East and West in late antiquity
Subtitle: invasion, settlement, ethnogenesis and conflicts of religion
By: by Wolf Liebeschuetz
Series: Impact of empire : Roman Empire, c. 200 B.C.-A.D. 476 -- volume 20
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Leiden
Language: eng
Number of pages: 477
ISBN-13: 9789004282926; 9789004289529
Subjects: History; Roman provinces; Relations; Ethnic relations; Land settlement; Social change; Christianity
Description: "East and West in Late Antiquity combines published and unpublished articles by emeritus professor Wolf Liebeschuetz. The collection concerns aspects of what Gibbon called 'the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'  This interpretation is now much criticized, but the author agrees with Gibbon. Topics discussed are defensive strategies, the settlement inside the Empire of invaders and immigrants, and the modification of identities with the formation of new communities. Liebeschuetz is interested in both the eastern and the western halves of the Empire. In the East he is particularly concerned with Syria, the expansion of settlement up to the edge of the desert, and Christianisation. The book ends with an examination of the role of the Christian Arab Ghassanids in the defense of the Syrian provinces in the century leading up to the conquest of the provinces by the Islamic Arabs"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part 1. The West; title: Rubbish disposal in Greek and Roman cities; title: Was there a crisis of the third century?; title: Transformation and decline : are the two really incompatible?; title: Unsustainable development : the origins of ruined landscapes in the Roman Empire; title: Warlords and landlords; title: The debate about the ethnogenesis of the Germanic tribes; title: Making a Gothic history : does the Getica of Jordanes preserve genuinely Gothic traditions?; title: Why did Jordanes write the Getica?; title: Habitus Barbarus : did Barbarians look different from Romans?; title: Barbarians and taxes; title: Violence in the Barbarian successor kingdoms; title: Goths and Romans in the Leges Visigothorum; title: Part 2. The East; title: [1] Syria : defence and settlement; title: The impact of the imposition of Roman rule on northern Syria; title: Nomads, phylarchs and settlement in Syria and Palestine; title: Late late antiquity (6th and 7th centuries) in the cities of the Roman Near East; title: Arab tribesmen and desert frontiers in late antique Syria; title: [2] Paganism and Christianity; title: Julian's hymn to the Mother of the Gods : the revival and justification of traditional religion; title: The view from Antioch : from Libanius via John Chrysostom to John Malalas and beyond; title: From Antioch to Piazza Armerina and back again; title: Theodoret's Graecarum affectionum curatio, defending Christianity in Christian syria; title: The school of Antioch and its opponents; title: [4] The Balkans : a contrast; title: The lower Danube region under pressure : from Valens to Heraclius.