In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Acknowledgments A number ofgenerous institutions, grants, and fellowships made it possible to research and write this book. I am pleased to acknowledge support from the Program in the Ancient World, the Group for the Study ofLate Antiquity, a Stanley J. Seeger Fellowship in Hellenic Studies, and a Junior Fellowship at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University ; an Andrew W Mellon Junior Faculty Fellowship through the American Council ofLearned Societies; a summer stipend from Northern Illinois University; and a Humanities Research Fund award from Ohio University and its College ofArts and Sciences. Many colleagues have provided comments along the way and I thank them all, especially Lisa Bailey, Nikolas Bakirtzis, Dani Botsman, Kim Bowes, Jeffrey Bowman, Scott Bruce, Santiago Castellanos, Adam Davis, Crystal Feimster, Abigail Firey, Michael Gaddis, Ignacio Gallup-Diaz, James Goehring, David Gordon, Patrick Griffin, Evan Haefeli, Erika Thorgerson Hermanowicz, Judith Herrin, Jennifer Hevelone-Harper, William Klingshirn , Tia Kolbaba, Michael Kulikowski, Noel Lenski, Ralph Mathisen, Rob Meens, Leonora Neville, Thomas Noble, Bruce O'Brien, Claudia Rapp, Teofilo Ruiz, Danuta Shanzer, Brent Shaw, Dennis Trout, Raymond Van Dam, and Joel Walker. Peter Brown read more than one "final" version of the manuscript leading to the present book. My debt to him will be obvious throughout these pages, so here I only need to express my deepest gratitude for his kindness and generosity over the past decade. What lowe the medievalist William Jordan is less conspicuous in this study but just as real; above all, he has tried to make me make better sense. I take sole responsibility for the judgments and any remaining errors or infelicities in this book. It would be much poorer without Christopher MacEvitt, Jaclyn Maxwell , Jarbel Rodriguez, Kristina Sessa, and Joshua Sosin, each ofwhom read the entire manuscript at some point. I am happy to acknowledge the support ofmy family, which has waited a long time to see some concrete evidence of my work. My sister Yvette, my brother Rene and his wife Amanda, and my parents Ruth and Ray are a loving group of people I am proud to call my own. My wife Jackie has been a tolerant friend and prudent advisor, even while finishing her own book and bearing our son, Oscar. I dedicate this book to all of them. ...

Share