Belisarius(a trusted and effective general under Justinian)

"Belisarius' Bid for Rome" by Erik Hildinger, Military History.

"For Belisarius' small army, the struggle for Rome required tactics that involved horsemen striking swiftly from walled cities much as the knights of a later age would do. The campaign would amount to a series of sieges against and sorties from fortified places rather than being fought in the field as early Roman wars had been."

Text: "Procopius on the conquests of Belisarius" (Wars 3.1-11) copied from the Internet Classics Sourcebook by Walt Stevenson (I can't find the Sourcebook copy).

Report on the discovery of archaeological evidence of Belisarius' blocking of the Aqua Traiana during the seige of Rome in 537, by Andrew Wilson from his report on the Janiculum Mills Excavations .

Columbia Encyclopedia.

Also see Britannica: Narses.

Discussion of legends that arise about Belisarius from Byzans-L (1996). Search down.

Economy

Finances under Justinian from Kenneth Harl's Tulane course "Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization: Constantine to Crusades."

Currency in the Age of Justinian and Heraclius from Kenneth Harl's Tulane course "Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization: Constantine to Crusades"

Some thoughts on secondary sources for Byzantine economics from Byzans-L. See also reply and reply.

PDF: R. Bogaert, "La Banque en Egypte Byzantine" ZPE 116 (1997).

Law

See my Other Sources: Legal Texts for relevant texts and translations.

Amazon. The Evolution of Western Private Law by Alan Watson, Expanded Edition (2001).

Reviewed by Gerald J. Russello, BMCR 01.10.28.

Amazon. A Companion to Justinian's Institutes edited by Ernest Metzger, also available in hardcover. See the Aberdeen University Civil Law Centre site for a description of the book.

Reviewed by R.A. Bauman, Scholia Reviews 2000.

Britannica: The Law of Justinian, a long subsection of Roman Law.

Roman Law Resources , edited by Ernest Metzge.

Brief article on the Codex Justinianeus by George Long (1875)

Amazon. Digest of Roman Law : Theft, Rapine, Damage and Insult translated by C. F. Kolbert (Penguin Classics)

Amazon. Jill Harries, Law and Empire in Late Antiquity (1999).

Reviewed by Charles Pazdernik, BMCR 99.08.15.

"H. makes a spirited and nuanced case in support of the proposition that Romans' oft-expressed dissatisfactions with their legal system are tokens, not of despair and resignation against a backdrop of increasing lawlessness, but rather of an enduring investment in law as the foundation of civil society and a heightened consciousness of the availability of specifically legal remedies to combat an expanding range of perceived abuses."

Reviewed by I. N. Wood, English Historical Review

Guide to teaching The Justinian [sic] Code from the Houghton Mifflin Social Studies program. The details are inexact but, so long as nobody knows about, it will promote critical thinking.

Persia

Obviously, I'm only just starting this. My Persia page at Alexander the Great on the Web has a great deal, with a focus on Achaemenid Persia. Expect a major new page on Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid Persia in the months to come.

Richard Frye, The History of Ancient Iran (pp. 325-334, from Chosroes to the end)

Amazon. Ancient Persia : From 550 BC to 650 AD by Josef Wiesehofer.

"AVESTA: The Scriptures of Zoroastrianism" by Hannah M. G. Shapero. An excellent introduction to the origin, contours and content of the Zoroastrian holy writings.

Zoroastrian Archives comprehensive text and translation of Zoroastrian religious texts.

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Persia. An impressive set of links.

"An Overview of the Sassanian Persian Military" by Chris Cornuelle, for Spearpoint 1996. The intended audience is wargamers, but topic is aproached from a more traditional angle.

Index of web maps of Persia and environs by Kees van Hoff.

Racing Factions

Procopius, Wars on racing factions. Medieval Sourcebook.

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

"Procopius on the Nika Riots: Wars 1.23-24" by K. Adshead, a short piece for Late Antiquity Newsletter 1.2 (1996).

Byzans-L discussion on Circus factions, (search down list) with comments by Timothy Gregory:

"Scholars once assumed that the factions were like modern political parties, social classes, or interest groups: the Greens were 'populist,' 'oriental,' and anti-Chalcedonian, while the Blues were aristocratic, 'western,' and Chalcedonian. This analysis was based on the (common) assumption that past societies must have acted very much the way we do. More modern analysis questions these simplistic identifications and sees the factions more as groups of 'rowdies,' without political programmes."

The Circus: Roman Chariot Racing by Barbara F. McManus. Overs background on the sport through time, but doesn't get into Justinian nitty-gritty. Includes a great mosaic of a red-faction racer. The links and images page is amazing, although mostly out of our period.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Blues and Greens.

Medieval Sourcebook: Circus Factions in Egypt (Chronicle of John Bishop of Nikiu)

Review of Charlotte Roueche, Performers and Partisans at Aphrodisias in the Roman and late Roman periods (1993). Reviewed by W.J. Slater, BMCR 1993.

This book best stands comparison with Alan Cameron's Circus Factions, which must almost be read along with it, in view of the constant cross references. But it fills in the chronological area which Cameron had to pass over quickly, and which will be of interest to most classicists, viz. the rise of the claques and the theatrical industry of imperial Rome, and the sudden decline of the gymnasia in the fourth century, and the slow disappearance of the spectacles thereafter. I am not aware that these issues have ever been treated with such clarity in such a brief compass as here.

The Plague

Extract on the Plague of 542 (Wars, 2.22-33) from the Medieval Source Book.

"A Long-Ignored Plague Gets Its Due: Before the Black Death, the Justinianic pandemic helped wipe out the Byzantine Empire" by Daniel Del Castillo, Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 2002. From the LT-ANTIQ discussion list. Engrossing article on recent scholarly activity in the study of Justinian's plague.

"The Great Plague devastates Constantinople 541-543" by Christopher F Malek, from Mediterranean Basin Chronology (North Park University)

A Bibliography on the Sixth-Century Plague of Justinian and its Effects compiled by Steve Muhlberger from contributions to the list LT-ANTIQ in September 1999.

"Plague in the Ancient World: A Study from Thucydides to Justinian" by Christine A. Smith, The Student Historical Journal. Much on Procopoius.

Warfare

Short description and maps of Roman battles, including Justinian's Ad Decimum (533) and Battle of Callinicum (531) from De Imperatoribus Romanis.

"An Overview of the Sassanian Persian Military" by Chris Cornuelle, for Spearpoint 1996. The intended audience is wargamers, but topic is aproached from a more traditional angle.

Report on the discovery of archaeological evidence of Belisarius' blocking of the Aqua Traiana during the seige of Rome in 537, by Andrew Wilson from his report on the Janiculum Mills Excavations .

Women in Byzantium

Bibliography on Women in Byzantium edited by Thalia Gouma-Peterson. Many entries on Theodora.

Amazon. Lynda Garland, Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204 (expensive)

Reviewed by Barry Baldwin for the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies. Laudatory.

Discussion of Baldwin's review in the mail list BYZANS-L by Paul Halsall, critical.

"It is no accident that, by my account, almost half the books written on all Byzantine women are about Theodora, the consort of Justinian I."

Paul D. Buell, B.Bachrach and others.

"Women in Late Antiquity--A Bibliography" Compiled by Antti Arjava.

Other

Online book: Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity by Dr. Stuart Munro-Hay. Procopius provides some of most critical material.

The Emperor Justinian and Jerusalem, on Justinian's architecture and city-planning, from The New Jerusalem Mosaic, which includes a nice image and description of the sixth-century mosaic, the Madaba Map.

Jerusalem: From Justinian to the Crusades, with some very large images of Justinian's basilica in Bethlehem.

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)