Procopius of Caesarea (, ; c. 500 CE – c. 560 CE) was a prominent late antique scholar from Palaestina Prima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars (or Histories), the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated (and infamous) Secret History. He is commonly held to be the last major historian of the ancient Western world.