The fourth and fifth centuries AD gave rise to a particular phenomenon in the Roman Empire: the colonate. The colonate involved the fiscal regulation of a relationship of surety between landowners and farmers in the later Roman Empire and played a major role in agrarian and social relations, with implications for these farmers' freedom of movement and transmission of status. This study provides a clear and comprehensive reassessment of the legal aspects of the phenomenon, embedding them as far as possible in their social and economic contexts. As well as taking the innovative approach of working retrogradely, or backwards through time, the volume provides a thorough assessment of two critical sources, the Theodosian and Justinian Codes, and will therefore be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Roman law and the agricultural and social history of late antiquity.

Dr. Mirkovi, professor of Ancient History at Belgrade University analyzes the colonate of the Later Roman Empire as a historical phenomenon. The status of coloni (tenant farmers who were legally free) represents as much a legal as a sociological problem; although they were free, coloni were tied to another's land-often for a large portion of their lives. Rejecting the most widely accepted theory today that imperial fiscal policy that began with the emperor Diocletian in the 290s created the bound colonate & limited the right of the coloni to leave the land they cultivated, the author traces the development of this institution to the economic condition of the Early Empire. Using the legal, literary & papyrological evidence, she stresses two facts as significant in limiting the freedom of coloni: a) the relation of the colonus to the landlord, b) the fiscal obligations he endures. Mirkovi_ cites extensively the law of Constantine, C.Th. V 17,1 as the crucial text in discussions of the dependent colonate. She emphasizes continuity in the development of the colonate & that the general principle of binding to the soil can be applied to the agricultural population at large.

"A comprehensive reassessment of the legal aspects of the colonate, situating the phenomenon within its socio-economic context. It examines afresh two critical sources, the Theodosian and Justinian Codes, and is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Roman law and the agricultural and social history of late antiquity"--

In this volume, Hugh Elton offers a detailed and up to date history of the last centuries of the Roman Empire. Beginning with the crisis of the third century, he covers the rise of Christianity, the key Church Councils, the fall of the West to the Barbarians, the Justinianic reconquest, and concludes with the twin wars against Persians and Arabs in the seventh century AD. Elton isolates two major themes that emerge in this period. He notes that a new form of decision-making was created, whereby committees debated civil, military, and religious matters before the emperor, who was the final arbiter. Elton also highlights the evolution of the relationship between aristocrats and the Empire, and provides new insights into the mechanics of administering the Empire, as well as frontier and military policies. Supported by primary documents and anecdotes, The Roman Empire in Late Antiquity is designed for use in undergraduate courses on late antiquity and early medieval history.

Late Antiquity, once known only as the period of protracted decline in the ancient world (Bas-Empire), has now become a major research area. In recent years, a wide-ranging historiographic debate on Late Antiquity has also begun. Replacing Gibbon’s categories of decline and decadence with those of continuity and transformation has not only brought to the fore the concept of the Late Roman period, but has made the alleged hiatus between the Roman, Byzantine and Mediaeval ages less important, while also driving to the margins the question of the end of the Roman Empire. This has broadened the scope of research on Late Antiquity enormously and made the issue of periodization of crucial significance. The resulting debate has escaped the confines of Europe and now embraces almost all historiographic cultures around the world. This book sheds new light on this debate, collecting papers given at the 22nd International Congress of Historical Sciences (CISH/ICHS) in Jinan, China. They recall key moments of the discovery of the world of Late Antiquity, and show how it is possible to reach a definition of an age, analysing different sectors of history, using disparate sources, and with the guidance of very varied interpretative models.