Approaching Late Antiquity: The Transformation from Early to Late Empire

What factors already present in the society of the High Roman Empire developed and expanded into the world of Late Antiquity? What was distinct in this period from what went before? The answers to these complex and fascinating questions embrace the fields of cultural history, politics, ideas, art, philosophy, pagan religion, Christian church, Greek and Latin literature, the army, the law, the provinces, settlement, and the economy. Approaching Late Antiquity is an illustrated collection of fifteen original essays on the later Roman world written by a galaxy of internationally known scholars. Each study focuses on the two centuries from AD 200 to 400; but subjects are taken according to their own organic development, and authors range later or earlier as they need. The result is a thoroughly readable account of the key themes and topics. The book challenges orthodoxies (for example, Honoré on law, Whitby on military life, Edwards on monotheism), gives comprehensive coverage (Duncan-Jones on economy, Cameron on poetry, Elsner on art), and discusses the general issues and problems through major examples (McLynn on emperors in church, Papi on Italian towns, Adams on governing Egypt, Swain on Libanius, Garnsey on citizens, Dillon on philosophers, Walker on mummy portraits). The authors have set their contributions in the light of current approaches and bibliography, and the volume will be a useful reference work in its own right.

Table of Contents:
1: Simon Swain: Introduction 2: Richard Duncan Jones: Economic Change and the Transition to Late Antiquity 3: Emanuele Papi: A New Golden Age? The Northern Praefactura Urbi from the Severans to Diocletian 4: Colin Adams: Transition and Change in Diocletian's Egypt: Province and Empire in the Late Third Century 5: Tony Honoré: Roman Law 200 to 400 AD: From Cosmopolis to Rechtstaat? 6: Peter Garnsey: Roman Citizenship and Roman Law in the Late Empire 7: Michael Whitby: Emperors and Armies, AD 235-395 8: Mark Edwards: Romanitas and the Church of Rome 9: Mark Edwards: Pagan and Christian Monotheism in the Age of Constantine 10: Neil McLynn: The Transformations of Imperial Churchgoing in the Fourth Century 11: Jas Elsner: Late Antique Art: the Problem of the Concept and the Cumulative Aesthetic 12: Susan Walker: Painted Hellenes: Mummy Portraits from Late Roman Egypt 13: Alan Cameron: Poetry and Literary Culture in Late Antiquity 14: Simon Swain: Sophists and Emperors: the Case of Libanius 15: John Dillon: Philosophy as a Profession in Late Antiquity

About the Author :

Simon Swain is Professor of Classics and Ancient History and Head of Department at the University of Warwick. Mark Edwards is Lecturer in Patristics at the University of Oxford and Student of Christ Church.


Review :
One of the great virtues of the collection is its ecumenical reach.... The volume's worth, therefore, resides most immediately in the strength of its individual contributions.... Approaching Late Antiquity tells its stories well.