Priscus
Encyclopedia
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
from Rumelifeneri (in Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
) living in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
during the 5th century. He accompanied Maximinus
Maximinus (diplomat)
Maximinus was a 5th-century East Roman official, serving as ambassador to Attila the Hun and as a senior minister at Constantinople.Maximinus was lieutenant of Ardaburius in the Roman–Persian war in 422. In 448, Theodosius II sent him to Attila; Orestes and Edicon, the Hunnic ambassadors at...
, the ambassador of Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
, to the court of Attila
Attila the Hun
Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...
in 448. During the reign of Marcian
Marcian
Marcian was Byzantine Emperor from 450 to 457. Marcian's rule marked a recovery of the Eastern Empire, which the Emperor protected from external menaces and reformed economically and financially...
(450–457), he also took part in missions to Arabia and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
Priscus was the author of a historical work in eight books (the History), probably from the accession of Attila to that of Zeno
Zeno (emperor)
Zeno , originally named Tarasis, was Byzantine Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues...
(433–474), written in Greek language. Only fragments of the work remain, largely preserved in Byzantine excerpts, and the description of Attila and his court and the account of the reception of the Roman ambassadors is a valuable piece of contemporary history. His writings are unusually impartial and objective. The history of Priscus was used by Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
, Procopius of Caesarea and other historians.
Remaining works
Three collections of his remaining works are:- Ludwig Dindorf: Historici Graeci Minores (Leipzig, Teubner, 1870). Trancription from some Greek sources.
- Colin Douglas Gordon : The Age of Attila: Fifth-century Byzantium and the Barbarians (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1960). Partial English paraphraseParaphraseParaphrase is restatement of a text or passages, using other words. The term "paraphrase" derives via the Latin "paraphrasis" from the Greek , meaning "additional manner of expression". The act of paraphrasing is also called "paraphrasis."...
of above with commentary and annotation. - Roger C. Blockley: The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire, vol. II (ISBN 0-905205-15-4) (includes fragments from other historians, including Olympiodorus of ThebesOlympiodorus of ThebesOlympiodorus was an historical writer of classical education, a "poet by profession" as he says of himself, who was born at Thebes in Egypt, and was sent on a mission to the Huns on the Black Sea by Emperor Honorius about 412, and later lived at the court of Theodosius II, to whom his History was...
).