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149-593: Glywysing was, from the sub-Roman period to the Early Middle Ages , a petty kingdom in south-east Wales . Its people were descended from the Iron Age tribe of the Silures , and frequently in union with Gwent , merging to form Morgannwg. Glywysing is said in medieval Welsh tradition to be named after Glywys , supposedly an early king of the region. In reality, the name probably comes from Glevum ,

298-458: A Romano-British king might have wielded considerable power during the sub-Roman period, as demonstrated by the creation of sites such as Tintagel and earthworks such as the Wansdyke . Such interpretations continue to attract the popular imagination and the scepticism of academics. While pushed back politically and linguistically, British scholars and ecclesiastics had a significant impact on

447-844: A British population. Names based on the Anglo-Saxon word for the British, wealh , are also taken as indicating British survival. An example is Walton, meaning settlement of the British and this name is found in many parts of England, though it sometimes means Wall-town . Surviving inscriptions on stones provide another source of information on the settlements of Britons and the Anglo-Saxons. Celtic inscribed stones from this period occur in western England, Wales and southern Scotland. Inscriptions in parts of Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall, are in ogham , some containing forms which scholars have not been able to understand. Two contrasting models of

596-867: A bishop who ministered to the spiritual needs of the British immigrants to northwestern Spain: in 572 the bishop, Mailoc, had a Celtic name. The settlers had brought their Celtic Christianity with them but finally accepted the Latin Church 's jurisdiction at the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633. The diocese stretched from Ferrol to the Eo River . In Spain, the area has sometimes been dubbed "the third Britain" or "the last Britain". Non-Anglo-Saxon kingdoms began appearing in western Britain, and are first referred to in Gildas' De Excidio . To an extent these kingdoms may have derived from Roman structures. But it

745-488: A citadel. Former imperial capitals such as Cologne and Trier lived on in diminished form as administrative centres of the Franks . In Britain most towns and cities had been in decline, apart from a brief period of recovery during the fourth century, well before the withdrawal of Roman governors and garrisons but the process might well have stretched well into the fifth century. Historians emphasizing urban continuities with

894-484: A class struggle between peasants and land owners (Thompson 1977, Wood 1984), or a coup by an urban elite (Snyder 1988). A recent view explored by Laycock ( Britannia the Failed State , 2008) sees Britain violently fragmenting into kingdoms based on British tribal identities; 'violently' is disputable, but clearly most of the civitates gradually transformed into kingdoms. Life seems to have continued much as before in

1043-718: A declaration of rebellion against the ruling emperor . The last of these, Constantine III , crossed the Channel at Bononia and took with him all of the mobile troops left in Britain, thus denuding the province of any first line military protection. The Roman forces in Gaul (modern France) declared for him, followed by most of those in Hispania (modern Spain). On 31 December 406 the Vandals , Burgundians , Alans and Sueves crossed

1192-412: A general decline in urban populations. As a whole, the period of late antiquity was accompanied by an overall population decline in almost all Europe, and a reversion to more of a subsistence economy. Long-distance markets disappeared, and there was a reversion to a greater degree of local production and consumption, rather than webs of commerce and specialized production. Concurrently, the continuity of

1341-583: A great deal of academic and popular debate, in part because of the scarcity of the written source material. The term "post-Roman Britain" is also used for the period; "sub-Roman" and "post-Roman" are terms that apply to the old Roman province of Britannia , i.e. Britain south of the Forth – Clyde line. The history of the area between Hadrian's Wall and the Forth–Clyde line is similar to that of Wales (see Rheged , Bernicia , Gododdin and Strathclyde ). North of

1490-538: A line from York to Bournemouth . The Saxons had control of eastern areas in an arc from East Yorkshire through Lincolnshire and perhaps Nottinghamshire , to East Anglia and South East England . Writing in Latin, perhaps about 540, Gildas gives an account of the history of Britain, but the earlier part (for which other sources are available) is severely muddled. He castigates five rulers in western Britain – Constantine of Dumnonia , Aurelius Caninus, Vortipor of

1639-469: A partial revival of classicism). Nearly all of these more abstracted conventions could be observed in the glittering mosaics of the era, which during this period moved from being decoration derivative from painting used on floors (and walls likely to become wet) to a major vehicle of religious art in churches. The glazed surfaces of the tesserae sparkled in the light and illuminated the basilica churches. Unlike their fresco predecessors, much more emphasis

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1788-520: A period of dynamic religious experimentation and spirituality with many syncretic sects, some formed centuries earlier, such as Gnosticism or Neoplatonism and the Chaldaean oracles , some novel, such as hermeticism . Culminating in the reforms advocated by Apollonius of Tyana being adopted by Aurelian and formulated by Flavius Claudius Julianus to create an organized but short-lived pagan state religion that ensured its underground survival into

1937-576: A population of 800,000 in the beginning of the period to a population of 30,000 by the end of the period, the most precipitous drop coming with the breaking of the aqueducts during the Gothic War . A similar though less marked decline in urban population occurred later in Constantinople, which was gaining population until the outbreak of the Plague of Justinian in 541. In Europe there was also

2086-651: A power-struggle between aristocrats and Stilicho , a Roman general and strongman of the Roman Empire . In order to protect Italy from invasions by the Visigoths , Stilicho had seriously depleted the Roman forces defending the Limes Germanicus . In the summer of 406 there was a rebellion of legionarii in Britain that resulted in the acclamation of several usurpers in quick succession as imperator ,

2235-521: A proliferation of various ascetic or semi-ascetic practices. Holy Fools and Stylites counted among the more extreme forms but through such personalities like John Chrysostom , Jerome , Augustine or Gregory the Great monastic attitudes penetrated other areas of Christian life. Late antiquity marks the decline of Roman state religion , circumscribed in degrees by edicts likely inspired by Christian advisors such as Eusebius to 4th-century emperors, and

2384-470: A shade exotic," observes H. R. Loyn , "owing their reason for being more to the military and administrative needs of Rome than to any economic virtue". The other institutional power centre, the Roman villa , did not survive in Britain either. Gildas lamented the destruction of the twenty-eight cities of Britain; though not all in his list can be identified with known Roman sites, Loyn finds no reason to doubt

2533-595: A single villa name survived into the Germanic period. However, at Chedworth , building work continued: a mosaic within Room 28, discovered in 2020, was designed and created in the middle of the 5th century. In the sub-Roman period, building in stone gradually came to an end; buildings were constructed of less durable materials than during the Roman period. However, brooches , pottery , and weapons from this period have survived. The study of burials and cremations , and

2682-515: A vehicle for the last group of powerful pagans to resist Christianity, as in the late 4th century Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych . Extravagant hoards of silver plate are especially common from the 4th century, including the Mildenhall Treasure , Esquiline Treasure , Hoxne Hoard , and the imperial Missorium of Theodosius I . In the field of literature, late antiquity is known for the declining use of classical Greek and Latin , and

2831-526: A while these turned against the British and plundered the towns. A British leader, Ambrosius Aurelianus , fought against them in a number of battles apparently over a long period. Towards the end of this period was the Battle of Mons Badonicus , around 490, which later sources claimed was won by King Arthur , though Gildas does not identify him. After this there was a long period of peace. The British seem to have been in control of England and Wales roughly west of

2980-582: Is Baiyara (perhaps modern Montoro ), mentioned as founded by Reccared in the 15th-century geographical account, Kitab al-Rawd al-Mitar . The arrival of a highly urbanized Islamic culture in the decade following 711 ensured the survival of cities in the Hispaniae into the Middle Ages. Beyond the Mediterranean world, the cities of Gaul withdrew within a constricted line of defense around

3129-490: Is a jeremiad : it is written as a polemic to warn contemporary rulers against sin, demonstrating through historical and biblical examples that bad rulers are always punished by God – in the case of Britain, through the destructive wrath of the Saxon invaders. The historical section of De Excidio is short, and the material in it is clearly selected with Gildas' purpose in mind. There are no absolute dates given, and some of

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3278-439: Is a description of a dilapidated, but still occupied, Roman villa near Chepstow (probably at Portskewett ) included in an account of a visit by St Tatheus ; and the Roman ruins of Carlisle , as they were in 685, are described in a Life of St Cuthbert . Archaeology provides further evidence for this period, in some cases suggesting that the depopulation of Roman towns and the development of villa and estate organization

3427-676: Is also clear that they drew on a strong influence from Hibernia , which was never part of the Roman Empire. Archaeology has helped further the study of these kingdoms, notably at sites like Tintagel or the hillfort at South Cadbury . In the north there developed the British kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , the "Old North", comprising Ebrauc (probable name), Bryneich , Rheged , Strathclyde , Elmet and Gododdin . 5th- and 6th-century repairs along Hadrian's Wall have been uncovered, and at Whithorn in south western Scotland (possibly

3576-576: Is available deals with the first few decades of the 5th century only. The sources can usefully be classified into British and continental, and into contemporary and non-contemporary. Two primary contemporary British sources exist: the Confessio of Saint Patrick and Gildas ' De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae ( On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain ). Patrick's Confessio and his Letter to Coroticus reveal aspects of life in Britain, from where he

3725-605: Is debated . Constantine confirmed the legalization of the religion through the so-called Edict of Milan in 313, jointly issued with his rival in the East, Licinius (r. 308–324). By the late 4th century, Emperor Theodosius the Great had made Christianity the State religion, thereby transforming the Classical Roman world, which Peter Brown characterized as "rustling with the presence of many divine spirits ." Constantine I

3874-451: Is more evidence in the grammar than in the lexicon , though this is challenged by many. Latin continued to be used for writing but the extent of its use for speech has been much disputed. Similarly, studies of place names give clues about the linguistic history of an area. England (except Cornwall and Cumbria ) shows patchy evidence now of Celtic in its place names. There are scattered Celtic place names throughout, increasing towards

4023-458: Is said to have made a second visit to England later. Participation by a British bishop at a synod in Gaul demonstrates that at least some British churches were in full administrative and doctrinal touch with Gaul as late as 455. In the north, Whithorn is said to be the earliest church in Scotland, being founded in 397 by Saint Ninian . Coroticus (or Ceretic) was an apostate Pict king who

4172-525: Is sparse and open to question. The Historia Nova of Byzantine scholar Zosimus notes in passing that western Emperor Honorius , in the throes of Alaric 's invasion in 410, sent a rescript to British cities that they must look to their own defence. Some historians have suggested that the reference was instead to Bruttium , but Gildas describes Britain receiving just such a message. The Gallic chronicles, Chronica Gallica of 452 and Chronica Gallica of 511 , say prematurely that "Britain, abandoned by

4321-520: Is the end of the polis model. While there was a decline of urban life in late antiquity (especially in the West) the epoch brought with it new forms of political participation in the urban spaces as well. Especially the role of crowds and masses in cities has increased, leading to new levels of tension. In the cities the strained economies of Roman over-expansion arrested growth. Almost all new public building in late antiquity came directly or indirectly from

4470-536: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (again written from a non-Briton point of view, based on West Saxon sources) and the Annales Cambriae , are all heavily shrouded in myth and can only be used with caution as evidence for this period. There are also documents giving Welsh poetry (of Taliesin and Aneirin ) and land deeds ( Llandaff charters ) that appear to date back to the 6th century. After

4619-578: The Augustus . 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 prefer, 'transformation'—are subdivision, particularly of expansive formal spaces in both the domus and the public basilica , and encroachment, in which artisans' shops invade

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4768-578: The Anglo-Saxon period depend largely on the post-Roman survival of Roman toponymy . Aside from a mere handful of its continuously inhabited sites, like York and London and possibly Canterbury , however, the rapidity and thoroughness with which its urban life collapsed with the dissolution of centralized bureaucracy calls into question the extent to which Roman Britain had ever become authentically urbanized: "in Roman Britain towns appeared

4917-520: The Arab invasions marked—through conquest and the disruption of Mediterranean trade routes—the cataclysmic end of late antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages . On the other hand, there is a more recent thesis, associated with scholars in the tradition of Peter Brown, in which Islam is seen to be a product of the late antique world, not foreign to it. This school suggests that its origin within

5066-654: The Byzantine military manuals achieving great renown and influence: the most famous of which is the Strategikon attributed to Emperor Maurice , written in the 6th century. One genre of literature among Christian writers in this period was the Hexaemeron , dedicated to the composition of commentaries, homilies, and treatises concerned with the exegesis of the Genesis creation narrative . The first example of this

5215-471: The De arithmetica , De musica , and De consolatione philosophiae of Boethius —both later key works in medieval education). The 4th and 5th centuries also saw an explosion of Christian literature , of which Greek writers such as Eusebius of Caesarea , Basil of Caesarea , Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom and Latin writers such as Ambrose of Milan , Jerome and Augustine of Hippo are only among

5364-487: The Demetae , Cuneglasus and Maglocunus ( Mailcun or in later spelling Maelgwn of Gwynedd )  – for their sins. He also attacks the British clergy. He gives information on the British diet, dress and entertainment. He writes that Britons were killed, emigrated or enslaved but gives no idea of numbers. In the late 6th century there was another period of Saxon expansion, starting with the capture of Searoburh in 552 by

5513-596: The Greek East and Latin West became more pronounced. The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the early 4th century was ended by Galerius and under Constantine the Great , Christianity was made legal in the Empire. The 4th century Christianization of the Roman Empire was extended by the conversions of Tiridates the Great of Armenia , Mirian III of Iberia , and Ezana of Axum , who later invaded and ended

5662-602: The Isle of Wight that took place at least 50 years before the dates suggested by historical sources, concurrent with Honorius 's award of land in Gallia Aquitania to the Visigoths in 418. Although radiocarbon dating can provide a rough estimate, this is not accurate enough to associate archaeological finds with historical events. Dendrochronology depends on the presence of suitable pieces of wood. Coins are often

5811-568: The Kingdom of Kush . During the late 4th century reign of Theodosius I , Nicene Christianity was proclaimed the state church of the Roman Empire . The city of Constantinople became the permanent imperial residence in the East by the 5th century and superseded Rome as the largest city in the Late Roman Empire and the Mediterranean Basin . The longest Roman aqueduct system, the 250 km (160 mi)-long Aqueduct of Valens

5960-582: The Late Antique Little Ice Age ) and a disastrous pandemic (the Plague of Justinian in 541). The effects of these events in the social and political life are still under discussion. In the 7th century the disastrous Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 and the campaigns of Khosrow II and Heraclius facilitated the emergence of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula during the lifetime of Muhammad . Subsequent Muslim conquest of

6109-838: The Norman Conquest there were many books written that purport to give the history of the Sub-Roman period. These have been influenced by the fictionalised account in Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae ( History of the Kings of Britain ). Therefore, they can only be regarded as showing how the legends grew. Not until modern times have serious studies of the period been undertaken. Later Lives of Celtic saints, although often unreliable, do provide some insights into life in Sub-Roman Britain. For example, there

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6258-560: The Old English language and the Brythonic language and peoples migrated from south-western Britain to Armorica , which eventually became Brittany . This interpretation particularly appealed to earlier English historians, who wanted to further their view that England had developed differently from mainland Europe, with a limited monarchy and love of liberty. This, it was argued, came from the mass Anglo-Saxon invasions. While this view

6407-457: The Ostrogoths and Visigoths saw themselves as perpetuating the "Roman" tradition. While the usage "Late Antiquity" suggests that the social and cultural priorities of classical antiquity endured throughout Europe into the Middle Ages , the usage of "Early Middle Ages" or "Early Byzantine" emphasizes a break with the classical past, and the term " Migration Period " tends to de-emphasize

6556-681: The Picts and the Latins " ( HE 1.1). A review of the changes in the Brythonic language during this period is given by Kenneth H. Jackson . Studies of Old English , P- and Q-Celtic , and Latin have provided evidence for contact among the Britons, the Gaels, and the Anglo-Saxons . The consensus is that Old English has little evidence of linguistic contact. Some scholars have suggested that there

6705-460: The Republican senatorial class was replaced with the silk court vestments and jewelry associated with Byzantine imperial iconography. Also indicative of the times is the fact that the imperial cabinet of advisors came to be known as the consistorium , or those who would stand in courtly attendance upon their seated emperor, as distinct from the informal set of friends and advisors surrounding

6854-445: The Roman Empire was Christian at the start of the 5th century, but there is evidence of rural pagan temples being refurbished at the start of this period in western England. However, most temples seem to have been replaced eventually by Christian churches on the same site or nearby. "Celtic" churches or monasteries seem to have flourished during this period in the British areas, such as that at Glastonbury , though mostly not until

7003-460: The grave goods associated with these, has done much to expand the understanding of cultural identities in the period. Archaeology has shown some evidence of continuity with Roman education , trade with the Mediterranean , and with Celtic art . Archaeological excavations in South Wales in 2023 sought evidence of an early medieval monastery and school said to have been founded by St Illtud in

7152-553: The later Roman Empire , as it was reorganized by Diocletian (r. 284–305), and the Early Middle Ages are stressed by writers who wish to emphasize that the seeds of medieval culture were already developing in the Christianized empire, and that they continued to do so in the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire at least until the coming of Islam . Concurrently, some migrating Germanic tribes such as

7301-411: The "Good Shepherd", resembling the traditional iconography of Hermes. He was increasingly given Roman elite status, and shrouded in purple robes like the emperors with orb and scepter in hand — this new type of depiction is variously thought to be derived from either the iconography of Jupiter or of classical philosophers. As for luxury arts, manuscript illumination on vellum and parchment emerged from

7450-662: The 1990s, with a reduction in the numbers of Anglo-Saxons believed to have arrived in Britain. A lower figure is sometimes accepted, which would mean that it is highly unlikely that the existing British population was substantially displaced by the Anglo-Saxons. If fewer Anglo-Saxons arrived, it is proposed that they formed a ruling elite, with acculturation of the local population. Thus some "Saxon" graves may be of Britons, though many scholars disagree. Two genetic studies published in 2016, using data from ancient burials found in Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire and Durham, found that

7599-558: The 3rd century was a major step in the development of Christian spirituality. While it initially operated outside the episcopal authority of the Church, it would become hugely successful and by the 8th century it became one of the key Christian practices. Monasticism was not the only new Christian movement to appear in late antiquity, although it had perhaps the greatest influence and it achieved unprecedented geographical spread. It influenced many aspects of Christian religious life and led to

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7748-578: The 5th century, with a few manuscripts of Roman literary classics like the Vergilius Vaticanus and the Vergilius Romanus , but increasingly Christian texts, of which Quedlinburg Itala fragment (420–430) is the oldest survivor. Carved ivory diptychs were used for secular subjects, as in the imperial and consular diptychs presented to friends, as well as religious ones, both Christian and pagan – they seem to have been especially

7897-402: The 6th century; but the "Saxons" were pagan. This reinforced a great antipathy between the peoples. Many Roman cemeteries continued into much later times, such as that at Cannington, Somerset . In the east, there was a gradual transition among the pagan Saxons from cremation to inhumation . Although the arrival of Saint Augustine is traditionally seen as the significant Christianising event for

8046-485: The Anglo-Saxon newcomers through literacy, ecclesiastical social constructs and historical memory of the Roman period in Britain, particularly after the Christianizing of the Anglo-Saxons. Coming from a fully oral cultural background, the Anglo-Saxons were heavily influenced by the more developed Christianized and literate culture of the Britons. British scholars were often employed at Anglo-Saxon courts to assist in

8195-704: The Balkans and Persian destructions in Anatolia in the 620s. City life continued in Syria, Jordan and Palestine into the 8th. In the later 6th century street construction was still undertaken in Caesarea Maritima in Palestine, and Edessa was able to deflect Chosroes I with massive payments in gold in 540 and 544, before it was overrun in 609. The stylistic changes characteristic of late antique art mark

8344-508: The Balkans, 'where inhabited centres contracted and regrouped around a defensible acropolis , or were abandoned in favour of such positions elsewhere." In the western Mediterranean, the only new cities known to be founded in Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries were the four or five Visigothic "victory cities". Reccopolis in the province of Guadalajara is one: the others were Victoriacum , founded by Leovigild , which may survive as

8493-468: The British people to rebel against Rome. These arguments are open to criticism, and the question is still open. It was a violent period, and there was probably widespread tension, alluded to in all the written sources. This may have led to the deaths of many Britons. There are also references to plagues. Laycock ( Britannia the Failed State , 2008) suggests tribal conflict, possibly even starting before 410, may have sliced up much of Britain and helped destroy

8642-411: The Britons of the Clyde and alleged founder of Glasgow , is a shadowy figure. Linguistics is useful in the analysis of culture, and to an extent political associations. Bede in Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (completed in 731) wrote that "currently, [there are in Britain] the languages of five peoples, namely that of the Angles ( English ), the Britons ( Brittonic ), the Scots ( Gaelic ),

8791-405: The Byzantine age and beyond. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India and along the Silk Road in Central Asia , while Manichaeism , a Dualist faith, arose in Mesopotamia and spread both East and West, for a time contending with Christianity in the Roman Empire. Many of the new religions relied on the emergence of the parchment codex (bound book) over the papyrus volumen (scroll),

8940-427: The Early Middle Ages. The Roman Empire underwent considerable social, cultural and organizational changes starting with the reign of Diocletian , who began the custom of splitting the Empire into Eastern and Western portions ruled by multiple emperors simultaneously . The Sasanian Empire supplanted the Parthian Empire and began a new phase of the Roman–Persian Wars, the Roman–Sasanian Wars . The divisions between

9089-451: The Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople meant that the turning-point for the Greek East came later, in the 7th century, as the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire centered around the Balkans , North Africa ( Egypt and Carthage ), and Asia Minor . The cities in the East were still lively stages for political participation and remained important for background for religious and political disputes. The degree and extent of discontinuity in

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9238-405: The Emperor and provided military support, whilst retaining their independence. If the theory is correct, Germanic peoples may have been resident in Britain before and after these reforms. One thing led to another to create a spiral. The policy of substituting mercenaries who were paid in gold which should have gone to support the professional standing army and accommodation to their presence spelled

9387-443: The Great led to the fall of the Ostrogothic and Vandal Kingdoms, and their reincorporation into the Empire, when the city of Rome and much of Italy and North Africa returned to imperial control. Though most of Italy was soon part of the Kingdom of the Lombards , the Roman Exarchate of Ravenna endured, ensuring the so-called Byzantine Papacy . Justinian constructed the Hagia Sophia , a great example of Byzantine architecture , and

9536-431: The Kingdom of Morgannwg. After the death of Morgan the Old, Gwent and Glywysing were separated again from 974 to 1055, but Glywysing alone was often referred to as Morgannwg. Both areas were conquered by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in about 1055, subsequently King of Wales , but on Gruffydd's death in 1063, Glywysing was regained by the native lineage under Caradog ap Gruffudd . Morgannwg, the union between Gwent and Glywysing,

9685-406: The Levant and Persia overthrew the Sasanian Empire and permanently wrested two thirds of the Eastern Roman Empire's territory from Roman control, forming the Rashidun Caliphate . The Byzantine Empire under the Heraclian dynasty began the middle Byzantine period , and together with the establishment of the later 7th century Umayyad Caliphate , generally marks the end of late antiquity. One of

9834-601: The Rhine and overran the Limes Germanicus . Meanwhile, there were barbarian raids on Britain in 408, but these seem to have been defeated. After 410 Honorius apparently sent letters to the cities of Britain telling them to fend for themselves, though this is sometimes disputed. From the middle of the 5th century the Germanic raiders began to settle in the eastern river valleys. Later civil wars seem to have broken out, which have been interpreted either as being between pro-Roman and independence groups or between "Established Church" and Pelagian parties (Myres 1965, Morris 1965),

9983-460: The Roman name for what is now Gloucester , via a Latin name * Glevenses ('people of Glevum') or * Glevensis ('person from Glevum'). Thus the name suggests that the kingdom was named after invaders or migrants, or a particular ruler, from Glevum. According to 12th-century sources, after the death of Glywys, the kingdom was divided into three cantrefs named for his sons: Penychen , Gwynllwg , and Gorfynydd . These were typically ruled together by

10132-414: The Romans, passed into the power of the Saxons" and provide information about St Germanus and his visit or visits to Britain, though again this text has received considerable academic deconstruction. The work of Procopius , another 6th-century Byzantine writer, makes some references to Britain, though the accuracy of these is uncertain. Numerous later written sources claim to provide accurate accounts of

10281-440: The Saxons, a bishop had already arrived in Kent with the king's Merovingian wife. Other Saxons remained pagan after this time. In 429, a British Deacon, Palladius , had requested support from the Pope in Rome to combat Pelagianism . Bishops Germanus and Lupus of Troyes were sent. Germanus, a former military commander, is reported to have led the British to the "Hallelujah" victory, possibly in Wales or Herefordshire. Germanus

10430-442: The Third Century the military, political and economic demands made by the Empire made the service in local government to be an onerous duty, often imposed as punishment. Harassed urban dwellers fled to the walled estates of the wealthy to avoid taxes, military service, famine and disease. In the Western Roman Empire especially, many cities destroyed by invasion or civil war in the 3rd century could not be rebuilt. Plague and famine hit

10579-445: The Treaty of 382, were allowed to remain with the Empire intact, which reversed the centuries-old Roman policy of destroying barbarian enemies by killing them all, selling them or incorporating them into the Roman army by scattering them across units. The hospitalitas system granted a third of the land (or fees) of a region to barbarians who had invaded and occupied those lands assigned to them. In return, these people declared loyalty to

10728-476: The ancestry of the modern-day English population contained substantial contributions from the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic peoples. Various dates have been proposed to mark the end of Roman Britain , including the end of Roman currency coinage importation in 402, Constantine III 's rebellion in 407, the rebellion mentioned by Zosimus in 409, and the Rescript of Honorius in 410. Unlike modern decolonisation ,

10877-618: The apocalypticism of Islamic theology and in the way the Quran seems to react to contemporary religious and cultural issues shared by the late antique world at large. Further indication that Arabia (and thus the environment in which Islam first developed) was a part of the late antique world is found in the close economic and military relations between Arabia, the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanian Empire. In recent years,

11026-522: The beauty and movement of the body, but rather, hints at the spiritual reality behind its subjects . Additionally, mirroring the rise of Christianity and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, painting and freestanding sculpture gradually fell from favor in the artistic community. Replacing them were greater interests in mosaics, architecture, and relief sculpture. As the soldier emperors such as Maximinus Thrax (r. 235–238) emerged from

11175-561: The building is not architecturally a basilica. In the former Western Roman Empire almost no great buildings were constructed from the 5th century. A most outstanding example is the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna constructed c.  530 at a cost of 26,000 gold solidi or 360 Roman pounds of gold. City life in the East, though negatively affected by the plague in the 6th–7th centuries, finally collapsed due to Slavic invasions in

11324-593: The chair in the apse reserved in secular structures for the magistrate—or the Emperor himself—as the representative here and now of Christ Pantocrator , the Ruler of All, his characteristic late antique icon . These ecclesiastical basilicas (e.g., St. John Lateran and St. Peter's in Rome) were themselves outdone by Justinian's Hagia Sophia , a staggering display of later Roman/Byzantine power and architectural taste, though

11473-610: The city of Vitoria , though a 12th-century (re)foundation for this city is given in contemporary sources; Lugo id est Luceo in the Asturias , referred to by Isidore of Seville , and Ologicus (perhaps Ologitis ), founded using Basque labour in 621 by Suinthila as a fortification against the Basques, modern Olite . All of these cities were founded for military purposes and at least Reccopolis, Victoriacum, and Ologicus in celebration of victory. A possible fifth Visigothic foundation

11622-483: The costs of occupation. Nevertheless, the Romans were forced to keep three or four legions, 30,000 to 40,000 men with auxiliary units in place to defend it. They managed fairly well until the collapse of Roman authority after the garrison was reduced in size by Magnus Maximus in 388 and Stilicho in 401. It seems that after 350 the Roman government was having more difficulty in recruiting soldiers. In an effort to remedy

11771-436: The countryside, and on a reduced scale in the towns as evidenced by the descriptions of Germanus ' visits. It appears that while Roman cities and towns have decreased in size, they retained administrative and symbolic importance for new polities. Gildas says that a "council" was convened by Vortigern to find ways of countering the barbarian threat. The council opted to hire Saxon mercenaries, following Roman practice. After

11920-469: The dating of the end of Roman Britain is complex, and the exact process is unknown. There is some controversy as to why Roman rule ended in Britain. The view first advocated by Theodor Mommsen was that Rome left Britain. This argument was substantiated over time, most recently by A.S. Esmonde-Cleary. According to this argument, internal turmoil in the Roman Empire and the need to withdraw troops to fight off barbarian armies led Rome to abandon Britain. It

12069-400: The decay of locally made wares from a previous higher standard under the Roman Empire . It is now used to describe the period that commenced with the recall of Roman troops to Gaul by Constantine III in 407 and to have concluded with the Battle of Deorham in 577. The period of sub-Roman Britain traditionally covers the history of the parts of Britain that had been under Roman rule from

12218-446: The details of their political development; some authority structures left from the Roman period may have continued in charge of some areas for some time. At times some of the kingdoms were united by a ruler who was an overlord, while wars occurred between others. During the period the boundaries are likely to have changed. The major ones were: Some areas fell under the domination of Anglian or Saxon chieftains, later kingdoms: Officially

12367-511: The details, such as those regarding the Hadrian's and Antonine Walls are clearly wrong. Nevertheless, Gildas does provide us with an insight into some of the kingdoms that existed when he was writing, and how an educated monk perceived the situation that had developed between the Anglo-Saxons and the Britons . More continental contemporary sources mention Britain, although their information

12516-585: The disruptions in the former Western Roman Empire caused by the creation of Germanic kingdoms within her borders beginning with the foedus with the Goths in Aquitania in 418. The general decline of population, technological knowledge and standards of living in Europe during this period became the archetypal example of societal collapse for writers from the Renaissance . As a result of this decline, and

12665-547: The doom of the Western Empire. The federates, operating from within the boundaries of the Empire, eventually became the new landlords, as there was no professional Roman army to subdue them. Late antiquity 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

12814-602: The dynasty that later ruled Wessex , and including entry into the Cotswolds area after the Battle of Deorham (577), though the accuracy of the entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for this period has been questioned. These conquests are often said by modern writers, on no clear evidence, to have separated the Britons of South West England (known later as the West Welsh) from those of Wales. (Just after

12963-430: The early 6th century, the forerunner of St Illtyd's Church, Llantwit Major (c.1100). Excavations of settlements have revealed possible changes in social structures, and the extent to which life in Britain continued unaltered in certain pockets into the early medieval period. Hilltops, the so-called " hillforts ", castra , and monasteries have been excavated. Work on towns has been particularly important. Work on

13112-461: The economy. The evidence from land use suggests a decline in production, which might be a sign of population decline. It is clear that some British people migrated to elsewhere in Europe, and Armorica in northwest Gaul became known as Brittany . There is also evidence of British migration to Gallaecia , in Hispania . The dates of these migrations are uncertain, but recent studies suggest that

13261-410: The emperors or imperial officials. Attempts were made to maintain what was already there. The supply of free grain and oil to 20% of the population of Rome remained intact the last decades of the 5th century. It was once thought that the elite and rich had withdrawn to the private luxuries of their numerous villas and town houses. Scholarly opinion has revised this. They monopolized the higher offices in

13410-506: The end of Roman imperial rule , traditionally dated to be in 410, to the arrival of Saint Augustine in 597. The date taken for the end of this period is arbitrary in that the sub-Roman culture continued in northern England until the merger of Rheged (the kingdom of the Brigantes ) with Northumbria by dynastic marriage in 633, and longer in the west of Britain, and Cornwall , Cumbria and Wales especially. This period has attracted

13559-484: The end of classical Roman art and the beginnings of medieval art . As a complicated period bridging between Roman art and later medieval styles (such as that of the Byzantines ), the late antique period saw a transition from the classical idealized realism tradition largely influenced by ancient Greek art to the more iconic, stylized art of the Middle Ages. Unlike classical art, late antique art does not emphasize

13708-443: The end of sub-Roman Britain have been described by Richard Reece as "decline and immigration" and "invasion and displacement". It has long been held that the Anglo-Saxons migrated to Britain in large numbers in the 5th and 6th centuries, substantially displacing the British people. The Anglo-Saxon historian Frank Stenton in 1943, although making considerable allowance for British survival, essentially sums up this view, arguing "that

13857-503: The essential truth of his statement. Classical antiquity can generally be defined as an age of cities; the Greek polis and Roman municipium were locally organised, self-governing bodies of citizens governed by written constitutions. When Rome came to dominate the known world, local initiative and control were gradually subsumed by the ever-growing Imperial bureaucracy; by the Crisis of

14006-412: The excavations at South Cadbury (Alcock 1995). Many other sites have now been shown to have been occupied during the sub-Roman period, including Birdoswald and Saxon Shore forts. Work on field systems and environmental archaeology has also highlighted how much agricultural practice continued and changed over the period. Archaeology has confirmed Germanic burials at Bowcombe and Gatcombe on

14155-408: The expense of amphitheaters, temples, libraries, porticoes, gymnasia, concert and lecture halls, theaters and other amenities of public life. In any case, as Christianity took over, many of these buildings which were associated with pagan cults were neglected in favor of building churches and donating to the poor. The Christian basilica was copied from the civic structure with variations. The bishop took

14304-498: The far-away centralized administration (in concert with the great landowners ), and those who did not; although they were well-born and thoroughly educated, a classical education and the election by the Senate to magistracies was no longer the path to success. Room at the top of late antique society was more bureaucratic and involved increasingly intricate channels of access to the emperor; the plain toga that had identified all members of

14453-512: The first outbreak of the centuries-long first plague pandemic took place. At Ctesiphon , the Sasanians completed the Taq Kasra , the colossal iwan of which is the largest single-span vault of unreinforced brickwork in the world and the triumph of Sasanian architecture . The middle of the 6th century was characterized by extreme climate events ( the volcanic winter of 535–536 and

14602-529: The former allowing for quicker access to key materials and easier portability than the fragile scroll, thus fueling the rise of synoptic exegesis , papyrology . Notable in this regard is the topic of the Fifty Bibles of Constantine . Within the recently legitimized Christian community of the 4th century, a division could be more distinctly seen between the laity and an increasingly celibate male leadership. These men presented themselves as removed from

14751-479: The greater part of southern England was overrun in the first phase of the war". This interpretation was based on the written sources, particularly Gildas but also the later sources such as the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede , that cast the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons as a violent event. The toponymic and linguistic evidence was also considered to support this interpretation, as very few British place names survived in eastern Britain, very few British Celtic words entered

14900-451: The growing season and made uplands unsuited to growing grain . Dendrochronology reveals a particular climatic event in 540 . Michael Jones suggests that declining agricultural production from land that was already fully exploited had considerable demographic consequences. Slaves were important in the economy and the army in the Roman Empire. Estimates for the prevalence of slavery in the Roman Empire vary: some estimate that around 30% of

15049-581: The head of the family and sometimes treated as appenage subkingdoms. The borders changed over time, but it is generally thought that its lands originally lay between the Afon Llwyd and either the River Loughor , or the River Neath . At times they expanded eastwards in union with both Gwent and Ergyng . The Gower had either returned or was inherited from Dyfed to Glywysing by 928 prior to

15198-466: The hill-forts has shown evidence of refurbishment, and also of overseas trade, in this period. One of the earliest major excavations was at Tintagel (Radford 1939). This uncovered rectangular structures and much Mediterranean pottery. The buildings were initially interpreted as a monastery, but later as a princely stronghold and trading post. Another important excavation was at Dinas Powys (Alcock 1963) which showed evidence of metalworking. Alcock also led

15347-436: The imperial administration, but they were removed from military command by the late 3rd century. Their focus turned to preserving their vast wealth rather than fighting for it. The basilica , which had functioned as a law court or for imperial reception of foreign dignitaries, became the primary public building in the 4th century. Due to the stress on civic finances, cities spent money on walls, maintaining baths and markets at

15496-619: The line lay a thinly populated area including the kingdoms of the Maeatae (in Angus ), Dalriada (in Argyll ), and the kingdom whose kaer (castle) near Inverness was visited by Saint Columba . The Romans referred to these peoples collectively as Picti , meaning 'Painted Ones'. The term " late antiquity ", implying wider horizons, is finding more use in the academic community, especially when transformations of classical culture common throughout

15645-569: The line of the Lords of Caerleon . The name Morgannwg is still used in Wales for the former Marcher Lordship and county of Glamorgan (itself a corruption of the term Gwlad Morgan ) and its successor counties Glywysing is ruled by the Kings of Gwent until Rhys ap Ithel Iestyn was the last ruler of an independent Morgannwg, which was thereafter in the possession of the Normans and became

15794-538: The lordship of Glamorgan 53°14′N 4°1′W  /  53.233°N 4.017°W  / 53.233; -4.017 Sub-Roman Britain Sub-Roman Britain is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the Anglo-Saxon settlement . The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hinted at

15943-424: The management of the kingdoms. This reintroduced British culture to those parts of Britain lost to the British politically. The epitome of this process is the adoption of the legendary British war leader, King Arthur , as the national hero of the English, due to the literary work of Welsh historians. There is evidence for climate change in the 5th century, with conditions turning cooler and wetter. This shortened

16092-541: The medieval period. Justinian rebuilt his birthplace in Illyricum , as Justiniana Prima , more in a gesture of imperium than out of an urbanistic necessity; another "city", was reputed to have been founded, according to Procopius ' panegyric on Justinian's buildings, precisely at the spot where the general Belisarius touched shore in North Africa: the miraculous spring that gushed forth to give them water and

16241-418: The migration from south western Britain to Brittany may have begun as early as 300 and had largely ended by 500. These settlers, unlikely to be refugees if the date was this early, made their presence felt in the naming of the westernmost, Atlantic -facing provinces of Armorica, Kerne/Cornouaille ("Kernow/ Cornwall ") and Domnonea (" Devon "). However, there is clear linguistic evidence for close contact between

16390-458: 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 of Emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) in 312, as claimed by his Christian panegyrist Eusebius of Caesarea , although the sincerity of his conversion

16539-466: The most renowned representatives. On the other hand, authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century) and Procopius of Caesarea (6th century) were able to keep the tradition of classical Hellenistic historiography alive in the Byzantine empire. Due to several factors of the era, among them the political instability and the constant military threats, treatises on war became a popular genre with

16688-505: The most useful tool for dating, but no newly minted coins are believed to have entered circulation in Britain after the very early 5th century. There is archaeological evidence of Anglo-Saxons and Britons living on the same site. For example, in the cemetery at Wasperton , Warwickshire , one can see a family adopting Anglo-Saxon culture over a long period. The proximate cause of the end of Roman rule in Britannia appears to have been

16837-449: The new style, shows the contrast especially clearly. In nearly all artistic media, simpler shapes were adopted and once natural designs were abstracted. Additionally hierarchy of scale overtook the preeminence of perspective and other classical models for representing spatial organization. From c.  300 Early Christian art began to create new public forms, which now included sculpture , previously distrusted by Christians as it

16986-406: The period being discussed, the Battle of Chester in 611 might have separated the latter from those of the north of England.) Until the 570s, Britons were still in control of about half of England and Wales. Various British kingdoms existed at some point in the period. Some changed their names and some were absorbed by others. Not all of their names, especially in the southeast, are known, nor are

17135-412: The period of late antiquity has become a major focus in the fields of Quranic studies and Islamic origins. 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 cost of presenting spectacular public entertainments in

17284-491: The period. The first to attempt this was the monk Bede , writing in the early 8th century. He based his account of the Sub-Roman period in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (written around 731) heavily on Gildas, though he tried to provide dates for the events Gildas describes. It was written from an anti-Briton point of view. Later sources, such as the Historia Brittonum often attributed to Nennius ,

17433-529: The population of the Empire in the 1st century was enslaved. A more recent study suggests 10–15% even for the early empire "as any greater estimate would require implausible levels of transformation in a pre-modern context." The difference the lower percentage in the Later Roman Empire can be attributed to fewer slaves in sub-elite households and agricultural estates (replaced by a great expansion in various types of tenancy). The Germanic region

17582-634: The post-Roman West are examined. The period may also be considered as part of the early Middle Ages , if continuity with the following periods is stressed. Popular (and some academic) works use a range of more dramatic names for the period: the Dark Ages , the Brythonic Age, the Age of Tyrants, or the Age of Arthur . Little extant written material is available from this period, though a considerable amount from later periods may be relevant. A lot of what

17731-738: The provinces in the 3rd century, they brought with them their own regional influences and artistic tastes. For example, artists jettisoned the classical portrayal of the human body for one that was more rigid and frontal. This is markedly evident in the combined porphyry Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs in Venice . With these stubby figures clutching each other and their swords, all individualism , naturalism , Roman verism , and Greek idealism diminish. The Arch of Constantine in Rome, which re-used earlier classicising reliefs together with ones in

17880-449: The public thoroughfare, a transformation that was to result in the souk (marketplace). Burials within the urban precincts mark another stage in dissolution of traditional urbanistic discipline, overpowered by the attraction of saintly shrines and relics. In Roman Britain , the typical 4th- and 5th-century layer of dark earth within cities seems to be a result of increased gardening in formerly urban spaces. The city of Rome went from

18029-673: The reign of King Morgan the Old . Today the area of Glywysing is known as Glamorgan . First under King Morgan the Generous (fl. c.  630-730 ) until the end of the reign of his descendant Ithel (d. c. 745), and later again under King Morgan the Old (r. 942-74), the kingdom merged with Gwent and changed its name to Morgannwg or Gwlad Morgan in honour of the Morgan Kings. During such unions Glywysing and Gwent seem to have been together or occasional sub-kingdoms or principalities of

18178-482: The relative scarcity of historical records from Europe in particular, the period from roughly the early fifth century until the Carolingian Renaissance (or later still) was referred to as the " Dark Ages ". This term has mostly been abandoned as a name for a historiographical epoch, being replaced by "Late Antiquity" in the periodization of the late Western Roman Empire, the early Byzantine Empire and

18327-465: The rise of Islam, two main theses prevail. On the one hand, there is the traditional view, as espoused by most historians prior to the second half of the twentieth century (and after) and by Muslim scholars. This view, the so-called "out of Arabia"-thesis, holds that Islam as a phenomenon was a new, alien element in the late antique world. Related to this is the Pirenne Thesis , according to which

18476-491: The rise of literary cultures in Syriac , Armenian , Georgian , Ethiopic , Arabic , and Coptic . It also marks a shift in literary style, with a preference for encyclopedic works in a dense and allusive style, consisting of summaries of earlier works (anthologies, epitomes) often dressed up in elaborate allegorical garb (e.g., De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae [The Marriage of Mercury and Philology] of Martianus Capella and

18625-723: The rural population that straightway abandoned their ploughshares for civilised life within the new walls, lend a certain taste of unreality to the project. In mainland Greece, the inhabitants of Sparta , Argos and Corinth abandoned their cities for fortified sites in nearby high places; the fortified heights of Acrocorinth are typical of Byzantine urban sites in Greece. In Italy, populations that had clustered within reach of Roman roads began to withdraw from them, as potential avenues of intrusion, and to rebuild in typically constricted fashion round an isolated fortified promontory, or rocca ; Cameron notes similar movement of populations in

18774-593: The shared cultural horizon of the late antique world explains the character of Islam and its development. Such historians point to similarities with other late antique religions and philosophies—especially Christianity—in the prominent role and manifestations of piety in Islam, in Islamic asceticism and the role of "holy persons", in the pattern of universalist, homogeneous monotheism tied to worldly and military power, in early Islamic engagement with Greek schools of thought, in

18923-454: The site of Ninian 's monastery). Chance discoveries have helped document the continuing urban occupation of some Roman towns such as Wroxeter and Caerwent . Continued urban use might be associated with an ecclesiastical structure. Western Britain has attracted those archaeologists who wish to place King Arthur as a historical figure. Though there is little contemporary written evidence for this, archaeological evidence does suggest that

19072-480: The situation it resorted to payment instead of provision of recruit, the aurum tironicum . Landowners could pay a set fee to prevent any of their tenants from being pressed into the army (slaves were rarely resorted to even at critical moments in exchange for their freedom). Not enough men wanted to enter military service. The gold from the tax led to a greater use of Germanic or other tribal groups who did not need to be expensively equipped, housed, and paid pensions, as

19221-565: The smaller cities of the Greek East is a moot subject among historians. The urban continuity of Constantinople is the outstanding example of the Mediterranean world; of the two great cities of lesser rank, Antioch was devastated by the Persian sack of 540, followed by the plague of Justinian (542 onwards) and completed by earthquake, while Alexandria survived its Islamic transformation, to suffer incremental decline in favour of Cairo in

19370-544: The south west of Britain and Brittany across the sub-Roman period. In Galicia , in the north west corner of the Iberian Peninsula , another region of traditional Celtic culture, the Suebian Parochiale , drawn up about 580, includes a list of the principal churches of each diocese in the metropolitanate of Braga : the ecclesia Britonensis , now Bretoña (north of Lugo ), which was the seat of

19519-452: The tax was used to recruit mercenaries as foederati , but it also drained the treasury. Previously foreigners were put into units, the auxilia , officered by Romans. Roman army units, the smaller Later Roman legions , continued to exist but gradually disappeared in the 5th century leaving defence of the Empire to hirelings. After the Battle of Adrianople , the Gothic foederati , by

19668-485: The traditional cursus honorum , had found under the Antonines that security could be obtained only by combining their established roles in the local town with new ones as servants and representatives of a distant emperor and his traveling court. After Constantine centralized the government in his new capital of Constantinople (dedicated in 330), the late antique upper classes were divided among those who had access to

19817-406: The traditional Roman motivations of public and private life marked by pride, ambition and kinship solidarity, and differing from the married pagan leadership. Unlike later strictures on priestly celibacy , celibacy in late antique Christianity sometimes took the form of abstinence from sexual relations after marriage, and it came to be the expected norm for urban clergy . Celibate and detached,

19966-489: The upper clergy became an elite equal in prestige to urban notables, the potentes or dynatoi . Islam appeared in the 7th century, spurring Arab armies to invade the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire of Persia , destroying the latter. After conquering all of North Africa and Visigothic Spain , the Islamic invasion was halted by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in modern France . On

20115-476: The urban class in greater proportion, and thus the people who knew how to keep civic services running. Perhaps the greatest blow came in the wake of the extreme weather events of 535–536 and subsequent Plague of Justinian , when the remaining trade networks ensured the Plague spread to the remaining commercial cities. The impact of this outbreak of plague has recently been disputed. The end of classical antiquity

20264-442: The west. There are also Celtic river names and topographical names. An explanation of the toponymic and linguistic evidence is that Anglo-Saxon language and culture became dominant due to their political and social preeminence in the south and east of Britain. Names with a Latin element may suggest continuity of settlement, while some places are named for pagan Germanic deities. Names of British origin may or may not indicate survival of

20413-542: The writings of Peter Brown , whose survey The World of Late Antiquity (1971) revised the Gibbon view of a stale and ossified Classical culture, in favour of a vibrant time of renewals and beginnings, and whose The Making of Late Antiquity offered a new paradigm of understanding the changes in Western culture of the time in order to confront Sir Richard Southern 's The Making of the Middle Ages . The continuities between

20562-702: Was a key figure in many important events in Christian history , as he convened and attended the first ecumenical council of bishops at Nicaea in 325, subsidized the building of churches and sanctuaries such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem , and involved himself in questions such as the timing of Christ's resurrection and its relation to the Passover . The birth of Christian monasticism

20711-445: Was abducted to Ireland. It is particularly useful in highlighting the state of Christianity at the time . Gildas is the nearest to a source of Sub-Roman history but there are many problems in using it. The document represents British history as he and his audience understood it. Though a few other documents of the period do exist, such as Gildas' letters on monasticism, they are not directly relevant to British history. Gildas' De Excidio

20860-442: Was already occurring in the 4th century. The 5th and 6th centuries in Britain are marked by a sharp discontinuity in town life, with the exception of a few sites such as Londinium , Eboracum , Canterbury and Wroxeter , but the discontinuity in the episcopate also suggests a decline in town life. The Roman villa system, represented by some five hundred archaeological sites, did not survive either; unlike Gaul, in Britain not

21009-482: Was constructed to supply it with water, and the tallest Roman triumphal columns were erected there. Migrations of Germanic , Hunnic , and Slavic tribes disrupted Roman rule from the late 4th century onwards, culminating first in the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 and subsequent Sack of Rome by the Vandals in 455, part of the eventual collapse of the Empire in the West itself by 476. The Western Empire

21158-536: Was never universal – Edward Gibbon believed that there had been a great deal of British survival – it was the dominant paradigm. Though many scholars would now employ this argument, the traditional view is still held by many other historians, Lawrence James writing in 2002 that England was "submerged by an Anglo-Saxon current which swept away the Romano-British." The traditional view has been partly deconstructed (considerably in some circles) since

21307-456: Was one of the main sources of slaves. It was mainly wholesale dealers, who followed the Roman armies, who sold slaves. After the Empire expanded, there were fewer places to obtain slaves. Around 210, piracy increased around the North Sea and boosted the supply, taken from villages in that area, along with those captured for ransom. Britain was not easily defensible. It did not pay completely

21456-515: Was placed on demonstrating a symbolic fact rather than on rendering a realistic scene. As time progressed during the late antique period, art become more concerned with biblical themes and influenced by interactions of Christianity with the Roman state. Within this Christian subcategory of Roman art, dramatic changes were also taking place in the Depiction of Jesus . Jesus Christ had been more commonly depicted as an itinerant philosopher, teacher or as

21605-559: Was reconstituted. How this occurred is unclear; possibly the Kings of Glywysing were also Kings of Morgannwg and the Kings of Gwent were semi-independent under-Kings, or vice versa. With Gwent increasingly overrun by the Norman conquest of Wales , the last native King of Morgannwyg and Glywysing was Iestyn ap Gwrgan (1081–1090), who was subsequently deposed by Robert Fitzhamon . Iestyn's sons became Lords of Afan , while Owain ap Caradog ap Gruffudd contented himself with Gwynllwg and founded

21754-571: Was replaced by the so-called barbarian kingdoms , with the Arian Christian Ostrogothic Kingdom ruling Rome from Ravenna . The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman , Germanic, and Christian traditions formed the foundations of the subsequent culture of Europe . In the 6th century, Roman imperial rule continued in the East, and the Byzantine-Sasanian wars continued. The campaigns of Justinian

21903-571: Was so important in pagan worship. Sarcophagi carved in relief had already become highly elaborate, and Christian versions adopted new styles, showing a series of different tightly packed scenes rather than one overall image (usually derived from Greek history painting ) as was the norm. Soon the scenes were split into two registers, as in the Dogmatic Sarcophagus or the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (the last of these exemplifying

22052-500: Was the collapse of the imperial system that led to the end of imperial rule in Britain. However, Michael Jones has advanced an alternative thesis that argues that Rome did not leave Britain, but that Britain left Rome. He highlights the numerous usurpers who came from Britain in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, and points out that the supply of coinage to Britain had dried up by the early 5th century, so that administrators and troops were not getting paid. All of this, he argues, led

22201-509: Was the recipient of the letter from Saint Patrick . His base may have been Dumbarton Rock on the River Clyde, and his descendant Rhydderch Hael is named in the Life of Saint Columba . Rhydderch was a contemporary of Áedán mac Gabráin of Dal Riata and Urien of Rheged in the late 6th century, as well as of Æthelfrith of Bernicia . Unlike Columba, Kentigern , the supposed apostle to

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