This is the best sort of military history. In a field that produces no shortage of (often excellent) work on the reification of ethnic communities or subversive intertextual discourses, Alexander Sarantis writes about forts, roads, equipment, diplomacy, and coin hoards, and he does it very well.

Alexander Sarantis. Justinian's Balkan Wars: Campaigning, Diplomacy and Development in Illyricum, Thrace and the Northern World, A.D. 527-65. ARCA Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs, 53. Prenton, UK: Francis Cairns Publications, 2016.

From The Medieval Review (TMR). Review by Brian Swain, Kennesaw State University