“Ours will be a genuine voyage though the late Roman world in a vital year for its political development. We will undertake one of those circular routes so dear to the late antique compilers of 'worldwide gazetteers'. Beginning from the most politically significant event of 428 AD – the fall of the kingdom of Greater Armenia – we will cross the Mediterranean and Europe, then bear East, arriving finally at the Silk Road and the borders of other worlds. Along the way we will pass cities and deserts, palaces and monasteries, pagan schools and Christian sanctuaries. Above all, we will undertake this journey with the dramatis personae of this long year: the emperors Theodosius II, Valentinian III and Vahrâm V; Roman generals such as Flavius Dionysius; barbarian leaders such as Genseric or warlords such as the Saracen al-Mundhir. Then there's religious men like Symeon the Stylite, Paulin of Nola and Augustine; powerful women such as Galla Placidia and Pulcheria; pagan intellectuals like Macrobius or Plutarch of Athens; influential bishops such as the Syrian Rabbula or the Coptic Shenoute. The background is the dissolution of the Roman Empire. Or, if you prefer, the dawn of the Middle Ages”.