Procopius (magister militum)

Procopius (fl. 420s AD) was a general and politician in the Eastern Roman Empire; he was the father of the Western Roman Emperor Anthemius.

Biography

Procopius was the son of Procopius, born c. 365, and the paternal grandson of the namesake who was a maternal first cousin of Julian the Apostate and usurper (365-366) against Emperor Valens, and wife Faustina. The older Procopius married Lucina (born c. 400) sister of Anthemius Isidorus, and daughter of the powerful praetorian prefect of the East, Flavius Anthemius (405-414). With Lucina he had a son, the later emperor Anthemius.

Procopius began the military career very young, and in 422 he held the position of dux or comes rei militaris in the East. In that same year, he succeeded in saving part of a Roman army ambushed by the Sassanid Persians. He also took part in the peace negotiations of the same year.

He was then raised to the rank of patricius and named magister militum per Orientem, a post he held at least until December 3, 424 (the date of a law preserved in the Codex Theodosianus addressed to him, vii.4.36).

Bibliography

• Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Procopius 2", Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, volume 2, Cambridge University Press, p. 920.