A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity examines the social and cultural landscape of the Late Antique Mediterranean. The text offers a picture of everyday life as it was lived in the spaces around and between two of the most memorable and towering figures of the time -- Constantine and Muhammad.

Table of Contents

• Illustrations
• Boxed Texts
• Preface: The Magic of History
• Acknowledgments
• Annotated List of Abbreviations and a Note on Citations from Secondary Literature
• Timeline
• Map: The Late Antique World At‐A‐Glance
• Part I: The “Vanishing” of Rome
• 1 Who and What Is Late Antiquity?
• 1.1 An Overview of the Book
• 1.2 Three Lives and the “Fall of Rome”
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 2 When Does Late Antiquity Begin? When Does it End?
• 2.1 The Third through Fifth Centuries CE: A Narrated Timeline
• 2.2 A Warning about Periodization
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 3 How Do We Do Late Antique History?
• 3.1 Evaluating Sources, Asking Questions
• 3.2 The Past in the Past
• 3.3 Acquiring Cultural Competence: The Study of Religion in History
• 3.4 Linking, not Disconnecting, Different Periods of Early Christianity
• 3.5 Pre‐Modern vs. Early Modern History: A Note on Sources
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• Part II: Late Antiquity Appears
• 4 Power
• 4.1 Third‐Century Politics
• 4.2 Mithras and a Roman Fascination with the Mysteries of Persia
• 4.3 The Material Culture of Sasanian Persia
• 4.4 Rome and Sasanian Persia in Conflict
• 4.5 The Roman World of the Third Century CE
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 5 Worship
• 5.1 The Civic Sacrifice Policy of 250 CE
• 5.2 How Did Romans Worship Their Gods? Text and Material Culture, c. Third Century CE
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 6 Social Change
• 6.1 Rome's Laws Against Christians
• 6.2 The End of the Third Century and the Rise of the Rule of Four
• 6.3 A View from Thessaloniki, Roman Greece, Late Third Century CE
• 6.4 Diocletian's Edict against Followers of Mani, 296 CE or 302 CE
• 6.5 The Rise of Christianity: Assumptions and Starting Points
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 7 Law and Politics
• 7.1 Roman Law: History From the Ground‐Up, Top‐Down, and Sideways
• 7.2 The “Edict of Milan,” 313 CE
• 7.3 Individual Laws and the Collection of Legal Texts
• 7.4 Law and Politics in the Fourth Century CE
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 8 Urban Life
• 8.1 Daily Life in the Fourth Century CE and Beyond: Starting Points and Assumptions
• 8.2 The Archaeology of Rome
• 8.3 The Archaeology of Constantinople
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 9 Community
• 9.1 Mystery Cults
• 9.2 Christian Communities and Christian Law
• 9.3 The Jewish Community: Shared Values and Social Diversity
• 9.4 The Communities of Roman Egypt, Fourth–Fifth Centuries CE
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 10 Economy
• 10.1 Egypt beyond Its Borders
• 10.2 The Arena and Racing Culture
• 10.3 Economic Realities, Third–Sixth Centuries CE
• 10.4 The Crypta Balbi Excavations, Rome: The Story of a Social Safety Net, Third Century–Sixth Century CE
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 11 The Household and Family
• 11.1 Home as a Place
• 11.2 House‐Churches in the Long History of Christianity
• 11.3 Family and Household Relations, c.405–551 CE
• 11.4 Slaves and Slavery
• 11.5 Households and the Emergence of the Papacy in Rome
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 12 Ideas and Literary Culture
• 12.1 The “One” and the Many: Philosophical and Anthropological Perspectives
• 12.2 Literature and Ideas after the “Vanishing” of Rome
• 12.3 The Literary Culture of Justinian's Roman Empire
• 12.4 Literature as a Source for the Study of Medicine and Disease
• 12.5 The Rise of a Book Culture
• 12.6 Latin Poetry and Christian Communities in Rome, c.366–600 CE
• 12.7 Looking Ahead: “People of the Book”
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• Part III: The Illusion of Mediterranean History
• 13 Geography and Society
• 13.1 Seeing the Sixth Century Through the Eyes of an Emperor and a Traveler
• 13.2 Cosmas’ Christian World
• 13.3 Beyond Rome's Christian Empire in the Sixth Century CE
• 13.4 Sixth‐ and Seventh‐Century South Asia
• 13.5 Sixth‐ and Seventh‐Century China and Central Asia
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 14 A Choice of Directions
• 14.1 Jerusalem in the Sixth and Early Seventh Centuries CE
• 14.2 The Social World of the Arabian Peninsula in the Sixth Century CE
• 14.3 The Believers Movement
• Summary
• Study Questions
• Suggested Readings
• Glossary
• End User License Agreement