Joseph Vogt’s profound and scholarly work gives us a fresh perspective on the last three centuries of the Roman Empire. His focus is not on collapse, but on continuity. Survival and Evolution are stronger themes than decay: survival of the Roman aristocratic classes in Gaul and of classical culture in Italy; evolution within the Imperial frontiers of a feudal society from its slavery-based predecessor. Most significant of all was Christianity, ensuring that a Catholic tradition destined to be at the core of Western civilization was, in fact, a Roman tradition too.
Translated from the German by Janet Sondheimer.
Author(s): Joseph Vogt
Series: History of Civilization
Publisher: Weidenfeld
Year: 1993
Language: English
Pages: xii+340
City: London
PREFACE, xi
INTRODUCTION, 1
1. THE CRISIS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD IN THE THIRD CENTURY, 11-86
I. Political, social and economic life, 11
II. Intellectual and religious life, 28
III. Enemies of the ancient world — external and internal, 50
IV. The ancient world in a state of emergency, 71
2. THE MONARCHY, THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND RULING SOCIETY IN THE FOURTH CENTURY, 87-176
I. The new age of Constantine, 87
II. State and church, popular religion and monasticism in the period after Constantine, 109
III The pagan reaction; education, science and technology, 129
IV Christianity as the state religion — the end of pagan Rome, 155
3. THE ROMAN WEST AND THE NEW PEOPLES IN THE FIFTH CENTURY, 177-281
I. The West Roman empire and the Volkerwanderung — social, economic and legal aspects, 177
II. Western Christendom — education, theology, missions, 204
III. The early German kingdoms and the Roman cultural tradition, 223
IV. Rome and Romania — the Ostrogothic state and culture, 246
V. Frankish Gaul and the British Isles, 264
4. CULTURAL CHANGE REFLECTED IN ART 282-309
References, 311
Chronological table, 313
Bibliography, 319
Map, 330
Index, 333
