Procopius was the major historian of the reign of Justinian and one of the most important historians of Late Antiquity. This is the first extensive commentary on his Persian Wars since the nineteenth century. The work is among the most varied of the author, incorporating the history and geography not only of Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, but also of southern Arabia and Ethiopia, Iran and Central Asia, and Constantinople itself. Each major section is introduced by a section on the history of the events concerned and on the treatment of these events by Procopius and other sources. The volume is equipped with an introduction, three appendices, and numerous maps and plans. All sections of the work that are commented on are translated. The book will therefore be of use to specialists and the general reader alike. A complete translation of the work, with lighter annotation, is being published separately.

'The commentary that Greatrex has written is smart, comprehensive, and fills a giant gap in the field of Procopian studies in particular, but also, given the importance of Procopius' work, in the field of sixth-century history in general. It is a work of remarkable depth and breadth, by a scholar with a mastery of Procopius himself and of the modern scholarship on the historian. It deserves a place on the shelf of every serious scholar of Procopius and the sixth-century Mediterranean world.' David A. Parnell, Gnomon

Geoffrey Greatrex is a Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa and President of the Canadian Committee of Byzantinists. He has spent the past thirty years in research on the late Roman eastern frontier, much of it concerned with the work of Procopius, and has published extensively on the subject.