Late Antiquity:
The Transformation of the Roman
Empire and the Triumph of
Christianity
Civ 101-03
March 6, 2015
Class 20
The Legacy of Late Antiquity
• The Division of the Empire into East/West
– The (esp. eastern) empire afforded relative stability
for historical and cultural developments
– Roman laws and institutions (esp. Roman imperial
leadership style) in attempts to maintain
dominance (mostly failed)
• Beginnings of “state” organizations (that
will become the nations of Europe/the west)
• Catholic institutions integrate with civil
institutions
– In the west, the papacy develops
The Legacy of Late Antiquity
• The beginning of extensive historical records as
writing AND preservation are privatized.
– First there is destruction of almost everything
– Then there are limited efforts at preservation of
selected aspects.
• As the Church gets into place and the wars settle
down, we start to derive the benefits of writing
(that we covered last time),
– better history
– Some conservation of ancient stuff (most of it
“private” and some of it “hidden”
– Loads of reconstruction of ancient stuff
• Lots of it was speculative/tradition based
• Lots of it was censored by Christian approach
• Even more than the Romans: COPIERS
The Transformation of the Roman Empire
• The Crisis of the Third Century
– Twenty-two emperors in fifty years
– Institutional chaos
– Threats along the frontier
– Persecution of Christians
The Transformation of the Roman Empire
• The Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine
– Tetrarchy (that doesn’t work/hold)
– East and West division (that DOES)
• Foreshadows (and to some degree, leads to) divisions
that will haunt Western Civilization
– Eastern Church
– Trouble with Islam
The Roman Empire in the
Fourth Century
Transformation of the Roman Empire
• The Later Roman Empire in West and East
– The end of the western empire
• Barbarian federates
• Sack of Rome, 410
• Fall of western empire, 476
– Beginnings of “state” organizations (that will
become nations) as invaders, indigenous people,
and the Roman Empire, remix and split territory.
Transformation of the Roman Empire
• The Later Roman Empire in West and East
• The eastern empire
• Constantinople
• Along with the East, becomes Christian, BUT ends up
Christian of the “other” (minority) kind (Eastern
Orthodox)
The Triumph of Christianity
• The Growth of the Catholic Church
– Bishops
– Petrine Idea and apostolic succession
– Nicene creed
– Heresies
– Eventually, the New Testament
The Triumph of Christianity
• Christian Monasticism
• Christianity and the Roman State
– Imperial support for Christianity
– Gelasius I: emperor has power, priests have
authority
• Christianity and the Eastern State
– Actually, “first”
– Eventually, alternate and minority to Rome
• Many varieties of Christian Experience
The Secular Culture of
Late Antiquity
• Philosophy
– Neoplatonism
• Science and Medicine
• Law
The Visual Arts
• Especially related to architecture/buildings
– Sculpture
– Paintings/Mosaics
• There’s LOTS of this stuff left.
– Perhaps more remnants than in any prior period
The Legacy of Late Antiquity
• We become what they started: Fragmented,
with over-riding unities.
– Really, we’re not very Egyptian, Babylonian,
Assyrian, Greek, Roman. We like to think of
ourselves as Western because of them, but we
aren’t.
• Instead: We are from a wide variety of mostly
European nationalities, with over-riding
tones of classicism and Judeo-Christianity
sprinkled in.