A note on Professor Bury's ‘History of the later Roman Empire’

Extract

To all students and teachers of the political, administrative and constitutional history of the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries Professor Bury's volumes will be indispensable. This History of the Later Roman Empire (A.D. 395 to A.D. 565), though in name but a second edition of the book originally published in 1889, is in fact a new work, narrower in limit of period—it only extends to the death of Justinian—but ‘written on a much larger scale.’ Thus for the history of the centuries from Justinian to Irene the edition of 1889 must still be consulted; indeed, even for the sixth century that edition is not entirely superseded, since for the Lazic War of Justinian the reader is referred to the earlier account (ii, p. 113, n.). It is of course obvious that in a work of so wide a scope every student will regret the omission of matters which he would have wished to see included: some would have welcomed a fuller treatment of social conditions, of monasticism, of the barbarian legal codes, of the evidence of the papyri, of the questions recently raised by Dopsch concerning the survival of Roman culture in territories occupied by the barbarians—examples could easily be multiplied; but such criticism on the part of a reviewer would be beside the point, for the treatment of these subjects would have altered the character of Professor Bury's work: he has not sought to write a Kulturgeschichte; the great value of his work lies in the masterly clarity of his historical narrative and in his illuminating treatment of the problems of imperial administration.