In his novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville recounts numerous cases of cetaceans turning against whalers who were hunting them, attacking their boats and even their ships. We know that the creator of the literary white whale was inspired by the case of the Essex, sunk by a sperm whale, combining it with a story from the same era about another giant, albino to boot, known as Mocha Dick. But Melville also dedicates a few lines to recall a much earlier case, which occurred in the 6th century AD: that of Porphyrios, a sea monster that struck terror into Byzantine sailors, sinking so many ships that it concerned the Emperor Justinian himself.
As mentioned in the initial text, the primary account of the threat posed by Porphyrios was left by Procopius of Caesarea, a historian whose works are the main sources for understanding the reign of Justinian I. In both "History of the Wars" and "Secret History," he speaks of that beast, which he identifies as a whale and even provides its measurements: 45 feet long (13.7 meters) by 15 feet wide (4.6 meters). As Melville notes, Procopius does not specify whether it was male or female or what type of whale it was, among other things because in his time, not much was known about marine life; the American writer believes it was a sperm whale.
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Source: amusingplanet.com