For a series of stimulating essays on various aspects of the period see Allen, P. and Jeffreys, E. M., eds., The Sixth Century – End or Beginning? (Brisbane 1996). For Anastasius, Haarer, F., Anastasius I: Politics and Empire in the Late Roman World (Cambridge, 2006), while Greatrex, G., Rome and Persia at War, 502–532 (Leeds 1998) covers the military history in detail. On Justin, Vasiliev, A. A., Justin I (Cambridge, MA, 1950) presents a perspective minimising Justin’s independence; for a convincing rebuttal, see Croke, B., “Justinian under Justin: Reconfiguring a Reign,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 100 (2007), 13–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

For Justinian, the best introduction is Maas, M., ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2005), with the best single monograph being Evans, J. A. S., The Age of Justinian (London, 1996). Justinian’s reign is controversial, with some scholars seeing it as a heavily oppressive state, a view strongly expressed by Kaldellis, A., Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, History and Philosophy at the End of Antiquity (Philadelphia, 2004), Honoré, A., Tribonian (London, 1978), and Bell, P., Social Conflict in the Age of Justinian (Oxford, 2013). Also recommended are Arjava, A., “The Mystery Cloud of 536 CE in the Mediterranean Sources,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 59 (2005), 73–94, Cameron, A., Circus Factions (Oxford, 1976), Feissel, D. and I. Kaygusuz. “Un mandement impérial du VI siècle dans une inscription d’Hadrianoupolis d’Honoriade,” Travaux et Mémoires 9 (1985), 397–419, Foss, C., “The Empress Theodora,” Byzantion 72 (2002), 141–176, Greatrex, G., “The Nika Riot: A Reappraisal,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 117 (1997), 60–86, Harrison, M., A Temple for Byzantium (London, 1989), Little, L. K., ed., Plague and the End of Antiquity (Cambridge, 2007), and Watts, E., “Justinian, Malalas, and the End of Athenian Philosophical Teaching in AD 529,” Journal of Roman Studies 94 (2004), 168–182. For church politics, see Menze, V., Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Oxford, 2008), Wood, P., “We Have No King but Christ”: Christian Political Thought in Greater Syria on the Eve of the Arab Conquest (c.400–585) (Oxford, 2011), as well as Millar, F. G. B., “Rome, Constantinople and the Near Eastern Church under Justinian: Two Synods of C.E. 536,” Journal of Roman Studies 98 (2008), 62–82, Millar, F. G. B., “Linguistic Co-existence in Constantinople: Greek and Latin (and Syriac) in the Acts of the Synod of 536 C.E.,” Journal of Roman Studies 99 (2009), 92–103, and Wickham, L. R., “Aspects of Clerical Life in the Early Byzantine Church in Two Scenes: Mopsuestia and Apamaea,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 46 (1995), 3–18.Google Scholar

On the Balkans, see Wozniak, F. E., “East Rome, Ravenna and Western Illyricum,” Historia 30 (1981), 351–382, Curta, F., The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700 A.D. (Cambridge, 2001), and Sarantis, A., Justinian’s Balkan Wars: Campaigns, Diplomacy and Development in Illyricum, Thrace and the Northern World, A.D. 527–65 (Cambridge, 2015).Google Scholar

For society in Italy, see Amory, P., People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554 (Cambridge, 1997). For Egypt, McCoull, L., Dioscurus of Aphrodito: His Work and His World (Berkeley, 1988), Salomon, R., “A Papyrus from Constantinople (Hamburg Inv. No. 410),” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 34 (1948), 98–108, Sarris, P., Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2009), and Van Minnen, P., “Dioscurus and the Law,” in MacDonald, A. A., et al., eds., Learned Antiquity (Louvain, 2003), 115–134.Google Scholar