Author Description

The Lost History of Peter the Patrician provides an annotated translation from the Greek of the fragments of the lostHistory of Peter the Patrician (ca. 500-565) and of additional fragments sometimes attributed to Peter, though since the 19th century more often referred to as the work of the Roman historian Cassius Dio's (ca. 164-229) so-called Anonymous Continuer. Annotation focuses on the historical and historiographical rather than philological, providing a strong framework for the understanding of this increasingly important source for the third and fourth centuries A.D. In addition, it aims to clarify the relationship of Peter's work to that of Cassius Dio. With an introduction on Peter himself - a distinguished administrator and diplomat at the court of Justinian -, his literary output, the relationship of the fragments of Peter's History to the fragments of the Anonymous Continuer, and the contentious issue of the place of this evidence within the framework of late antique historiography, The Lost History of Peter the Patrician will be invaluable for anybody interested in understanding the history of the Roman world in general and of the third and fourth centuries A.D. in particular.