Introduction for Chapter 7

7 Late Antiquity

250–600

The Roman Empire, with its powerful — and sometimes bizarre — leaders, magnificent buildings, luxurious clothing, and bloody amusements, has long fascinated people. Politicians and historians have closely studied the reasons for its successes and have even more closely analyzed the weaknesses that led to its eventual collapse. From the third century onward, the Western Roman Empire slowly disintegrated. Scholars have long seen this era as one of the great turning points in Western history, a time when the ancient world was transformed into the very different medieval world. During the last several decades, however, focus has shifted to continuities as well as changes, and what is now usually termed “late antiquity” has been recognized as a period of creativity and adaptation, not simply of decline and fall.

The two main agents of continuity in late antiquity were the Christian Church and the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire. Missionaries and church officials spread Christianity within and far beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, bringing with them the Latin language and institutions based on Roman models. The Byzantine Empire lasted until 1453, a thousand years longer than the Western Roman Empire, and preserved and transmitted much of ancient Greco-Roman law, philosophy, and institutions. The main agents of change in late antiquity were groups the Romans labeled barbarians migrating into the Roman Empire. They brought different social, political, and economic structures with them, but as they encountered Roman culture and became Christian, their own ways of doing things were also transformed.

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Life in Late Antiquity. In this sixth-century ivory carving, a procession of people carry relics of a saint to a Christian church under construction. New churches often received holy items when they were dedicated, and processions were common ways in which people expressed community devotion. (Cathedral Treasury Trier, Photo: Ann Muenchow)

CHAPTER PREVIEW

Reconstruction Under Diocletian and Constantine

How did Diocletian and Constantine try to reform the empire?

The Growth of the Christian Church

How did the Christian Church become a major force in Europe?

Barbarian Society

What were the key characteristics of barbarian society?

Migration, Assimilation, and Conflict

What were some of the causes and consequences of the barbarian migrations?

Christian Missionaries and Conversion

How did the church convert barbarian peoples to Christianity?

The Byzantine Empire

How did the Byzantine Empire preserve the legacy of Rome?

Chronology

ca. 293 Diocletian establishes the tetrarchy
313 Edict of Milan, allowing practice of all religions in the Roman Empire
325 Council of Nicaea
354–430 Life of Saint Augustine
378 Visigoths defeat the Roman army at Adrianople
380 Theodosius makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire
410 Visigoths sack Rome
429 Vandals begin their conquest of North Africa
476 Odoacer deposes the last Roman emperor in the West
ca. 481–511 Reign of Clovis
493 Theoderic establishes an Ostrogothic state in Italy
527–565 Reign of Justinian
529 The Rule of Saint Benedict
535–572 Byzantines reconquer and rule Italy
597 Pope Gregory I sends missionaries to Britain