The term Spätantike, literally "late antiquity", has been used by German-speaking historians since its popularization by Alois Riegl in the early 20th century. It was given currency in English partly by the writings of See more

The Late Antique period also saw a wholesale transformation of the political and social basis of life in and around the Roman Empire.
The Roman citizen elite in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, under the pressure of taxation and the ruinous … See more

The stylistic changes characteristic of Late Antique art mark the end of classical Roman art and the beginnings of medieval art. … See more

In the field of literature, Late Antiquity is known for the declining use of classical Greek and Latin, and the rise of literary cultures in See more

One of the most important transformations in Late Antiquity was the formation and evolution of the Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism and, eventually, Islam.
A milestone in the spread of Christianity was the conversion … See more

The later Roman Empire was in a sense a network of cities. Archaeology now supplements literary sources to document the transformation followed by collapse of cities in the Mediterranean basin. Two diagnostic symptoms of decline—or as many historians … See more

• 284: Diocletian, becomes emperor and bringing an end to the Crisis of the Third Century.
• 285: Emperor Diocletian splits the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western halves. Beginning of … See more