One

Prelude: The Roman World Transformed

(c.300–c.600)

IN THE THIRD CENTURY, the Roman Empire wrapped around the Mediterranean

Sea like a scarf. (See Map 1.1.) Thinner on the North African coast, it bulked large

as it enveloped what is today Spain, England, Wales, France, and Belgium, and then

evened out along the southern coast of the Danube River, following that river

eastward, taking in most of what is today called the Balkans (southwestern Europe,

including Greece), crossing the Hellespont and engulfing in its sweep the territory of

present-day Turkey, much of Syria, and all of modern Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt.

All the regions but Italy comprised what the Romans called the “provinces.”

This was the Roman Empire whose “decline and fall” was famously proclaimed

by the eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon. But in fact his verdict was

misplaced. The Empire was never livelier than at its reputed end. It is true that the

old elites of the cities, especially of Rome itself, largely regretted the changes taking

place around them c.250–350. They were witnessing the end of their political,

military, religious, economic, and cultural leadership, which was passing to the

provinces. But for the provincials (the Romans living outside of Italy) this was in

many ways a heady period, a long-postponed coming of age. They did not regret that

Emperor Diocletian (r.284–305) divided the Roman Empire into four parts, each

ruled by a different man. Called the Tetrarchy, the partition was tacit recognition of

the importance of the provinces. Some did, however, regret losing their place in the

sun, as happened c.400–500, to people still farther afield, whom they called

“barbarians.” In turn, the barbarians were glad to be the heirs of the Roman Empire

even as they contributed to its transformation (c.450–600).