![]() ![]() Indeed, as Edward Gibbon noted in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", Procopius " successively composed the history, the panegyric, and the satire of his own times." The difference in the nature of these works makes Procopius unique among historians of antiquity, but has also made him the source of some suspicion among modern scholars. The sharp differences between the nature of these books has puzzled historians of later centuries. But he also wrote two other very different books - the "Anecdota" or "Secret History", probably dated to 551 and compiled simultaneously with Book VII of "The Wars", and the "On Buildings", probably dated to 554-5. Books I-VII, covering the years 527-550, were published in 550-1, and Book VIII, which brought the record up to 553, in 554. His reputation is mainly founded upon his "Histories of the Wars" of the reign of Justinian (527-565 A.D.) in eight books. ![]() ![]() ![]() Procopius of Caesarea, is the last great Greek historian to write in the classical tradition of Herodotus, Thucydides and Polybius, and, although he wrote in the Sixth Century A.D., right at the end of the classical era, and on the cusp of the Dark Ages, he was one of the greatest of these historians. ![]()
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