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The last great war of antiquity was fought on an unprecedented scale along the full length of the Persian-Roman frontier. James Howard-Johnston pieces together the fragmentary evidence of this period to form, for the first time, a coherent story of the dramatic events, key players, and vast lands over which the conflict spread.
annual pagan pilgrimage with all its traditional rites into the new religion, is identified as a key moment in world history, in that it released the new faith from confinement in Medina and allowed it to spread within Arabia and beyond. --
Byzantium was a strange entity--a relic of classical antiquity which survived deep into the Middle Ages. Drawing on a lifetime's work in the field of Byzantine studies, James Howard-Johnston aims to explain Byzantium's longevity, first as a state geared to fighting a two-centuries long guerrilla war of defence, then as an increasingly confident regional power. It is only by analysing its economic, social, and institutional structures that this strange medieval afterlife of the rump of the Roman empire can be understood. This collection of linked essays outlines the fundamental features of Byzantium, with a focus on the seventh to eleventh centuries. The essays delve below the agitated surfac...
James Howard-Johnston here focuses on the last great war of antiquity, that between East Rome and Sasanian Persia (603-628) which brought the classical phase of west Eurasian history to a dramatic close. He strives to root history in close observation of
Authority and Control in the Countryside looks at the economic, religious, political and cultural instruments that local and regional powers in the late antique to early medieval Mediterranean and Near East used to manage their rural hinterlands.
Focused on battle narratives of the classical world on land and at sea, this three-volume reference covers Archaic Greece in the eighth century BC to the rise of Islam in the seventh century AD. Three-volume reference on land and sea battles of the classical world from Archaic Greece in the eighth century BC to the rise of Islam in the seventh century AD Concentrates on narratives of specific battles, sieges, campaigns, and wars Contains the most complete and up-to-date scholarship on the subject Organized by individual wars, with chronological entries for each battle Brings together a distinguished, international group of experts on ancient military history Get the digital version at www.encyclopediaofancientbattles.com.
This two-volume publication explores the key factors determining the course and outcome of war in Late Antiquity. Volume 8.1 includes a detailed review of strategic and tactical issues and eight comprehensive bibliographic essays, which provide an overview of the literature. In Volume 8.2, thematic papers examine strategy and intelligence, fortifications and siege warfare, weaponry and equipment, literary sources and topography, and civil war, while papers focused on particular geographic regions home in on war and warfare in the West Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries, and the Balkans and the Eastern frontier in the 4th to 7th centuries AD. Contributors are Susannah Belcher, Neil Christie, Ian Colvin, John Conyard, Jon Coulston, Jim Crow, Florin Curta, Hugh Elton, James Howard-Johnston, Jordi Galbany, Jordi Guàrdia, John Haldon, Michel Kazanski, Maria Kouroumali, Michael Kulikowski, Christopher Lillington-Martin, Marta Maragall, Oriol Mercadal, Jordi Nadal, Oriol Olesti, Alexander Sarantis, Conor Whately, Michael Whitby and John Wilkes.
There are several reasons why the chronicle is particularly suited as the topic of a yearbook. In the first place there is its ubiquity: all over Europe and throughout the Middle Ages chronicles were written, both in Latin and in the vernacular, and not only in Europe but also in the countries neighbouring on it, like those of the Arabic world. Secondly, all chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose were they written, how do they reconstruct the past, what determined the choice of verse or prose, or what kind of literary influences are discernable in them. Finally, many chronicles have been beautifully illuminated, and the relation between text and image leads to a wholly different set of questions. The yearbook The Medieval Chronicle aims to provide a representative survey of the on-going research in the field of chronicle studies, illustrated by examples from specific chronicles from a wide variety of countries, periods and cultural backgrounds. The Medieval Chronicle is published in cooperation with the "Medieval Chronicle Society".
That there was an influx of silver dirhams from the Muslim world into eastern and northern Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries is well known, as is the fact that the largest concentration of hoards is on the Baltic island of Gotland. Recent discoveries have shown that dirhams were reaching the British Isles, too. What brought the dirhams to northern Europe in such large numbers? The fur trade has been proposed as one driver for transactions, but the slave trade offers another – complementary – explanation. This volume does not offer a comprehensive delineation of the hoard finds, or a full answer to the question of what brought the silver north. But it highlights the trade in slaves ...
The History attributed to Sebeos is one of the major works of early Armenian historiography. Although anonymous, it was written in the middle of the seventh century, a time when comparable chronicles in Greek and Syriac are sparse. Sebeos traces the fortunes of Armenia in the sixth and seventh centuries within the broader framework of the Byzantine-Sasanian conflict. This book will be of interest to all those involved in the study of Armenia, the Caucasus, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Middle East in late antiquity. It will be of particular value to Islamicists, since Sebeos not only sets the scene for the coming of Islam, but provides the only substantial non-Muslim account of the initial period of expansion.