University of Groningen
Procopius in Dutch Drijvers, Jan Willem
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Recent Work on Procopius outside the English-speaking World
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Publication date: 2019
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Citation for published version (APA):
Drijvers, J. W. (2019). Procopius in Dutch. In G. Greatrex (Ed.), Recent Work on Procopius outside the English-speaking World: A Survey (pp. 12.1-3). (Histos. Supplement; Vol. 9).
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Histos Supplement 9 (2019) 12.1–3
12
P R O C O P I U S I N D U T C H
J a n W i l l e m D r i j v e r sesearch into Procopius and his works in the Netherlands is very limited. This undoubtedly is explained by the fact that the late Roman Empire and early Byzantium have for a long time been no-go areas for Dutch classicists and historians because of their associa-tion with decline and fall in terms of languages and culture. The fact that the Netherlands is a predominantly Protestant country and Late Antiquity and Byzantium were associated with Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christianity may also be an explanation.
Translations
Procopii Historia Gothorum, Vandalorum, et Longobardorum, ab Hugone partim versa, partim in ordine digesta—Historie der Gotthen en Wandalen, enz. door Hugo de Groot uit het Grieks vertaalt [in het Latijn] en int Nederduits gebragt door Petrus Zwaardekroon (second half of the seventeenth century). A translation in Dutch (‘Nederduits’) of works of Procopius by Petrus Zwaar-dekroon (1654–1737).
Procopius, Geheime Geschiedenis van Byzantium (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers, 1970). Dutch translation of the Anecdota by Gerrit Komrij who also composed a short after-word of two pages. His main and remarkable observation is that Procopius in his Anekdota presents a treasure of scandals and facts which are in every way reliable (‘een schat aan schandalen en feiten die alleszins betrouwbaar zijn’, 176).
12.2 Jan Willem Drijvers
Gerrit Komrij (1944–2012) was a poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist and columnist.
Procopius, Verzwegen Verhalen: Een Schandaalkroniek uit Byzantium (Amsterdam: Athenaeum-Polak and Van Gen-nep, 2005). Dutch translation of the Anekdota by Hein L. van Dolen. The translation is preceded by an introduction (11– 29) in which Van Dolen discusses concisely Justinian’s conquests, his codification of Roman law, his administrative reforms, his building activities and religious policy. He characterises the Anecdota as a peculiar book that claims to present objective information but quickly degenerates into a diatribe against Belisarius and his wife Antonina, and against Justinian and Theodora (23), and observes that it remains a mystery as to why Procopius wrote the text (29). Hein van Dolen (1941–) is a classicist, translator of Greek and Latin texts into Dutch, and Byzantinist. Apart from his translations he has written general works in Dutch, among them a short history of the Byzantine Empire (Een kleine geschiedenis van het Byzantijnse Rijk, 2013) and a book about Byzantine empresses (Passies, intriges en politiek: Spraakmakende keizerinnen in Byzantium, 2015).
Translations of fragments of the De Aedificiis, Anekdota, and the Wars are included in M. Hadas and M. A. Schwarz, Geschiedenis van Rome, van de oorsprong tot 529 n.C., verteld door tijdgenoten (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1959) 242–86. Source: Patrick de Rynck and Andries Welkenhuysen, De Oudheid in het Nederlands. Repertorium en bibliografische gids (Baarn: Ambo, 1992) 317.
Articles
There are four articles in Dutch about aspects of Procopius’ writings, one in a scholarly journal and three in a journal for a general readership interested in the history and culture of the ancient world.
C. G. Cobet, ‘Procopius emendatus’, Mnemosyne 8 (1859) 303. This note (in Latin), suggests changing ξώνας into ξήνας and to leave out δεξάµενον in Wars 3.32.
Procopius in Dutch 12.3 E. J. Bakker, ‘Procopius en de pest van Justinianus’, Hermeneus 51.2 (1979) 147–52. This is a general article about ‘the plague of Justinian’ which afflicted the Byzantine Empire and especially Constantinople in 541–2.
J. R. Evenhuis, ‘Wat wist Procopius van ski’s?’, Hermeneus 57.4 (1985) 242–3. This article argues that the Σκριθίφινοι (Wars 6.15) were a people that moved on skis. This makes Procopius the first author who refers to skis.
J. Tholen, ‘Van de prostitutie naar de macht: Keizerin Theodora in Procopius’ Verborgen Geschiedenis’, Hermeneus 82.4 (2010) 177–82. This article nuances the negative image of Theodora presented in the Anecdota. It is argued that the image of the empress is to a large extent a rhetorical stereo-type which is based on the genre of invective and the literary tradition in general. As a historical source for the life of Theodora, the Anecdota should therefore be used with care.
