Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (Harvard University Press Reference Library)
Late antiquity--that period of history between 250 and 800 C.E.--was a unique and notable era, when the Roman and Sassanian empires spanned a great arc from the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Morocco across the Mediterranean, into the Balkans, and through the Middle East as far as Afghanistan. Historians have tended to dismiss this era as the decline and fall, and little more. In contrast, the editors ofLate Antiquity(all esteemed professors at Princeton) make a great case for this era as the source from which our modern culture sprung. During that time, Constantinople and Baghdad came into being, and paganism took hold of people's imaginations so strongly that it's still with us today. "Much of what was created in that period still runs in our veins," they say, such as the codification of Roman law, the Jewish Talmud, the basic structure and doctrine of the Christian church, and the birth of Islam.There are learned essays on topics such as Islam, the Christian triumph, and sacred landscapes; habitat, war, and violence; and empire building; as well as a timely piece on barbarians and ethnicity. But these essays, fine though they are, make up but a small fraction of the volume. The lion's share belongs to the alphabetical guide, an A-to-Z encyclopedia of more than 500 entries on items such as almsgiving, angels, bathing, circus factions, contraception, eunuchs, dendrites, Huns, monks, prayer, and pornography. With erudition and clarity, these editors redefine late antiquity, and provide a remarkable source of information for students, sages, history buffs, and antiquity enthusiasts.--Stephanie Gold