MICHAEL DECKER Maroulis Professor of Byzantine History and Orthodox Religion at the University of South Florida, USA. He earned his DPhil from Oxford University and was Andrew Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow at Rice University in Houston. He has written extensively on Byzantine Syria and agrarian history of the Levant.J. ERIC COOPER earned his DPhil from Oxford University, UK. Since then, he has worked for several leading Wall Street firms before becoming the CEO of the consultancy firm Akrites, LLC. He has published in several fields and maintains an active interest in Byzantine history and archaeology.