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ng his reign justinian also codified roman law and brought silk production to europe at the same time 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 3 failed verification byzantine empire in 555 after justinian s reconquests 1824 drawing of the taq kasra the middle of the 6th century was characterised by extreme climate events the volcanic winter of 535 536 and 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 the subsequent muslim conquest of 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 along with the fall of the exarchate of ravenna to the lombards in 750 which was seen as the last continuation of the west under roman rule generally marks the end of late antiquity 16 17 religion edit main article christianity in late antiquity modern statue of constantine i at york where he was proclaimed augustus in 306 one of the most important transformations in late antiquity was the formation and evolution of the abrahamic religions christianity rabbinic judaism and eventually islam 18 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 is debated 19 20 constantine confirmed the legalisation of the religion with the edict of milan in 313 which he jointly issued with his rival in the east licinius r 308 324 by the late 4th century emperor theodosius i had made christianity the state religion a development which transformed the classical roman world characterised by peter brown as rustling with the presence of many divine spirits 21 constantine 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 22 the birth of christian monasticism in the 3rd century was a major step in the development of christian spirituality 23 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 24 it influenced many aspects of christian religious life and led to a proliferation of various ascetic or semi ascetic practices holy fools and stylites counted among the more extreme forms but through personalities like john chrysostom jerome augustine or gregory the great monastic attitudes penetrated other areas of christian life 25 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 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 organised but short lived pagan state religion that ensured its underground survival into the byzantine age and beyond 26 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 27 many of the new religions relied on the emergence of the parchment codex bound book over the papyrus volumen scroll 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 28 laity vs clergy edit 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 29 these men presented themselves as removed from 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 the upper clergy became an elite equal in prestige to urban notables the potentes or dynatoi 30 the rise of islam edit the byzantine empire after the arabs conquered the provinces of syria and egypt the same time the early slavs settled in the balkans the ruins of the taq kasra in ctesiphon capital of the sasanian empire photographed in 1864 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 31 on 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 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 32 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 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 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 33 in recent years the period of late antiquity has become a major focus in the fields of quranic studies and islamic origins 34 cities edit view west along the harbour street towards the library of celsus in ephesus present day turkey the pillars on the left side of the street were part of the colonnaded walkway apparent in cities of late antique asia minor roman cavalry from a mosaic of the villa romana del casale sicily 4th century ce the later roman empire was in a sense a network of cities archaeology now supplements literary sources to document the transformation followed by the 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 the public thoroughfare a transformation that was to result in the souk marketplace 35 burials within the urban precincts mark another stage in the 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 36 the city of rome went from a population of 800 000 at 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 a general decline in urban populations as a whole the period of late antiquity was accompanied by an overall population decline in almost all of 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 specialised production 37 concurrently the continuity of 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 38 the degree and extent of discontinuity in the smaller cities of the greek east is a moot subject among historians 39 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 the medieval period 40 justinian rebuilt his birthplace in illyricum as a new city called justiniana prima this became the metropolitan seat of the newly founded archbishopric of justiniana prima 41 42 however the city did not last for long it was abandoned under a century later in 615 potentially in response to the invading avars 43 r33 is a male archaeological sample from late antiquity italy circa 300 700 ce specifically discovered at the mausoleo di augusto in rome associated with the decline of roman order his genetic profile indicates mtdna haplogroup k1a1 and y dna haplogroup r df110 representing populations during the transition into early medieval european civilisation according to dnagenics 44 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 the balkans where inhabited centres contracted and regrouped around a defensible acropolis or were abandoned in favour of such positions elsewhere 45 in the western mediterranean the only new cities known to be founded in europe between the 5th and 8th centuries 46 were the four or five visigothic victory cities 47 reccopolis in the province of guadalajara is one the others were victoriacum founded by leovigild which may survive as 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 is baiyara perhaps modern montoro mentioned as founded by reccared in the 15th century geographical account kitab al rawd al mitar 48 the arrival of a highly urbanised islamic culture in the decade following 711 ensured the survival of cities in the hispaniae into the middle ages citation needed beyond the mediterranean world the cities of gaul withdrew within a constricted line of defence around 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 49 historians emphasizing urban continuities with 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 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 50 the other institutional power centre the roman villa did not survive in britain either 51 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 the essential truth of his statement 51 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 the third century the military political and e...