Priscus

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Categories: Byzantine historians | Goths

For other uses, see Priscus (disambiguation).

Priscus (left) with the Roman embassy at the court of Attila, holding his ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ (History, which the painter has incorrectly spelled ΙΣΤΩΡΙΑ). (Detail from Mór Than's Feast of Attila.)

Priscus was from Panium (in Thrace) living in the Roman Empire during the 5th century. He was a diplomat, sophist and historian. He accompanied Maximin, the ambassador of Theodosius II, to the court of Attila in 448. During the reign of Marcian (450-457), he also took part in missions to Arabia and Egypt. Priscus was the author of a historical work in eight books (the Byzantine History), probably from the accession of Attila to that of Zeno (433-474). Only fragments of the work remain, largely preserved in Jordanes's Getica, but 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.

Remaining works

Three collections of his remaining works are:

Ludwig Dindorf: Historici Graeci Minores (Leipzig, Teubner, 1870) (in Greek).
C.D. Gordon: The Age of Attila: Fifth-century Byzantium and the Barbarians (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1960) (in English with commentary and annotation).
Blockley, R.C.: The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire, vol. II (ISBN 0-905205-15-4) (includes fragments from other historians, including Olympiodorus of Thebes).