adapting his models to the purposes of his own narratives. Classicism was a matter of structure and meaning, not just vocabulary. Through allusions Procopius revealed truths that could not be spoken openly; through anecdotes he exposed the broad themes that governed the history of his age. Elucidating the political thought of Procopius in light of classical historiography and political theory, Kaldellis argues that he owed little to Christianity, finding instead that he rejected the belief in providence and asserted the supremacy of chance. By deliberately alluding to Plato's discussions of tyranny, Procopius developed an artful strategy of intertextuality that enabled him to comment on contemporary individuals and events. Kaldellis also uncovers links between Procopius and the philosophical dissidents of the reign of Justinian. This dimension of his writing implies that his work is worthy of esteem not only for the accuracy of its reporting but also for its cultural polemic, political dissidence, and philosophical sophistication. Procopius of Caesarea has wide implications for the way we should read ancient historians. Its conclusions also suggest that the world of Justinian was far from monolithically Christian. Major writers of that time believed that classical texts were still the best guides for understanding history, even in the rapidly changing world of late antiquity.

Author:
Publisher: Brill's Companions to the Byza
ISBN: 9789004498761
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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This book offers an extensive introduction to 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, widely regarded as one of the last great historians of Antiquity.

Author: Procopius
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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"It becomes, therefore, important to have a clear record as to what Justinian did, not only in Palestine but in other countries, so as to be able to judge to some extent, by well-authenticated examples, of the founders of those edifices whose history is involved in doubt. Of the writers who can give us this record, none has such authority as Procopius, or gives so much detailed information; and he has, for that reason, been largely quoted by Gibbon and by well-nigh every other writer on Byzantine history; and he gives such definite information as to the dates of many of Justinian's buildings which remain to us, as to form a standard by which to recognise the general characteristics in outline and detail adopted by his architects in his greatest works, and which characterize the style now well known as Byzantine." source

Author: Procopius
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141915846
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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A trusted member of the Byzantine establishment, Procopius was the Empire's official chronicler, and his History of the Wars of Justinian proclaimed the strength and wisdom of the Emperor's reign. Yet all the while the dutiful scribe was working on a very different - and dangerous - history to be published only once its author was safely in his grave. The Secret History portrays the 'great lawgiver' Justinian as a rampant king of corruption and tyranny, the Empress Theodora as a sorceress and whore, and the brilliant general Belisarius as the pliable dupe of his scheming wife Antonina. Magnificently hyperbolic and highly opinionated, The Secret History is a work of explosive energy, depicting holy Byzantium as a hell of murder and misrule.

Author: Procopius
Publisher: Conflict
ISBN: 9781785431388
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
Procopius of Caesarea was born in approximately 500. He is generally considered to be the last major historian of the ancient world. His works have given us a unique and intimate account both of the Roman Military and its Emperor Justinian. A native of Caesarea in Palaestina Prima little else is known of his early life, and apart from assuming that he would have received a classical Greek Education the rest is deduction rather than based on known facts. In 527, the first year of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I's reign, he became the adsessor (legal adviser) for Belisarius, Justinian's chief military commander who was then starting out on what would become a brilliant military career, initially in the East of the Empire. After early successes Belisarius was defeated in 531 at the Battle of Callinicum and recalled to the Empire's heart in Constantinople. Justinian was without doubt clever but cruel. When part of Constantinople rose against him in the Nika riots of January, 532, he sent Belisarius and his fellow general Mundo to repress them in a savage massacre in the Hippodrome - witnessed by Procopius. The following year Procopius accompanied Belisarius on his victorious expedition against the Vandal kingdom in North Africa and took part in the capture of Carthage. Procopius remained in Northern Africa with Belisarius' successor, Solomon the Eunuch, when Belisarius returned to Constantinople. Procopius rejoined Belisarius for his campaign against the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy and was there for the Gothic siege of Rome that lasted a year and nine days and ended in March, 538. He witnessed Belisarius' entry into the Gothic capital, Ravenna, in 540. However at some point in the next few years Procopius seems to have been moved away from working with Belisarius. When the latter was sent back to Italy in 544 to cope with a further outbreak of the war with the Goths, Procopius appears to have no longer been with Belisarius' staff. Procopius continued to record history and his works are both insightful and clear headed, distilling the complexities of the times into several classic books. His death is thought to have been around 560.

Author: Maria Kalli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110955121
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
The Introduction, which gives information about the life and work of Procopius and also about previous editions and studies of the text, is followed by Chapter 1 which contains an analytical codicological and palaeological description of codex Ath, which was written in the late 13th century and is thus the earliest extant ms of Procopius' Wars. Section 2 examines the position of the codex in the stemma codicum, proposed by the latest editor of the text, Jacob Haury, Procopius Caesariensis Opera Omnia (Teubner: Leipzig, 1905-12, revised by G.Wirth, 1963). A collation of the text with the principal manuscripts (K and L) of the two families, z and y, shows that Ath belongs to the y family. A further collation of Ath with all other extant manuscripts of this family of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, illustrates the importance of Ath in the tradition of the text, despite its minor phonetic, grammatical, syntactical and linguistic errors. Section 3 gives a description and updated information of all manuscripts of family y, which were briefly described by previous editors, and some of them were not examined at all, before their relation is examined and the stemma codicum is revised on the basis of a series of propositions. It is concluded that Ath has been the exemplar for some of the later manuscripts, either directly or through intermediaries. The study concludes with a more theoretical chapter, Section 4, which places the production of Ath and other manuscripts, containing Procopius' works and other early Byzantine historiographical texts, in the general context of the intellectual milieu of the Palaeologan period.