Priscus

Priscus (Latin Priscus, * about 410 /20; † 474 ) was an East Roman historian of the 5th century AD

Life

Priscus was the Eastern Roman Emperor and was fully formed philosophical and rhetorical. Like any higher officials he spoke according to the evidence of his work fluently Greek and Latin, which was him in his diplomatic missions of use. After the Middle Byzantine encyclopedia Suda he came from Panion in Thrace. He accompanied the Roman general Maximinus at his request on several diplomatic missions ( in which function exactly is disputed). After the death of Maximinus 453 to Priscus initially held on in Egypt and then served since the Magister 456 officiorum Euphemius in an advisory role, probably as assessor ( legal advisor ). With such a position, the survey was commonly associated in the middle ranks of the senatorial; therefore it can be assumed that Priscus held the rank of vir spectabilis.

Work

Priscus wrote after his retirement from active service in the Greek language, a work dedicated to the contemporary history in eight books in the tradition of ancient historiography. The work as a whole is indeed lost, but important parts - such as the famous, in-depth report on his participation in a mission trip 448/49 to Attila the Hun - as a ( sometimes quite extensive ) preserved fragments. Title and period of representation are not exactly known, but portrays the earliest contemporary section, the assumption of power by Attila and Bleda ( about 433 /34) and no known fragment is about the year 471 addition. Probably put the beginning of the reign of Attila also chosen by Priscus starting point is; as the most likely date is considered in the research, the year 474 ( Death of Emperor Leo I ). In the fragments of Priscus is discussed or alluded neither to the deposition of Romulus Augustulus yet to Odoacer, which is why many believed that the work was completed before 476; but subsequent data are also possible.

The resulting fragments give the impression that Priscus was primarily concerned with the Roman foreign policy, but this selection can be also due to the interest of the later compilers. Apparently, presented the history of the Huns and their relations to the Roman Empire a focus of the work is; but also the Roman -Persian contacts were treated by Priscus. His style was - typical of late antique historians - classicist; so he called anachronistic as the Huns Scythians and the Persian Sassanids as Parthians. Literary models were Herodotus and Thucydides apparently, he tried to whose imitation ( mimesis ) in an archaic prose; the siege of Naissus by the Huns in 441 years is told even in the closest analogy to the described in Thucydides siege of Plataea. Through this approach, which is intended to demonstrate to the reader the classical education ( paideia ) of the author, sometimes the view of the actual events is blocked. Priscus was still a keen observer and provides a wealth of important information, which are considered to be mainly reliable. Whether he was a Christian or Gentile, is unknown; the lack of Christian references in the fragments can in principle also explain his classical style.

Priscus, in spite of the extensive loss of his work as one of the greatest historians at least Late Antiquity apply; the traditional other authors passages from his works represent very important sources for the history of the 5th century Represents the work was, among others, by Evagrius Scholasticus and Jordanes (possibly mediated through the lost Gothic history of Cassiodorus ) used, perhaps also of Prokopios of Caesarea. The historian Malchus possibly joined directly to the work of Priscus.

Text output

  • Roger C. Blockley ( Edit / Übers. . ): The Fragmentary Classic Ising Historians of the Later Roman Empire. 2 vols, Liverpool 1981 /83. ( The current Standard Edition. Greek text with English translation in Volume 2, pp. 222-377. Blockley However, used with respect to the fragments a different numbering scheme than the current in the previously long -time text editions of Carl Müller and Ludwig Dindorf usual. )
  • Pia Carolla (ed.): Priscus Panita. Excerpta et fragmenta. Berlin 2008. (Alternative Edition to the Blockleys ordering the fragments partially different and counts as this. Excluding translation. )

Translations

  • Ernst Doblhofer: Byzantine diplomats and eastern barbarians. From the Excerpta de legationibus of Konstantinos Porphyrogenitus selected portions of Priscus and Menander Protector ( Byzantine historian 4). Graz 1955. (Selection translation of key fragments. )
  • Colin Gordon: The Age of Attila. Fifth - Century Byzantium and the Barbarians. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1960. (Includes the most fragments in English translation. )
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