Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 29.17-29.25
created: This entry is taken from Secret History 29.17-29.25 written by Procopius of Caes
edition published: 2023-06-30-05:00
language: grc; grc
availability: Except for materials quoted from other sources, this entry is copyright 2023 by the contributors (Eliana Yonan, et al.) and the Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project. It is licensed under the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Some texts quoted in this entry may be in the public domain in the United States. No copyright is asserted for these quotations. Some texts quoted in this entry may have copyright restrictions and are reused under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 19 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/200

Caesarea Maritima is indirectly attested at Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 29.17-29.25. This passage was written ca. 550-560 C.E. possibly in Constantinople. 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 Among his influential writings was the unusual “secret” or “unpublished history” (ἀπόκρυφη/ἀνεκδοτή ἱστορία), a collection of vignettes often with a polemical or satirical flavor that portrayed the vices and failures of the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.

(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.’

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg4029.tlg002.perseus-grc1:29.17 [Ed. Wirth 1963 [cited by chapter-section]]

(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.”

[Adapted from Dewing 1935 and Williamson 1966]

Works Cited

[...] 29.17-29.25
[...] 338-343

Additional Bibliography

[...] 184-186

[Ascalon]

[Anatolius

Justinian I, emperor]

[Byzantine History

Economy

Family

Government and Law

Roman History

Society and Culture]