A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene 395-800

by John Bagnell Bury

- Annotated with suggested further reading and in-line links to additional web content

Includes linked Table of Contents.

Author's Preface:

There is no period of history which has been so much obscured by incorrect and misleading titles as the period of the later Roman Empire. It is, I believe, more due to improper names than one might at first be disposed to admit, that the import of that period is so constantly misunderstood and its character so often misrepresented. For the first step towards grasping the history of those centuries through which the ancient evolved into the modern world is the comprehension of the fact that the old Roman Empire did not cease to exist until de year 1453. The line of Roman emperors continued in unbroken succession from Octavius Augustus to Constantine Paleologus.

Now this essential fact is obscured as far as language is able to obscure it by applying the name “Byzantine” or the name “Greek” to the Empire in its later stages. Historians who use the phrase “Byzantine Emperor” are not very consistent or very precise as to the date at which the “Roman Empire” ends and the “Byzantine Empire” begins. Sometimes the line is drawn to the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine the Great, sometimes at the death of Theodosius the Great, sometimes at the reign of Justinian, sometimes (as by Finlay) at the accession of Leo the Isaurian; and the historian who adopts one line of division cannot assert that the historian who adopts a different line is wrong. For all such lines are purely arbitrary. No “Byzantine Empire” ever began to exist; the Roman Empire did not come to an end until 1453.

Chapters:

K ONE – INTRODUCTION
I - CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM
II - INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON SOCIETY
III -ELEMENTS OF DISINTEGRATION IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
IV - THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE EMPIRE
V - CONSTANTINOPLE
BOOK TWO - THE HOUSE OF THEODOSIUS
I - RUFINUS AND EUTROPIUS
II - THE GERMANS IN THE EAST
III JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
IV STILICHO AND ALARIC
V - THEODOSIUS II AND MARCIAN
VI - BEGINNINGS OF THE DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE
VII - INVASIONS OF THE HUNS
VIII - THE PATRICIAN AETIUS
IX - THE CHURCH IN THE FIFTH CENTURY
X - LIFE AND MANNERS IN THE FIFTH CENTURY
XI - A GLIMPSE OF HUN LIFE
BOOK III - THE HOUSE OF LEO THE GREAT
I - LEO I
II - RICIMER THE PATRICIAN
III - ZENO
IV - THE OSTROGOTHS IN ILLYRICUM AND THRACE
V - ODOVACAR THE PATRICIAN AND THEODORIC THE PATRICIAN
VI – ANASTASIUS I
VII - THE PERSIAN WAR
VIII - GREEK LITERATURE OF THE FIFTH CENTURY
BOOK IV ----- THE HOUSE OF JUSTIN PART I ----- THE AGE OF JUSTINIAN
I - THE REIGN OF JUSTIN I; AND THE EARLIER YEARS OF JUSTINIAN'S REIGN
II - JUSTINIAN AND THEODORA
III - THE LEGAL WORKS OF JUSTINIAN
IV - FIRST PERSIAN WAR (528-532 AD)
V - THE RECONQUEST OF AFRICA AND ITALY
VI - THE GREAT PLAGUE
VII - THE FINAL CONQUEST OF ITALY AND THE CONQUEST OF SOUTH-EASTERN SPAIN
VIII - SECOND PERSIAN WAR (540-545 A.D.)
IX - THE LAZIC WAR (549-556 AD)
X - THE LATER YEARS OF JUSTINIAN'S REIGN
XI - JUSTINIAN’S CAESAROPAPISM
XII - THE SLAVES
XIII - CHANGES IN THE PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION
XIV - THE GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE AND THE END OF JUSTINIAN’S REIGN
XV - BYZANTINE ART
XVI - NOTES ON THE MANNERS, INDUSTRIES, AND COMMERCE IN THE AGE OF JUSTINIAN
BOOK IV - THE HOUSE OF JUSTIN PART II- THE COLLAPSE OF JUSTINIAN’S SYSTEM
I - JUSTIN II AND TIBERIUS II
II - MAURICE
III

605 pages, Paperback

About the author

John Bagnell Bury (often published as J.B. Bury) was a classical scholar, historian, and philologist. He held the chair in Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin, for nine years, and also was appointed Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity, and Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University.