Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The first and second editions of this book were published respectively in 2007, and 2015. The third edition, considerably expanded, is the fruit of a long-distance collaboration between the two authors, one based in Ottawa, Canada, the other in Berlin, Germany. The chapters of the 2015 edition of the book have been revised to take account of recent scholarly literature, to update the bibliographies, and to correct errors of fact or judgment, some of them helpfully pointed out by readers and users of the second edition. We are very grateful to them, as we are to friends, colleagues and students who have helped helped with the revision. Among the last we should mention Madeline White and Alexandros Grammatikopoulos, as well as our colleagues Theo de Bruyn, Richard Burgess, Simon Corcoran, Dominique Côté, Jitse Dijkstra, Benet Salway, and Jeroen Wijnendaele. The most significant novelty of the new edition has been to extend the chronological coverage up to c.700 by adding two extra chapters (13 and 14) on the tumultous period ushered in by the Arab conquests. These are primarily the work of Geoffrey Greatrex and have benefited from comments by Phil Booth, James Howard-Johnston, Robert Hoyland, Marek Jankowiak, Andrew Marsham, Christian Robin and Philip Wood. Translations, when not specifically credited, are the work of the authors. Our first collaboration dates back a quarter of a century to 1998, when each of us was based in the University of Wales, Stephen Mitchell at Swansea, Geoffrey Greatrex at Cardiff, and we organized a conference on Culture and Ethnicity in Late Antiquity which was subsequently published by the Classical Press of Wales. It has been a pleasure for both of us to join forces again. As we were completing our final revisions news reached us of the death of an admired colleague, who had been an inspiration to both of us, Wolfgang Liebeschuetz. We dedicate the book in gratitude to his memory"-- Provided by publisher.