Dariusz Brodka was undoubtedly one of the most perceptive modern scholars of Procopius and late antique historiography more generally, whose untimely death in January 2024 is a significant blow to the field. This last monograph represents a valuable encapsulation of the state of scholarship on this author, about whom so much has been published just in the last ten years or so, a veritable ‘explosion’, as Brodka notes (8, 181). But it is more than a bald summary of recent scholarship: it also offers, as he explains, a helpful synthesis of his own numerous publications on the historian, gathering together material he has published over the years in various journals (8). It is thus not only the best introduction to Procopian studies for readers of German but also to the detailed and nuanced scholarship of one of the leading scholars on the subject.
Brodka’s book is very clearly organized. Following a brief examination of the little we know of the historian’s life and career (ch. 1), he offers substantial chapters on his three works, the Wars, the Anecdota and the Buildings. These three chapters comprise half the book and are similarly structured, covering (for instance) the works’ dating (still under discussion) and transmission, genre, contents and other more specific aspects. Chapter 5 considers Procopius as a historian and how his works should be viewed in relation to one another. Chapter 6 investigates Procopius’ historical thought, for instance his relation to Christianity (Brodka rightly is in no doubt that he was a Christian, despite the reservations of one modern scholar) and the role of tuchē in his works. The final three chapters, shorter in length, discuss his attitude towards Justinian’s reconquista (ch. 7), his style and language (ch. 8), and his impact on later works, both within the Byzantine Empire and over subsequent centuries (ch. 9). The book concludes with a useful bibliography, marred unfortunately by a fair number of typographical errors, and an index.
Brodka’s Procopius is a serious historian, interested in causation and the historical process (39–40, cf. ch. 6); he is not a mere reporter, as has sometimes been suggested. He is an interested party, not a dispassionate commentator, as the Anecdota makes very clear. Indeed, Brodka takes up the view that the work may be an attempt on the author’s part to distance himself from a regime about which the Wars could be viewed as rather too positive: around 550 the prospects of a change of regime, with Germanus taking over from Justinian, may have appeared quite promising (74–75). Whether or not this interpretation of the genesis of the Anecdota is accepted, Brodka is right to underline that Procopius’ vitriol cannot be taken at face value (81): he has his own, rather conservative, political perspective and deliberately tries in the work to paint as negative a portrait as he can of the emperor and his entourage. Not all the criticisms need be sincere (84, 109–11). Brodka rejects views put forward by Anthony Kaldellis (notably in his Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, Philosophy and History at the End of Antiquity (Philadelphia 2004)) and others that detect veiled criticism of the emperor, for example, in the preface to the Wars (35) or in apparent praise in the Buildings (97).
The book contains useful assessments of Procopius’ treatment of individuals, not only of Justinian and Belisarius, but also of the Persian king Khusro, the general Narses and the Gothic king Totila. All struggle as best they can to cope with the vagaries of fate; some are more competent than others. As Brodka explains in Chapter 6, although God does determine the course of events, his will remains opaque to humans. All too easily events slip from leaders’ control, leading to the prolongation of conflicts and a degeneration in the combatants themselves, as in the war in Italy in the 540s (cf. ch. 2.7). There are also interesting observations on the Buildings, for instance the parallel with the work he finds in an inscription from Italy (CIL VI, 1199) that links Narses’ rebuilding of the Salarian bridge over the Anio with his military successes (95 and n.183). Close comparisons of Procopius’ accounts of the Battle of Callinicum in 531 and the Nika riot of January 532 are useful for assessments of the historian’s credibility (128–36). Less persuasive is Brodka’s insistence that the downbeat portrayal of Belisarius’ campaigning in Italy in the 540s reflects the historian’s realization that the general’s career simply went downhill at this point, rather than a growing disillusionment with Justinian’s conduct of the war in this period, though the two views need not be mutually exclusive (153–55). In conclusion, this is a first-rate introduction to Procopius and to the mushrooming scholarship about this author, who remains so critical to our interpretations of the sixth century and the reign of Justinian.
