Wars of Justinian

With a new translation for the twenty-first century of Prokopios’s chronicles of the wars of the Emperor Justinian--sometimes active in five theaters of war at the same time--military battles come into sharp focus and cover a period of about 25 years. Called the densest account of ancient warfare, and the longest, it provides posterity with a wealth of information regarding events and personalities, and includes Barbarian genealogies. Eschewing the safe practice among historians of ending a narration with the previous reign, Prokopios dared to cover the Justinian’s reign, including remarks sometimes critical of Justinian, a ruler not known for his tolerance of criticism. For what he did not witness himself, Prokopios relied on a network of military, diplomatic, court, and personal contacts, in addition to official documents that passed through his hands as advisor of the empire’s top general, Belisarios. There is an introduction: the composition of Prokopios’s works; the armies of Justinian; the present translation and notes; the spelling of names; note on the formatting of the translation. There are eight books, maps, figure credits, footnotes, and an appendix which includes a glossary of offices and units of measurement; contemporary sources: an annotated guide; a guide to scholarship in English; ruler lists, 400-560AD, and Barbarian genealogies. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
A fully-outfitted edition of Prokopios' late Antique masterpiece of military history and ethnography--for the 21st-century reader."At last . . . the translation that we have needed for so long: a fresh, lively, readable, and faithful rendering of Prokopios' Wars, which in a single volume will make this fundamental work of late ancient history-writing accessible to a whole new generation of students." --Jonathan Conant, Brown University