3

A NEW PERIODIZATION

THE FIRST MILLENNIUM

When Augustus reigned alone upon earth, the many kingdoms (polyarchia) of

men came to an end; and when Thou wast made man of the pure Virgin, the

many gods (polytheïa) of idolatry were destroyed. The cities passed under one

worldly dominion; and the nations believed in the lordship of one God.

—Kassia (b. c. 810), “Hymn on the birth of Christ,” sung at

Orthodox Vespers of the Nativity (25 December)

Once on a time—year of Grace One, I think—

Thus spake the Sibyl, drunk without drink:

’Alas, how ill things go!

Decline! Decline! Ne’er sank the world so low!

Rome hath turned harlot and brothel too,

Rome’s Caesar a beast, and God himself a Jew!

—F. Nietzsche, Thus spake Zarathustra (1885) Part 4

(“Gespräch mit den Königen”)

Decline versus transformation

In 1999, the same year Andrea Giardina denounced late Antiquity’s elephan-
tiasis, was also published what still stands as the most recent and authorita-
tive statement of the maximalist position, namely Harvard’s Late Antiquity:
A guide to the postclassical world, edited by Glen Bowersock, Peter Brown and
Oleg Grabar.^1 By taking as its cutoff point approximately the year 800, this
weighty tome espouses—and up to a point exemplifies—the view that the
early Islamic world shows significant continuities with late Antiquity. But at

1 This chapter supersedes G. Fowden, “Contextualizing late Antiquity: The First Millennium,” in
J. P. Arnason and K. A. Raaflaub (eds), The Roman Empire in context (Chichester 2011) 148–76.