By the Emperor’s Hand: Military Dress and Court Regalia in the Later Romano-Byzantine Empire Hardcover – January 20, 2016

This book addresses in great detail the clothing worn by Medieval Eastern Romans who would have been in some proximity to Imperial Court. It offers great insight into how Eastern Roman Imperials styled themselves. Lots of pics. Lots of detail.

Nice job with discussing and providing examples of Byzantine attire. It's difficult for people to picture the Byzantines if you have no idea what sort of clothes they wore, but this book helps.

This book is a fantastic overview of Roman clothing in the medieval period, stretching from the mid 6th to the mid 15th century, with gorgeous and extraordinarily accurate and well researched illustrations provided by Graham Sumner. I have debated and discussed topics with both the author, Timothy Dawson, and Graham Sumner personally, and I can vouch that both of them are very reputable authors having published a multitude of works in their field and that this book, which has been a decade or more in the making, is extraordinarily well researched. The book uses a myriad of surviving textile fragments, primary and secondary textual sources, and Romano-Byzantine art to effectively reconstruct the clothing of the period.One of the best aspects of this book is that it takes all the advanced terminology regarding Roman clothing and breaks it down, so a less-knowledgable reader can discern what the author is referring to when the author assemble a panoply of dress for a particular court official or military rank. In many cases, it almost serves as a guide to reconstructing medieval Roman dress for reenactment purposes. However, this book is very much a scholarly work analyzing and presenting new information and theories on medieval Roman dress, its influences, and how it influenced European and Arabic/Turkish dress. It also clearly shows the Romans maintained their own distinct "Romanness" through their dress and military equipment right up to the end of their empire.As an amateur scholar of Late Antique Roman and Hunnic history, I gladly recommend this book.

I love this book for the systematic manner of explaining the details of Byzantine attire. There are useful schematics and diagrams to explain the various types of garments and the high point for me were the many beautiful illustrations which support the admirable text. Highly recommended.