Late Antiquity saw the division and collapse of the Roman Empire and the emergence of two distinct heirs to its legacy: the Roman Catholic West and the Orthodox Byzantine Empire. After a series of disasters in the fifth century, the last Roman emperor in the West was deposed in 476. The society that evolved in the wake of imperial collapse was built on a blend of Greco-Roman, Germanic, and Christian elements. It was far more fragmented than its Roman predecessor, both politically and economically, with local elites claiming considerable autonomy and economic activity focused primarily on local needs. In this context, the Roman Catholic Church served as a unifying element, acting as the protector of the Classical cultural legacy, working with secular elites to establish political and social order, and providing a shared set of values and beliefs. The eastern half of the empire, which would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire, retained considerable strength and would last, in various forms, for another thousand years. Here, ties to the Classical past were stronger, urban life and regional commerce remained vibrant, and the imperial power structure remained largely intact, a fact that contributed to the subordination of the Orthodox Church to the Byzantine state. The documents in this chapter provide insight into these two societies, offering glimpses of the forces that shaped their increasingly divergent development. ■