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Two astronomical diaries, dating to the year 216 of the Seleucid Era (=95 bc), refer to the Crown Prince ti-ig-ra-nu, i.e. the Armenian king Tigran ‚the Great‘ (95-ca. 55 bc). A fresh reading of the texts allows us to resolve some passages and propose a historical commentary of the events related to Greater Armenia, from the death of Artawazd I to the beginning of Tigran’s reign after his staying in Lower Mesopotamia as a royal hostage.

In the XVth chapter of his monograph Armenia in the Period of Justinian, Nikolaj Adontz traced a short but important outline of the problems of land tenure in the kingdom of Greater Armenia. Adontz eventually praised the documentary value of the History of Armenia (Patmut‘iwn Hayoc‘) by Movsēs Xorenats‘i, a historian who nowadays is considered with suspicion. In his historiographical work, he claims that the Arsacid dynasty founded the basis of the society of the kingdom of Greater Armenia, including the organization of landed property. Accordingly, Xorenats‘i is, to a certain extent, more sensitive to the Realien than the other contemporary Armenian historiographers, who prefer to concentrate on social relations rather than considering the material and administrative aspects of rural economy.

Mazzarino’s considerations on the 3rd century Syriac political thought make a good standpoint for a research on Oriental gentes and their relationship with the Roman Empire after the Constitutio Antoniniana. This complex question requests a multiple approach, at the same time juridical, social and ethnological. Some cases of integration, such as the Palmyrene Septimius Vor¯od, the Arab Imru’al- Qays, and especially the Armenian Gilakios (a chieftain serving under Justinian during the Gothic war) are hereby analyzed. A cross-comparison of historiographical and juridical texts allows us to put the bases for a non-formalistic study of the evidence.

After thirty years, the reissue of Economia e società nell' "ltalia annonaria" (ESIA) shows even more clearly the innovative character of Lellia [Gracco] Ruggini's masterly book, only partly recognised by reviewers at the time. By making plain that IVth- Vlth century Northern Italy did not experience agricultural or commercial collapse, L. C. R. broke with the « dark ages » historiographical myth; by redefining the transition from Antiquity to Middle Ages as a "pseudomorphosis" she required a revision of traditional periodisation. A pioneering book also in its interest in late antique landscape, ESIA provided a poweiful stimulus for the land surveys which have since developed. It still represents a model of balance between socio-economic description and cultural, ideological and religious history; between analysis and synthesis, erudition and interpretation.