Collection of articles arranged in 5 subsections: Historiography and rhetoric, Christianity in its social context, art and representation, Byzantium and the workings of the empire, and late antiquity in retrospect.

Byzantine chronicles have traditionally been regarded as a somewhat inferior form of Byzantine history writing, especially in comparison with 'classicizing' historians. The aim of many of these papers is both to rescue the reputation of the Byzantine chroniclers, especially Malalas and Theophanes, and also to provide some examples of how these two chroniclers in particular can be exploited usefully both to reveal aspects of the past itself, notably of the period of Justinian, and also of how the Byzantines interpreted their own past, which included on occasions rewriting that past to suit altered contemporary needs. For the period of Justinian in particular, proper attention to aspects of the humble Byzantine chronicle can also help achieve a better understanding of the period than that provided by the classicizing Procopius with his emphasis on war and conquest. By considering more general aspects of the place of history-writing in Byzantine culture, the papers also help explain why history remained such an important aspect of Byzantine culture.

This book comprises three closely related studies, namely 'The Nature of Trade in the Roman Mediterranean,c. 200 BC'AD 600'; 'Decline and Recovery: Byzantine Trade, c. 600'1150'; and 'Urban Change and Continuity in Roman and Byzantine Corinth'. In addition, a translation of the 'Rhodian Sea-Law', an important text for maritime trading history, is included as an appendix. 'From Rome to Byzantium' provides a detailed overview of trading activity in the Roman and Byzantine Mediterranean, grounded in recent archaeological research. In particular, it is argued that an element of 'free trade' played a significant role in the direction and nature of trading in Classical and Late Antiquity. It is also suggested that the so-called 'Dark Ages' of the seventh and eighth centuries saw more continuity in terms of both commercial activity and urban life than is sometimes admitted.

A comprehensive study of the process by which certain martyrs of the early church were transformed into military heroes.

This one-volume translation, with commentary and introduction brings together three important works. All three texts cast great, if generally neglected light on politics and ideology in early Byzantium. Agapetus wrote, c. 527-30CE, from a position sympathetic to Justinian, when he had still to consolidate his authority. He sets out what an emperor must do to acquire legitimacy, in terms of government's being the imitation of God. Read in context, his work is much more than a list of pious commonplaces. The Dialogue, written anonymously towards the end the same reign, comprises fragments from Books 4-5 of a philosophically sophisticated (lost) longer work, setting out requirements for the ideal polity, based on a similar concept of imperial rule, with extensive comment on matters of current political salience but from an implicitly hostile standpoint. Not only does the text reflect the nature of Neoplatonic political philosophy but it also penetrates with its ideas deep into the inner realities of the time, into the political problems of Constantinople during the first half of the sixth century. The third text was written by Paul the Silentiary to mark the rededication of the basilica Hagia Sophia, built thirty years earlier under the orders of Emperor Justinian I. Together the translations provide an important insight into the early Byzantine period.