Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 29.17-29.25
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/200
Context
Procopius, a native of Caesarea Maritima who excelled in his classical
education and legal training, was the preeminent historian of the reign of Justinian. As a
field advisor to the general Belisarius and a ranking member of the governing class in
Constantinople, he could write with firsthand knowledge and personal authority on policy and
society in the late Empire. Among his influential writings was the unusual “secret” or
“unpublished history” (ἀπόκρυφη/ἀνεκδοτή ἱστορία), a collection of vignettes often with a
polemical or satirical flavor that portrayed the vices and failures of the emperor, the
empress, and their entourage. In this passage, Procopius describes the legal and political
complexities of inheritance among the civic elite of the Palestinian coast, including the
family of one Maximilian of Caesarea, whom Procopius may have known.
Text
(17) Τούτων δὲ τὸ
ἐχόμενον ὑπὸ χρόνον τε τὸν αὐτὸν γεγονὸς οὐκ ἂν σιωπῴην. Ἀνατόλιός τις ἦν ἐν Ἀσκαλωνιτῶν τῷ
λευκώματι τὰ πρωτεῖα ἔχων τούτου τὴν παῖδα γαμετὴν γυναῖκα τῶν τις
Καισαρέων πεποίηται, (18) Μαμιλιανὸς ὄνομα, οἰκίας ἐπιφανοῦς ἄγαν.
ἦν δὲ ἡ κόρη ἐπίκληρος ἐπεὶ μόνης αὐτῆς Ἀνατόλιος ἐγεγόνει πατήρ. (19) νόμῳ δὲ ἄνωθεν
διωρισμένον ἐπειδὰν βουλευτὴς τῶν τινος πόλεων οὐκ ἀπολελειμμένων οἱ παίδων γόνου ἄρρενος ἐξ
ἀνθρώπων ἀφανισθείη, τῶν ἀπολελειμμένων ὑπὸ τούτου χρημάτων τὸ μὲν τεταρτημόριον δίδοσθαι
τῆς πόλεως βουλευτηρίῳ, πάντων δὲ τῶν ἄλλων τοὺς κληρονόμους τοῦ τετελευτηκότος ἀπόνασθαι,
γνώρισμα ἤθους τοῦ οἰκείοθ κἀνταῦθα ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ ἐνδεικνύμενος, νόμον ἔναγχος ἐτύγχανε
γράψας, ἔμπαλιν τὰ τοῦ πράγματος διοικούμενον ὅπως δὴ, ἐπειδὰν βουλευτὴς ἄπαις τελευτῴη
γόνου ἄρρενος τῆς οὐσίας οἱ μὲν κληρονόμοι τὸ τέταρτον ἔχοιεν, τἄλλα δὲ πάντα τὸ ἐδημόσιον
καὶ τὸ τῆς πόλεως λεύκωμα φέροιντο. (20) καίτοι οὐδεπώποτε δημόσιον ἢ βασιλεὺς ἀφ᾽ οὗ
γεγόνασιν ἄνθρωποι χρημάτων βουλευτικῶν μετασχεῖν ἔσχε. (21) τούτου τοίνυν κειμένου τοῦ
νόμου Ἀνατολίῳ μὲν ἐν ἐπεγένετο ἡ τέλειος ἡμέρα τοῦ βίου, ἡ δὲ τούτου παῖς τὸν τούτου κλῆρον
πρός τε τὸ δημόσιον καὶ τὸ τῆς πόλεως βουλευτήριον κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἐνείματο, καὶ αὐτῇ
γράμματα βασιλεύς τε αὐτὸς καὶ Ἀσκαλωνιτῶν οἱ τοῦ λευκώματος ἔγραψαν, τῆς περὶ τούτων αὐτὴν
ἀφιέντες ἀντιλογίας ἅτε τὰ σφίσι προσήκοντα κεκομισμένοι ὀρθῶς καὶ δικαίως. (22) ὕστερον καὶ
Μαμιλιανὸς ἀπελύθη τοῦ βίου, ὅσπερ Ἀνατολίῳ κηδεστὴς ἐγεγόνει, παιδός οἱ ἀπολελειμμένες μιᾶς
ἥπερ καὶ μόνη τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς οὐσίαν ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς ἔσχε. (23) μετὰ δὲ καὶ αὕτη περιούσης ἔτι οἱ
τῆς μητρὸς ἀφίκετο ἐς τὸ μέτρον τοῦ βίου ἀνδρὶ μὲν ξυνοικισθεῖσα τῶν λογίμων τινὶ, μήτηρ δὲ
οὔτε θήλεος οὔτε ἄρσενος γενομένη γόνου. (24) ἀλλ᾽ Ἰουστινιανὸς πάντων ἀντελάβετο τῶν
χρημάτων εὐθὺς ἐκεῖνο ἀποφθεγξάμενος τὸ θαυμάσιον, ὡς τὴν Ἀνατολίου παῖδα γυναῖκα γραῦν
οὖσαν τοῖς τε τοῦ ἀνδρὸς καὶ τοῖς τοῦ πατρὸς πλουτεῖν χρήμασιν οὐχ ὅσιον εἴη. (25) ὅπως δὲ ἡ
γυνὴ μὴ ἐν τοῖς προσαιτηταῖς τὸ ἐνθένδε τετάξεται, στατῆρα χρυσοῦν ἐς ἡμέραν ἑκάστην τὴν
γυναῖκα φέρεσθαι ταύτην διώρισεν, ἕως ἂν περιῇ, τοῦτο θέμενος ἐν τοῖς γράμμασι δι᾽ ὧν τὰ
χρήματα ἐληΐσατο ταῦτα, ὡς τὸν στατῆρα προεῖται τῆς εὐσεβείας ἕνεκα· ‘ἔθος γάρ μοι’, ἔφη,
‘τά τε ὅσια καὶ εὐσεβῆ πράττειν.’
1
Textual Note
Ed. Wirth 1963 [cited by chapter-section]Translation
(17) I could not
stay silent on another matter related to these incidents at about the same time. There was a
certain Anatolius who held high rank among the Senators in Ascalon. This man’s daughter had
been married to one of the Caesareans, Maximilian by name, of a very
distinguished house. (18) The girl was an heiress, because Anatolius had produced no other
child. (19) Now it had been defined by ancient law that, whenever a Senator of one of the
cities departed this life without leaving behind male offspring, one quarter of his estate
would be given over to the city’s Senate, while the natural heirs of the deceased would
enjoy all the remainder. But the Emperor here too gave evidence of his true character. For
he happened to have promulgated a law recently that arranged matters in just the opposite
way. It provided that, whenever a Senator died without male offspring, the natural heirs
should have one quarter of his estate, but the remainder went to the Treasury and the
account of the city’s Senate. (20) And yet never in the history of humanity has the Treasury
or the Emperor been empowered to share in senatorial property. (21) So when this law was in
force, Anatolius came to the end of his days, and his daughter distributed his estate to the
Treasury and the city’s Senate according to the law. And so both the Emperor himself and the
Senators of Askalon wrote letters to her idemnifying her against any claim on her share, as
they had received the amount owed them correctly and justly. (22) Later on Maximilian also
departed this life, the son-in-law of the late Anatolius, leaving behind only one child, a
daughter, who naturally received her father’s estate. (23) Later, while her mother was still
alive, she too reached the end of her days. She had been married to a member of the elite
class, but she bore neither male nor female offspring. (24) But Justinian immediately seized
up all the property, uttering the amazing suggestion that it would immoral for the daughter
of Anatolius, now an old woman, to grow rich off her father’s and her husband’s money. (25)
But, in order that she would not be assigned to the ranks of the beggars from that point on,
he arranged that the woman receive one gold stater each day until she should die, inserting
into the document by which he had plundered all this money the statement that he had
relinquished the stater for the sake of piety: “For it is my custom,” he said, “to do
whatever is pious and righteous.”
2
Translation Note
Adapted from Dewing 1935 and Williamson 1966Works Cited
- 1 Procopius of Caesarea, Procopii Caesariensis opera III: Historia quae dicitur arcana, ed. Gerhard Wirth and Jacob Haury, 2nd ed., Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1963), ch: 29.17-29.25.
- 2 Procopius of Caesarea, Procopius: The Anecdota or Secret History, trans. H. B. Dewing, Loeb Classical Library 290 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935), p: 338-343.
Additional Bibliography
- Procopius of Caesarea, Procopius: The Secret History, trans. G. A. Williamson, Penguin Classics (London and Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1966), p: 184-186.
How to Cite This Entry
Eliana Yonan et al., “Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 29.17-29.25,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/200.
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Bibliography:
Eliana Yonan et al., “Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 29.17-29.25.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2023. Entry published June 30, 2023. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/200.About this Entry
Entry Title: Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 29.17-29.25
Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:
- Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
- Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
- David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editors, “Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 29.17-29.25”
- Eliana Yonan and Joseph L. Rife, entry contributors, “Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 29.17-29.25”
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