Arnold Hugh Martin Jones FBA (9 March 1904 – 9 April 1970), known also as A. H. M. Jones or Hugo Jones, was a prominent 20th-century British historian of

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

, particularly of the later

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

Biography

Jones's best-known work, ''The Later Roman Empire, 284–602'' (1964), is sometimes considered the definitive narrative history of late Rome and early

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...

, beginning with the reign of the Roman tetrarch

Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...

and ending with that of the Byzantine emperor Maurice. One of the most common modern criticisms of this work is its almost total reliance on literary and epigraphic primary sources, a methodology which mirrored Jones's own

historiographical Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

training. Archaeological study of the period was in its infancy when Jones wrote, which limited the amount of

material culture Material culture is culture manifested by the Artifact (archaeology), physical objects and architecture of a society. The term is primarily used in archaeology and anthropology, but is also of interest to sociology, geography and history. The fie ...

he could include in his research. He published his first book, ''The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces'', in 1937. In 1946, he was appointed to the chair of the Ancient History department at University College, London. In 1951, he moved to

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and assumed the same post there. He was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

in 1947. Jones was reportedly an extremely fast reader with an encyclopedic memory. His disdain for "small talk" sometimes made him seem remote and cold to those who did not know him well, but he was warmly regarded by his students. He was sometimes criticized for not fully acknowledging the work of other scholars in his own footnotes, a habit he was aware of and apologized for in the preface to his first book. Jones died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

in 1970 while travelling by boat to

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

to give a series of lectures. In 1972, John Crook published posthumously Jones' draft of ''The Criminal Courts of the Roman Republic and Principate''.John Crook, preface to A. H. M. Jones, ''The Criminal Courts of the Roman Republic and Principate'', Blackwell, 1972, pp. v, vi.

Legacy

Since Jones' death, popular awareness of his work has often been overshadowed by the work of scholars of

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, a period which did not exist as a separate field of study during his lifetime. Late Antiquity scholars frequently refer to him, however, and his enormous contributions to the study of the period are widely acknowledged.

Works

* ''History of Abyssinia'' (1935) * ''The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1937). * ''The Herods of Judaea'' (1938) * ''The Greek City from Alexander to Justinian'' (1940) * ''Ancient Economic History'' (1948) * ''Constantine and the Conversion of Europe'' (1948) * ''Athenian Democracy'' (1957) * ''Studies in Roman Government and Law'' (1960) * ''The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey'' (1964) *''The Decline of the Ancient World'' (1966) * ''Sparta'' (1967) * ''Augustus'' (1970) * ''The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'', with John Robert Martindale and John Morris (1971) *''The Criminal Courts of the Roman Republic and Principate'' (1972).

Biography

Legacy

Works

References

Further reading