Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 11.24-11.30
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/53
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or “unpublished history” (ἀπόκρυφη/ἀνεκδοτή ἱστορία), a collection of vignettes often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 recounts the
bloody Samaritan uprising in 529-531 C.E. under Julian ben Sabar in Palestine, in
response to Justinian’s religious legislation. At Caesarea and other cities, Samaritans
began to call themselves Christians to avoid persecution.
Text
(24) νόμου δὲ τοῦ τοιούτου καὶ ἀμφὶ τοῖς Σαμαρείταις αὐτίκα τεθέντος
ταραχὴ ἄκριτος τὴν Παλαιστίνην κατέλαβεν. (25) ὅσοι μὲν οὖν ἔν τε
Καισαρείᾳ τῇ ἐμῇ κὰν ταῖς ἄλλαις πόλεσιν ᾤκουν, παρὰ φαῦλον
ἡγησάμενοι κακοπάθειάν τινα ὑπὲρ ἀνοήτου φέρεσθαι δόγματος, ὄνομα Χριστιανῶν τοῦ σφίσι
παρόντος ἀνταλλαξάμενοι τῷ προσχήματι τούτῳ τὸν ἐκ τοῦ νόμου ἀποσείσασθαι κίνδυνον
ἴσχυσαν. (26) καὶ αὐτῶν ὅσοις μέν τι λογισμοῦ καὶ ἐπιεικείας μετῆν πιστοὶ εἶναι τὰ ἐς
δόξαν τήνδε οὐδαμῆ ἀπηξίουν, οἱ μέντοι πλεῖστοι ὥσπερ ἀγανακτοῦντες, ὅτι δὴ οὐχ
ἑκούσιοι, ἀλλὰ τῷ νόμῳ ἠναγκασμένοι δόγμα τὸ πάτριον μετεβάλοντο, αὐτίκα δὴ μάλα ἐπί ε
Μανιχαίους καὶ τοὺς καλουμένους Πολυθέους ἀπέκλιναν. (27) οἱ δὲ γεωργοὶ ξύμπαντες ἀθρόοι
γεγενημένοι ὅπλα ἀνταίρειν βασιλεῖ ἔγνωσαν βασιλέα σφίσι τῶν τινα λῃστῶν προβεβλημένοι
Ἰουλιανὸν ὄνομα Σαβάρου υἱόν. (28) καὶ χρόνον μέν τινα τοῖς στρατιώταις ἐς χεῖρας
ἐλθόντες ἀντεῖχον, ἔπειτα δὲ ἡττηθέντες τῇ μάχῇ διεφθάρησαν ξὺν τῷ ἡγεμόνι. (29) καὶ
λέγονται μυριάδες ἀνθρώπων δέκα ἐν τῷ πόνῳ τούτῳ ἀπολωλέναι, καὶ χώρα ἡ πάσης γῆς ἀγαθὴ
μάλιστα ἔρημος γεωργῶν ἀπ̓ αὐτοῦ γέγονε. (30) τοῖς τε τῶν χωρίων κυρίοις Χριστιανοῖς
οὖσι τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῦτο ἐς μέγα κακὸν ἐτελεύτησεν, ἀναγκαῖον γὰρ γέγονε σφίσιν οὐδὲν
ἐνθένδε μετακομιζομένοις φόρον τὸν ἐπέτειον ἁδρόν τινα ὄντα ἐς τὸν ἅπαντα αἰῶνα βασιλεῖ
φέρειν, ἐπεὶ οὐδεμιᾷ φειδοῖ ἡ τοῦ ἔργου τούτου ἐντροπὴ γέγονεν.1
Textual Note
Ed. Wirth 1963 [cited by chapter-section]Translation
(24) And when a similar law was passed suddenly with respect to the
Samaritans, indiscriminate tumult descended upon Palestine. (25) All the residents of my
home Caesarea and the other cities, considering it foolish to
bear any suffering in defense of a nonsensical teaching, replaced their old name with
the name of the Christians, and by this pretense they managed to shake off the imminent
danger of this law. (26) Those among them who were at all prudent and reasonable were
quite agreeable to adhering to this faith. But the majority, apparently feeling
resentment that, against their wishes but compelled by law, they were abandoning the
beliefs they had inherited, very soon defected to the Manicheans and the co-called
Polytheists. (27) And all the farmers gathered together decided to take up arms against
the Emperor, putting forward as their own Emperor a bandit named Julian, son of Sabaros.
(28) They joined in battle with the soldiers and held out for some time, but in the end
they were defeated in battle and perished, all together with their leader. (29) They say
that 100,000 men died in this conflict, and the land, which is the best in the world,
became as a result destitute of farmers. (30) This situation had disastrous consequences
for the owners of these farms who were Christians. For, even though the land was
yielding them no profit at all, they were compelled to pay to the emperor in perpetuity
annual taxes on a crippling scale, as these demands were pressed relentlessly.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: 11.35-11.30.
- 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: 136-139.
Additional Bibliography
- section: 11.24-11.30. , section: 11.24-11.30.
- Procopius of Caesarea, Procopius: The Secret History, trans. G. A. Williamson, Penguin Classics (London and Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1966), p: 97-98.
How to Cite This Entry
Bianca Gardner et al., “Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 11.24-11.30,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/53.
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Bibliography:
Bianca Gardner et al., “Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 11.24-11.30.” 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/53.About this Entry
Entry Title: Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 11.24-11.30
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 11.24-11.30”
- Bianca Gardner and Joseph L. Rife, entry contributors, “Procopius of Caesarea, Secret History 11.24-11.30”
Additional Credit:
- TEI encoding by William L. Potter
- Electronic text added by Bianca Gardner
- Testimonia identified by Joseph L. Rife