The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361–630

The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361–630
Author: Anthony Kaldellis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2023-05-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009296906

This book presents a new history of the leadership, organization, and disposition of the field armies of the east Roman empire between Julian (361–363) and Herakleios (610–641). To date, scholars studying this topic have privileged a poorly understood document, the Notitia dignitatum, and imposed it on the entire period from 395 to 630. This study, by contrast, gathers all of the available narrative, legal, papyrological, and epigraphic evidence to demonstrate empirically that the Notitia system emerged only in the 440s and that it was already mutating by the late fifth century before being fundamentally reformed during Justinian's wars of reconquest. This realization calls for a new, revised history of the eastern armies. Every facet of military policy must be reassessed, often with broad implications for the period. The volume provides a new military narrative for the period 361–630 and appendices revising the prosopography of high-ranking generals and arguing for a later Notitia.

The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume 2, AD 395-527

The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume 2, AD 395-527
Author: Arnold Hugh Martin Jones
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1410
Release: 1971
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780521201599

Prosopography definition: "a study that identifies and relates a group of persons or characters within a particular historical or literary context"--Http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prosopography.

Consuls of the Later Roman Empire

Consuls of the Later Roman Empire
Author: Roger S. Bagnall
Publisher:
Total Pages: 786
Release: 1987
Genre: History
ISBN:

This book is not so much concerned with consuls as figures in the society of late antiquity as it is devoted to their utility for identifying years: consulates as a means of reckoning time. The compilation of lists of consuls was actively pursued in antiquity, and modern listmakers have not been lacking. But only two scholars have sought, since the development of Latin epigraphy in the later nineteenth century, to compile the evidence for each consulate-Vaglieri and Liebenam, seven decades ago-and their work is simply no longer current with the evidence. Recent works on late antiquity have sometimes suffered from the lack of a comprehensive listing of the evidence. Compiling this evidence was authors' first concern. The full assemblage of evidence has provided quite a number of opportunities to alter views in the modern literature about the recognition of consuls and the dissemination of their names (two phenomena which must be distinguished), and the comments appended to the evidence in the central part of this work set out briefly the authors' conclusions for individual years. Beyond this, the assembled evidence also made possible a number of inquiries into various aspects of the functioning of the consulate as a chronological system. These, along with discussions of the character and limitations of the various types of documentation, form the introduction.

The Rise of Rome

The Rise of Rome
Author: Kathryn Lomas
Publisher: Belknap Press
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2018-02-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674659651

By the third century BC, the once-modest settlement of Rome had conquered most of Italy and was poised to build an empire throughout the Mediterranean basin. What transformed a humble city into the preeminent power of the region? In The Rise of Rome, the historian and archaeologist Kathryn Lomas reconstructs the diplomatic ploys, political stratagems, and cultural exchanges whereby Rome established itself as a dominant player in a region already brimming with competitors. The Latin world, she argues, was not so much subjugated by Rome as unified by it. This new type of society that emerged from Rome’s conquest and unification of Italy would serve as a political model for centuries to come. Archaic Italy was home to a vast range of ethnic communities, each with its own language and customs. Some such as the Etruscans, and later the Samnites, were major rivals of Rome. From the late Iron Age onward, these groups interacted in increasingly dynamic ways within Italy and beyond, expanding trade and influencing religion, dress, architecture, weaponry, and government throughout the region. Rome manipulated preexisting social and political structures in the conquered territories with great care, extending strategic invitations to citizenship and thereby allowing a degree of local independence while also fostering a sense of imperial belonging. In the story of Rome’s rise, Lomas identifies nascent political structures that unified the empire’s diverse populations, and finds the beginnings of Italian peoplehood.

The Imperial Families of Ancient Rome

The Imperial Families of Ancient Rome
Author: Maxwell Craven
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Total Pages: 748
Release: 2019-12-08
Genre: History
ISBN:

The Roman Empire was a spectacular polity of unprecedented scale which stretched from Scotland to Sudan and from Portugal to Persia. It survived for over 500 years in the west and 1,480 years in the east. Ruling it was a task of frightening complexity; few emperors made a good fist of it, yet thanks to dynastic connections, an efficient bureaucracy and a governing class eager to attain the kudos of holding the highest offices, it survived the mad, bad and incompetent emperors remarkably well. Although not always apparent, it was the interplay of emperors' kin and family connections which also made a major contribution to controlling the empire. This book aims to put on record the known ancestry, relations and descendants of all emperors, including ephemeral ones and show connections from one dynasty to another as completely as possible, accompanied by concise biographical notes about each ruler and known facts about family members, which include Romans both famous and obscure. It also attempts to distinguish between certainty and possibility and to eliminate obvious fiction. The introduction provides a narrative lead-in to the creation of the empire, attempts to clarify the complexities of Roman genealogy and assess the sources.

From Constantinople to the Frontier: The City and the Cities

From Constantinople to the Frontier: The City and the Cities
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2016-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004307745

From Constantinople to the Frontier: The City and the Cities provides twenty-five articles addressing the concept of centres and peripheries in the late antique and Byzantine worlds, focusing specifically on urban aspects of this paradigm. Spanning from the fourth to thirteenth centuries, and ranging from the later Roman empires to the early Caliphate and medieval New Rome, the chapters reveal the range of factors involved in the dialectic between City, cities, and frontier. Including contributions on political, social, literary, and artistic history, and covering geographical areas throughout the central and eastern Mediterranean, this volume provides a kaleidoscopic view of how human actions and relationships worked with, within, and between urban spaces and the periphery, and how these spaces and relationships were themselves ideologically constructed and understood. Contributors are Walter F. Beers, Lorenzo M. Bondioli, Christopher Bonura, Lynton Boshoff, Averil Cameron, Jeremiah Coogan, Robson Della Torre, Pavla Drapelova, Nicholas Evans, David Gyllenhaal, Franka Horvat, Theofili Kampianaki, Maximilian Lau, Valeria Flavia Lovato, Byron MacDougall, Nicholas S.M. Matheou, Daniel Neary, Jonas Nilsson, Cecilia Palombo, Maria Alessia Rossi, Roman Shliakhtin, Sarah C. Simmons, Andrew M. Small, Jakub Sypiański, Vincent Tremblay and Philipp Winterhager.

The Medieval Way of War

The Medieval Way of War
Author: Gregory I. Halfond
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317024192

Few historians have argued so forcefully or persuasively as Bernard S. Bachrach for the study of warfare as not only worthy of scholarly attention, but demanding of it. In his many publications Bachrach has established unequivocally the relevance of military institutions and activity for an understanding of medieval European societies, polities, and mentalities. In so doing, as much as any scholar of his generation, he has helped to define the status quaestionis for the field of medieval military history. The Medieval Way of War: Studies in Medieval Military History in Honor of Bernard S. Bachrach pays tribute to its honoree by gathering in a single volume seventeen original studies from an international roster of leading experts in the military history of medieval Europe. Ranging chronologically from Late Antiquity through the Later Middle Ages (ca. AD 300-1500), and with a broad geographical scope stretching from the British Isles to the Middle East, these diverse studies address an array of critical themes and debates relevant to the conduct of war in medieval Europe. These themes include the formation and implementation of military grand strategies; the fiscal, material, and administrative resources that underpinned the conduct of war in medieval Europe; and religious, legal, and artistic responses to military violence. Collectively, these seventeen studies embrace the interdisciplinarity and topical diversity intrinsic to Bachrach’s research. Additionally, they strongly echo his conviction that the study of armed conflict is indispensable for an accurate and comprehensive understanding of medieval European history.

Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome

Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome
Author: Thomas S. Burns
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 444
Release: 1994
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780253312884

Barbarians serving in the Roman army, like all other Roman soldiers, faced difficult choices as political events buffeted their leaders and threatened their livelihoods. Honorius, Stilicho, Alaric, Galla Placidia, Constantius III and usurpers like Constantine III and Attalus left their imprints upon these years - coloring the fabric of political and spiritual life as much as they affected military affairs.

Late Roman Warlords

Late Roman Warlords
Author: Penny MacGeorge
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2002-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191530913

Late Roman Warlords reconstructs the careers of some of the men who shaped (and were shaped by) the last quarter century of the Western Empire. There is a need for a new investigation of these warlords based on primary sources and including recent historical debates and theories. The difficult sources for this period have been analysed (and translated as necessary) to produce a chronological account, and relevant archaeological and numismatic evidence has been utilised. An overview of earlier warlords, including Aetius, is followed by three studies of individual warlords and the regions they dominated. The first covers Dalmatia and Marcellinus, its ruler during the 450s and 460s. A major theme is the question of Marcellinus' western or eastern affiliations: using an often-ignored Greek source, Penny MacGeorge suggests a new interpretation. The second part is concerned with the Gallic general Aegidius and his son Syagrius, who ruled in northern Gaul, probably from Soissons. This extends to AD 486 (well after the fall of the Western Empire). The problem of the existence or non-existence of a 'kingdom of Soissons' is discussed, introducing evidence from the Merovingian period, and a solution put forward. This section also looks at how the political situation in northern Gaul might throw light on contemporary post-Roman Britain. The third study is of the barbarian patrician Ricimer, defender of Italy, and his successors (the Burgundian prince Gundobad and Orestes, a former employee of Attila) down to the coup of 476 by which Odovacer became the first barbarian king of Italy. This includes discussion of the character and motivation of Ricimer, particularly in relation to the emperors he promoted and destroyed, and of how historians' assessments of him have changed over time.