Even though it has reached a level of maturity difficult to imagine a few decades ago and has differentiated itself from the ‘Classical’ and ‘Medieval’ periods, Late Antiquity as a field of study is still young and is not sure what it is and where it might go. However, such openness and fluidity is one of its attractions, not least because there is always room for surprise. For example, who would have imagined that the boundaries of late antiquity might be signalled by a text written in a monastery in Ireland in the year 845 c.e. and in a Chinese-Syriac stele set up in 781 c.e. in the T'ang capital of central China? This magnificent new Handbook sets out to show why this was the case.

These boundary markers, as J.'s preface and Inglebert's introduction emphasise, represent the transmission of texts and ideas that were the hallmark of the later Roman world, and to which Christianity in all its varieties (including Manichaeism), Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Islam and classic polytheism contributed. The trajectory of these transmissions, and hence of the handbook, moved East along the Silk Road. Thus, the world of late antiquity here circumscribed – the volume is fittingly dedicated to Peter Brown and Averil Cameron – revolved around two central poles, the post-Tetrarchic Roman Empire and the post-Roman kingdoms in the West and Constantinople, and the Sassanian Persian Empire. In addition, several other regions were of paramount importance: Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Danube region, Spain, North Africa and Asia Minor ‘emerge[d] as vibrant microcosms of their own in the medieval period, [but] built upon the foundation of Late Antiquity, [so that] the transitional period of, roughly 500 to 800 c.e. now appears more important than previously recognized for defining what Late Antiquity as a whole was really about’ (p. xvii). The volume delineates the cultural, economic and political trajectories that interconnected these far-flung regions and made them into the world of late antiquity – or nearly so, since it soon becomes apparent that the Roman Empire asserts its dominance.

In Part 1, Kulikowski demonstrates the extent to which the ‘kingdoms’ that replaced Roman control in the fifth-century West conformed to the traditional Roman engagement of client kings on the borders of the empire and emerged only in the sixth and seventh centuries as actual kingdoms. Maas' succinct analysis of ancient Roman attitudes towards barbarians addresses the impact of recent scholarship on invasions, migrations and ethnogenesis on the question of the decline and fall of the western Empire. The book then moves East, leaving aside the cities of Rome, Constantinople, Milan, Ravenna and Antioch – though they sneak back in later sections.

Caldwell III's chapter on Pannonia, Dalmatia and Thrace is followed by Greenwood's lucid survey of the religious and social history of late-antique Armenia. De la Vaissière then travels along the Silk Road, the ‘precise history [of which], especially during the late Antique period, is mostly unknown to the Western reader’ (p. 142). His welcome introduction to the history of the region traces the economic and political developments from the Hunnic invasion in the fourth century to the eighth, when the network known as the Silk Road came to an end. Wood's and Boud'hors's chapters on the Syriac and Coptic Christian literary traditions lead the return to the Roman world, and are followed by Papaconstantinou's exemplary discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic history of late-antique Egypt, which she considers paradigmatic for Roman provinces. J. Robin's chapter on Arabia and Ethiopia concludes Part 1 with a discussion of the concept of an Arabic identity. As has become apparent, some regions J. signals as particularly important are not covered, though all chapters offer a tremendous amount of information and new insights.

Part 2, ‘Literary and Philosophical Culture’, opens with exemplary chapters on Latin and Greek poetry by McGill and Agosti and one by Croke on historiography. Watts focuses on Athens, Antioch and Alexandria to illustrate Roman educational practices and the impact of Christianity, followed by A. Johnson's reflections on the significance of notions of ‘Greeks’ and ‘Greekness’, which signified a far more complex web of religious, ethnic and cultural markers than implied by the label ‘pagan’ as which Hellen (‘Greek’) is often rendered. Rubenson's chapter on monasticism complements Watts and Johnson, arguing that many monks were literate and acted as philosophical teachers so that traditional philosophical schools played a significant part in shaping monastic ideals (p. 505). Smith, ‘Physics and Metaphysics’, and J., ‘Travel, Cartography, and Cosmology’, present intriguing and illuminating explorations of late ancient science (except medicine). J. highlights encyclopaedism as its own aesthetic enterprise, exemplified in the interconnected genres of travel literature, visual representations of space and the study of the heavens.

Part 3, ‘Law, State, and Social Structures’, is firmly anchored in the late Roman world. Banaji's excellent chapter on economic trends is followed by Grey's exploration of ecology, crop rotation, labour regimes and land tenancy, and Harper's provocative and informative chapter on marriage and family life, in which he demonstrates that Christianity did not lead to a radical transformation, despite its demand for ‘sexual exclusivity from both partners and [its treatment of] marriage as a unique and indissoluble bond’ (p. 693). Horden's chapter concludes that while hospitals made little quantitative difference for the poor, the very idea of them had great significance. Harries's lucid chapter on law and legal culture, Uhalde's contribution to the enforcement of laws and Mathisen's excellent overview of changing notions of citizenship from the Constitutio Antoniniana onwards are complemented by Gillett's exploration of letters and letter collections. Gillett offers a salutary reminder of how much we do not know, especially regarding gifts accompanying letters or the reasons why letters might have been collected.

Maxwell's chapter on paganism and Christianisation opens Part 4, ‘Religions and Religious Identity’, and highlights the fluidity of religious identity, cautioning that the fighting words of prominent bishops and holy men did not represent the majority. Gwynn's chapter on the development of the episcopal office, Wessel's discussion of the role of forgery in establishing tradition in theological debates and Yasin's exploration of art and sacred space in late-antique churches with a particular emphasis on the effect of colour, light and sound on the visitors, provide invaluable insights into late-antique Christianity. Peers argues persuasively that in the eyes of many late-antique Christians inanimate objects responded to divine presence just as living beings did. Only at this juncture does the focus return to the non-Roman East with Walker's discussion of the spread of the Nestorian or East-Syrian Church through Sassanian Persia to central Asia, India and China. Hoyland subsequently engages the controversial late-antique-ness of early Islam, focusing on asceticism, classical science and philosophy, to conclude that early Islam emerged in an Arabia informed by its connections to the wider late-antique world. Shoemaker's in-depth discussion of Muhammad and the Qur'an stresses the paucity of factual information in early biographies of Muhammad and the Qur'an's eschatological message.

The final part, ‘Late Antiquity in Perspective’, contains Haldon's wide-ranging discussion of comparative state formation, using examples from the later Roman Empire, Sassanian Persia, the early Muslim caliphates, India and China to explore what it takes to maintain wide-ranging empires over time. Guran then turns to Constantinople to examine the impact of late-antique literary genres such as hagiography, theological and liturgical writings on later Byzantium, while Celenza traces the impact of late-antique Neoplatonism on the Italian Renaissance.

J. has assembled a comprehensive collection of first rate articles that will figure prominently on the reading lists for graduate and undergraduate courses in years to come and will prove indispensable for scholarly research. Inevitably, the book is selective. Given the explicit call for an expanded vision of the world of late antiquity and the emphasis on two poles, the actual focus on the Roman Mediterranean might be critically noted, but it is no more of a drawback than it was for the magisterial work of Pirenne. Many contributions remind the reader that the borders of the late-antique world stretched far and are open to discussion. Even when they are more narrowly conceived as Roman Mediterranean, there is room for surprise. This book is a magnificent testimony to the continued vitality of late antiquity.