The works submitted for publication cover a wide chronological and thematic range of subjects. The volume opens with an article that poses an important and interesting problem of eastern influence on the formation of the appearance of East Roman (Byzantine) statehood. Of undoubted interest is the work "Astrology and Politics in Byzantium of the 5th Century," in which the development of such a peculiar branch of medieval scientific knowledge as astrology is revealed by the example of one of the episodes of late Roman political history.