Priscus or
PriscusPanites(Πρίσκος,), one of the earliest
and most important Byzantine historians, was surnamed PANITES,
because he was a native of Panium in Thrace. We know little of his life in general, but much
of a short, though highly interesting and important period of it, viz. from A. D. 445-447,
when he was ambassador of Theodosius the Younger at the court of Attila. The embassy consisted
of several persons. In later years he and one Maximinus transacted diplomatic business for the
emperor Marcian, in Egypt and Arabia. He died in or about A. D. 471.
Niebuhr thinks he was a heathen.
Works
Account of Attila
Priscus wrote an account of his embassy to Attila, enriched by digressions on the life and
reign of that king, the Greek title of which is Ἱστορία
Βιζαντικὴ καὶ κατὰ Ἀττήλαι.
which was originally divided into eight books, according to Suidas. This is
the most valuable account we have on Attila, and it is deeply to be regretted that only
fragments of it have come down to posterity : it was written after the death of Theodosius,
which took place in A. D. 450. Priscus is an excellent and
trustworthy historian, and his style is remarkably elegant and pure.
Μελεταὶ Ῥητορικαί,
Declamationes RhetoricaeSuidas says that he also wrote Μελεταὶ Ῥητορικαί,
Declamationes Rhetoricae and
Epistolae, which are lost.
Impact
Jornandes and Juvencus, the author of the Life of Attila, borrowed largely from the History
of Priscus, whose name is often mentioned by them, as well as by other Byzantine writers, as,
for instance, by Evagrius, who calls him Πατρίσκος, and
by Theophanes, who calls him Περσικός, both apparently
mistakes or corruptions of the text.
Editions
The fragments of the History were first edited in Greek by David Hoeschel, Augsburg,
1603, 4to; a Latin translation with notes, by Cantoclarus or Chanteclair,
Paris, 1609, 8vo; the same reprinted together with the text, and revised by
Fabrot in the Paris edition of Excerptae de Legationibus,
together with Dexippus, Menander, and others; the same also in Labbe's Protrepticon, Paris, 1648, fol.The latest and best edition, together with the other writers who have furnished the
materials for the Excerpta de Legationibus, is, by Niebuhr, in the Bonn
Collection of the Byzantines, 1829, 8vo.
Further Information
Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vii. p. 539, 540; Hanckius,
de Script. Byzant. ; Niebuhr's Notes on Priscus, in his edition
mentioned above ; Suidas,
s. v.
Πρίσκος Πανίτης.[W.P](author.W.P)]