Cameron Averil. The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity AD 395-600

London - New York: Routledge, 1993. – 270 p. – (Routledge History of the Ancient World).
ISBN: 0–415–01421–2 (Print Edition)
ISBN: 0-203-13420-6 Master e-book ISBN:
ISBN: 0-203-17723-1 (Glassbook Format)«The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity AD 395–600» deals with the exciting period commonly known as ‘late antiquity’ – the fifth and sixth centuries. The Roman empire in the west was splitting into separate Germanic kingdoms, while the Near East, still under Roman rule from Constantinople, maintained a dense population and flourishing urban culture until the Persian and Arab invasions of the early seventh century.
Averil Cameron places her emphasis on the material and literary evidence for cultural change and offers a new and original challenge to traditional assumptions of ‘decline and fall’ and ‘the end of antiquity’. The book draws on the recent spate of scholarship on this period to discuss in detail such controversial issues as the effectiveness of the late Roman army, the late antique city and the nature of economic exchange and cultural life. With its extensive annotation, it provides a lively, and often critical introduction to earlier approaches to the period, from Edward «Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire» to the present day.
No existing book in English provides so detailed or up-to-date an introduction to the history of both halves of the empire in this crucial period, or discusses existing views in such a challenging way. Averil Cameron is a leading specialist on late antiquity, having written about the period and taught it for many years. This book has much to say to historians of all periods. It will be particularly welcomed by teachers and students of both ancient and medieval history.List of figures and plates
Preface ix Date-list
AbbreviationsConstantinople and the eastern empire in the fifth century
The empire, the barbarians and the late Roman army
Church and society
Late Roman social structures and the late Roman economy
Justinian and reconquest
Culture and mentality
Urban change and the end of antiquity
The eastern Mediterranean – settlement and changeNotes
Select critical bibliography