On the Administration of the Empire (De Administrando Imperio)

the translator takes responsibility for everything printed in the English version, he is happy to make this cordial acknowledgment to his senior colleague The "senior colleague" refers to Gyula Moravcsik, who was the primary editor of the original Greek text..

Edition and translation are complementary. For all that, their purposes are not quite identical; and it has been necessary that a few corruptions and errors which stand in the text of Constantine Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the 10th-century emperor who compiled the work. should be corrected in the version. We have therefore printed in italic those few words or phrases of the translation which do not correspond exactly with the text. References to the present edition are cited by chapter and line of the chapter; in such citations the letter «P» stands for «Proem» original: "Προοίμιον" (Prooimion); a formal introduction or preface to a literary work., that is, the introductory passage which precedes chapter 1.

Fifty years ago two scholars, the Hungarian R. Vári Rezső Vári (1867–1940), a classical scholar known for his work on Byzantine military texts. and the Englishman J. B. Bury John Bagnell Bury (1861–1927), one of the most influential historians of the later Roman and Byzantine Empires., were already concerning themselves with the preparation of a new edition of Constantine. In bringing to fulfilment what they were compelled to abandon, we dedicate this work to the memory of both.