the ambitious schemes of Saturninus, Proculus, Bonosus, and Firmus were overthrown; the marauding Isaurians submitted, the Rhaetian frontier was secured, and a wall extending from the Danube to the Rhine checked the inroads of the Germans. Strong colonies also were planted in various quarters; and the emperor, in the prosecution of his efforts to improve the condition of the country, was engaged in draining the marshes near Sirmium, when the legionaries employed in that unwarlike and irksome labour broke into revolt and slew him, in 282.—W. B.
PROCACCINI, the name of a celebrated family of painters, who established a great school at Milan, where they propagated the eclectic principles of the Bolognese school.—The oldest of this family was Ercole Procaccini, called Il Vecchio, who was born at Bologna in 1520. He set himself against the technical mannerisms of his time, and adopted Correggio as a model. He appears to have resided constantly at Bologna, where he was still living in 1571.—His eldest son, Camillo Procaccini, born at Bologna in 1546, was a follower of his father, studied in Rome, and in 1590 established himself in Milan, where he died in 1626. He had great facility, and was remarkable for the multitude of his works, some of which are delicate and careful, but others exceedingly careless. He painted in fresco and in oil, and some good works of both kinds are to be seen at Milan. His "San Rocco administering to those sick of the plague," in the gallery at Dresden, is a noble work.—The younger brother, Guilio Cesare Procaccini, born at Bologna about 1548, and still living at Milan in 1618, was the ablest of the three, and adhered closest to the style of Correggio, in small as well as large, though he commenced his career as a sculptor. His works also are numerous and unequal; they abound in the galleries and churches of Milan, Genoa, and Parma. Some of his small pictures pass as works of Correggio. There were several other painters of this family, who all imitated the style of the elder members.—(Malvasia; Ratti; Lanzi.)—R. N. W.
* PROCH, Heinrich, a musician, was born at Vienna, July 22, 1809. He was known as a violinist, but has ceased to play in public, and has been for many years conductor of the opera in his native city. He has written two masses and some other pieces for the church; some operas, overtures, and entr'actes for the theatre; and some instrumental chamber music; but his chief reputation as a composer is founded on his numerous lieder (little songs or ballads).
PROCIDA, Giovanni de, whose name is so closely connected with the revolt of the Sicilians from the yoke of France towards the close of the thirteenth century, was a native of Salerno, and lord of the island of Procida, on the Neapolitan coast. A stanch adherent of the house of Hohenstaufen, and the confidential friend both of Frederick and Manfred, kings of the Sicilies, to whom he had unrestricted access as their physician (in which character, according to Sismondi, his skill was celebrated), he had been deprived by Charles of Anjou of his estate and employment; and, other causes of hostility also supervening, he thenceforward nourished a rooted hatred to the French invaders and a determined purpose of revenge. He betook himself to Constantia, queen of Arragon, daughter of the late Manfred, whose husband Pedro received him kindly and gifted him with lands and lordships. Meanwhile he had agents actively employed in Sicily, who excited disaffection among the people, and gave him intelligence of the state of affairs. Encouraged by their reports, he visited the island in person, disguised as a Franciscan monk, where he concerted the plan for a revolution. Proceeding thence to Constantinople, he received from the Emperor Michael Palæologus, the enemy of Charles, a supply of money; and then retracing his steps to the west, he easily persuaded Pope Nicholas III. to concur with the enterprise. On Procida's return to Arragon with such flattering accounts of his success, Pedro agreed to undertake an expedition for the recovery of Sicily. The death of the pope, however, who was succeeded by a Frenchman, Martin IV., interposed an unexpected obstacle to Procida's intentions; but endowed with the true genius for conspiracy, he still laboured on unweariedly, until at last his projects were ripe for their fulfilment. He then repaired to Palermo, where on Easter Monday, March 30, 1282, chance wonderfully favoured his designs. The inhabitants were excited by an outrage which a Frenchman perpetrated on a young woman, under the pretence of searching for arms, as she was going with other citizens to the customary vesper service at a church without the city. This resulted in the famous insurrection of the "Sicilian Vespers." The Sicilians rose as one man upon their oppressors; four thousand were massacred in a single night; and before the end of April the island was entirely evacuated by the French troops. Charles made an unsuccessful attempt to recover Sicily, which was now held by Pedro of Arragon, and after his death in 1285, by his son James. Procida, who had been the head and soul of the revolutionary movement, continued in the service of these kings, and was sent by the latter to Rome in 1289, to reconcile Sicily to the holy see, but without effect. He resumed his negotiations in 1295 under Boniface VIII., and finally accompanied the dowager-queen Constantia to Rome, in which capital he died.—J. J.
PROCLUS, the last of the Alexandrian philosophers who were in any way memorable, was born at Constantinople in 412. He studied philosophy, particularly that of Plato and Plotinus, first under Olympiodorus at Alexandria, and afterwards at Athens under Plutarch (not the biographer) and Syrianus. The neoplatonic philosophy had establishments at other places besides Alexandria, although this had been its cradle. Here it is known chiefly in connection with the name of Ammonius Saccas; Plotinus, and after him Porphyry, were the heads of the sect at Rome; Jamblichus propagated the philosophy, having contaminated it with many ridiculous corruptions, throughout Syria; and Proclus was its principal representative and expositor at Athens. Proclus was a voluminous writer. His philosophical and mathematical commentaries on Euclid's Elements, and his "Elements of Theology" have been translated by Thomas Taylor. He wrote a long commentary on the Timæus and other dialogues of Plato. Some years ago M. Cousin edited several of his treatises which till then had existed only in manuscript, prefixing to them suitable explanatory introductions. Proclus had no pretensions to originality. He added nothing to the philosophy of Plotinus (see Plotinus) and Plato but a greater degree of formality, which has the appearance, but not much of the reality, of strict logical exactitude. He died in 485.—J. F. F.
PROCOPIUS, a Greek historian of the sixth century, was born at Cæsarea in Palestine. In his youth he went to Constantinople and became celebrated as an advocate. Belisarius appointed him his secretary. In the various campaigns of that celebrated general, Procopius accompanied him, occupying places of trust and importance. He returned to Constantinople about 541, where he taught eloquence, and was highly esteemed by Justinian, who gave him the title of illustris, the office of senator, and afterwards, in 562, of prefect of Constantinople. He died about 565. It has been disputed whether he was a heathen or a christian. The probability is that he had embraced the christian religion; to which, however, he does not seem to have been strongly attached. He was a free-thinking liberal christian. Some have also supposed that he was a physician, because he shows a minute knowledge of the plague and its symptoms, which desolated Constantinople in 543. There is no good foundation for this idea. A writer may have a good deal of medical knowledge without being a professional physician. Procopius is known to posterity as a historian, the author of various works relating to his time. The language he employs is pure and vigorous. His tone is also impartial and free. In fact he writes like an independent and thoughtful man, who knows his subject and has the power of treating it well in his own fashion. His works are—"A History," in eight books, containing a description of the wars with the Vandals, Moors, Persians, and Goths, from 395-553, continued by Agathias till 559; "Ktismata, or De Ædificiis Justiniani," containing a description of the newly-erected and restored buildings of Justinian; "Anecdota, or Arcana historia," a collection of anecdotes, many very impure, relative to Justinian, Theodora, Belisarius, and others. The authenticity and genuineness of this work have been doubted or denied; but there is no real evidence for setting aside Procopius' authorship, though the book is a mass of satire and scandal. Gibbon speaks of the "malignity" of these anecdotes; but says at the same time that, after their malignity has been suffered to exhale, their residue, even the most disgraceful facts, some of which had been tenderly hinted in his public history, are established by their internal evidence, or the authentic monuments of the times. If the pride of Justinian was offended by the works of Procopius which celebrate the glories and victories of Belisarius, the historian took a malignant revenge in the anecdotes, which paint the emperor and empress in contemptible or disgusting colours. It is certain that the books treating of the imperial edifices are too much impregnated with flattery of
