ABSTRACT
Two ways in which the historian Procopius of Caesarea might be viewed as an 'outsider' will be examined here. On the one hand, the composition of three so different works as the Wars, Buildings and Anecdota, marks Procopius off from all other writers of antiquity or Byzantium; for while others tried their hand at both history and panegyric - the example of John the Lydian is perhaps the most obvious - no other author is known to have produced anything comparable to the Anecdota.1 On the other hand, there is Procopius's position in the sixth century: was he a lone critic vainly fighting the currents prevailing in Justinian's reign? It will be argued that although Procopius was not alone in his criticisms of the imperial regime, it is very doubtful whether he should be associated with any senatorial group; it will further be suggested that the notion of a particular genre of criticism, Kaiserkritik, is of little help in considering this issue.
