The Historians of Late Antiquity

by David Rohrbach

The fourth and fifth centuries AD were an era of religious conflict, political change and military conflict. The responses of contemporary historians to these turbulent times reflect their diverse backgrounds - Christian and pagan, writing in both Greek and Latin, documenting church and state.
This volume is the first to offer an accessible survey of the lives and works of these varied figures. The first half of the book explores the structure, style, purpose and nature of their writings. The second half compares and contrasts the information the historians provide, and the views they express on some central topics. These range from historiography, government and religion to barbarian invasions, and the controversial emperors Julian 'The Apostate' and Theodosius.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 16, 2002

Reviews

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great background on this fascinating era, but I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone without a thorough grounding in the political history of the time.