Late antiquity in contemporary debate

Late Antiquity, once known only as the period of protracted decline in the ancient world (Bas-Empire), has now become a major research area.

In recent years, a wide-ranging historiographic debate on Late Antiquity has also begun.

Replacing Gibbon's categories of decline and decadence with those of continuity and transformation has not only brought to the fore the concept of the Late Roman period, but has made the alleged hiatus between the Roman, Byzantine and Mediaeval ages less important, while also driving to the margins the question of the end of the Roman Empire.

This has broadened the scope of research on Late Antiquity enormously and made the issue of periodisation of crucial significance.

The resulting debate has escaped the confines of Europe and now embraces almost all historiographic cultures around the world.

This book sheds new light on this debate.