Procopius Caesarensis

This article offers a survey of scholarship on the historian Procopius of Caesarea in the last eleven years (2003-2014). It reviews his origins and upbringing in Caesarea in Palestine before moving on to consider his portrayal of the reign of Justinian (527-565); it argues that his accounts of Justinian’s rule remain central to modern assessments of the period. But because his works have survived in their entirety and because Justinian’s reign has attracted so much attention, there is a danger that both historian and ruler may distort our picture of the sixth-century empire: neither Procopius nor Justinian may have been as exceptional as is often thought. And while the sixth century did witness a general rise in intolerance of heretics and pagans, it may be that Justinian was reacting to a general tendency in society rather than leading the charge. The article concludes by discussing Procopius’ three works and recent publications devoted to them, noting that scholarship has sometimes suffered as a consequence of an unawareness of research being carried out simultaneously by other scholars.

In his Wars (De Bellis), Procopius shares an extraordinary tale about Emperor Honorius, who allegedly heard about the plunder of Rome from his poultry keeper. First, Honorius misunderstood the report because he also had a huge rooster that bore the same name as that of the city. Therefore, the central element of the tale is the misunderstanding between the emperor and his eunuch about the name "Rome." However, the structural features of Procopius' work-the rooster and its keeper together-form a narrative in which a fowl and Rome were not two entities but one. The possibility of being a monarch ruling over the Eastern and the Western sides of the empire, his aim guarded by the keeper, could have worried Honorius. This paper aims to reveal the historical event behind Procopius' tale and its circumstances, that is, a meeting in mid-January 409 when Rome's first siege was reported to Honorius by Terentius, who had taken an active part in securing the emperor's prospective reign. It was in vain because Honorius was blinded by the possibility of becoming a monarch from the moment when he received the report of Arcadius' death.

The monumental work of Procopius on Justinian's wars includes two Sibylline oracles. As is often the case, the oracles are ambiguous; however, it is precisely this feature that helps to reveal their real meaning. As a consequence, the oracles can also aid researchers in understanding the basis of Byzantine political thought. This essay discusses the connotations of the Sibylline oracle in 537 through classical text analysis, revealing that Procopius used archaic ethnonyms and royal titles to draw a parallel between the fall of the Kingdom of Lydia and the Ostrogothic Kingdom. Using this framework, Procopius stresses that in 410, Alaric committed the original crime by abducting Galla Placidia; however, Vitigis and his wife Matasuntha were the ones who atoned for this sin in 540.

The construction of Justinian's Hagia Sophia was one of the most important events for the inhabitants of Constantinople in the sixth century. The building process and the appearance of the church were described by three authors from the age of Justinian: Romanos the Melodist in the kontakion On Earthquakes and Fires, Paul the Silentiary in Ekphrasis, and Procopius of Caesarea in The Buildings. The article presents the analysis and the interpretation of these sources in the context of the political history and the contemporary events. The texts have been researched with the use of philological and historical methods in quest for conceptions of the process and the significance of the construction of the church inserted in them. On the grounds of them there is shown that the sources present the similar conception creating a sort of political theology and containing a spiritual interpretation of the building of the church. The construction of the church was regarded as the realization of God's plan for the inhabitants of Constantinople. It was the emperor who played the main role in this plan. The building of the church was the seal of the conversion of the Christians and of the return to the covenant with God. The beauty of Hagia Sophia induces people to the faith and helps them to get closer to God.

Budowa justyniańskiej Hagii Sophii była dla mieszkańców Konstantynopola w VI w. jednym z najważniejszych wydarzeń. Proces powstawania świątyni oraz jej wygląd opisało trzech twórców z czasów Justyniana: Roman Melodos w kontakionie O trzęsieniach ziemi i pożarach, Paweł Silencjariusz w Ekphrasis oraz Prokopiusz z Cezarei w O budowlach. Artykuł przed-stawia analizę i interpretację tych źródeł w kontekście historii politycznej i bieżących wydarzeń. Teksty zostały poddane badaniom filologicznym i historycznym pod kątem zawartych w nich wizji procesu i znaczenia budowy kościoła. Na ich podstawie zostaje wykazane, że źródła prezentują podobną koncepcję, tworzącą rodzaj teologii politycznej oraz zawiera-jącą duchową interpretację budynku kościoła. Budowę świątyni postrzegano jako realizację Bożego planu wobec ludności Konstantynopola, w którym główną rolę odgrywa cesarz Justynian. Budynek kościoła jest przypieczętowaniem nawrócenia chrześcijan i powrotu do przymierza z Bogiem. Piękno Hagii Sophii pobudza wiernych do wiary i pomaga im w zbliżeniu do Boga.

Following Hans Blumenberg, this essay studies the genealogy of the idea of originality in a medieval metaphor characterizing the church interior as a "meadow" or λειμῶν (leimôn). Scholars focusing on this metaphor have neglected its use as a description of artistic process. Procopius of Caesarea, John of Damascus, and Leo VI, "the Wise," form the basis of this study, which argues that compiling anthologies (Lat. florilegia, lit. "gatherings of flowers") provided a preliminary description of invention. This metaphor, in turn, laid an initial groundwork for modern writers, including Montesquieu, who sought to theorize originality against the language of manual labor.

Previous scholarship on Procopius' imitation of Thucydides has focused on his use of Thucydidean 'stock phrases' in his 'Wars of Justinian' or allusions on a more literary level.  This paper instead explores the extent to which Procopius imitates specific linguistic features of Thucydides' Greek, finding that he selectively adopts a Thucydidean sentence structure in passages that are self-consciously imitative of Thucydides, such as his Prologue or account of the Plague, while elsewhere using a sentence-structure more typical of Byzantine historiography.

In Historia Arcana Procopius presents the emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora as a couple of demons bent on the extinction of humankind. This picture is in sharp contrast with how the pair is presented in other works of Procopius (the Wars and panegyric Buildings), hence scholars find it controversial.
The paper aims to show that the demonological element was skilfully used by Procopius as a basis to build an invective against the emperor and his wife: the analysis of the work's structure, metaphors and vocabulary proves that the author, employing mythical, apocalyptic and historical motives, builds a consistent picture of Justinian and Theodora as incarnation of evil and the reason of all the misfortunates plaguing the empire.

This thesis is a systematic examination of the use of the term phoideratos in Greek and how it relates to the Greek word symmachos. The term was recognized as not precisely equivalent to its Latin cognate foederatus over a century ago by Jean Maspero, but no complete study of every use of the term has been made until now. This has been facilitated by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, an online database of searchable Greek texts. These terms are important since they provide a framework within which foreigners came to serve the Roman army. They also reveal the changing nature of that army, and how the foederati, formerly allies who came to serve the Roman state in exchange for a combination of land, supplies, and cash became the phoideratoi, an elite regular unit in the Roman army. Meanwhile, symmachos came to refer to those who were formerly called phoideratoi. This interpretation is crucial since some modern historiography has considered the phoideratoi of the sixth century as equivalent to the foederati of the fourth.

The article discusses the forms of plague through the eyes of the contemporaries of the first pandemic known in historiography as "Justinian’s Plague". The Latin authors of the 6th-8th centuries did not provide detailed descriptions of the previously unknown disease and limited themselves to brief mentions of the pestilence outbreaks in various areas of the Mediterranean. Following the laws of the genre of chronicle narrative (chronicles), they could only state the fact of the spread of a major epidemic in the known world, refraining from emotional remarks. The Greek writings of the 6th century contain more detailed descriptions of the plague symptoms, which allows us to largely restore the course of the disease as it was seen by late antique physicians. Procopius of Caesarea and Evagrius Scholasticus’s reports are based on the description of external symptoms, followed by the identification of key terms that describe patients’ general condition. The first cycle of the pandemic (mid 6th century) was distinguished by early attempts to study the plague in the texts. They were accompanied by intricate and often contradictory speculations of contemporaries, with the subsequent identification of three forms of plague in the patients in Constantinople and the eastern provinces. 50 years later (in the third cycle), the Greek authors already distinguished five forms of the disease with a strict definition of the accompanying symptoms and the absence of panic, which had been noticeable in the previous period. The analysis of narrative sources allows us to conclude that late antique and early medieval authors did not know the pneumonic form of plague, in contrast to the Black Death era. For comparison, in the XIV century. Byzantine authors referred to the symptoms of the Black Death in similar terms, and used the same literary devices to describe the devastation of Constantinople and Greece. For the first time, the pulmonary form is singled out separately only in the 14th century: in the “Histories” of John Kantakuzen, in the letters of Demetrius Cydonis and Nicephorus Grigora.  Thus, the conclusion is made about the gradual accumulation of general knowledge about the clinical picture of Justinian’s Plague among late antique physicians, whose works prominent representatives of Greek and Latin historiography of the 6th-8th centuries relied on.

"The article discusses the date of composition of Procopius of Caesarea’s De Aedificiis or Buildings. It advances a detailed rebuttal of arguments recently put forward by Denis Roques for dating the work to c.560 and deals in particular with the passage of Theophanes concerning the construction of the Sangarius bridge. It concludes by favouring the traditional dating of c.554 for the work.
L’article traite de la date de composition de l’œuvre de Procope, De Aedificiis ou Les Constructions. Il propose une réfutation en détail des arguments avancés dernièrement par Denis Roques, selon lesquels l’œuvre fut composée vers 560 et discute surtout d’un passage de Théophane concernant la construction du pont sur le Sangarius. Il conclue en appuyant la datation traditionnelle de c.554 pour la composition de l’œuvre.
"

The proposed peace treaty of 540 between Justinian and Vitiges ‒ according to most interpretations of Proc. Bell. Goth. 2.29.2 ‒ included a partition of Italy into two areas, one located south of the river Po and controlled by Justinian and the other located north of the Po and controlled by the Goths. However, a closer examination of Procopius’ wording and of similar passages indicates that Justinian aimed to receive only the tax revenues of southern and central Italy, with the provinces themselves remaining in the hands of the Goths.

a cura di P. Cesaretti, M. L. Fobelli, Milano, Jaca Book, 2011, pp. 218. La chiesa di S. Sofia a Costantinopoli, odierna Istanbul in Turchia, è un capolavoro indiscusso di perizia tecnica nel campo dell'architettura e, allo stesso tempo, un simbolo dal profondo significato religioso. Edificata per volere dell'imperatore Giustiniano in soli cinque anni, dal 532 al 537, sorse secondo un progetto innovativo e ardito, elaborato dalle due menti scientifiche più brillanti del tempo, Antemio di Tralle e Isidoro di Mileto, studiosi di matematica e di geometria oltre che progettisti di edifici; come tempio di stato dell'impero romano d'Oriente, ma soprattutto come sede del patriarcato ecumenico bizantino, pari in dignità con la sede romana secondo quanto stabilito dal Concilio di Costantinopoli del 381, per mille anni S. Sofia fu il cuore della chiesa greco-ortodossa, soprattutto dopo lo scisma che, nel 1054, la divise da quella latina. Il giorno stesso della conquista turca, il 29 maggio del 1453, il sultano Maometto II Fatih volle convertirla nella prima moschea "imperiale" del suo regno, di cui l'antica Bisanzio sarebbe stata da allora il nuovo centro; essa rimase il simbolo dell'Islam ottomano fino alla caduta di questo impero, nel 1922, e pochi anni dopo, nel 1935, il padre della moderna Turchia Mustafà Kemal Ataturk ne decise la trasformazione in museo, aperto ai fedeli di ogni religione, cosicché si potessero ammirare, fianco a fianco, i mosaici cristiani della chiesa e le calligrafie coraniche della moschea. Eccezionalità architettonica e significato religioso spiegano il costante interesse di cui S. Sofia ha goduto e continua a godere, con un moltiplicarsi di ricerche che non accenna a diminuire, anche dopo la pubblicazione di approfonditi studi storico-architettonici, come quelli di Robert Van Nice (Santa Sophia in Instanbul. An Architectural Survey. Washington 1966) e di Rowland Mainstone (Hagia Sophia. Architecture, Structure and Liturgy of Justinian's Great Church, London-New York 1988), così come dopo la pubblicazione di ricostruzioni storico-visive fortemente evocative, come quella curata dall'archeologo e filologo Cyril Mango, in collaborazione con il fotografo Ahmet Ertug (Hagia Sophia. A Vision for Empires, Istanbul 1997). Fra questa bibliografia in costante crescita, un recente contributo merita attenzione per l'originale approccio alla chiesa giustinianea: la dettagliata analisi della descrizione che ne ha lasciato un personaggio d'eccezione, contemporaneo all'edificazione, Procopio da Cesarea, celebrato storico delle conquiste militari di Giustiniano negli otto libri dei Bella, ma anche, in segreto, caustico denigratore del sovrano nel pamphlet tramandato sotto il nome di Historia arcana. Tre scrittori coevi hanno trattato della costruzione, dell'aspetto e del significato della chiesa di S. Sofia: il poeta e funzionario di corte 1

This study seeks to clarify the date, nature, and probable origin of a noted breviary that is currently preserved as part of a greatly misunderstood manuscript, Lucca, Biblioteca Arcivescovile MS 5. The purpose of this study, and particularly its ultimate aim of correctly dating and localizing the breviary, is to lay the essential foundation for further use of Lucca, Bib. Arc. MS 5 in the service of understanding the past, and especially the way in which the rituals of the book may have shaped the inner lives and self-perceptions—the identities—of those who used it. This is because the effect of any ritual on its participant, especially the ritual’s transformative power over beliefs, hopes, expectations, and identity is historically particular, shaped by the environment in which the ritual is performed. Therefore the first task of any scholar working with a liturgical manuscript must be to correctly understand the period and place in which the book was created for use, and second, to understand if and how it was used, if possible.  This study argues from a close study of the manuscript’s many hands and codicological structure that the breviary of Lucca, Bib. Arc. MS 5 was once an independent manuscript, not part of the rest of the liturgical material now appended to it, but created sometime between 1125-1150. The notation of the breviary, taken together with the breviary’s primary hand and curious red neumes added by the rubricator, suggests that the breviary may have been compiled by a musician trained at Saint-Père-en-Vallée in Chartres, probably a cantor. As will be shown here, no obvious feature of the breviary connects it to the Crusader Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, but a painstaking comparative study of the breviary’s contents, both the liturgy of the temporale and sanctorale, show that its liturgy was drawn from diverse European sources, a circumstance which points to the breviary’s composition outside of Europe itself, where it would have likely represented the use of a single house or diocese. Furthermore, methodical study of the breviary’s liturgy in the context of known manuscripts representing the liturgy celebrating in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem in the twelfth century demonstrates that breviary’s creators drew upon the early twelfth century use of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a circumstance which limits the breviary’s production to somewhere in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. However further comparative analysis of the breviary’s liturgy, sometimes indirectly carried out, shows that the breviary does not represent the pre-1149 office of the church of the Holy Sepulchre itself, an office for which there are in fact no direct and complete witnesses.  Instead, by excluding other major churches of Jerusalem for various reasons as the breviary’s probable point of origin, this study argues that the breviary of Lucca, Bib. Arc. MS 5 most likely represents the use of one of the cathedrals of the patriarchate. Finally, archaeological and prosopographical research, and especially a study of the identity and career of Fulcher of Angoulême, Archbishop of Tyre, is used alongside the contents of the breviary’s liturgy to argue that out of all the cathedrals of the patriarchate, the breviary of Lucca, Bib. Arc. MS 5 most likely represents the use of the cathedral of Tyre as it existed sometime between 1135-1150, though the breviary itself must have been copied for the personal use of someone associated with the cathedral, probably the cantor.

Questa ricerca confronta i dati raccolti dai testi riguardanti l'imperatore Giustiniano con le informazioni concernenti la casistica delle malattie sessuali nel contesto della Proto Bisanzio. Un testo agiografico, la Vita di San Sansone, racconta: una grave malattia colpisce Giustiniano agli organi genitali e i medici non sono in grado di curarla. La patologia viene risolta da un miracolo di San Sansone. Questo adynaton pone l'imperatore in uno 'spazio di copertura'. Dopo il 23° o 24° anno del suo regno, Giustiniano soffre disturbi ad una gamba, accompagnati da dolore durante la minzione. Körbler ipotizza che questi sintomi siano dovuti alla sifilide. Il disturbo alla gamba viene curato dall'intercessione dei santi Cosma e Damiano. La malattia dell'imperatore si rivela dunque come luogo della letteratura agiografica. L'adynaton poi conferma l'istituzione imperiale ed afferma l'adeguatezza del sovrano.

In this case, an important new work has been published since my article came out in May: Anthony Kaldellis’ revision of Dewing’s translation of the entire Wars (), brought together in one paperback volume, accompanied by a large number of useful maps, plans and family trees. This is a substantial book, offering a translation that otherwise occupies five Loeb volumes, and at last makes Procopius’ major work affordable for the general public. It should be noted, moreover, that the translation represents a significant revision of Dewing’s. Kaldellis states that he has ‘revised and modernised’ it, and he has done so on an impressive scale. The translation is accompanied by explanatory notes and all the subsections within each chapter are clearly indicated. Furthermore, relevant dates are noted in the margins, while speeches are clearly signalled. No less importantly, the volume is equipped with an excellent index. Although some Procopian material on ‘barbarian’ peoples was noted in ...

Kaukana, the port of southern Sicily mentioned by Ptolemaeus, was identified from the 16th century to Capo Scalambri. Procopius of Caesarea, however, indicates 200 stadia from Syracuse, a reduced distance, which would force to look for Kaukana on the Ionian Sea. Several geographical and historical circumstances are reviewed in this regard. The Author reviews also the narration of Procopius and the causes of the erroneous evaluation of the distance and confirms the traditional identification with Capo Scalambri. The archaeological excavations carried out on the Anticaglia site (Santa Croce Camerina, Ragusa) provide further confirmation.

In 500 Amalafrida, Theoderic the Greatʼs sister, went to Africa in order to marry Thrasamund, king of the Vandals. According to Procopius of Caesarea, she was escorted by six thousand armed men. This is one of the few existing numerical clues about Ostrogothic army and it has thus been widely cited by scholars who dealt with the Goths or with Theoderic. A closer examination of the evidence we have about the Ostrogoths and the Vandals, however, clearly indicates that Procopiusʼ passage cannot be trusted.

The article discusses the date of composition of Procopius of Caesarea’s De Aedificiis or Buildings. It advances a detailed rebuttal of arguments recently put forward by Denis Roques for dating the work to c.560 and deals in particular with the passage of Theophanes concerning the construction of the Sangarius bridge. It concludes by favouring the traditional dating of c.554 for the work. Metadata: Procopius, Buildings, De Aedificiis, Justinian, Byzantine literature

Artykuł przedstawia działania armii cesarskiej w czasie powstania Nika. Analizie zostały poddane fragmenty dotyczące dni 14, 17 i 18 stycznia 532 r. Pierwsze potwierdzone źródłowo użycie armii datuje się na 14 stycznia. Walki z buntownikami pod wodzą Belizariusza toczyły się do wieczora i nie przyniosły oczekiwanych rezultatów, powstanie nadal trwało i powodowało coraz więcej zniszczeń. W dniu 17 stycznia przybyły posiłki z okolicznych miast. Jak pokazują badania, samo pojawienie się większej armii w mieście wywołało eskalację napięcia i paradoksalnie stało się powodem do natychmiastowego jej użycia. Użycie większej siły nie zakończyło powstania i doprowadziło do największych zniszczeń od początku jego wybuchu. Najemnicy pod dowództwem Belizariusza i Mundusa okazali się fundamentem podtrzymującym władzę Justyniana Wielkiego w styczniu 532 r., ponieważ, w odróżnieniu od oddziałów gwardii cesarskiej, okazali się lojalni wobec swoich przełożonych oraz cesarza. Źródłem przekazującym najwięcej informacji o działaniach wojennych w czasie powstania Nika jest Chronicon Paschale, która uszczegóławia relację m.in. Jana Malalasa. Przekaz Prokopiusza z Cezarei wydaje się użyteczny jedynie przy interpretacji działań z 18 stycznia.

This article presents the actions of the imperial army during the Nika revolt. The first use of the army, confirmed by sources, took place on 14, 17, 18 January 532. The first, source-confirmed, use of the army took place on 14 January. Fighting with the rebels under Belisarius continued until the evening and did not bring the expected results, the uprising continued and brought more and more destruction. On 17 January reinforcements arrived from the surrounding towns. As research shows, the mere appearance of a larger army in the city escalated tensions and paradoxically became the reason for its immediate use. The use of a larger force did not end the uprising and led to the greatest destruction since it began. The mercenaries under the command of Belisarius and Mundus proved to be the key foundation for maintaining Justinian the Great’s power in January 532, as they proved loyal to their superiors and the emperor, compared to the troops of the imperial guard. The source giving the most information about the warfare during the Nika uprising turned out to be the Chronicon Paschale, which details the account of, among others, John Malalas. The account of Procopius of Caesarea seems to be useful only in interpreting the operations of 18 January.

Marius of Avenches styles the Frankish king Theodebert I as rex magnus in his Chronica. This title was modeled on the Greek expression megas basileus, which sixth-century sources refer to Justinian more than once, and was part of Theodebert's strategy of imitatio Imperii.

Grazie ad un inedito lavoro di rilievo ed analisi tecnica dei resti del portico orientale dell’Area sacra del Largo Argentina a Roma, sulla prospiciente pavimentazione in travertino di età imperiale, sono state individuate delle tracce di scalpellature attribuibili al posizionamento di 14 basi di statue (una per ogni pilastro del portico). Raggruppabili in base alla loro forma in due gruppi distinti, esse permettono la ricostruzione di uno “statue landscape” all’interno dell’Area Sacra mai individuato prima e che non trova confronti archeologici stringenti. Inoltre rileggendo due celebri passi di Plinio (Nat. hist., XXXIV, 54) e di Procopio (Goth., I, XV, 11) su di un'Atena in bronzo, opera di Fidia e portata da Emilio Paolo a Roma, si è riscontrata una descrizione topografica del luogo di conservazione della stessa che coincide, con notevole precisione, con la ricostruzione del contesto frutto della lettura delle tracce archeologiche. Due tipi di letture quindi, quella dei passi letterari e quella del dato archeologico, che si confermano a vicenda e che ci fanno intravedere ipotesi affascinanti ma che, allo stesso tempo, ci suggeriscono cautela.

The letter Thucydides attributes to Nicias while he was in sole command of the Athenian forces besieging Syracuse (7.11–15) voices grave doubts about Athens’ prospects for victory and Nicias’ own fitness for his position. Many readers will concur with Kenneth Dover’s judgment that the reader is unprepared for “the tone of hopelessness which pervades the letter” (HCT 4: 386). Yet the formal or generic basis for such a conclusion has not been fully explored. At issue is whether the letter, as it is presented in Thucydides’ text, was capable of being received by Nicias’ internal audience when the letter was read aloud in the Athenian assembly (Thuc. 7.16), as well as by ancient readers of Thucydides, in a manner that substantiates the intuitions of Thucydides’ modern readers about Nicias’ despairing tone.

This article investigates Thucydides’ account of the reception of Nicias’ letter in Athens through the complementary lenses of performance and lament. A remarkably direct allusion Thucydides makes to an apposite moment in Herodotus (4.134.3) contextualizes and confirms the plausibility of this approach. The textuality that mediates between Nicias and his audience in Athens, and likewise between Thucydides and his ancient and modern readers, also situates Thucydides as a reader of Herodotus. Rather than interposing itself as an obscuring screen or filter, therefore, the scripted word opens up spaces for emotional engagement as well as sober reflection and reasoned judgment.

This article offers a survey of scholarship on the historian Procopius of Caesarea in the last eleven years (–). It reviews his origins and upbringing in Caesarea in Palestine before moving on to consider his portrayal of the reign of Justinian (–); it argues that his accounts of Justinian’s rule remain central to modern assessments of the period. But because Procopius’ works have survived in their entirety and because Justinian’s reign has attracted so much attention, there is a danger that both historian and ruler may distort our picture of the sixth-century empire: neither Procopius nor Justinian may have been as exceptional as is often thought. And while the sixth century did witness a general rise in intolerance of heretics and pagans, it may be that Justinian was reacting to a general tendency in society rather than leading the charge. The article concludes by discussing Procopius’ three works and recent publications devoted to them, noting that scholarship has so...

Procopius figures Chosroes as a spectator (θεατής) in two places in the Wars. This essay surveys each of only six occurrences of that word in all of Procopius’ works (Wars 2.11.32, 17.9, 3.10.6, 25.23; Anecd. 9.20, 10.8), indicating how they are orchestrated programmatically in the contexts in which they appear and showing how they inform one another. In principle, spectators enjoy a privileged position, uninvolved in and insulated from the consequences of conflict, which enables them to experience spectacles and to respond to them without being or becoming accountable for their consequences. As a rule, Procopius’ invocations of spectatorship, colored with disdain for the demotic excesses of the theater and hippodrome, are dismissive and correspondingly edged with scorn. Figuration of Chosroes as a spectator over the course of his visit to Apamea, in particular (Wars 2.11), portrays him as a cynical orchestrator of spectacle, but one who invariably falls short, due to his failure to follow through on his professed intention to inquire into the distinctively late Roman cultural phenomena that he is attempting to manipulate.

Come, perché e quando si parla-e si è parla-to-di "Guerra giusta" o legittima? Che cosa ha significato e implicato nei diversi contesti storici? Lo studio del casus belli va ben oltre la storia militare stricto sensu: esso, infatti, pervade ogni aspetto della nostra società, dall'economia alla sociologia, passando per la filosofia e la letteratura. Solo attraverso un confronto tra diversi saperi e punti di vista è possibile compiere un'analisi complessiva del problema.

This paper discusses some controversial issues and events during the
campaign against the Vandals in 533, as described by historian Prokopios. This new reading
highlights elements of everyday life and culture, military and political tactics, and personal
rivalries and strategies.

The story by Jordanes about the migration of Goths from Scandza is a matter of a vivid and long standing discussion between historians. Most scholars argue that it is a part of the Gothic tribal tradition. There is, however, another interpretation according to which it is a part of a debate between Jordanes and Procopius of Caesarea on the future of Barbarians. In this respect, the story seems to be nothing but a narrative strategy whose only purpose was to persuade the reader to share Jordanes’s point of view. In this study I try to show that the story about the migration of Goths was a sophisticated argument which gave a clear message to the Constantinopolitan audience that Goths were no longer Barbarians and they belonged to the civilized world.

Resumo: A redescoberta da retórica no cenário acadêmico ocasionou uma ampliação do sentido hermenêutico agregado ao termo, revelando seu potencial como teoria da compreensão dos discursos. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a leitura retórica como possibilidade de abordagem do documento histórico, a partir da interpretação do proêmio da obra Guerra Persa, cuja autoria remete-se a Procópio de Cesaréia, no século VI d.C.

Abstract: The rediscovery of rhetoric in an academic setting led to expansion of the hermeneutic sense aggregated to the term, revealing its potential as a theory of discourse comprehension. The aim of this article is to show a rhetorical reading as a possible approach to the historical document, by the interpretation of the Persian War´s proem, written by Procopius of Caesarea, in the sixth century AD.