Daniel Washburn's book is a learned and pioneering study arising from the author's PhD thesis at Stanford University. It covers the period of Late Antiquity, here traditionally understood as the period from the reign of Diocletian up to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and it includes a number of in-depth case studies of both clerical and secular exile cases. W. rightfully defines the scope of his project as dealing with ‘intentional forms of banishment, especially those produced by official procedures' (3). He therefore excludes from consideration cases of displaced refugees when there is no indication of banishment ordered by state or church authorities. In so doing, the book makes it clear that it does not want to give a full prosopographical list of exile cases attested for Late Antiquity, but rather W. concentrates on a well selected number of exile cases that are suitable for drawing conclusions on the procedural circumstances, the daily life of exiled people and the diversity of legal categories and their implications. The book therefore fills a gap in the current state of scholarly discussion as there are a number of studies available on exile in the Classical word, but little attention has so far been paid to Late Antiquity, despite the richness of the sources extant on exile for this particular period.

The book is based on broad (however not complete) source material for this question, including legal texts, histories, treatises, correspondence and oratory, which are normally available in translation. It also takes into account a number of relevant sources from the early Roman period, thus drawing a number of Kontinuitätslinien, while the obvious difference in Late Antiquity is the emergence of Christianity as the state religion and the doctrinal controversies resulting from this. Starting with a brief and pointed discussion of the terminology of exile and the state of research on late antique law-giving, the author sets out to describe the legal categories associated with it, arguing that exile was a privileged form of punishment, as indeed it was since the Classical world. His argument can be bolstered by the fact that some exiles simply disregarded a sentence of exile without consequence, rather than waiting for its revocation (for example, Demophilus of Constantinople). W. then goes on to explore the reciprocity of secular and ecclesiastical authorities in cases of clerics exiled because of doctrinal controversies — disregarding, however, a great number of clerics that were exiled for disciplinary reasons, for example, adultery (whether or not this was a pretext for doctrinal issues or power conflicts). While one of W.'s arguments is that heretics were expected to be corrected in exile (52), there is surprisingly little evidence that people in exile did indeed change their views (152–60). This leads to a study on the rôle of state authorities and the various offices potentially involved in the process according to their geographical or administrative sphere.

The next chapter deals with the enforcement of exile sentences. It should be noted, however, that escorts who conducted exiled individuals to their designated locations are rarely attested, and it is therefore doubtful whether or not legal texts of the high empire were still applicable in Late Antiquity (82–94). For example, while there is evidence for agentes in rebus acting as supervisors of people in exile, this was probably limited to high profile cases such as that of Bishop Liberius of Rome, especially given the large number of exile cases in the fourth and fifth centuries — as W. agrees (94–7). It is not clear, however, that property confiscation and loss of office were any longer mostly associated with the legal category of deportatio (98, 131), as property confiscation is generally attested for exile in Late Antiquity, and exiled bishops, for example, were usually replaced by a successor, although some stayed in touch with their congregation. The final chapters of the book deal with banished individuals themselves, the kinds of offences and social classes associated with exile, the living-conditions of people in exile and the possibilities of return.

A key point of this study is the unwillingness of non-legal sources accurately to distinguish between different forms of exile, thus raising the question of whether or not legal definitions and differentiations transmitted from the early and high empire are applicable to late Roman practice. This book could, therefore, have benefited from a systematic concluding chapter. Another interesting thought is that banished clerics portrayed their fate as a continuation of martyrdom (130–1), even though the emperors exiled dissident clerics in order to avoid bloodshed. Future research could involve a closer examination of medical metaphors associated with exile and their application in polemical treatises and in medical practice, especially since religious deviators were not always sent to remote locations where they were unable to disseminate contagious teaching (53–64, 134–7). Nor did exile regularly mean loneliness (126). Other potential aspects worthy of exploration are the relationship between excommunication (or communion) and exile and the practice of exile aggravated by confinement to a prison, monastery or fortress, the aspect of voluntary exile, the rôle of church councils and of ecclesiastical authorities, and the dissemination of religious ideas in exile.

This engagingly written and well-structured book is an interesting study on a good number of aspects that are crucial to understanding exile in Late Antiquity. Future scholarship will have to take into account the key arguments of this work.