Weaving together evolutionary microbiology, economics, military strategy, ecology, and ancient and modern medicine, author Rosen tells of history's first pandemic--a plague seven centuries before the Black Death that killed tens of millions, devastated the empires of Persia and Rome, left victims from Ireland to Iraq, and opened the way for the armies of Islam. Emperor Justinian had reunified Rome's fractured empire by defeating the Goths and Vandals...

"In The Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire Michael Grant examines the reasons for the collapse of the third-century Roman Empire including analyses of the succession of emperors, the Germans and the Persians and conversely, the reasons for its recovery including discussions of strong emperors, a reconstituted army, finance and coinage and state religion." "The Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire presents a concise study of third-century...

John Julius Norwich tell the story of the Byzantine EMpire from its beginnings to the emergence of its only European rival, the Holy Roman Epire in AD 800.