1972/01/01 by T. D. Barnes · 5 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Classical Antiquity Studies #Historical and Religious Studies of Rome
paper · doi:10.2307/1087714
openalex publication_date 1972/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/04
A UTHORS OF WORKS OF REFERENCE often receive less gratitude than they deserve. When isolated mistakes or omissions are observed, it becomes all too easy to forget the vast amount of information faultlessly provided for the convenience of students. Let it be stated emphatically, therefore, at the outset, that the first volume of The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (Cambridge 1971), initiated and supervised by the late Professor A. H. M. Jones, ought to presage and permit as much progress in our understanding of an important period of history as the Prosopographia Imperil Romani (the first edition of which was published in 1897/8) did for the first three centuries of the Roman Empire. It covers the years from 260 to 395-that is, though the starting point is nowhere explained or justified, from the capture of Valerian by the Persians to the death of Theodosius1-and attains an overall standard of industry and accuracy worthy of its distinguished initiator and his many associates. Although advertisements in scholarly journals describe the Prosopography, on anonymous authority, as most satisfactorily comprehensive, much labour remains. The mistakes and omissions are sometimes grave: no entry, for example, so it seems, for one of the Caesar Julian's close intimates in Gaul (viz. Euhemerus: Eunapius, VS 7.3.8, p. 476), nor for a man who commanded part of Theodosius' army at the Frigidus in