Jones and the Late Roman Economy

On March 4th 1965, a brilliant review of A.H.M. Jones? Later Roman Empire was published in The Oxford Magazine. Indeed, the Later Roman Empire seems to be a typically English book. Continental scholars, although acclaiming Jones? outstanding mastery of the primary sources, were struck by his obvious neglect of secondary literature. Although very few modern scholars are mentioned, and although there is little explicit discussion of their work, the author argues that Jones conducted an intrinsic dialogue not only with his English predecessors Gibbon, Bury and Baynes, but also with the major continental reconstructions of the later Roman empire, especially with Mommsen, Seeck, Rostovtzeff, and Stein. Jones, was a fluent reader of French, German and Italian, and had read much more of continental scholarship. This chapter concludes with a brief survey of the prehistory of the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire that also proves Jones? indebtedness to continental scholarship.