East Rome, Sasanian Persia and the End of Antiquity

James Howard-Johnston is University Lecturer in Byzantine Studies and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, UK.

• Contents: Introduction; The two great powers in Late Antiquity: a comparison; Procopius, Roman defences north of the Taurus and the new fortress of Citharizon; Byzantine Anzitene; The official history of Heraclius’ Persian campaigns; Armenian historians of Heraclius: an examination of the aims, sources and working-methods of Sebeos and Movses Daskhurantsi; Al-Tabari on the last great war of Antiquity; The siege of Constantinople in 626; Heraclius’ Persian campaigns and the revival of the East Roman Empire, 622-630; Pride and fall: Khusro II and his regime, 626-628. Addenda and corrigenda; Index.

’... [James Howard-Johnston] has provided a first-rate introduction to the period in the form of this collection of studies, published initially between 1983 and 2004, brought together now in the Variorum series. ... this work will be the basis upon which future studies of Byzantium and Iran in the early seventh century will proceed. The editors of the Variorum series have done scholarship a great service in bringing together nine tightly focused and intricately linked studies.’ Early Medieval Europe