The Later Roman Empire: AD 284-430 / Edition 1

by Averil Cameron

Overview

Marked by the shift of power from Rome to Constantinople and the Christianization of the Empire, this pivotal era requires a narrative and interpretative history of its own. Averil Cameron, an authority on later Roman and early Byzantine history and culture, captures the vigor and variety of the fourth century, doing full justice to the enormous explosion of recent scholarship.

After a hundred years of political turmoil, civil war, and invasion, the Roman Empire that Diocletian inherited in AD 284 desperately needed the radical restructuring he gave its government and defenses. His successor, Constantine, continued the revolution by adopting—for himself and the Empire—a vibrant new religion: Christianity. The fourth century is an era of wide cultural diversity, represented by figures as different as Julian the Apostate and St. Augustine. Cameron provides a vivid narrative of its events and explores central questions about the economy, social structure, urban life, and cultural multiplicity of the extended empire. Examining the transformation of the Roman world into a Christian culture, she takes note of the competition between Christianity and Neoplatonism. And she paints a lively picture of the new imperial city of Constantinople. By combining literary, artistic, and archaeological evidence. Cameron has produced an exciting record of social change. The Later Roman Empire is a compelling guide for anyone interested in the cultural development of late antiquity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674511941
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/04/1993
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	248,604
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Professor Dame Averil Cameron was formerly the Warden of Keble College Oxford and the holder of a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Editorial Reviews

Together these five compact volumes [Early Greece by Oswyn Murray, Democracy and Classical Greece by J. K. Davies, The Hellenistic World by F. W. Walbank, The Roman Republic by Michael Crawford, and The Later Roman Empire by Averil Cameron, all available from Harvard] cover much of the history of the classical world, and do so with both ease and authority… For this new series they have been revised or otherwise brought up to date.

Washington Post Book World