Table of Contents

List of Illustrations viii

List of Maps x

List of Diagrams xi

List of Abbreviations xii

Preface to the First Edition xv

Preface to the Second Edition xviii

1 An Introduction to Late Roman History 1

2 The Nature of the Evidence 15

3 The Roman Empire from Diocletian to Alaric 51

4 The Roman Empire of the Fifth and Sixth Centuries 108

5 The Roman State 165

6 The Barbarian Kingdoms 206

7 From Pagan to Christian 242

8 Conversion to Christianity and the Politics of Religious Identity 277

9 The Political Economy of the Later Roman Empire 325

10 Society and Economy in the Mediterranean and the Near East 355

11 The Challenges of the Later Sixth Century 408

12 The Final Reckoning of the Eastern Empire 441

13 The Fall of the Roman Empire 466

Bibliography 497

Chronological List of Emperors and Other Rulers 522

Index 524

About the Author

Stephen Mitchell is Emeritus Professor of Ancient Historyat the University of Exeter and a Fellow of the BritishAcademy. He is also the author of Anatolia. Land, Men, and Godsin Asia Minor (1993), Cremna in Pisidia (1996), andPisidian Antoch (1998).

Reviews

“Its scholarship is impeccably up to date, its coverage of its chosen topics is most thorough, and it can be recommended as the best single-volume overview of the politics, institutions, and military affairs of the later Roman empire.”  (UNRV Roman Empire, 2015)