Notwithstanding its semi-legendary epic character, the LVG provides many important details, which can be combined with the sources closer to the period in question, such as Lazarus of Parpi and Procopius.

Procopius provides one of the few direct descriptions of the Roman post that allows us to estimate the average rate of travel overland.

" It provides a description of the land and people of Late Roman Africa, which conscientiously records the impressions of an intelligent native observer ; many of his statements as to manners and customs are confirmed both by independent ancient authorities ( such as Procopius ) and by our knowledge of the modern Berbers.

The writings of Procopius are the primary source of information for the rule of the Roman emperor Justinian.

The primary sources for Frankish military custom and armament are Ammianus Marcellinus, Agathias, and Procopius, the latter two Eastern Roman historians writing about Frankish intervention in the Gothic War.

Procopius denies the Franks the use of the spear while Agathias makes it one of their primary weapons.

Apart from his own writings, the main source for Procopius ' life is an entry in the Suda, a 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia that tells nothing about his early life.

Critics of Procopius ( whose work reveals a man seriously disillusioned with his rulers ) have dismissed his work as a severely biased source, being vitriolic and pornographic, but without other sources, critics have been unable to discredit some of the assertions in the publication.

Procopius, a source hostile to the Ghassanid ruler, states that the Arabs, stationed on the Byzantine right, betrayed the Byzantines and fled, costing them the battle.

Major sources for Gothic history include Ammianus Marcellinus ' Res gestae, which mentions Gothic involvement in the civil war between emperors Procopius and Valens of 365 and recounts the Gothic refugee crisis and revolt of 376 – 82, and Procopius ' de bello gothico, which describes the Gothic war of 535 – 52.

An alternate name for Greek fire was " Median fire " (), and the 6th-century historian Procopius, records that crude oil, which was called naphtha ( in Greek νάφθα, naphtha, from Middle Persian نفت ( naft )) by the Persians, was known to the Greeks as " Median oil " ().

Julian not wanting to give up what he had gained and probably still hoping for the arrival of the column under Procopius and Sebastianus, set off east into the Persian interior, ordering the destruction of the fleet.

Though his early reception in the city seems to have been lukewarm, Procopius won favor quickly by using propaganda to his advantage: he sealed off the city to outside reports and began spreading rumors that Valentinian had died ; he began minting coinage flaunting his connections to the Constantinian dynasty ; and he further exploited dynastic claims by using the widow and daughter of Constantius II to act as showpieces for his regime.

Procopius was executed on 27 May and his head sent to Valentinian in Trier for inspection.

* June – In Rome, famine brings the city to despair, Belisarius sends his secretary Procopius to Naples for more reinforcements and supplies.

* Belisarius stands trial for corruption in Constantinople, possibly with Procopius acting as urban prefect.

For this reason, according to Procopius, he was uninterested in the military operations of the Vandals and left them to other family members, of whom Procopius singles out for mention his nephew Hoamer.

* Eunomius of Cyzicus is banished to Mauretania for harbouring the usurper Procopius.

According to Procopius, the Heruli, after having raided the European continent for several generations, returned to Scandinavia in 512 AD as a result of military defeats.

Most of the historical evidence for Totila consists of chronicles by the Byzantine historian Procopius, who accompanied the Byzantine General Belisarius during the Gothic War.

Procopius also left a word portrait of Totila before his troops drawn up for battle:

He then went to live at Chalcedon, whence in 367 he was banished to Mauretania for harbouring the rebel Procopius.

According to the Byzantine historian Procopius, " From the start, Yazdegerd was a sovereign whose nobility of character had won for him the greatest renown.

This work in five books, On the Reign of Justinian, continues the history of Procopius, whose style it imitates, and is the chief authority for the period 552-558.

The 6th-century historian Procopius is the earliest authority for the statement that Helena was a native of Drepanum, in the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor.

He edited Procopius for Niebuhr's Corpus of the Byzantine writers, and between 1846 and 1851 brought out at Oxford an important edition of Demosthenes ; he also edited Lucian and Josephus for the Didot classics, while his work on Homeric scholarship is represented by his four-volume edition of the Homeric scholia.

During the Iberian and Lazic wars initiated in the Caucasus by Justinian I, it was noted by Procopius that Persian cataphract archers were adept at firing their arrows in very quick succession and saturating enemy positions but with little hitting power, resulting in mostly non-incapacitating limb wounds for the enemy.

Procopius, John Malalas, the Chronicon Paschale, and Zacharias called him " John the Cappadocian " for disambiguation reasons, as the name John ( Ioannes in Greek and Johannes in Latin ) were widely used by his time.

* The Anekdota (" Secret history ") of Procopius in English translation.

Other writers, e. g. Procopius, wrote works which are extant on the later history of the Goths.

Procopius was the author of a history in eight books of the wars fought by Justinian I, a panegyric on Justinian's public works throughout the empire, and a book known as the Secret History ( Greek: Anekdota ) that claims to report the scandals that Procopius could not include in his published history.

* Agathias begins to write a history beginning where Procopius finished his work.

As a humanist Bruni was essential in translating into Latin many works of Greek philosophy and history, such as Aristotle and Procopius.

The first authoritative reference to the Slavs and their mythology in written history was made by the 6th century Byzantine historian Procopius, whose Bellum Gothicum described the beliefs of a South Slavic tribe that crossed the Danube heading south in just two days.

His name is the most common in all historic records of Slavic religion ; in fact, he is the first Slavic god mentioned in written history ( Procopius in his short note mentions that the god of thunder and lightning is the only god of Slavs, lord of all ).

The exemplar secret history is the Anecdota of Procopius of Caesarea ( known for centuries as the Secret History ).

Writers taking this line relied heavily on the scandalous behavior of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the bad emperors reported by Tacitus and other writers and later by the secret history of Procopius, who hated his royal employers to such a degree that he could not contain himself about their real methods and way of life any longer.

Another contemporary chronicler, Procopius, compares Justinian's appearance to that of tyrannical Emperor Domitian, although this is probably slander.

In Justinian's era, and partly under his patronage, Byzantine culture produced noteworthy historians, including Procopius and Agathias, and poets such as Paul the Silentiary and Romanus the Melodist flourished during his reign.

Justinian rebuilt his birthplace in Illyricum, as Justiniana Prima, more in a gesture of imperium than out of an urbanistic necessity ; another " city ", was reputed to have been founded, according to Procopius ' panegyric on Justinian's buildings, precisely at the spot where the general Belisarius touched shore in North Africa: the miraculous spring that gushed forth to give them water and the rural population that straightway abandoned their ploughshares for civilised life within the new walls, lend a certain taste of unreality to the project.

Procopius, historian at Justinian's court, considered that behind the laws were political motivations, as they allowed Justinian to destroy his enemies and confiscate their properties, and were hardly efficient stopping homosexuality between ordinary citizens.