Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire

Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (abbreviated as PLRE) is a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date of the beginning of Gallienus' sole rule, to 641, the date of the death of Heraclius. Sources cited include histories, literary texts, inscriptions, and miscellaneous written sources. Individuals who are known only from dubious sources (e.g., the Historia Augusta), as well as identifiable people whose names have been lost, are included with signs indicating the reliability.

A project of the British Academy, the work set out with the goal of doing

"...for the later Empire what the Prosopographia Imperii Romani has done for the Principate, to provide the materials for the study of the governing class of the Empire. The majority of the entries will be persons holding official posts or rank together with their families, and the work will not include clerics except in so far as they come into the above categories."[1]

The volumes were published by Cambridge University Press, and involved many authors and contributors. Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Robert Martindale, and John Morris were the principal editors.

  • Volume 1, published on March 2, 1971, comes to 1,176 pages and covers the years from 260 to 395.
  • Volume 2, published on October 9, 1980, comes to 1,355 pages and covers the years from 395 to 527.
  • Volume 3, published on October 15, 1992 is itself a two-volume boxed set coming to a total of 1,626 pages and covering the years from 527 to 641.

The Prosopography of the Byzantine World project aims to extend the coverage to the year 1265.

References
  1. "Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire", Journal of Roman Studies, 40 (1950), p. 189.
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