Late Antiquity is a
periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from
Classical Antiquity to the
Middle Ages, in both mainland
Europe and the
Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period
Peter Brown proposed a period between the third and eighth centuries. Generally, it can be thought of as from the end of the
Roman Empire's
Crisis of the Third Century (c.
235 -
284) to the
Islamic conquests and the re-organization of the
Eastern Roman Empire under
Heraclius.
The Roman Empire underwent considerable social, cultural and organizational change starting with reign of Diocletian, who began the custom of splitting the Empire into Eastern and Western halves ruled by multiple emperors. Beginning with Constantine the Great the Empire was Christianized, and a new capital founded at Constantinople. Migrations of Germanic tribes disrupted Roman rule from the late fourth century onwards, culminating in the eventual collapse of the Empire in the West in 476, replaced by the so-called barbarian kingdoms. The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman, Germanic and Christian traditions formed the cultural foundations of Western Europe.
The term Spätantike, literally "late antiquity", has been used by German historians since its popularization by Alois Riegl in the early twentieth century.[1] It was given currency in English partly by the writings of Peter Brown, whose survey The World of Late Antiquity (1971) revised the post-Gibbon view of a stale and ossified Classical culture, in favour of a vibrant time of renewals and beginnings, and whose The Making of Late Antiquity offered a new paradigm of understanding the changes in Western culture of the time in order to confront Sir Richard Southern's The Making of the Middle Ages.[2]
The continuities between the later Roman empire, as it was reorganized by Diocletian (r. 284-305), and the Early Middle Ages are stressed by writers who wish to emphasize that the seeds of medieval culture were already developing in the Christianized empire, and that they continued to do so in the Eastern Roman, or "Byzantine", Empire at least until the coming of Islam. Concurrently, some migrating Germanic tribes such as the Ostrogoths and Visigoths saw themselves as perpetuating the "Roman" tradition. While the usage "Late Antiquity" suggests that the social and cultural priorities of Classical Antiquity endured throughout Europe into the Middle Ages, the usage of "Early Middle Ages" or "Early Byzantium" emphasizes a break with the classical past, and the term "Migrations Period" tends to de-emphasize the disruptions in the former Western Empire caused by the creation of Germanic kingdoms within her borders between 375 and 568.[3]
