The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire 2 volume set: Volume 3, AD 527-641 (Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire)

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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 930 EAN: 9780521201605 Format: Box set ISBN: 0521201608 Label: Cambridge University Press Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 1626 Publication Date: 1992-11-27 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Studio: Cambridge University Press
Editorial Reviews: Volume 3 of The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire consists of two volumes sold together in a slipcase. It provides a complete secular biographical dictionary (prosopography) of the period AD 527 (the beginning of the reign of Justinian) to 641 (the death of Heraclius). The information has been gathered from a wide variety of sources in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Syriac and other languages. The project makes available for the first time in one work a mass of information relating to the personnel of the Roman Empire and the western kingdoms that were its heirs, and of other nations with which Rome had dealings, and is intended as a research tool for historians of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Worth the money to this history buff Comment: I suppose most people interested in owning a copy of this book will already know what it is, but for those who are history buffs like me, but who (like me until a few weeks ago) have never heard of "prosopography", I will note a few things, primarily about the format of the book. Basically, this book (which actually comes slipcased as two volumes) is a bibliographical dictionary, covering every known person in the aristocracy, Roman and otherwise, except those whose entire lives were spent in religious pursuits. Also, emperors lives are covered in detail only up to the point when that individual became emperor. Almost all entries contain cross references to other entries, in some case quite a few such references. All the sources used in obtaining the information about a given individual are explicitly mentioned within the body of the entry. Most entries utilize some Greek and Latin, and a few short entries (of apparently very minor individuals) are in those languages only, but the vast bulk of the book is in English, and enough of it so that if you want to study the period in detail, plan on years of reading! The entry on Belisarius is the longest in the book, and comes in at 42 pages. Narses is about half that long, but dozens of other generals rate four to twelve pages. And not only generals are covered--the entries on the Apion family from Egypt total many pages. The Franks are covered in detail (mostly via Gregory of Tours). The Lombards and Visigoths are covered in somewhat less detail (I think primarily because of limitations in the sources). Purposely, only those Persians, Arabs, and Moslems whose activities impinged significantly on the Empire are covered. Britain is omitted completely. Several individuals whose important activities began before 527 (Bessas, Liberius, and Germanus among others) are covered in detail in the previous volume of the Prosopography, and are only given a few lines here. Essentially, what the author of this book has done is collate an enormous amount of information about individuals into a readable and useful format. I have found the book to be wonderful for browsing, and also as a handy reference to check up on names encountered during the course of other reading. More Reviews