K.H. Kinzl's useful "The Main Literary Sources For Late Antiquity," short descriptions of some sixty sources. See also his Select bibliography of monographs on Late Antiquity.

"The Grand Tradition of Byzantine Historiography" by Paul Halsall, 1997

Agathias

Catholic Encylopedia: Agathias, Procopius' continuator and an occasionally entertaining poet (Thomas J. Shahan)

Amazon. Agathias: The Histories translated by Joseph D. Frendo (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, Vol 2A). Very pricey.

John Lydus

John Lydus, De Magistratibus translated into French by Michel Dubuisson.

Michael Maas, John Lydus and the Roman Past: Antiquarianism and Politics in the Age of Justinian.

Reviewed by Paul McKechnie, Scholia Reviews, 1993.

"It is too easy to take Lydus at his own evaluation of himself. Maas notes that `within the offices of the eastern Prefecture . . . Latin had been abolished by Cyrus (Prefect 439-41), much to Lydus' dismay' (p. 32). `Dismay' is the wrong word. This had been done fifty years before Lydus was born. To think one's department is going to the dogs may define one as old-fashioned, but a man who thinks it went to the dogs seventy years before he joined it is deliberately exempting himself from discussion of real issues."

Reviewed by John Vanderspoel, BMCR 1992. Review includes a funny metaphor.

"Lydus straddled the fence between the past and the present with both feet planted squarely, one on each side. His career, evident especially in his writings, is a constant attempt to alleviate the discomfort caused by a fence just a little taller than his legs were long; the pain sometimes shows, and it did not help that Justinian was standing firmly on the side of the present, with his foot sometimes on Lydus' toes."

Other works

St. Emperor Justinian, Dialogue with Paul of Nisibis (a Nestorian), translated by Dr. Jeffrey Macdonald (1998)

Catholic Encyclopedia: Evagrius Scholasticus, historian of 5th and 6th centuries (Paul Lejay)

Catholic Encyclopedia: John Malalas, chronical-writer (H. Hyvernant)

Sebeos, History. Translated by Robert Bedrosian. Armenian account of the 6th and 7th centuries. Unfortunately, the part on Justinian's reign is lost.

Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths. Translated by Charles C. Mierow.

"On the Greens and Blues" from Theophanes, Chronicle (Medieval Sourcebook)

Legal texts

Complete Latin text of the Justinianic legal writings.

The Institutes, Justinianic legal textbook of sorts. Courtesy Internet Medieval Sourcebook.

Excerpt from the Corpus Juris Civilis on Christian doctrine and organization.

Modern authors

Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, so far as I can tell the best HTML version (it's on a Japanese page!). This page has lots of .txt files and bad HTM files.

"The Legacy of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall: Gibbon's Influence on the Conceptions of Late Antiquity and the proto-Byzantine Empire." by J.A.S. Evans Ancient History Bulletin 12.4 (1998). An interesting article on how the "universal verdict" on Byzantium's decadence was formed.

All material © 2000–2004 Tim Spalding.

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If you enjoy this site you may also like these other sites by me:

Alexander the Great on the Web. Over 1,000 annotated links and 200 images of the Macedonian conqueror.

The Istanbul Mosaic Museum on the Web. Guide and gallery to these Justinianic masterpieces.

Herodotus on the Web. Linked guide to the life and writings of the Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the father of history

Gouden Hoorn / Golden Horn. Journal about Byzantium. (Hosted here, but edited independently)