Since the preponderance of recent studies of late antiquity have been thematically organized, there has been a relative neglect of chronology. But historical change occurred over time and has to be traced sequentially. It is important not to conflate evidence from widely disparate periods. There was an enormous difference between the Roman Empire of the fourth century, which was shaped by the actions of emperors and their oficials who were constantly on the move and actively engaged in warfare, and that of the ifth and sixth centuries, when the rulers and their courts were conined to Constantinople. The religious landscape also changed radically. In the fourth century Christianity was still challenged by the numerous forms of pagan polytheism. In the sixth century it faced no serious rivals as a universal religious system. The character of the cities of the ancient world was also transformed. In the fourth century cities were still nominally governed by local landowners, who represented local interests. During the ifth and sixth centuries this form of “constitutional” civic government was replaced by a more patriarchal system, in which power was largely monopolized by imperially nominated oficials, estate-owning grandees, or bishops. It is crucial to keep this change in view in studying the evolution of urban life in the later empire.6
The time span from the accession of Diocletian in 284 to the death of Hera-clius in 641 is a long one and the study of this period covers several concurrent and interlocking histories. It deals with the later Roman Empire, the early history of Christianity, and the barbarian invasions and settlement of western Europe, to say nothing of the newer agendas within the study of late antiquity. The geographical scope of these histories encompasses all of Europe south of the rivers Rhine and Danube, the Mediterranean basin, and the Near East, with consideration given also to the Iranian plateau, the Caucasus region, and the steppes of eastern Europe and western Asia. Each of these histories had its own chronological dynamic and developed with considerable regional variety. The chapters that follow this one provide a variety of approaches to these histories.
Chapter 2 surveys the main sources for the period, with particular emphasis on the historians. These need to be read not merely for the information they contain, but for the views they took of Roman and Christian history, and for their understanding of the world they lived in.
Chapter 3 is a chronological narrative of the history of the empire from the accession of Diocletian in 284 to the beginning of the ifth century, ending in the west with the sack of Rome by the Gothic leader Alaric, and in the east with the accession of Theodosius II. The fourth century was an age of warrior emperors, engaged in unceasing struggles against external enemies and also in civil wars against would-be usurpers. Military history is inevitably the dominant theme.
Chapter 4 takes the narrative forward until the middle years of Justinian and the great plague which swept through virtually the entire inhabited world in 542. The destinies of the eastern and western provinces of the empire parted ways during the fifth century. During this period, the supremacy of the western emperors was challenged and eventually superseded by the Germanic kingdoms, which led to their eclipse in 476. However, the eastern rulers remained closely involved in the immensely complicated political events which encompassed the end of the western emperors in 476. Meanwhile the eastern empire itself enjoyed a long period of relative stability and growing prosperity, which was largely due to peaceful relations with the Sassanian Empire along the eastern frontier. These were interrupted when war broke out with Persia at the beginning of the sixth century, but the early years of Justinian’s reign witnessed a major reassertion of Roman dominance. The unforeseeable outbreak of the plague and the other enormous setbacks which Rome encountered during the 540s mark a major caesura.
Chapter 5 is concerned with the Roman state and the nature of Roman ruler-ship. It focuses on the use of ritualized political procedures, the use of visual propaganda, the ideology of the emperors and the ruling class, and the administrative framework of the empire.
Chapter 6 is a corresponding study of the major barbarian powers of the west, including the so-called empire of the Huns, and the kingdoms of the Visigoths, Burgundians, Franks, and Ostrogoths, which assumed political power in western Europe. Within each there were contrasting forms of military organization and mechanisms for asserting state power and projecting an ideology of rulership. The continuing infiuence of the Roman Empire remained strong in all cases.
Chapter 7 traces the religious development of the Roman world after the third century. It analyses the diversity of religious practice and experience with which the period began and the reasons behind the enormous change that led Christianity to become the dominant religion of the empire by the end of the fourth century. The chapter also examines the position of the state in matters of religious tolerance, both from the perspective of pagan rulers in the face of Christianity, and of their Christian counterparts who confronted the survival of paganism.
Chapter 8 looks at the social context of religious conversion by examining the three best documented individual examples from the fourth century, the emperors Constantine and Julian, and the greatest figure in western Christianity, St Augustine. The chapter then turns to the study of Christianity as a political phenomenon in the late empire, and the evolving doctrinal disputes around the central tenets of Christian belief. Discussions were carried on amid bitter controversy at the highest level by leading bishops and theologians, under the eye of the emperors. The political objective was to establish a unified Roman state that was co-extensive with a unified Christian Church. Church politics, therefore, are central to the history of the late Roman Empire. Orthodox
Catholic Christianity became the central feature of the political ideology of the empire, and thus the main symbolic identifier of the Roman inhabitants of the empire.
Chapter 9 is concerned with the economic basis of the empire, and the political and social institutions by which this was maintained. It draws attention to the importance of distinguishing local economies, patterns of interregional trade, and the development of city life. The survival of the Roman Empire depended on the sustainability of long-distance links, enabling the circulation of people, goods, and ideas. Without these its political unity and common culture would have disintegrated. Particular emphasis is placed on the economic importance of the state annona system. The organization of the annona is also a major factor explaining the extraordinary growth of the capital cities, Rome and Constantinople, and of the major regional centers at Alexandria, Carthage, and Antioch.
Chapter 10 turns to the regions and provinces, considering the evidence for patterns of rural settlement, the evolution of civic life, and the importance of regional security to economic development, which played a decisive role in the split between the eastern and western parts of the empire.
Chapter 11 resumes the narrative pattern of chapters 3 and 4. The focus is on the enormous challenges that the Roman Empire faced in the middle years of the sixth century. In the forefront were the blows dealt by the plague, which recurred throughout the century, other devastating environmental disasters, and earthquakes. These were compounded by military setbacks arising from the reconquest of Africa and Italy, and by the resurgent power of Sassanian Persia. Although these challenges led to major internal changes to Roman society, and in particular to a much more explicit reliance on religious means to maintain the morale and coherence of communities, they did not impair the Roman will to maintain the empire, which proved resilient against the growing threats to its existence.
Chapter 12 examines these threats in the final phase which led to the loss of more than half the eastern empire. It traces the impact of new barbarian incursions from central Asia and northern Europe, the arrival of Avars and Turks, Slavs and Lombards; the resurgent militarism of the Sassanian Empire, which culminated in the great struggles of the early seventh century between the Roman Empire of Heraclius and Persian Empire of Khusro II; and finally the transformation of tribal society in the southern areas of the Levant, which heralded the coming of Islam and the Arab conquests. These enormous external forces, rather than internal decadence and decay, provide the main clues to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. When Heraclius died in 641 his rule extended southeast of Constantinople only as far as the Taurus mountains, retaining Asia Minor, but excluding all territory to the south.
Chapter 13, newly written for the second edition of this book, takes a fresh look at the perennial problem of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Three themes are discussed in detail: Rome’s ability to maintain its tax revenues in the later sixth century; the evidence for military decline as Roman forces
Were reduced in size; and the demographic impact of the bubonic plague, which recurred repeatedly throughout and beyond the empire for two centuries after its initial outbreak in 541/2.
World History
