ROME & LATE ANTIQUITY: AD 284-641

Catalog description

This course will cover the period of Late Antiquity, which is the transitional period between ancient Rome and the Early Middle Ages (AD 284-641). It will cover the division of Rome into separate Western and Eastern Empires, the decline and collapse of the Western Empire, the transformation of the Western Empire's territory into post-Roman Germanic kingdoms, and the survival of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire up through its major territorial losses of the 7th century. Late Antiquity is also the period in which Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman world, so the course will examine the effects of that change on Roman society and politics. There will also be discussion of the neighbors of the Romans including the Goths, Sassanid Persians, Huns, Vandals and Muslim Arabs and how their actions and cultures helped to shape the major events of the period. (Cross-listed with HIST 4870 ).