BY PROCOPIUS ( Circ. 560 A.D.). Translated by AUBREY STEWART, M.A., LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND ANNOTATED BY COL. SIR C. W. WILSON, R.E., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., AND PROF. HAYTER LEWIS, F.S.A. LONDON: 1. ADAM STREET, ADELPHI. 1888....

Procopius was born at Cæsarea in Palestine, early in the sixth or at the end of the fifth century. He made his way, an adventurer, to Constantinople, where he began as an advocate and Professor of Rhetoric. He had the good fortune to be recommended to Belisarius, who appointed him one of his secretaries. In that capacity Procopius accompanied the general in his expedition to the East, A.D. 528, and in that against the Vandals, A.D. 533. The successful prosecution of the war enriched Belisarius t

I have not begun this work through any desire to make a display of my own virtue, or trusting to my powers of language, or wishing to gain credit by my knowledge of the places described, for I had nothing to encourage me to undertake so bold a project. But I have often reflected on the great blessings which countries derive from history, which transmits to posterity the remembrance of our ancestors, and opposes the efforts of time to cover them with oblivion; which always encourages virtue in it

I. The new churches which the Emperor Justinian built in Constantinople and its suburbs, the churches which were ruinous through age, and which he restored, and all the other buildings which he erected there, are described in my previous book; it remains that we should proceed to the fortresses with which he encircled the frontier of the Roman territory. This subject requires great labour, and indeed is almost impossible to describe; we are not about to describe the Pyramids, that celebrated wor

I. The Emperor Justinian fortified the eastern country in the manner which I have described in a former part of this work. Now as I started from the Persian frontier in my description of his work upon the fortresses, I think it will be convenient to proceed from thence to that of Armenia, which skirts the Persian territory from the city of Amida as far as that of Theodosiopolis. Before describing the buildings in that quarter, I think it would be advisable to give some account of how our Emperor

I. I count it a toilsome and perilous task, to cross a great ocean in a crazy vessel; and it is the same thing to describe the buildings of the Emperor Justinian in a feeble narrative; for this Emperor, one may say, showed greatness of mind in all that he did, and in his buildings performed works surpassing description. In Europe especially, wishing to construct works on a scale worthy of the need which existed for them, his buildings are difficult, nay, almost impossible to describe, being wort

I. The works of Justinian in the whole of Europe have been as far as possible described by me in the former portion of this book; we must now proceed to the description of the remainder of his works in Asia. I think that I have described above the fortifications of cities and forts, and the other buildings erected by him in the East, from the Median frontier as far as the city of Palmyra in Phœnicia, on the borders of Lebanon. I shall now speak of his works in the remainder of Asia and Libya, de

I. The above were the works of Justinian in those regions. What he did at Alexandria was as follows. The river Nile does not flow as far as Alexandria, but, after reaching the city which is named Chæreum, [113] proceeds to the left, leaving the country about Alexandria. In consequence this the ancients, in order that the city might not be entirely cut off from the river, dug a deep channel from Chæreum, and succeeded in making a small part of the stream of the river Nile run through it, by which

Procopius’s description of Justinian’s work at Constantinople is so full and detailed that it would appear to be complete. But it omits one church built by the Emperor, viz., that of the Saviour, to which was attached the Monastery of the Chora, now known as the Mosque Kahireh, or Kahriyeh. The history of this church is thus given in Ducange: ‘Chora seu Χώρα monasterium ita appellatum, condiderat Justinianus et cum præ vetustate concidisset aliud a fundamentis extruxit Alexii Imperatoris socrus

Church of the Virgin, Jerusalem: The description by Procopius of this church is very detailed; but the great alterations and destruction of buildings throughout the Harem area since his time make it extremely difficult to arrive at a correct understanding of his account, or to identify any portion of the church with existing buildings. It is usually supposed to have occupied the site of the present Mosque El Aksa, the entrances to which the Duc de Vogüé believes to be remains of Justinian’s chur