This work was written by a Byzantine emperor and is a manual for his son on how to deal with the various governments surrounding the empire in the 1010's. It has historical sketches of the later Balkan nations and ranges as far afield as the Arabs, and Scandinavians. A very informative text and is sometimes the only written text on some points. This is a standard and long-lived translation, edited by a Croatian scholar and translated into english by a renowned byzantinist. Still a standard text. ( )

An excellent resource for the student of Byzantine political theory. ( )