Prokopios of Gaza

This article deals with the late antique sophist and rhetorician Prokopios of Gaza. For the historian Prokopios, see Prokopios of Caesarea .

Prokopios of Gaza (Latin Procopius ; * around 465 , † 528 ) was a late antique sophist and rhetorician .

Prokopios spent most of his life in his hometown of Gaza without taking part in the theological discussions of his time. Instead, he wrote rhetorical writings, including a panegyric on Emperor Anastasios I , a description of Hagia Sophia and a complaint about its partial destruction in an earthquake.

His 162 letters to mostly high-ranking personalities give an insight into his time and also into his own character. The polemic ascribed to him against the Neo-Platonist Proklos probably originates in truth from Nikolaos , the archbishop of Methone (12th century).

In addition, he wrote commentaries on books of the Old Testament , which are among the earliest examples of the so-called catenic commentaries .

The most important source for the life of Prokopios is his disciple Chorikios of Gaza .

Text output

• Eugenio Amato (ed.): Procopius Gazaeus. Opuscula rhetorica et oratoria . Berlin and New York 2009
• Eugenio Amato (ed.): Rose di Gaza. Gli scritti retorico-sofistici e le Epistole di Procopio di Gaza . Alessandria 2010 (Hellenica 35)
• Eugenio Amato (ed.): Un discorso inedito di Procopio di Gaza: In Meletis et Antoninae nuptias . In: Revue des études tardo-antiques 1, 2011–2012, pp. 15–69
• Aldo Corcella (ed.): Tre nuovi testi di Procopio di Gaza: una dialexis inedita e due monodie già attribuite a Coricio . In: Revue des études tardo-antiques 1, 2011–2012, pp. 1–14.
• Antonio Garzya , Raymond-Joseph Loenertz (eds.): Procopii Gazaei Epistolae et Declamationes. Buch-Kunstverlag, Ettal 1963 (= Studia Patristica et Byzantina , 9).

literature

Overview representations

• Eugenio Amato: Procopios de Gaza . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 5, Part 2 (= V b), CNRS Éditions, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-271-07399-0 , pp. 1675-1691
• Gerhard Emrich :  Prokopios of Gaza. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 7, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-048-4 , Sp. 993-994.
• Elżbieta Szabat: Prokopios. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , p. 315 f.

Investigations

• Paul Friedländer : A late antique cycle of paintings in Gaza . Città del Vaticano 1939 (Studi e Testi 89)

Web links

• Literature by and about Prokopios of Gaza in the catalog of the German National Library