The first comprehensive reference book covering every aspect of history, culture, religion, and life in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East (including the Persian Empire and Central Asia) between the mid-3rd and the mid-8th centuries AD~Consisting of two volumes and more than one million words in 5,000 A-Z entries, written by more than 400 contributors~Multi-disciplinary, providing information on such diverse fields as political history, law, and administration; military history; religion and philosophy; education; social and economic history; material culture; art and architecture; trade and technology; the natural world; science; literature; and music~Drawing heavily on the latest scholarship, written by a formidable international team of advisers and contributors, and edited with both flair and attention to detail by Professor Oliver Nicholson