Procopius

326 – 366 · Generation IV · usurper (r. 365–366) · Constantinian

Procopius (AD 326 – 366). usurper (r. 365–366). Maternal kinsman of Julian; revolted against Valens. Born at Corycus in Cilicia, he served Constantius II as an imperial secretary and envoy to the Persian court, and during Julian’s Persian campaign he commanded some 30,000 men guarding Mesopotamia. Rumor held that Julian had marked him as a successor, and he judged it safest to vanish — though he emerged from hiding long enough to see Julian’s body to its burial at Tarsus. Hunted under the new regime, he slipped his captors and hid by the Black Sea before making for Constantinople. There, trading on discontent with Valens’s government, he bribed two legions, seized the capital, and displayed Constantius II’s widow and daughter to advertise his dynastic claim. Thrace and Bithynia followed — briefly. Defeated at Thyatira and Nacolia and betrayed by his own generals, he was beheaded.

One of 8 people of Constantinian (246–366) in this archive. The house that founded Constantinople and ruled from it.