The Transformation of the Roman World AD 400-900 (review)

This handsomely and extensively illustrated volume (70 color plates and 115 black and white illustrations) is a European production about the origins of “Europe.” As a “Co-publication with the British Museum Press,” this University of California Press volume deserves immediate acclaim for what it provides and for its modest cost.

As an “all-European” endeavor in historiography, this volume also deserves praise for what it provides: eight “Essays” which deal with significant aspects of the era leading from the Later Roman Empire to the Early Middle Ages which is to say, of course, Late Antiquity.

For the entire volume there is a “Bibliography” (250–55), which is keyed to the Essays and to the Exhibitions. An “Index to essays” (256–58), includes the illustrative material.

The “Essays” (8–127) provide assessments of the political, socio-economic, religious, and cultural aspects of the transformation of the late antique world. Documentation for the essays is minimal but reflects recent scholarship as is seen in the bibliography. Evangelos Chrysos, of the University of Ioannina, Greece, introductory essay, “The empire in east and west” (9–18) highlights the “new reality”—the increasing separation and “estrangement” of the east and west which “increasingly overtook the former ties” (18).

Professor Javier Arce (Rome) provides valuable insights into the world of the villa in late antiquity, “Otium et negotium: the great estates, 4th–7th century” (19–32). His exposition of contemporary texts and decorative art testifies to the importance of his topic.

The focus of this volume on the west is demonstrated in the succeeding essays, beginning with Walter Pohl (Vienna) “The barbarian successor states” (33–47) which notes the lasting impact of the Roman Empire; Max Martin (Munich) “Wealth and treasure in the west, 4th–7th century” (48–66), an insightful summary of what archaeology allows the historian to conclude, an essay complemented by Stephane Lebecq (Lille) “Routes of change: production and distribution in the west (5th–8th century)” (67–78), with pertinent emendation of the Pirenne thesis; Alain Dierkins (Lille) and Patrick Perin (Rouen) explore the “most revealing changes in mentality that occurred between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages,” i.e. “attitude toward death” with the critical impact of Christianity of the Empire and the Germanic kingdoms, in an essay restricted to “Death and burial in Gaul and Germania, 4th–8th century” (79–95).

The concluding essays return to a broader historical canvas with Averil Cameron of Oxford applying her expertise to, “Cult and worship in east and west” (96–110), and Ian Wood, University of Leeds, exploring, “The transmission of ideas” (111–27). Cameron succinctly characterizes the cultic developments with a component of similarity but the drift toward separation of the two halves of Christendom would come about “for reasons [which] had as much to do with custom and politics as they did with belief . . . .” (110). Wood’s essay concentrates on the “centuries [which] are the classic Dark Ages—yet they too were important for the transmission of ideas, indeed in many respects they anticipate the Carolingian period . . . .” (111).

The “Essays” are complemented by a half dozen short chapters which describe the Exhibitions held throughout Europe during 1997. Each of these effectively if succinctly complement the longer chapters with descriptive analysis of the artifacts exhibited each followed by a “Catalogue of the exhibition”: Eutychia Kourkoutidou-Nicolaidou (Thessalonika), “From the Elysian Fields to the Christian paradise” (128–42); Friederike Naumann-Steckner (Cologne), “Death on the Rhine: changing burial customs in Cologne, 3rd–7th century” (147–79); Monica Alkemade (Amsterdam), “Elite lifestyle and the transformation of the Roman world in Northern Gaul” (180–93); Bente Magnus (Stockholm), “The Firebed of the Serpent: myth and religion in the Migration period mirrored through some golden objects” (194–207); and Marion Archibald, Michelle Brown and Leslie Webster (all of the British Museum), “Heirs of Rome: the shaping of Britain AD 400–900” (209–48).

There are a number of useful maps, beginning...