Procopius Part Three

HAVE finished the third of my books by Procopius on the Eastern Roman Empire's wars under Justinian I

Book Three

The author was again with General Belisarius as the Greek-speaking Romans conquered Sicily, Rome and much of the rest of Italy from the Ostrogoths.

A large portion of the book deals with the Ostrogothic counter-siege of Rome, which lasted for a year and nine days.

At one point Procopius is sent out of the city to bring in succour, although he does not seem to give undue prominence to this part of the story or to his involvement in it.

All in all, these books, each originally published in two parts, make a great read. But if I could only read one again, it would probably be the book on the Vandalic War as it has, at least to me, a fantastic immediacy.

Procopius Part Two

HAVE finished the second of my two books by Procopius on wars during the time of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

This one covers the Romans recapturing Carthage and much of North Africa from the Vandals.

Procopius on the Vandalic War

What helps make this book so good is that Procopius was an aide to the Roman chief general Belisarius and so witnessed many of the events he writes about. 

Procopius Part One

HAVE finished the first of my three books by Procopius.

Procopius on the Persian Wars

It covers the Eastern Roman Empire's wars under Justinian I against Sasanian Persia, including the famous AD 530 Battle of Dara, for which Procopius is the main source.

The text, which is a reprint of a translation from the early 1900s, is an exciting and generally easy read, but I could have done with having maps to hand.

All Booked Up

I MENTIONED in an earlier post (http://timspanton.blogspot.com/2021/01/lockdown-irony.html) how a highly favourable review in Ancient Warfare magazine persuaded me to order Ian Hughes' biography of Attila from Pen & Sword.

It arrived on the same day as I went to a local Post Office to collect three books bought from Amazon.

These are Procopius's History Of The Wars, which covers the Roman Empire (aka the Byzantine Empire) under Justinian I taking on Persians, Vandals and Ostrogoths.

I have tried many times to buy the books in a bookshop, especially Foyles in Charing Cross Road.

But the only Procopius volume I have seen there is his Anecdota, published under the title Secret History, which has very little military content.

True, Foyles stocks the Loeb editions of classical works, where the English translation is printed alongside the original Greek (or Latin).

But Loeb books are expensive and somewhat irrelevant if, like me, you have no knowledge of ancient Greek and your final Latin exam score of 11% included 8% for drawing a Roman underground heating system.

Anyway, I am pleased to have made these four purchases and I look forward to reading them, perhaps in a Greek or Italian taverna, when the government restores our liberties.

Books to enjoy