ECST 781 The Sixth Century: End or Beginning?
An older historiography of the fifth century, wedded to the model of "decline and fall," suggested that imperial power and Roman values were severely compromised in the late antique/early medieval West, while traditional imperial forms endured in the Byzantine East. This course will explore a contrasting narrative: that critical developments in both parts of the empire during the fifth century (not least, religious) brought them, albeit in different ways, to the threshold of a new era. The implication will be that, while some continuity remained evident in the West, discontinuity characterized the East. Both sectors, in other words, explored new ways of being "post-classical."