Böcker i Translated Texts for Historians-serien

Orosius's work is therefore crucial for an understanding of early Christian approaches to history, the development of universal history, and the intellectual life of the Middle Ages, for which it was both an important reference work and also a defining model for the writing of history.

The only Latin art of war to survive, Vegetius' Epitome was for long a part of the medieval prince's military education. The core of his proposals, the maintenance of a professional standing army, was revolutionary for medieval Europe, while his theory of deterrence through strength remains the foundation of modern Western defence policy.

The Acts of the Council of Ephesus of 431 consist of a wide variety of documents, including proceedings and letters, that provide a unique insight into how in the context of a major dispute opinion was manipulated and pressure applied on both church and state.

This book presents a fully annotated translation of Bede's earliest Biblical commentary, prefaced by a substantial Introduction that places Bede in the context of Revelation exegesis, and shows how, and why, he chose to expound this notoriously controversial book.

The Codex epistolarisCarolinus preserves ninety-nine letters, dated between 739 and 791 and sent by the popes to the Frankishking Charlemagne and his predecessors.

1 Samuel (1 Kings in modern Bibles)tells the story of Samuel and the first kings of Israel, Saul and David, slayerof Goliath. Bede's commentary on it was one of his earliest attempts to expoundthe Old Testament without support from an earlier commentary and is boldlyexperimental. This volume offers the first English translation of hiscommentary.

Eulogius (d. 859), a priest living under Islamic rule in Cordoba, is our principal source for the "Cordoban martyrs' movement (850-859), in the course of which forty-eight Christians were decapitated for religious offenses against Islam. Eulogius' writings capture his effort to promote the executed Christians as legitimate martyrs. This is the first English translation of his writings.

The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius narrates the history of the church from the start of the Nestorian controversy in 428 until the death of Evagrius' employer, Patriarch Gregory of Antioch Gregory in 592.

The Chronicon Paschale is one of the major constituents of the Byzantine chronographic tradition covering the late antique period.

The episcopate of Ambrose of Milan (374-97) is pivotal to understanding the developing relationship between the Christian Church and the Roman Empire. This volume includes the tenth book of his collection of letters; the letters that are preserved outside his published collection; and his funeral speeches for Valentinian II and Theodosius I.

John of Biclaro (c.590) and Isidore of Seville (c.625) authored histories that projected the Gothic achievements back on to their uncertain beginnings, transforming them from antagonists of the Roman Empire to protagonists of a new, independent Chistianity in Spain.

By translating the sections on pre-Islamic Persia in three Muslim Arabic chronicles how knowledge about ancient Iran was transmitted to Muslim historians, in what forms it circulated and how it was shaped and refashioned for the new Perso-Muslim elite that served the early Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad.

No complete translation of the Latin text of the Book of Pontiffs-the Liber Pontificalis of the Roman Church-exists in any language, though the work is indispensable to students of late antiquity and the early middle ages;

This book is a collection of twelve important but little-read orations of the fourth-century sophist Libanius, providing an English translation for each with a thorough introduction and copious notes.

A translation of the two books of The Life of Columbanus, a central text for the history of seventh-century monasticism. The Life of John of Reome and The Life of Vedast are also included.

Khalifa ibn Khayyat is the author of the earliest extant Arabic chronicle. The work principally deals with fighting between Arab groups, external conquests, and administrative matters. After the death of each caliph it lists those who held office during his reign; also notes leaders of the pilgrimage in each year and deaths of prominent persons.

The Council of Constantinople of 553 (often called Constantinople-II or the Fifth Ecumenical Council) has been described as by far the most problematic of all the councils. This title covers the acts of the council, session by session, and the related documents, particularly those that reveal the shifting stance of Pope Vigilius.

The Council of Constantinople of 553 (often called Constantinople-II or the Fifth Ecumenical Council) has been described as by far the most problematic of all the councils, because it condemned two of the greatest biblical scholars and commentators of the patristic era Origen and Theodore of Mopsuestia and because the pope of the day, Vigilius, ...

The first English translation of the funerary speech for John Chrysostom delivered by one of his former clergy in a city close to Constantinople in the autumn of 407 when news arrived of John's death on a forced march in eastern Asia Minor.

This volume brings together many important historical texts, the majority of them (speeches of Themistius, the Passion of St Saba, and evidence relating to the life and work of Ulfila) not previously available in English translation.

The more extensive East-Syrian Cause of the Foundation of the Schools offers a history of learning from God's creation of the world to the time of the text's composition at the School of Nisibis in the late sixth century CE, recasting patriarchal, Israelite, 'pagan' and Christian history as a long series of schools.

The Commentaries translated here, dating from the sixth century, show the persisting survival of Greek learning in an increasingly Christianised world.

Optatus, Bishop of Milevis in North Africa in the late fourth century, wrote a detailed refutation of Donatist claims to be the one true and righteous church, an ark of purity in a world which was still corrupt despite Constantine's support for Christianity.

Focusing on the first and last years of Libanius' Antiochene career (AD 354-388), this volume illustrates his great range of his rhetorical skills, while at the same time illuminating the intrigues of city politics and university life.

The first is what remains of a historical work Hilary wrote against two distinguished contemporary bishops, Valens and Ursacius, whose intervention on behalf of the Emperor Constantius Hilary thought disastrous. They throw a flood of light upon scenes of disarray, violence and betrayal in the Church life of the fourth century.

Venantius Fortunatus, writing in the latter half of the sixth century, was not only a major Latin poet, but also an important historical figure.

The Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius (or the Zuqnin Chronicle) is an important Syriac historiographical work dating from the end of the eighth century.

A reconstruction of the lost chronicle of Theophilus of Edessa (d.785). Covering 590-760, it describes such world-changing events as the last great war of antiquity between Byzantium and Iran, the Arab conquests, the establishment of a Muslim empire, and the revolution that saw the capital of this empire shift from Damascus to Baghdad.