Skip to content
Wellsprings
Procopius

Procopius

c. 500 CE–c. 565 CE · Constantinople (Istanbul)

Procopius of Caesarea (c. 500 - c. 565 CE) was the leading historian of the early Byzantine empire under the emperor Justinian. He accompanied the general Belisarius on campaign and wrote the "Wars," a detailed history of Justinian's conflicts with Persians, Vandals, and Goths, as well as a work on the emperor's building projects. He is also famous - and controversial - for the "Secret History," a scathing private account attacking Justinian and his court, which presents a strikingly different picture from his public works.

See Procopius’s journey on the map →

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→

Stop 1 of 1

Constantinople (Istanbul)קונסטנטינופולOttoman Empire

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

About Constantinople (Istanbul)

Constantinople, today Istanbul in Turkey, was the Greek colony of Byzantium until Constantine I refounded it as the imperial capital in 330, and for over a millennium it was the capital of the Byzantine Empire and a centre of Greek learning and Christian authority: the council of 381, which Gregory of Nazianzus led for a time, affirmed the Nicene Creed and ranked the city's bishop second only to Rome's, and Hagia Sophia rose in 537. Jews are recorded there from the late fourth century. Sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, it fell to the Ottomans in 1453, serving as their capital and a seat of Islamic learning until 1923; after 1492 Sephardi exiles made it a leading Jewish centre.

In Constantinople (Istanbul) at the same time

Zosimus, Agathias Scholasticus

Across the traditions, in Constantinople (Istanbul) at the same time

See other sages who lived in Constantinople (Istanbul)→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Procopius’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

In the same tradition

Zosimus, Agathias Scholasticus

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Procopius’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(3)