A survey of the military, political, and intellectual history of ancient Rome from 337-641 A.D. This course examines the decline, fall, and transformation of the Roman Empire after Constantine’s death to the establishment of the Gothic kingdoms in the West and rise of Islam in the East. This course emphasizes the role of the later Empire in creating those vehicles of ancient thought and culture that became the enduring legacy of the Western Heritage. Topics include the rise of conciliar Christianity and the creeds, the ‘barbarian’ invasions, military and economic change, the loss of security in the provinces, the rise of monasticism and the ‘holy man’, codices of Roman law, the emergence of Gothic kingdoms in the West, the distinction between ecclesial and temporal power, the Vandal invasions of Africa, St. Augustine’s legacy in the Latin world, imperial ‘restorations’ in Ostrogothic Italy, Justinian’s Reconquista, the Islamic conquests, and the end of antiquity.
HST 405: The Later Roman Empire
Class Program