The complexity of this period and lack of good source material have deterred many authors from writing books about emperors, though there is no shortage of detailed studies. An excellent overview is provided by Maas, M., ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila (Cambridge, 2015). For the eastern Empire, there are good works on parts of Arcadius’ reign by Cameron, A., and Long, J., Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius (Berkeley, 1993) and Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G., Barbarians and Bishops (Oxford, 1991). On Chrysostom, see Kelly, J. N. D., Golden Mouth (London, 1995) and Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G., Ambrose and John Chrysostom: Clerics between Desert and Empire (Oxford, 2011). For Theodosius II, Millar, F., A Greek Roman Empire (Berkeley, 2006) provides an excellent introduction, as do the various essays in Kelly, C., ed., Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 2013) and Elton, H. W., “Imperial Politics at the Court of Theodosius II,” in Cain, A., and Lenski, N., eds., The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity (Aldershot, 2009), 133–142. A challenging perspective, though one rejected here, is provided by Holum, K., Theodosian Empresses (Berkeley, 1982). Most work on Marcian’s reign has to be viewed through the perspective of the Council of Chalcedon, though a useful alternative perspective is provided by Burgess, R. W., “The Accession of Marcian in the Light of Chalcedonian Apologetic and Monophysite Polemic,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 86/87 (1993/1994), 47–68. For the climate of politics in the eastern Empire in the fifth century, Brown, P., Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (Madison, 1992) is an excellent introduction.Google Scholar

For the west, one means of approaching the reign of Honorius is provided by Cameron, A. D. E., Claudian (Oxford, 1970), another by Matthews, J. F., Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court AD 364–425 (Oxford, 1975). See also Kulikowski, M., “Barbarians in Gaul, Usurpers in Britain,” Britannia 31 (2000), 325–345, Drinkwater, J. F., “The Usurpers Constantine III (407–411) and Jovinus (411–413),” Britannia 29 (1998), 269–298, Hermanowicz, E. T., “Catholic Bishops and Appeals to the Imperial Court: A Legal Study of the Calama Riots in 408,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 12 (2004), 481–521, and Lipps, J., Machado, C., and von Rummel, P., eds., The Sack of Rome in 410 AD: The Event, Its Context and Its Impact (Wiesbaden, 2013). For Valentinian’s reign, there is surprisingly little, though see Mathisen, R. W., “Sigisvult the Patrician, Maximinus the Arian, and Political Stratagems in the Western Roman Empire c. 425–40,” Early Medieval Europe 8 (1999), 173–196, Sivan, H., Galla Placidia (Oxford, 2011), and Traina, G., 428 AD: An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire (Princeton, 2009).Google Scholar

Religious affairs are covered in different ways by McGuckin, J. A., “Nestorius and the Political Factions of Fifth-Century Byzantium: Factors in His Personal Downfall,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 78 (1996), 7–22 and Wessel, S., Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy (Oxford, 2004). For the Council of Chalcedon, see de Ste. Croix, G. E. M., and Michael Whitby, “The Council of Chalcedon,” in de Ste. Croix, G. E. M., ed., Christian Persecution, Martyrdom and Orthodoxy (Oxford, 2006), 259–319, Price, R. and Whitby, M., eds., Chalcedon in Context: Church Councils 400–700 (Liverpool, 2009), and the introduction to Gaddis, M. and Price, R., tr., The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon (Liverpool, 2007). On the Pope, see Cooper, K. and Hillner, J., eds., Religion, Dynasty, and Patronage in Early Christian Rome, 300–900 (Cambridge, 2010), Sessa, K., The Formation of Papal Authority in Late Antique Italy (Cambridge, 2011), and Dunn, G. D., ed., The Bishop of Rome in Late Antiquity (Farnham, 2015).Google Scholar

On barbarians, Heather, P. J., Goths and Romans, 332–489 (Oxford, 1991), and very differently, Kulikowski, M., Rome’s Gothic Wars (Cambridge, 2007), and Kelly, C., The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome (New York, 2008). For a perspective on the Huns as causing the collapse of the Empire, see Heather, P. J., “The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe,” English Historical Review 110 (1995), 4–41, with further developments in Heather, P., “Why Did the Barbarian Cross the Rhine?” Journal of Late Antiquity 2 (2009), 3–29. There has been much debate about barbarian settlements, ultimately in response to Goffart, W., Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418–584 (Princeton, 1980). Critics include Barnish, S. J. B., “Taxation, Land and Barbarian Settlement in the Western Empire,” Papers of the British School at Rome 54 (1986), 170–195. See also Goffart, W., “The Technique of Barbarian Settlement in the Fifth Century: A Personal, Streamlined Account with Ten Additional Comments,” Journal of Late Antiquity 3 (2010), 65–98, and Halsall, G., “The Technique of Barbarian Settlement in the Fifth Century: A Reply to Walter Goffart,” Journal of Late Antiquity 3 (2010), 99–112.Google Scholar

Regional studies include Drinkwater, J. F. and Elton, H. W., eds., Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity? (Cambridge, 1992); Poulter, A., ed., The Transition to Late Antiquity, on the Danube and Beyond: Proceedings of the British Academy 141 (Oxford, 2008); and Conant, J., Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700 (Cambridge, 2012).Google Scholar