Late Antiquity I: Secular and Religious Life in Late Antiquity

During the past 40 years Late Antiquity (ca. 200-800 CE) has become recognized as a new historical period with its own unique characteristics. With regard to religion, Late Antiquity is the first age of monotheistic religions represented by people seeking spiritual and emotional, not to mention material, satisfaction in religion. With regard to politics, Late Antiquity brought a retreat from centralized governments and a the tendency toward ever-larger empires that had been underway ever since the Bronze Age, and a movement toward localism even in the face of putatively strong central powers. Late Antiquity brought an expanded role of an underlying belief in the rule by law, seen in secular, canon, and vulgar law, at the same time that central authority seemed to be breaking down. Culturally, Late Antiquity is represented by artistic trends that focused on idealization, and the privileging of content/message over form. And with regard to literature, contrary to many past assumptions, Late Antiquity was marked by a great flowering of literary production, much of which survived because of the switch from the use of papyrus to parchment as the primary writing material. These sessions sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity demonstrate how these, and other factors, give Late Antiquity its unique identity.Ralph Mathisen