Prokopios: The Wars of Justinian.

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Very good and clean. - Sehr gut und sauber. - Introduction: Prokopios� History of the Wars of Justinian (or simply the Wars) is one of the greatest works : f history written in antiquity or Byzantium. That is not primarily a statement about its .ength, though it is lengthy. At 1,200 pages of printed Greek, it is longer than almost every other contemporary history that has come down to us from antiquity but it also �overs a shorter time frame than most, about twenty-five years, making it the densest account of contemporary warfare. Because of this there are few periods of ancient history that we know as well in terms of their events and personalities. The Wars is written in �lear, fluid classical Greek, and rarely bores or confuses the reader. It is an engaging narrative of a fascinating period of history that would otherwise have been much more obscure to us. It draws on classical literature to offer moments of Homeric heroism, Herodotean inquiry, and Thucydidean level-headedness and rhetoric. Prokopios is always in control. The Wars is also an innovative and courageous work, two aspects that go together. The �safe� practice among historians of imperial Rome was to conclude their narration at the end of the previous reign, thus avoiding the choice between panegyric (flattery of the current emperor) and personal risk (telling the awful truth). Prokopios was the only one who dared to write and publish a work that covered mostly the current reign and that was generally neutral and sometimes critical of the emperor, Justinian, a ruler not known to tolerate disagreement. Prokopios reserved his most biting criticisms for a separate work, which we call the Secret History.' He also experimented with structure. Justinians armies were, at times, simultaneously active in five theaters of war: northern Mesopotamia, Lazike (ancient Koichis, modern Georgia), the Danube frontier, Italy, and North Africa. There was no precedent for writing a military history about so much going on at the same time. Prokopios� tripartite solution has served historians well, though it poses difficulties too. ISBN 9781624661709