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Late Antiquity: A Very Short Introduction 1st Edition

by Gillian Clark (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 81 ratings
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Late antiquity saw the barbarian invasions overrun the western Roman empire and Persian and Arab armies end Roman rule over the eastern and southern coasts of the Mediterranean. Was late antiquity therefore merely a time of decline? In this vibrant and compact introduction, Gillian Clark sheds light on the concept of late antiquity and the events of its time, showing that this was in fact a period of great transformation. Late antiquity saw Roman law codified, Christian creeds formulated, the Talmud compiled, and the Qur'an composed. If the Goths sacked the city of Rome, the Vandals built churches in Africa and Attila the Hun received an embassy from Constantinople. Anthony of Egypt and Simeon Stylites offered spectacular new models of holiness, while Augustine and Basil and Benedict devised rules for monastic communities. Late antique artists produced the mosaics of Ravenna and the first dome of Hagia Sophia. And it was also the period when emperors Diocletian in the third century and Justinian in the sixth enacted extensive and much-needed reforms of government.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0199546207
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199546206
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    March 22, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7 x 4.3 x 0.4 inches
  8. Print length
    160 pages
  9. See all details
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Book Description

In this vibrant and compact introduction, Gillian Clark sheds light on the concept of late antiquity and the events of its time, showing that this was a period of great transformation

About the Author

Gillian Clark is Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (March 22, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199546207
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199546206
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 4.3 x 0.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 81 ratings

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
81 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

A Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A Superb Introduction to Late Antiquity
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2016
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This book is one of my favorite of the VSI series. I find not only the information conveyed but the quality of the writing to be exceptional. Highly recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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fastrunner
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2015
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Quite good clear easy to read. Found it very enjoyable even though i was reading it for study
2 people found this helpful
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Art Shapiro
5.0 out of 5 stars The decline and fall of conventional wisdom
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2019
For those of us who cut our teeth on Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," this little updating is a revelation. Who were all those "barbarians," anyway? Was the adoption of Christianity as the Roman state religion actually the trigger for Rome's decline? Were there Christian "barbarians?" (You bet.) Was the Empire really the nest of vipers it is commonly thought to have been? (No. It was worse.) Who was the bishop of Rome whose sexual excesses led to an imperial ban on Christian clergy visiting unchaperoned women? (Damasus, late 4th Century). This book is unusually densely-packed with information hitherto accessible only to classicists and classical historians. It is also a hoot.
As usual for this series, the quality of the photographic illustrations leaves much to be desired. But they aren't necessary anyway!
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Richard
3.0 out of 5 stars A good intro
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2013
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This book presents a fair perspective on differing views of late antiquity which I can explore on my own. This era was made famous by Gibbon's classic history, but it's always interesting to consider whether a period in history is a 'decline', a 'fall', a golden age, or just a change.

Clark's book is worth reading as a starting point for a discussion of,the meaning of history.
5 people found this helpful
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John Gossman
2.0 out of 5 stars Boring short book
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2021
I love the Short Introduction series, but this one is a disappointment. In attempting to do a summary of this large subject the author cherry picked a few subjects (mostly the rise of christianity) and covered others so sparsely that the narrative fell apart. There are paragraphs that seem to almost be randomly dropped into the rest of the text. Its best bit is updating the old Gibbon trope about the Fall of Rome with more modern interpretations stressing continuity, but it could have used a few more pages on (for example) the Gothic kingdoms and the economic evidence in favor of all that Augustine. I wanted to read this as a quick refresher, but was barely able to slog through it was so poorly written.
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Dr Stemple
4.0 out of 5 stars xcellent in
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2016
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Excellent introduction to fascinating era.
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Psychology psycho nerd
5.0 out of 5 stars Makes ancient history fun
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2017
First martyr was a woman. Freedom under Julius the emperor. Too much talk about civil servants. Affordable.
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dom
4.0 out of 5 stars remember the dark ages in school?
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2013
Well, this certainly wasn't them. The Dark Ages was certainly a misnomer as one becomes well aware after reading this book. Just because Rome fell doesn't mean there wasn't a "civilization" still to be experienced or written of in the future. As with the majority of the VSI books I've read, this one teaches you the details you haven't heard (or don't remember) and shows you that the contemporary perspectives of this series on old subjects and times are definitely worth the read. You can read a blog post I wrote about the series on my blog: [...]
4 people found this helpful
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Victor
5.0 out of 5 stars Bom
Reviewed in Brazil on April 5, 2020
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Vigilantius
4.0 out of 5 stars Rapid, pithy and stimulating
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2018
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A very readable, rapid run around the main issues and themes of this fascinating and ill-defined period, which is epitomised by the rise of Christianity and the decline of the western Roman Empire. The emphasis is on culture rather than conventional history, so there is relatively little here about the sequence of events, which may not suit everyone.

Gillian Clark, a noted authority on the period, writes with her customary verve and acuity, giving counter-blasts against some of the more clichéd views: religious intolerance can be over-estimated; we don’t know what life was like for the vast majority of the population; and monastic life was revolutionary. Nevertheless, by the seventh century, if not before, the western mind was closing due to censorship and persecution by mainstream, Christian orthodoxy. But at the same time many groups of ‘barbarians’ were settling and inter-marrying, bringing new customs and fracturing forever the rigid Imperial hierarchies while preserving some Roman culture.

A minor cavil: several of the books in the bibliography are not available (not even from the London Library).
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RSBM
5.0 out of 5 stars My Review
Reviewed in Canada on October 13, 2013
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I found Gillian Clark's book very readable. I am not very familiar with the "Very Short Introduction" series by OUP, but it reminds me of the "Que sais-je?" series published by Presse Universitaire Française (PUF), which I generally found very helpful. Overall, then, I would strongly recommend Dr. Clark's book to other readers interested in Late Antiquity.
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P. Salus
4.0 out of 5 stars Less than desired
Reviewed in Canada on January 5, 2017
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I found Clark's booklet disappointing. It is good, but more superficial than I expected.
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opus
4.0 out of 5 stars Late Romans
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2014
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The book moves at quite a pace. Very good for a female writer. If that sounds patronising then I should say that it is a lot better than some of the vsi's essayed by females.

(see page 93 if you think this comment unfair).
3 people found this helpful
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