James Douglas Howard-Johnston (born 12 March 1942), is an English historian of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. He was University Lecturer in

Byzantine Studies Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, demography, dress, religion/theology, art, literature/epigraphy, music, science, economy, coinage and politics of the Eastern Roman ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. He is an emeritus fellow of

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12t ...

. His approach on Byzantium follows that of

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, '' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, i ...

and concentrates on comparisons between the Byzantine state and its Western counterparts. Also, Howard-Johnston has done much research on

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

, especially the Roman-Persian Wars and the Coming of Islam.

''Alexiad'' authorship

In 1989 Howard-Johnston asserted that

The Alexiad The ''Alexiad'' ( el, Ἀλεξιάς, Alexias) is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial ...

Anna Komnene Anna Komnene ( gr, Ἄννα Κομνηνή, Ánna Komnēnḗ; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine princess and author of the ''Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine emperor, ...

could not have been written by a "Constantinople-bound princess" and that "the detailed and conversant campaign narratives of the ''Alexiad'' can only have been constructed by a 'latterday icProcopius' or retired soldier."

Bibliography

* ''The Last Great War of Antiquity''. (2020) * ''Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century''. (2010) * ''The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Essays on the contribution of Peter Brown''. (1999) * ''The Scholar & the Gypsy: Two Journeys to Turkey – Past and Present''. (1992) * ''Studies in the Organization of the Byzantine Army in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries''. (1971)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard-Johnston, James English historians Living people British Byzantinists 1942 births English male non-fiction writers Scholars of Byzantine history