Procopius was a general and politician in the Eastern Roman Empire; he was the father of the Western Roman Emperor Anthemius

Anthemius

Procopius Anthemius was Western Roman Emperor from 467 to 472. Perhaps the last capable Western Roman Emperor, Anthemius attempted to solve the two primary military challenges facing the remains of the Western Roman Empire: the resurgent Visigoths, under Euric, whose domain straddled the Pyrenees;...

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Biography

Procopius was the son of Procopius, born c. 365, and the paternal grandson of the namesake

Procopius (usurper)

Procopius was a Roman usurper against Valens, and member of the Constantinian dynasty.- Life :According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Procopius was a native and spent his youth in Cilicia, probably in Corycus. On his mother's side, Procopius was related, a maternal cousin, to Emperor Julian, since...

 who was a maternal first cousin of Julian the Apostate

Julian the Apostate

Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....

 and usurper (365-366) against Emperor Valens

Valens

Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...

, and wife Faustina

Faustina (empress)

Faustina was an Empress of the Roman Empire and third wife of Emperor Constantius II. The main source for her biography is the account of historian Ammianus Marcellinus. Her origins and other names are unknown.-Marriage:...

. The older Procopius married Lucina

Lucina

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Lucina was the goddess of childbirth. She safeguarded the lives of women in labour. Later, Lucina was an epithet for Juno...

 (born c. 400) sister of Anthemius Isidorus

Anthemius Isidorus

Flavius Anthemius Isidorus was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire, the maternal uncle of the Western emperor Anthemius.- Biography :...

, and daughter of the powerful praetorian prefect of the East, Flavius Anthemius (405-414). With Lucina he had a son, the later emperor Anthemius

Anthemius

Procopius Anthemius was Western Roman Emperor from 467 to 472. Perhaps the last capable Western Roman Emperor, Anthemius attempted to solve the two primary military challenges facing the remains of the Western Roman Empire: the resurgent Visigoths, under Euric, whose domain straddled the Pyrenees;...

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Procopius began the military career very young, and in 422 he held the position of dux

Dux

Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....

or comes rei militaris in the East. In that same year, he succeeded in saving part of a Roman army ambushed by the Sassanid Persians. He also took part in the peace negotiations of the same year.

He was then raised to the rank of patricius and named magister militum

Magister militum

Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine. Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire...

 per Orientem, a post he held at least until December 3, 424 (the date of a law preserved in the Codex Theodosianus

Codex Theodosianus

The Codex Theodosianus was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Theodosius II in 429 and the compilation was published in the eastern half of the Roman Empire in 438...

addressed to him, vii.4.36).