This collection of essays examines the sixth century A.D. from a new perspective. Being a result of the European Science Foundation's programme devoted to the transformation of the Roman World, the authors examine the economic and social conditions of a century which has often been overlooked. The book takes a European overview, and includes studies by archaeologists and historians whom, in the course of the ESF project, have developed a lively dialogue focussing upon the issue of demand in the sixth century. An archaeologist poses many of the leading arguments in the first chapter, and an historian draws these themes together in the final one. The book includes a major review of the historiography of Henri Pirenne's celebrated thesis devoted to the decline of the Roman empire and the beginnings of the Middle Ages. The majority of the essays, however, are regional studies approaching the subject with a new wide-angled, European vision.
Author(s): Richard Hodges, William Bowden (eds.)
Series: The Transformation of the Roman World, 3
Publisher: Brill
Year: 1998
Language: English, French
Pages: 312
City: Leiden
Henri Pirenne and the question of demand in the sixth century / Richard Hodges 3
Reading Pirenne again / Paolo Delogu 15
The production and distribution of books in late Antiquity / Carlo Bertelli 41
The Migration Period: model history and treasure / Klavs Randsborg 61
Les conditions du commerce au VIe siècle / Jean Durliat 89
The destinies of the late Antique Italies: politico-economic developments of the sixth century / Federico Marazzi 119
Eastern Spain in the sixth century in the light of archaeology / Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret 161
Les echanges dans la Gaule du Nord au VIe siècle: une histoire en miettes / Stéphane Lebecq 185
Marseille and the Pirenne Thesis, I: Gregory of Tours, the Merovingian kings and 'un grand port' / S. T. Loseby 203
The frontiers of western Europe: developments east of the Rhine in the sixth century / Ian Wood 231
The Justinianic era of south Scandinavia: an archaeological view / Ulf Näsman 255
Overview: production, distribution and demand / Chris Wickham 279
Index 293
