This book contains new critical editions of two early and important examples of the most popular Late Roman historical genres and the first ever English translation of Hydatius. The first, the Chronicle of Hydatius, is an account of the beginning of the collapse of the Roman Empire and the end of the world under the twin pressures of barbarian invasion and heresy between AD 378 and 468/9, written by a Spanish bishop who lived in the first independent barbarian state established within the Empire. The second, the Consularia Constantinopolitana, is a complex document of differing dates and hands which was continued down to AD 468 with the addition of many detailed historical entries. They provide an indispensable contemporary account of the fourth century AD. These editions, based on the first ever examination of all surviving manuscripts, are provided with detailed introductions and appendices.

R.W. Burgess' profile page

R. W. Burgess is a professor of Classics at the University of Ottawa and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has written five books, over forty articles and chapters, and almost seventy encyclopaedia entries on chronicles, numismatics, late Roman and Byzantine historiography, and late Roman history.

"E.A. Thompson's call (in Nottingham Mediaeval Studies, 1979) for an 'authoritative' edition of the Chronicle is here handsomely answered. A thorough and rigorous examination of the manuscript tradition, as well as meticulous analysis of the various chronological systems which governed the organisation of the material has exposed error and confusion in Mommsen's presentation of the text. Burgess has gone to immense trouble to present his text designed to reproduce on the page as far as possible the structure of the original Chronicle... Burgess's work will surely rank as a model of Latin scholarship." --Early Medieval Europe

"This is a more important book than most editions of well-known ancient texts ... there can be no doubt that this book presents the two texts in a far more reliable form than we have had, with a translation for which both students and their teachers will be grateful, and that it also makes a major contribution to our understanding of late Roman chronicles." --R.A. Markus, Ecclesiastical History, Volume 45, No. 4 - 1994

"... a book for the specialist ... makes more exciting reading than a consular list stretching from 509 B.C. to A.D. 468." --Greece and Rome

"Burgess's main purpose here, splendidly achieved, is to furnish a new edition of Hydatius' text based on a meticulous examination of the dauntingly complex manuscript tradition, a much-needed exercise. The edition is accompanied by a valuable translation, the first in English. This is a remarkable book by a gifted scholar, and we eagerly await the further editions and commentaries that he promises us." --C.E.V. Nixon, Macquarie University, N.S.W., Phoenix 49.3 (1995)

"a valuable addition ... also presents valuable insights into early medieval historiographic manuscript compilation ... B.'s reviewing of knowable facts about Hydatius and the composition of his Chronicle is valuable ... The text itself is excellent. Altogether this new presentation of the text impresses the reader with Hydatius' care as a chronographer. B.'s working displays skilful scholarship and exhaustive diligence, distilled into a volume which will be much appreciated by all users, and advancing the study not only of the two texts involved but more generally of late antique historiography." --Andrew Gillett, Macquarie University, Journal of Roman Studies