Blackwell Reference Online

The essays collected in this authoritative Companion capture the vitality and diversity of scholarship that exists on the transformative time period known as late antiquity.

For the last generation, late antiquity – the time between the accession of Diocletian in ad 284 and the end of Roman rule in the Mediterranean – has come to be regarded as one of the most dynamic periods of ancient history. Once seen as a time of decline and fall, late antiquity is now viewed as an era of powerful transformation, in which the peoples and institutions that profoundly influenced the modern world took shape.

In providing a useful overview of current scholarship on late antiquity, the essays emphasize the central importance of religion in this period. Theology and belief are situated in historical context as the Companion highlights the interconnectedness of religious life with economic, social, and political realms.